House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of 10 leaders who attended a strategy session in Annapolis, Md., this week, said the party will attack Democrats relentlessly for the stimulus, health care and cap-and-trade bills. Internally, Republicans call it the “80-20 strategy,” which, loosely interpreted, means spending 80 percent of the time whacking Democrats and the remainder talking up their own ideas.
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Cantor conceded that the public is far from thrilled with the GOP — in fact, the party’s image is worse than the Democrats’ — but he argues that Republicans will benefit most from the public loathing of Washington.
And already we are seeing that here, as the Republican contenders for Gary Peters' seat spent last night at a forum in Farmington Hills indulging in a mutual admiration society event that had the AP reporter focusing on the attack strategy only.
Issues? What issues? It's the dogfight that counts, right?
When businessman Gene Goodman sat down after answering a question, former state Rep. Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski gave him a thumbs-up and a playful pat on the back. On several occasions, the seated candidates applauded their opponent's response.
On topics ranging from international trade and immigration to jobs and taxes, the trio of GOP candidates didn't differ much.
This article won't tell you where the candidates stand on those topics though. It immediately moved to the bluster and false bravado and name-calling portion of the program, with a mention of the president's "sagging approval ratings" thrown in for good measure.
"We definitely need to get Gary Peters the heck out of here," Goodman said.
"I look forward to being your candidate — to wipe the snot out of Gary Peters," Raczkowski said.
Businessman Paul Welday criticized Peters for matching the voting record of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.
"He calls himself a Blue Dog Democrat. ... I call him a Lap Dog Democrat," Welday said to applause and laughter from the dozens of audience members.
What would the GOP do differently in regards to those important issues that concern the public? We don't know. Time will reveal the GOP policies as we continue on through this year, and those policies may very well be rejected again by the electorate, but pay attention to the constant drip, drip, drip of "Obama is unpopular!" that is starting now, and watch as it slowly becomes the accepted conventional wisdom going forward. It serves to fire up the Republican base and dispirit the Democrats - and come November, it may contribute to the reason why the Democratic voters would choose to stay home.
It is still early of course, but this is how it starts. The Democrats would do well to figure out how they are going to combat this without seeming as if they are playing defense all the time. One way would be to point out that the GOP doesn't have any new ideas when it comes to addressing our problems and start calling this strategy out for what it is - a cover-up for the fact that the Republicans would return this country to its previous disastrous course.
All they have is the attack. Call them out on it. For the Democrats, the time to start playing offense is now - before the media defines the race for you.