White House courts conservative base
WASHINGTON – Beset by discouraging polls and division within ideological ranks, the White House is accelerating efforts to woo back disaffected conservatives and energize the Republican base in a reprise of a strategy that succeeded in the last two campaign cycles.
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have given multiple interviews to conservative journalists; senior adviser Karl Rove has telephoned religious and social activists; and the White House has staged signing ceremonies for legislation cracking down on terrorism and illegal immigration. Two weeks before Election Day, Bush aides invited dozens of talk radio hosts for a marathon broadcast from the White House on Tuesday to reach conservative listeners.
The message that Bush and others are sending to alienated supporters is that, no matter how upset they have been about various policies or political missteps over the past couple years, life would be far worse under the Democrats. They name liberal lawmakers who would take charge of key committees and warn conservatives that taxes would go up and protection against terrorists would go down. And they cite, in particular, the confirmation of two conservative Supreme Court justices who might have been blocked by a Democratic Senate.
“The White House strategy is to remind us who would be in leadership in the House and Senate” if Democrats win, said Gary Bauer, president of a group called American Values and a Christian conservative who sends a daily e-mail to 100,000 supporters. “The idea is that that’s going to be enough to get out most of this vote.”
Some conservatives said it is too late. “They honestly need a baseball bat against the head,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who helped Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., take over Congress in the 1990s. “Because if they don’t change the lexicon immediately, as bad as this election is going to be, they’re going to lose the presidency in 2008. I’ve given up on 2006. They’ve already made so many mistakes, there’s no way they can fix it in two weeks. But I’m worried now they’re going to lose all the marbles.”
The White House courtship of the right paid enormous dividends in the past, but this year it is complicated by a far more skeptical audience than in 2002 and 2004. Conservatives who were key to those victories have grown frustrated with the Bush policies on federal spending, immigration, Iraq and foreign affairs and are skeptical of his commitment to issues such as preventing legalized same-sex marriage. The Mark Foley page scandal did not help reassure “values voters,” as strategists call them, nor did the publication of a new book by former White House official David Kuo saying that Bush aides dismissed Christian conservatives as “nuts.”
The White House has tried to rev up its base in various ways. Bush has given interviews to Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot and groups of conservative columnists and talk show hosts. Cheney appeared last week on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show.
To maximize the blitz, the White House set up a tent on the north lawn Tuesday and let 42 talk radio hosts broadcast live during the day. Because it was on government property, “Radio Day” included outlets such as National Public Radio, but “it’s mostly conservative talk,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said. “This is a chance to talk to people and get heard,” said Snow, a former talk show host who did more than 20 interviews Tuesday.
Rove wandered into the tent with a piece of paper guiding him to a dozen interviews Tuesday. Others on hand included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.