Outfoxing

Reading over this article about last week's execrable House bill that tied a minimum wage increase to Paris Hilton's tax cut, this line by a Republican Congressman struck me.

Representative Zach Wamp, Republican of Tennessee, said Democrats were upset with the legislation because Republicans had found a clever way to link the two. “You have seen us outfox you on this issue tonight,” Mr. Wamp told Democrats in the floor debate.

They're not even hiding it. This Republican Congress cares only about playing the game of politics instead of getting the work of the American people accomplished.

They would rather "outfox" Democrats than let a family of four climb out of poverty by demanding that employers provide an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.

"Outfoxing" is more important than giving Americans the facts on WMD in Iraq and letting them decide if the potential threat is worth the severe cost in lives and treasure.

"Outfoxing" is more important than providing the elderly with a real prescription drug benefit instead of providing pharmaceutical companies with billions of dollars in giveaways and inflated sales figures.

"Outfoxing" is more important than actually informing Congress about warrantless wiretapping, massive electronic databasing, the existence of a Pakistani plutonium plant, or even Indian arms sales to Iran.

"Outfoxing" is more important that giving people the retirement security they need in the most successful government program in the history of the nation, instead preferring to "reform" the system by giving it away to corporate fund managers who can rack up administrative costs and put the lives of old people at the whim of the market.

"Outfoxing" by editing audio to make Democratic Congressman appear to support Hezbollah is more important than having a real debate about how to stop the senseless violence in the Middle East instead of cheerleading toward a wider regional war.

"Outfoxing" by putting bills up for a vote before anyone can even read them is more important.

"Outfoxing" by submitting posion pill amendments and then claiming that their opponents voted against the minimum wage is more important.

"Outfoxing" by claiming hatred of gays equals protecting families is more important.

"Outfoxing" is what they do every day. They even have a news channel named after the practice.

Of course, we all know this. But so many people in the country do not. And now is the time, in the final 100 days, to turn to your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, and explain that the current Republican Party only cares about "outfoxing." They don't care about people.

The election is something of a referendum on George Bush. But he's not on the ballot. People like Zach Wamp are. And there are extremely compelling reasons to kick them out of Washington as well. Results, not "outfoxing." That's what people want. That's what Democrats can provide.

P.S. I'm trying to find a clip of this guy saying "we have outfoxed you" and any help would be appreciated. The Democrats are very slowly getting better at campaign commercials (Patrick Murphy's got a good one up today), but as a media professional I feel it's high time for us pros to get involved. YouTube and other distributed networks make it so easy, and you can arguably capture more eyeballs for less money.