Bipartisanship, GOP style

Republican wunderkind Frank Luntz wrote a handy strategy guide for Republican candidates and their wives. Everything you need to know about winning at all costs. But it leaked.

A favorite example of mine:

"Make the GOP the party of BIPARTISANSHIP. If Americans love anything, it's bipartisanship. Anything described as "bipartisan" is an automatic winner with the American public, and any candidate who can effectively portray themselves as "bipartisan" with automatically have an advantage. Call the Democrats out on their partisanship and obstructionism."

That's right, "portray yourself" as bipartisan while beating up the other party. We all knew that this was the GOP playbook-- now we have proof. A must-read.

The author has it right when he cites such examples of rhetorical shysterism as East Germany calling itself a "Democratic Republic," or China calling the murderous purge of anti-Communist elements as a "Cultural Revolution." What can I say? They've learned from the leaders in their field.

UPDATE: Via Daily Kos, you can skip the PDF format of Luntz's guide-- read it in HTML here