Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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Bush Won. MoveOn Lost.

Monday September 17, 2007

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Last week could not have gone better for the re-configured Bush White House on Iraq.

Counselor to the President, Ed Gillespie's fingerprints were all over this, and it was a stunning success.

Although it seems like it was 16 months ago, last Monday General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker went up to Capitol Hill and reminded all of us that there is a significant difference between popping into the Green Zone for a six-hour look-see as part of a Congressional Delegation, and living, working, and fighting next to the men and women - civilian and military - who are there for a year or more.

Enough of the Petraeus/Crocker testimony was leaked to provide the exact amount of rope Gillespie knew the Democrats needed to wrap around themselves.

The New York Times provided the lever to spring the trap door which occurred when the paper ran a full-page ad sponsored by the �ber-liberal, anti-war group, MoveOn.org.

Not only that, but it was reported late in the week that the Times gave the group a significant discount to run the utterly disgusting ad.

The conservative Investors' Business Daily called the discount by the Times, "Subsidizing Sedition."

The New York Post ran a story on Thursday asking why the basic rate of $181,692 for such an ad was discounted.

"According to Abbe Serphos, director of public relations for the Times, the open rate for an ad of that size and type is $181,692.
"A spokesman for MoveOn.org confirmed to the NY Post that the liberal activist group had paid only $65,000 for the ad - a reduction of more than $116,000 from the stated rate."

Interestingly, in its reporting of this story, the Washington Post made a point to mention the NY Post is "owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp." although it didn't think it necessary to note who owns the Washington Post or the New York Times.

I looked this up for you: The family of Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. owns the Times; the family of Donald E. Graham owns the Washington Post - in the same corporate way that Rupert Murdoch "owns" News Corp.

Every Republican candidate for � anything � from President to school board, came out fearlessly against the MoveOn.org ad and, because it was just sitting there waiting to be whacked, the New York Times.

The basic principle of political fundraising is: You need an enemy.

You need an enemy which your supporters will instantly recognize as an enemy and will send you money to help defeat. And keep on sending you money to keep on defeating him, her, or it.

In the 1990's the Democrats' enemy was Newt.

Just about any time the phone, electric, or sewer bill came due at the Democratic National Committee, they would send out a "Newt-o-Gram" explaining to Liberal donors that Newt was in favor of this or opposed to that and "only your immediate donation of $100, $50, or even $25 will help us �"

For donors to MoveOn.org, the enemy is President Bush and anyone who is not opposed to Iraq or the Global War on Terror. For donors to conservative groups and candidates the enemy is � MoveOn.org.

The worst thing that can happen to a political group is to have its anointed "enemy" retire, die, or be convicted. Then you may have to spend a great deal of money to identify, explain, and malign a whole new enemy to your donors.

The net result of all this last week is:

The President got the additional time he was looking for in Iraq;
General Petraeus came off as the brilliant military leader he is, and
Republicans have an enemy that the popular press helped identify and which will result in millions of dollars in new donations.

Bush won. MoveOn lost. A good week all around.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the NY Post piece exposing the deep advertising discount; an interesting link to a page which shows you which media outlet owns what; a very amusing Mullfoto; and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

Also, if you haven't yet, you should check out the Mullblog!. There is interesting stuff there and, you can respond for the whole world to see.

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