Senate Democrats watched in dismay last autumn as their longtime leader, Thomas A. Daschle, fell to steady attacks by national Republican and conservative groups. Yesterday they said they won't let it happen to Daschle's successor, Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.).
Each of Reid's 43 Democratic colleagues, plus a Democratic-leaning independent, signed a letter to President Bush, urging him to halt the "counter-productive attacks" against Reid by the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Top Democrats released the letter at a Capitol news conference, in which they fired back at the GOP for a fourth straight day.
 
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The fuss began Monday when the RNC sent a million people a 13-page flier attacking Reid's Senate record and calling him the "chief Democrat obstructionist." The next day, the NRSC sent a release containing Reid quotes, including one from 2002 in which he called Bush "a liar."
Coordinated GOP attacks last year helped John Thune defeat Daschle, who was repeatedly labeled an obstructionist. Reid does not face reelection until 2010, making the current Republican attacks seem gratuitous in some Democrats' eyes.
Whatever the GOP's motive, Democratic senators vow to fight back fiercely. "Last time, these attacks were ignored when they were against Tom Daschle, and they got worse and worse and worse," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) told reporters. Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) added: "We should have spoken out earlier" in Daschle's defense. "We should have been clearer."
For the Kerry Campaign, GOP's Helpful Hints
Matthew Dowd, a senior strategist for President Bush's reelection campaign, said that if he had been advising Democrat John F. Kerry last year, he would have told the senator from Massachusetts to tone down all references to his Vietnam service.
"If you try to make yourself into a hero, the public discounts it," Dowd said in an interview with Texas Monthly. "If somebody else talks about the story, it has much bigger impact."
Dowd said Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's impact on the race has been misunderstood. He said voters were less concerned with whether Kerry had earned his military decorations -- the group said he had not -- than with the fact that so much attention was being focused on an issue they saw as irrelevant to their concerns. "The conclusion in the public's mind is 'Why are we talking about Vietnam?' " Dowd said. "And in their mind, the fault for that was John Kerry. He brought it up."
In other tidbits, Dowd said the Bush campaign substantially increased its spending on radio and cable ads from 2000. He estimated it spent $200,000 on cable ads and less than $1 million on radio spots during Bush's first White House campaign. In 2004, Dowd said, the figure was a combined $35 million or $40 million.
"It's a reflection of what's happening in the media world, which is the diversity," he said. "Republicans trust the national nets less. And so if you're going to reach Republicans or people who may not vote that would vote for George Bush, you have to go about it in much different ways."
