Liberal

I really gotta hand it to the Republicans. They do know how to use branding. Over the last 20 or 30 years, they've been able to make the word "liberal" into something negative and shameful.

Most people who say "those damn liberals" really have no idea what a liberal is. Most people are liberal, they just don't know it yet.

The uproar over Durbin's comments, and the new Karl Rove campaign against liberals is all just distracting from the real truth of the matter. It is silly the way Durbin's comments were said to put our troops in danger. It's silly to say that Karl Rove should apologize or resign.

I'm sure Rove saw all of this coming, and the entire Republican party was informed that they were to tow the line, unlike the democrats who caved on Durbin’s "gulag" speech.

Here's an idea. The Democrats have truth on their side. Use it. If the Republicans make another baseless allegation, ignore them. It's far better to act as if you can't be bothered with the plebeian. Meanwhile, at every opportunity, hammer home - no WMD's, no link to Al-Quaida, no link to 9/11, no exit strategy.

Use the word "lie" over and over again, and remind people that those lies are resulting in literally thousands of DEAD Americans and many more thousands wounded, some horribly mutilated.

A majority of Americans think invading Iraq was a bad idea, and the prosecution of the war is incompetent. Use that..

In the longer run, do a better job of branding "conservative" as religious, hateful, crazy, bigots. Brand "republican" as elitist corporate ass sucking pond scum. The middle class is dying, and not because the middle is moving to the upper class. People naturally resent the wealthy. Use that.

But I can't stress enough how far an attitude can take you. If you respond to Rove like attacks with an "oh please, I can't be bothered with that", you'll get much better results than looking like the issue hit too close to home.

And for God's sake, stop running from the word "liberal". The Republican's have already tagged that onto "Democrat" so you sure as hell better change the perception of the word.