STRATEGY
In Bush's War Room, the Gloves Are Always Off
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: July 14, 2004
...None of the networks were carrying Mr. Kerry's entire speech to a group of financial donors, mostly women, in Boston that day. But Mr. Bush's operatives had somehow arranged for their own audio feed, they refused to say how, and were listening intently, ready to pounce on any opening for attack.
After sitting impatiently through what seemed to be a typical stump speech, they found one: Mr. Kerry said he was "proud" of votes by him and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, last fall against the president's requested $87 billion appropriation for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a vote that Republicans have used to make a case that Mr. Kerry has been failing to support the troops after voting to authorize the war.
Within an hour or so, Mr. Bush's team, at the campaign's headquarters in a corporate office building in suburban Virginia, across the Potomac River from the White House, had sent a release via e-mail to hundreds of journalists, supporters and campaign surrogates. The e-mail message included the new quote and one from September, when Mr. Kerry implied it would be "irresponsible'' to vote against such spending. The quotation, along with the idea that Mr. Kerry's position on the money had evolved, found its way onto Fox News and into articles in The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Associated Press....
(Kerry, the article states,"was actually referring to Mr. Edwards when he said: 'I'm proud to say that John joined me in voting against that $87 billion when we knew the policy had to be changed.'")
***
After Republicans sent an e-mail message about the comment to their vast list of reporters, Mr. Schmidt followed up with telephone calls to select reporters traveling with Mr. Kerry to make sure they noticed it. "The news of the day," Mr. Schmidt proclaimed in one phone call to a reporter, "is an evolution on the $87 billion. Now John Kerry said he was proud."....On Tuesday, Mr. Bush's aides, while careful not to credit themselves for persuading reporters to jump on the quote, were clearly pleased that it popped up in many articles. Even so, they were not entirely satisfied. Mr. Schmidt said he would ask some of the campaign's surrogates to bring it up again during television appearances....But in the end, surrogates were not necessary. Mr. Bush, apprised of the quote by campaign aides, brought it up in a speech in Michigan on Tuesday....That sound bite was featured prominently near the beginning of "World News Tonight" on ABC on Tuesday. The program's average, nightly audience far outreaches any single newspaper: more than eight million people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/politics/campaign/14repubs.html
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