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Republican barrage against anti-war Democrats

Paul Harris

The White House election strategists hope to duck criticism over domestic failures by emphasising the need to fight terrorism.

THE REPUBLICANS have launched an attack to portray the Democrats as anti-Iraq war and caught in the grip of an extremist fringe that wants to pull out of the conflict. In newspaper columns, and TV interviews Republican politicians and conservative commentators have branded Democrats as weak in the "war on terror."

The move is paving the way for the vital November mid-term elections to be fought on national security with a bitter campaign echoing the 1968 presidential poll fought against the background of the Vietnam war.

Senior Republican strategists, including political guru Karl Rove, have long favoured fighting the November mid-term elections on the issues of terrorism and the war. Polls consistently show that voters favour the Republicans on national security, even as the Iraq conflict appears to be collapsing into a civil war. It will also allow Republicans to deflect Democratic criticisms over the economy, growing poverty and scandals ranging from lobbyist corruption to the lax response to Hurricane Katrina.

Republicans believe that focussing on terrorism and the war will allow them to keep control of Congress, despite a huge Democratic push and record disapproval levels of President George W. Bush. Vice-president Dick Cheney arranged a rare conference call with journalists to push the new message that Democrats were anti-war. "[Terrorists are] betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task," he said.

The Republican attack machine is well practised in taking apart Democratic candidates based on their perceived weakness on defence. They even managed to portray John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, as too soft on national security, despite the Democrats putting his war record at the centre of their campaign. Many Republicans hope that the Democrats are repeating their miscalculations of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when many spoke out against Vietnam and were trounced by Richard Nixon. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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