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Secret Memo: Do Not Read.

Monday, June 17, 2002

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Top Double Secret Political Memo

To: Democratic Leadership, staff, candidates, the entire press corps,         and The James.
From: Rich Galen, Top Double Secret Double Democratic Agent
Re: Rove/Mehlman Political Landscape Memo

• The fortuitous discovery of THE DISC on which White House director of political affairs, laid bare the GOP strategy for the midterm elections has provided us with an unbelievable opportunity.

• The Mehlman/Rove memo states that the Democratic Strategy will be to (quoting from the memo):

  - -Support the President on the War
  - -Question the President's Middle East Policy
  - -Attack on Domestic Agenda - - Social Security, Health Care Costs, Environment, and Education
  - -Use Budget, Tax Cuts and Enron for Class Warfare
  - -Divide President and Congressional Republicans
  - -Maximize Outside Resources

  I think there is a threshold question that we should answer: Why the devil did we need KARL ROVE to enunciate this strategy? Why couldn't we think of this by ourselves?

  Instead of constantly harping on whether or not Tom Ridge should testify; or whether the allergy control people in the Centers for Disease Control should move to the Department of Homeland Security; or whether the announcement that we had arrested the guy who wanted to build a dirty bomb was politically motivated; why don't we take Rove's advice?

  Every day - this past weekend being a perfect example - that we spend talking about what's wrong with the Bush Presidency is a day lost to discussing (as Rove points out) our core issues.

  According to a Washington Post poll last week, Bush is still sitting on a 77 percent approval rating. Only 18 percent disapprove.

  That is a drop of only SIX POINTS IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS. We have less than five months until the election. We already have the votes of those 18 percent. We need to talk about the things which will begin to chip away at the other three-out-of-four Americans who like Bush a lot!

  But what do we do? We either agree with Bush or we talk about things that only further strengthen his standing.

  As an example: Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle went on television Sunday calling for the ouster of Yasser Arafat. Do we really think Democrats are in such a bad position with Jewish voters that Senator Daschle had to waste an entire appearance on Fox News Sunday taking a position which is only marginally stronger than Bush's position?

  Why didn't he talk about the Four Rove Points? Why didn't he talk about ANY of the Four Rove Points?

  I must state that I disagree with Rove and Mehlman on the Class Warfare point. On the standard question of "Do you think President Bush understands the problems of people like you?" or some variant on that theme, Bush scores consistently in the sixty-percent percent range with only about 30 percent disagreeing.

  I believe we will not be successful playing the Class Warfare card because we don't HAVE a Class Warfare card to play.

  And on the Enron front, a recent Washington Post poll suggested that a huge segment of the public (76 percent) either blamed BOTH Republicans and Democrats or NEITHER Republican nor Democrats.

  How does it help us to have Senator Joe Lieberman taking attention away from the Four Rove Points by flying in the face of a different three-quarters of the American public?

  In closing, I would like to state that the discovery of the Rove/Mehlman memo might be the most important event in the history of the Democratic Party since Herbert Hoover was sworn in as President: We now know what our strategy should be.

  Please eat this memo.

  [Housekeeping note: I normally try to respond to everyone who sends me an e-mail - some 200 per day. However the response to the "Backbone of America" column last Friday (was so overwhelming that I simply could not get back to each of you. Please accept this blanket thank you for your kind words.]

  On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Rove/Mehlman memo, and the usual things.

  --END --
  Copyright © 2002 Richard A. Galen

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