This was a strategy used effectively during the 2010 mid-terms against Nancy Pelosi. Will it work against Reid?
(Boston Herald) To hear party operatives describe the fight for the Senate, it’s the boogeyman billionaires against the shifty septuagenarian.
For months, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been pushing an unrelenting string of criticism against Charles and David Koch, the wealthy industrialists who have backed some of the nation’s most effective conservative groups. Now, Republican candidates are adjusting their plans and linking Democratic Senate candidates to Reid, painting the 74-year-old leader and his allies as unscrupulous politicians.
“There’s little doubt that Harry Reid is abusing his power as majority leader and resorting to desperate and deceitful measures to hold on to his position. And in so doing, he’s showing that he’s not fit to hold the position,” Republican National Committee press secretary Kirsten Kukowski wrote Wednesday in a memo to candidates and allies.
The GOP, Senate candidates, and private groups have been linking Democrat Senators to Reid for a month or so now, especially the truly vulnerable ones, like Kay Hagan here in North Carolina
Take the Republicans. In Colorado, Senate hopeful Cory Gardner pledged to “make Harry Reid a footnote in history.” In Florida, a tea party leader pledged to “rip the gavel out of Harry Reid’s hand.” And in an ad in North Carolina, leading GOP Senate hopeful Thom Tillis gives Reid credit for an ad he is not directly behind: “Know who’s paying for the sleazy ads? It’s Harry Reid.”
The Democrats are doing the same, casting GOP Senate hopefuls as beholden to the Koch brothers and their agenda.
Of course, the problem for Dems in bringing up the Koch brothers is two fold: first, most do not even know who they are. Second, it can be very dangerous for elected officials and those looking to be elected to demonize and denigrate private citizens, especially when citizens learn the truth about the generosity of the Koch brothers.
And the RNC adds that several Democrats, including Reid, have accepted donations from Koch Industries’ political committees or aides.
“For a senator who tells outright lies and funnels campaign money to his family, hypocrisy probably seems like no big deal,” Kukowski wrote in her memo.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was planning to announce the anti-Reid strategy described in the memo, titled “Nothing’s Too Unethical for Harry Reid.” (snip)
The move is similar to what Republicans did in 2010 with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The California Democrat was central to Republicans’ messaging and helped the GOP win majority status during that election. (snip)
The RNC now hopes to replicate that in 2014. The RNC’s digital team planned to flood Twitter starting Wednesday with messages with the hastag #firereid.
If Democrats want to play the game of insulting private citizens for daring to engage in their First Amendment Rights, the GOP should go after Harry Reid, and hard. Do not hold back. Do not play nice. Politics is a dirty, nasty game. When the mostly liberal media starts with their “the GOP are big meanies” yammer, fight back. The question is, will the GOP stay strong?
Crossed at Right Wing News.
