DNC Launches Preemptive Branding Campaign of GOP

Continuing their midterms ramp up, the Democratic National Committee launched a preemptive attack against the GOP this morning by attempting to define the proposed Republican governing agenda before Republicans are even done drawing one up. At 11 am, DNC Chair Tim Kaine and vice chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) announced the release of a 10-point “Republican Tea Party Contract on America,” a major initiative that argues the Tea Party and Republican agenda have become one and the same.

The contract runs down an agenda of the Democrats’ boogeymen: repealing Health Insurance Reform, privatizing Social Security, extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, protecting “those responsible for the oil spill,” and abolishing the Department of Education, Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. There’s also a video that you can see here and more details on the DNC website here.

The mock contract is an attempt by Democrats to preempt the new “Contract for America” — a document similar to the one created by the GOP before the 1994 elections — that Republicans are in the process of drawing up and hope will help sweep them into office as it did 16 years ago. Republicans say they won’t lay out their platform until they have a chance to confer with their constituents during the August recess. Democrats say it’s all a phony effort and their radical agenda is already set in stone.

What’s clear is that Democrats are banking on a strategy that links Republicans to the Tea Party and the furthest reaches of the right wing. Republicans, for their part, don’t all seem to be shying away from the label. Last week at least eight House members, all Republicans, announced the formation of a “Tea Party Caucus” in congress. In addition to organizer Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the caucus’s members include Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Todd Tiahrt (R-Kans.), John Carter (R-Texas), Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Dan Burton (R-Ind).