The GOP offensive

Mike Allen and Patrick O'Connor:

Confronting a dire outlook for next year’s elections, House Republicans have begun to fight back with a new three-pronged strategy: painting the new Democratic majority as part of an unpopular Washington status quo, forcing Democrats to make unpopular votes on tough issues and locking arms around a new GOP issues agenda.

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Public opinion remains sour about the White House and the war in Iraq, and some House Republicans in tough districts have exacerbated the party’s weaknesses by deciding to retire, giving Democrats a better chance of picking up some choice swing seats.

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A crucial aspect of their new offensive: Make Democrats the public face of Capitol Hill at a time when polls show the public is disgusted with Washington in general and Congress in particular.

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Brian Kennedy, communications director for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said the GOP plans to portray its opponents as “the same old tax-and-spend Democratic Party people remember from the 1970s.”

At the same time, Kennedy said, his party is working to “re-establish the Republican brand” by using parliamentary maneuvers that require Democrats to take tough votes on problematic provisions that have been added to popular legislation.

Kennedy said Democrats, especially those from conservative districts, have been backed into a corner on immigration and whether to provide government benefits to undocumented aliens, national security, intelligence and taxation — all “red-meat Republican issues,” he said.

“We are increasingly defining the differences,” Kennedy said.

As a third part of the strategy, Republicans will unveil an agenda after January 2008 that Boehner has described as “innovative, dynamic solutions to the challenges Americans face every day.” However, the GOP leader has yet to spell out exactly what those solutions are, and the promised agenda is already months late in being formulated.

Jessica Boulanger, the NRCC’s communications director, added that the tight Massachusetts outcome reflected the price Democrats are paying for anti-Washington sentiment, and said the race provides a blueprint “for how Republicans can win in this environment.”

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One of the things Republicans have to take advantage of is that the polls are now reflecting an irrational Democrat bias. They still have not caught up with just how disastrously wrong the Democrats were on Iraq and how badly the Democrats have managed the business of the Congress. The Democrats cannot hide from this reality forever and a good GOP offensive should make the public more aware of the evils of liberalism that infect the Democrats. While it has become clear to many in the media that the Democrats have been wrong about these things they still have not changed the tone of their stories to reflect the reality.

There is still a sense in the media that they and they Democrats have gotten away with their misleading characterization of the SCHIP fight but the USA Today poll shows majority support for the President's position when it is divorced from the prejudices the media and the Dems have created about the President.