Words to Win By

Republican candidates should talk about the Democrats. The Democrats want to pull out of Iraq, shut down Guantanamo, open the nation's borders, abandon the Patriot Act and the NSA spying program and extend full constitutional protections to people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. We got critical information from Mohammed that helped us prevent future terror attacks by subjecting him to mild coercive techniques during questioning -- and the Democrats want to impeach the president for authorizing that! If this nation returns to the Democratic national security policy known in military circles as "unconditional surrender," two years of the Democrats could get us all killed.

-- Ann Coulter, GOP pundit

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GOP candidates can't do much about the underlying problem: Republicans are in charge. It's hard to govern. Grievances accumulate, and you get no credit for successes. What's to be done?

The RNC can go on the air with a massive TV ad buy in October, introducing voters in key states and districts to the two Democratic congressional leaders -- the dour Harry Reid and the frenetic Nancy Pelosi. The message: When Harry Meets Nancy, and they're in charge, they'll raise your taxes and weaken our efforts in the war on terror. The Dems and media will respond, we'll have a taxes and terror debate -- and the Republicans might be okay.

-- William Kristol, editor, the Weekly Standard

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Congressional Republicans should use the remaining days of this session to put Democrats on record on key national security votes. These votes and previous actions will reveal a political abyss between the two parties over how to protect America in an era of grave threats. At the same time, Republicans should embrace the current economic prosperity, brought about by the Bush/Republican tax cuts with little Democratic support, and point out that a Democrat-controlled Congress will allow popular pro-growth tax cuts to expire.

-- Scott W. Reed, 1996 Dole presidential campaign manager