As part of its all-out campaign to defend its indefensible illegal domestic wiretapping program, the Bush administration is turning to one of its tried and true marketing techniques - branding. The product? The "Terrorist Surveillance Program."
In speeches this week, President Bush, former NSA program manager Air Force General Michael Hayden and other White House surrogates will toe the party line and refer to the "terrorist surveillance program." To support the new GOP talking points, the White House web site unveiled on Sunday a new section called "Setting the Record Straight: Democrats Continue to Attack Terrorist Surveillance Program."
The implication of this Rovian formulation is clear. If you are against the Bush domestic spying program, you are against "surveillance of terrorists."
As I have written previously, this classic Republican branding approach - the "unopposable utterance" - enables the White House to dominate policy debates using terms that are, on their face, virtually unopposable. As a result of conservatives' ironclad message discipline, the label is inevitably and widely adopted by the mainstream media. The result is Republican control of the debate. Who could be for the "Death Tax" (ending estate taxes), the "Marriage Penalty" or "Partial Birth Abortion?" On the flip side, who could be against "School Choice" (school vouchers), "No Child Left Behind" or, in this case, the "Terrorist Surveillance."
Recent polls show that a majority of Americans oppose President Bush's illegal and unprecedented warrantless wiretapping scheme. Bush's lawlessness is even opposed by many of his Republican allies in the Senate, including Senators McCain, Specter, Brownback and Graham.
But that was last week, before it was called a "Terrorist Surveillance Program."