Expanding anti-DeLay campaign

The ad campaign against Tom DeLay not only includes TV buys in vulnerable House districts, but now newspaper ads in the D.C. area. Newsrack's Thomas Nephew points us to a full-page ad in the Washington Times attacking DeLay as unconservative. The attempt to influence not only voters, but undermine DeLay's support in the Beltway shows the media tactics are evolving and are getting more creative.

This media campaign is a dry run for the 2006 elections, as well as a way turn Tom DeLay into the national bogeyman that Newt Gingrich ultimately became. This is a way to try out different media tactics and new ideas without overtly agitating against the GOP as a whole.

The coalition of progressives behind this is evolving beyond the 2004 campaign, aiming to be more persuasive and speak more effectively to centrists. In 2004, the big deal was MoveOn.org's ad campaigns, and they obviously came up a little short. This new effort abandons MoveOn's assumption that all Americans are inherently progressive just like them, and simply haven't been told the news often enough.

Thus, we see this new tactic, where progressives buy space in one of the country's most staunchly conservative papers, accusing one of the Right's paragons of betraying conservatism. Effective? We'll see, but I'm skeptical. It's too easy to accuse such tactics of being disingenuous, because--well--they are.

The name of the group is Campaign for America's Future. It's staffed by progs from TomPaine.com and Apollo Alliance, an energy independence outlet. Among the backers are the intellectual luminaries in national progressive politics. Very slick websites.

Update 1: Meanwhile, Congressman DeLay abides: DeLay Says Federal Judiciary Has 'Run Amok,' Adding Congress Is Partly to Blame.

Update 2: Recently Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist went out of his way to disagree with DeLay and Sen. Cornyn's recent spate of judge-baiting. Now comes news that President Bush is doing the same. Sounds like Rove has taking an opinion sounding and knows this crap is pissing off a lot of Americans, as the GOP's Schiavo pandering backfires on them. But top Republicans are gentlemanly giving Tom DeLay all the rope he will need to hang himself, and the Congressman seems determined to oblige them.

Comments

[praktike]

Ah, I never thought of the "practice" angle.

As for DeLay, gotta love his doubling down. Bring it on!

[Thomas Nephew]

I agree: the ad is innovative in where it's being run. I also think it's exceptionally well crafted. It shuttles between making the case that DeLay doesn't live up to moral standards in ways that ought to offend _anyone_, and reframing some of the definitions of conservatism (family values=opposing gambling). Sure, it strokes the target audience's self-regard by pretending that, say, opposing corruption is "conservative," but that's show business.

The one definition of conservatism that the ad-backers don't share whole-heartedly is "limited government" -- but here DeLay's ham-fisted Schiavo performance is the example, and overwhelming majorities of both Republicans and Democrats agree.

I'm not sure I exactly agree with "disingenuous," though. The ad doesn't pretend its backers are ideological conservatives through and through, it implies that its backers saw some integrity in prior conservative leaders that they don't in DeLay. It reaches across the aisle in a bipartisan spirit to say, "Surely we can agree on this" -- while maintaining a bit of ironic distance with that opening "Once upon a time... Conservatives stood for honest government" line. But you have to begin every fairy tale that way.

I think it's both fair and well aimed, and I love that it's a (richly deserved) poke in the eye to a lot of Washington Times readers. Let 'em dance with the one that brung 'em -- even if he's a bully and a slob.

[S]

Fair enough. As is see it, this is --as praktike says-- "practice," and I think it is healthy to see a coherent media campaign that integrates many many dimensions of tactics, as well as multiple entry-points into the stream of discourse.

Democrats of whatever stripe should be building more responsive learning systems into their communication strategies in order to complement strategic multi-dimensionality. I have in mind the military's successful experimenting with "swarming" warfare.

[Convex]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aK3E_ApWIxm4&refer=us

Shays asks Delay to resign, but frames is in the implication that Delay is/will be hurting any future republican campaigns. The right thing for the wrong reasons.

[Thomas Nephew]

Well, not the wrong reasons from his point of view. It's easy to forget there are Republicans who have principles that go beyond re-election. I may well disagree with those principles and/or their real-world effects (I'm thinking of, say, repealing the estate tax here). But if you could somehow magically remove the corruption, power-madness, and zealotry in that party, you'd have an honorable core left. A small one, true, but an honorable one.