GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse decline

[Manix]

<snip>

A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."

The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”

The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.


Capital Hill Blue

[Dying Eagle]

1. OMG

Those fucking people? are just sick!!!

GRRRRRRRRR, I am pissed off again!!!

[JWS]

2. Everywhere I see on DU, this story is debunked as we come into the

concensus that CHB is not credible. Every thread with this story, in my humble opinion has been deemed bullshit. Here's William Pitt's thing on CHB...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5297986

IMHO, it has no more credibility than a tabloid...

[melody]

5. CHB is as credible as any of the other similar online source

Bullshit has been called on Raw Story numerous times, but I still think they're very credible, so long as you read it with an open, critical mind.

Whenever someone gives "everywhere" and "absolutely" comments about anything, I always wonder if the degree of certainty isn't more of an emotional response than a logical one.

I mean, I certainly hope it's false, but I don't think we should let our fear of its truth get in the way of our consideration of it.

[JWS]

8. I sometimes question RAW Story's credibility as well...

But this is one of those things that I'm gonna wait for an AP article with it before I take it at it's full value. It's true though, sometimes people really do just have worse days than others. But once that happens, their credibility is questioned and right now I tend to wait. I think if something like this did happen however, that the AP or at least other independent sites(such as RAW story or someone else) would jump on it immediately. Like the Gannon thing. Even though that wasn't published in most AP front pages, it was still published aned more than one source really knew about it. I think once tis jsut gets into more then one soucrce(that is another source verified it), it is believable. But yeah...

I hope they really aren't relying on somethign like that. I also think that this isn't as much a scary thing as it is a sensational thing. People should always wait for more than one source before relying on the idea that something as sensational or extraordinary as this is truth.

[ixion]

9. what, like AP has good credibility?

They've printed plenty of WH press releases as 'news', and show an obvious bias in their reporting. How is that any more credible?



Oh, and welcome to DU! :hi:

[melody]

3. If this is true, that would constitute a terrorist attack on the US

Shouldn't the GOP be placed under the list of watched groups at Homeland Security? This is a direct, viable threat.

[LaPera]

4. Desperate times..Republicans, will endorse ANYTHING to change the tide...

Its worked before, when Jr. polls were plumming....remember before 9-11, he was dying a slow death, as he is now...But now, they've gotten even more greedy and money sick, (they've tasted total victory, and riches beyond imagination)...Fuck, thousands dead...AGENDA...to steal even more and take ALL the workers pensions & social services...is the republican battle cry!!!

[JDPriestly]

6. The memo is wrong!

Katrina ruined Bush's credibility with regard to staving off the terrorist threat. Another terrorist attack would be horrible for Bush because it would reveal to ordinary Americans just how ineffectively he has waged his "war on terror." Ridiculous idea. It would backfire big time.

We just downed Schwarzenegger out here in California because he proved to be totally inept at managing the budget -- the very issue ran on. The Republicans have been maintaining themselves by conjuring up the terrorist threat constantly and assuring the American people that only they can "handle" the terrorists. If once again the terrorists attack on American soil, ordinary Americans will see the Bush administration the way ordinary Californians see Schwarzenegger -- inept fools. Of course, that's what they are in any case. But another terrorist attack would just make Americans all the more certain that Bush is an inept fool.

[theivoryqueen]

7. It would be very convenient for the GOP

if something catastrophic happened (that our elected and appointed officials didn't actually have to respond to responsibly - Katrina?) to distract the media, the american public and the rest of the world. Bush&Co might benefit - yet again - from the "no one else to turn to" effect. As Molly Ivins is fond of pointing out, he's "the only president we've got". I suppose that would be a serviceable substitute for actual leadership (in the eyes of the Fox News ilk), should a non-natural or other type national disaster strike the US. But perhaps that well has been poisoned from too much repeated rhetoric and sloganeering. I remember the unfortunate timing of the 9/11 disaster, and the following "coincidental" benefits - GAO dropping it's lawsuit against the administration regarding the secret energy policy task force meetings, etc. A lot of problems were disappeared or shelved indefinately. And whether this source is credible or not, should anything resembling this scenario occur in the near future, I hope that everyone watches closely and with much skepticism.

[PATRICK]

10. My comment on CHB

It seems like they are using cleverly imagined revelations from very well thought out probabilities. The opportunity for this is wide open due to the fact that few are doing this on the anti-Bush side and coming close to the truth is so painfully effective that the other side would not really ever want to comment on the issues raised by the rumors.

Sometimes they raise issues worth thinking about and knowing about and are pretty much a counterbalance to what FOX and the Noise Machine does every day. There are lies, white lies and jokes. The bigger the grain of truth, the more it hurts the eye it lands in.

It speaks well that having our people believe counter lies is not acceptable. It would be better if the site presented itself as a satire site with more than a hint of probability and truth and a tantalizing mix of real revelations. Second guessing what the GOP is doing in secret can be so on target or upsetting that it should be employed somehow to smoke them out. Deluding our own truth hungry progressives and giving them dud ammo is a dangerous side effect and will not work for us.

[PATRICK]

11. I guess the whispering campaign is

still working judging by other media sources taking up the "leak". Now that this again sends the researchers back to validate you have to remember that a myth may do damage to the GOP but it also drags us in. It is hard to discredit such sly whispering campaigns but when it happens it makes the Left suffer more than the dedicated liars of the Right.

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. CHB :Bill Clinton's long history of sexual violence against women

this is the standard of journalism Capitol Hills Blue represents.

see this link below

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5345898

[Neil Lisst]

13. Does Drudge have a liberal brother?

I'm dubious of capitolhill blew and raw story. Both are tabloid journalism.

I can sit at home and make stuff up. They never have any support for their stories, so I pay them no mind. It's like the drivel on the right that poses as news. Just because someone online writes something and says it is true doesn't make it true.