Newspapers love to report on pieces of partisan fund-raising mail that are mistakenly sent to the opposing camp. It doesn’t happen every week (quite), but it happens often enough to have become an annoying trope. We live in a world of junk mail, and the fact that a Republican receives a form letter that begins “Dear Fellow Democrat” really shouldn’t be a news story any longer. More annoying, politicians who have nothing much to say take every opportunity they can to make hay out of these meaningless events.
Just the other week, Byron Dorgan, a Democratic senator from North Dakota, got a fund-raising letter from Newt Gingrich. Instead of just throwing it away, he took to the Senate floor — where once such men as Daniel Webster and Henry Clay inspired the nation with their oratory — to say, “Mr. Speaker, I hope you won’t be offended when I tell you I’ve never had the slightest urge” to carry a “Friend of Newt” card. The Washington Post dutifully printed the item.
Enough already. But one type of story we do enjoy, and want to see more of, involves the ridiculous fake opinion surveys that appear in political mailings as a method of getting people so wrought up that they will send in big donations once they’re finished. This week’s prize goes to the Republican National Committee and the “CRITICAL ISSUES Double Poll” that’s part of its newest direct-mail package. This “poll” includes such impartial and balanced questions as: “Immediately upon taking office Congressional Republicans voted for a series of reforms of the way Congress does business. Liberal Democrats built this corrupt system and resisted all attempts to fix it. Did Congressional Republicans do the right thing?” And: “The federal Medicare program will run out of money early in the next decade. The liberal Democrats have known this for years, but they refused to fix it. Now Congressional Republicans have a plan to make sure Medicare will be there for every American. But the liberal Democrats have opposed it at every turn. Is it time to fix Medicare before it goes bankrupt?”
We agree with much of the substance of the RNC’s complaint against liberal Democrats — but how stupid do they think Republicans really are?
