There was a school of costumed dolphins -- Flipper, Flopper and Flapper -- that traveled the Great Lakes region mocking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). There was a "Kerry on Iraq" DVD showing clips of his evolving statements, framed like dates on a calendar. And there were KerryWrongForCatholics.com, KerryWrongForMormons.com and KerryWrongForEvangelicals.com.
All were part of the Republican National Committee's year-long effort to use nontraditional media to undermine Kerry's presidential campaign -- sometimes viciously, sometimes humorously. Jim Dyke, the party's outgoing communications director, helped engineer the fusillade by figuring out what to do with all the votes, quotes and other ammunition turned up by his squad of 20 or so researchers.
Officials at the party, who took some of the sharper shots that the Bush-Cheney campaign did not want to fire directly, felt they had an embarrassment of riches. Dyke said part of the puzzle was saving some of the good stuff for later.
"You don't want to put all the dog food in the bowl at one time," he said.
Political operatives typically leave Washington when they have lost, but Dyke is headed for South Carolina next month despite the victory that has many Republicans sticking around to figure out how they can cash in or move up.
The 35-year-old Arkansas native is starting Jim Dyke and Associates (the associates will come later, he hopes) in Charleston, and he intends to remain a capital player through conference calls and BlackBerry messaging.
Dyke, known as "Bear," is seeking a familiar mix of work in public relations, marketing and public affairs. But his plans show how veterans of President Bush's machine keep promoting his agenda even after they are off the payroll. To push Bush's proposal to add private accounts to Social Security, Dyke is making one of his first projects the creation of a group called Save My Investment, aimed at 25- to 45-year-olds.
"That demographic, which has paid in a significant amount of money, has a vested interest in changing the system and is a likely constituency to vote on this issue," Dyke said. "This will put a face on people who would benefit from owning part of their retirement."
Dyke was in the same class as CNN host Tucker Carlson at St. George's prep school in Newport, R.I. Carlson already wore bow ties; Dyke didn't know how to tie one. Carlson said Dyke "understands that politics is a transactional process -- you give this, you get that -- and you don't have to burn down the other guy's village to improve your own."
After working as an intern in a Senate office while he was studying history at the University of Arkansas, Dyke started in Washington as a Senate parking attendant (a distinction he shares with outgoing RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie). He later became an assistant to the brewmeister at Capital City Brewing Co. and lobbyist for the Beer Institute. On the 1996 primary campaign of presidential candidate Robert J. Dole, Dyke was in charge of Dubuque County and got 20 votes beyond his goal. He followed that with a string of Republican jobs that culminated with his current post in May 2003.
During the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Dyke filled acres of cable-news time as part of his party's "Dems Extreme Makeover" counterconvention.
Dyke and his wife, Dawn, have a daughter, Emily, who will be 2 next month. Dyke said he knows only four or five people in Charleston but was charmed by the Colonial seaport on a recent visit. He said his initial conversations with South Carolinians have shown him that his 50-e-mails-an-hour pace can be curtailed.
"It's always a dream to work in the White House, and anyone in Washington who tells you differently isn't telling you the truth," he said. "But now I'm ready for a different level of urgency."
