Tactical Wednesday: Debating Relevancy 
Indeed, “increasing irrelevance” is the most this administration could hope for their critics as the voice of reason (and by default this administration’s critics) only grows in relevance.
Regardless, such jabs are a time-tested technique to prop one’s own standing in society. And if it can work for grade-school bullies, then by God it can work for the Bush Administration. We’ve seen it many times before. Seems the Bush brigade can’t breathe deeply enough unless they’re engaging in a little character assassination through meticulously placed mockery. If you can’t build yourself up, well then… you’ve no choice but to tear others down.
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Electability -- the gift that keeps on giving
Mixed into his "Ten Commandments for 2008 Democrats" there are some points worth a little thought -- even if none of them offer much more than what we've already heard a thousand times. However, at the end of his list, there's a piece of advice that I find so sour, so distateful, that I can't help but respond.
10. Winning is everything. And the only thing. As in 2004, Democrats want to win. Unlike 2004, they REALLY want to win. No candidate will secure the nomination whom they fear will lose to the Republican nominee. Electability is going to play a major role in 2008
I hate this rule, hate it with the passion I usually reserve for Rumsfeld's manic smirk. You know what determines if someone is electable? The election, nothing else. If we learned nothing over the last few cycles, it should be that agonizing over electability is one of the most useless activities we can engage in. It's idiotic, and it's idiotic for three reasons...
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Never forget Frank Luntz and his "New American Lexicon"
Fronting those efforts was a man named Frank Luntz -- a master political wordsmith -- and the person responsible for such memorable frames as: "Tax Relief", "Retirement Security", and "Lawsuit Abuse Reform".
Barely a year has passed and the heated discussion of Luntz's New American Lexicon -- then revealed by DailyKos -- has been replaced by talk of the GOP's deserving self-implosion. Now, I know that hopeful progressives are not counting on the right's collapse to take the left to political victory in 2006 and 2008, but we are comforted by the belief that these circumstances are in our favor -- for the time being. Let's not get too comfortable -- understanding that it will take a much larger, broad-based effort to return America to it's rightful set of progressive values.
One part of that effort will be for all of us -- elected officials, activists, and voters -- to remember and appreciate the power of Frank Luntz. To facilitate that, we present to you -- as part of our Political Cortex Framing Project -- Luntz's New American Lexicon in a fully searchable, copy/pastable, web-friendly format. Read it. Digest it. Learn from it.
Frank Luntz Republican Playbook (New American Lexicon) -- Searchable Text-Version
- PART I "Introduction"
- PART II "Setting the Context and Tone"
- PART III "Growth, Prosperity, & Restore Energy and Economic Security"
- PART IV "International Trade: Promoting America's Competitiveness"
- PART V "The Budget: Ending Wasteful Washington Spending"
- PART VI "Tax Relief & Simplification"
- PART VII "Social Security = Retirement Security" (Part a)
- PART VII "Social Security = Retirement Security" (Part b)
- PART VIII "Lawsuit Abuse Reform: A Commonsense Approach"
- PART IX "An Energy Policy for the 21st Century"
- PART X "Appendix: The 14 Words Never to Use"
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