GOP’s Advice To Candidates: Don’t Be Like Nancy Pelosi
At a private, boot-camp style training session for several dozen Republican House candidates yesterday, national GOP strategists gave out their marching orders for the 2010 elections.
One key piece of advice, a source familiar with the classes says: Emphasize that Dems won in 2008 and make the races about Dem initiatives on the economy and health care.
A second directive: Don’t act like Nancy Pelosi did in her handling of the CIA-torture mess.
Around 35 candidates were schooled yesterday behind closed doors by operatives with the National Republican Congressional Committee, which runs the party’s efforts to win House seats. A list of the attendees is here.
The candidates were told to “remind Democrats that they actually won the 2008 election and to stop blaming Bush,” the source tells me. “Remind the voters and the press that they will have to defend a failed stimulus, a job killing energy tax, and are about to push a government takeover of the healthcare industry financed by a small business tax.”
The GOP operatives also pointed to Pelosi’s memorable press conference in which she accused the CIA of lying about torture “as an example of what NOT to in an interview or press conference,” the source says.
The marching orders reflect the extent to which the GOP is banking on the failure of the stimulus and health care reform, and the hope that Pelosi can be made radioactive on national security for Dem candidates. So if you hear some of this stuff coming from GOP candidates, you’ll know where it came from.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
They keep pushing on Pelosi and they are going to get such a pushback.
They forget – Nancy Pelosi is the first woman Speaker of the house and they’re just killing themselves that much more with women. And the only reason they spend so damn much time on Pelosi is because she’s a woman – I honestly believe that.
So to recap: they’ve alienated people with college degrees and intellects, minorities, women, and they’re working on alienating everyone in America they haven’t quite managed to drive away yet. Sounds like a plan to me.
I wonder how happy they were to “leak” that they were training their candidates to not act like Speaker Pelosi. Nice way to attack her indirectly if I must say.
“Nice way to attack her indirectly if I must say.”
Nice insight, sgwhite.
Thanks Tena!
I think this is excellent advice for GOPers. After all, Pelosi keeps, you know, winning her elections.
So basically, ignore science, basic economic theory and the health of Americans and continue doing what we’ve been doing.
You know, I was very happy yesterday to see the president mention that he was now being given ownership of the economy and saying, “Give it to me.” The GOP is betting that the stimulus will fail and that Americans don’t want real health care reform and that they don’t believe global warming is a threat. Talk about marching against the tide of history!
This should work out well for Republicans. I really think they should campaign on their 4 page bullet point health care plan. That would really send shock waves throughout the electorate. Viva Bush!
Greg – more interesting to know who the attendees were would be to know who was doing the briefings. I’d be on it but I’ve got the lawn growing into the azaleas and the cats to feed…
here’s the “than” missing from post above.
“I’d be on it but I’ve got the lawn growing into the azaleas and the cats to feed…”
[rolls eyes] you think you have problems…you have never seen anything like the grasshoppers I have. They are a plague of biblical proportions and it never diminishes. Everything in my garden is eaten to rags. And there is nothing – NOTHING – that gets rid of them permanently. I can derive down the population by about 1/2% for about half a day with a biological agent that costs – are you ready? – $50 a bag. I’ve spent $250 this summer so far and it was wasted. I’m not buying any more because it works alright – on the population that is here at the moment I lay it down. They die, 5 million more appear in 10 minutes flat.