[Mb-civic] Democrats Conflicted on Playing Rough - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

<>Democrats Conflicted on Playing Rough
Lack of Support for Roberts Ad Raises Question of Tactics

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 13, 2005; Page A04

The decision by the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America to 
pull an incendiary ad attacking President Bush's nominee to the Supreme 
Court has produced a fresh round of recriminations within the Democratic 
Party and a return to a nagging question: Has the opposition lost its nerve?

When conservatives complained about the ad -- which suggested that 
nominee John G. Roberts Jr. condoned violence against abortion clinics 
-- a number of prominent liberals joined in the criticism and elected 
Democrats ran for cover rather than defend the ad, which was dropped.

Amid similar criticism against another controversial ad, most 
Republicans brushed aside demands to repudiate Swift Boat Veterans for 
Truth, a group that had taken aim at John F. Kerry's war record. Some 
Democrats said the difference revealed on their side an ambivalence 
about modern political combat that helps explain why their party is out 
of power.

"Republicans don't mind running an ad that's entirely false, but 
Democrats have never learned, and I'm not sure many of them want to 
learn, how to play that kind of politics," said Robert Shrum, an adviser 
to several Democratic presidential campaigns. NARAL had to pull the ad, 
he said, because "they weren't getting support from any substantial 
quarter."

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, who like Shrum favors hardball 
politics, protested that "we Democrats bring a well-thumbed copy of 
Marquess of Queensberry Rules while the other side unsheaths their 
bloody knives, with a predictable outcome." Lehane said the NARAL ad 
"was great, and exactly the type of offensive that breaks through in the 
modern age."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/12/AR2005081201596.html

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