Great how the WaPo had to "balance" the story with a "of course the Democrats do it to" lede apparently based solely upon "facts" pulled out of Fred Hiatt's ass.

But, hey, I'm totally sure that if this was a story about Democratic fundraisers revealing pathological levels of cynicism and contempt for their own base, they'd say "of course, Republicans do it to" right there at the start.

Michael S. Steele said Thursday in an interview on Fox News. "It was unfortunate. Those were images that were uploaded off the Internet.

Mike. Bubbilah.
Listen carefully.
You Download FROM or OFF the internet
You upload TO the internet.

When you mix the two up, we don't get that "beyond bleeding edge" vibe you were going for a few months back.

The Republicans know their base better than we do. They know the rubes aren't smart enough to know when they have been had and apologizing would only make it more likely some would catch on.

That's "bubala".
Shame on me. A goy should know to look up his yiddish.

Have you no shame.....

suckers each and every one of the fearful ego driven donors

The RNC may or may not be right about fear and their donors, but they are right about the Dems being cowardly idiots. I'm looking at you, Obama, and the KSM flop.

Poor Steele
pants on the ground.. looking like a fool..

The RNC may or may not be right about fear and their donors, but they are right about the Dems being cowardly idiots. I'm looking at you, Obama, and the KSM flop.

That should be the new RNC message: If we can't trust this President to stand up against a few confused, right wing extremists how can we trust his to stand up to our nation's mortal enemies?

THE CONFUSED EXTREMISTS: AT LEAST YOU KNOW WHERE WE STAND!

Ditto on dems being cowardly idiots; Obama has been a huge disappointment: Afghanistan, torture, holding the robber barons accountable and his latest KSM flip flop!

Show of hands: who is surprised that the republicans plan to use fear and smear as the basis of their fundraising/campaigning?

I don't see any hands.

tooweary at 10:26, thanks for the laugh.

That's all very nice, but I can't help but notice that the party hasn't apologized, hasn't held anyone accountable for the presentation, and hasn't actually fired anyone.

Accountability is for Democrats.

"hasn't held anyone accountable for the presentation"

Yeah. Where did this come from?

What's obvious is that the distinction between the rabid activists (such as Free Republic) and the Republican establishment has completely disappeared. They're all Freepers now.

What do they have to apologize for? For once they weren't lying and they have to apologize for that?

Anyway, apologizing shows weakness. Their base is attracted to unyielding strength, even when they don't agree with the principle being followed.

"Second, there's the party's message in the presentation -- fear, name-calling, extremist rhetoric, and fringe caricatures"

Hasn't this been their message for the last year? This isn't even news. You have elected officials calling the president a socialist and marxist (can he be both?) Their whole path back to power has been fear, fear and more fear.

All that guy did was put down on paper what his leaders have been saying all year.

WRT holding someone accountable for the presentation, bear in mind this probably isn't the first such thing produced by the RNC. If they throw the producers under the bus, said producers may go through their hard drives and reveal whatever was in the rest of their old GOP presentations. If I were them I'd have plenty of copies backed up in multiple places.

And the distance between the blunt appeal to emotion on that presentation and the blunt appeal to emotion used daily by Republican talking heads, leadership, and media?

Exactly zero.

Only now the American public has it, in writing, that these are the RNC's tactics, not only to anyone giving them money but to the rest of America giving them an ear.

Given this information, the increase in scepticism Conservative Mainstreet will apply to the RNC's continued messages of doom and fear?

Exactly zero.

Has anyone checked the metadata from the original PowerPoint? Stuff like author, updated by, etc. You can often get some good stuff out of there as our governor found out the hard way.

Actually, most of the writers at DC Comics are liberals, so I don't think Republicans will be handing them out at their next gathering.

"A staffer was putting together a presentation for a small group of nine or 10 folks and thought they would intersperse their presentation with humorous shots. They're inappropriate."

--Steele

I think he just characterized the images as "humorous". Was the humor inappropriate, or the images themselves, or the fact that they were included in the presentation?

This isn't close to an apology, but a vague editorial criticism of how not to assemble a presentation to donors.

That's all very nice, but I can't help but notice that the party hasn't apologized, hasn't held anyone accountable for the presentation, and hasn't actually fired anyone.

And it won't, either. I'm just surprised they didn't go all the way and include such "humorous" photos such as those that show Obama as Hitler. They're such a witty, clever bunch, those Republicans.

Cut. Every. Discretionary program in Every 2 R senate state; Cut every Discretionary program in all R congressional districts with . 65% R vote.

NO more "bipartisian" bullshit. No more talks with R's. No more earmarks [and we can find plenty of R pork].

Look, people. These are the same bastards that equated a triple amputee Vietnam war vet with Osama bi Laden, and won a senate seat in GA based on that.

Games over. Declare this for what it is. Pure, clear, partisan war. Tell any other weenie D thinking about straying, or retiring early, or whatever, to grow up, or there will be consequences.

This document is not a joke.

It is an operation manual for smear tactics.

Take back our country! Obama is turning our country into a socio-fascist state!

The democrats did have fun with GWB as Alfred E. Neuman, but I'm not sure it was too far off from the truth (what me worry?).

No. If nothing else, this document shows a level of immaturity beyond compare.

To all you RNC donors. You've been had. A campaign on fear is infantile and dangerous for the very fabric of our society.

From the RNC handbook; no one ever lost money betting on the stupidity of the American voter. Say whatever you want, no one will call you on it. Some people say...

I have to echo Steve (not that one) - the most jarring thing about the story was the blithe (and nonsensical) assertion in the lede that an RNC powerpoint demonstrated that both parties pander to emotion in their fundraising appeals. Having found a document that tars the Republican party as fearmongers, why does a newspaper reporter feel the need to say (without evidence) that Dems do it too? Just write the friggin story.

Actually, what you should note is that no one has demanded the GOP apologize. I think therein lies the key differences between the way the parties react to things. If the Democrats had done this a few years ago with GWB image, there would have been am immediate and public outcry by the GOP for the Democrats to publicly apologize.

Within the first few minutes of this being leaked, there should've been a very forceful Dem. response demanding that the GOP apologize

Someone get fired or apologize? If we learned anything from 2000-2008, it's that accountability is not a Republican virtue.

as a dc comics fan, i disagree with the [implied]comparison between their perfectly ok funny books and this pathetic crap from the gop...

Are you sure there hasn't been a Republican apology? They're easy to miss sometimes. Here's list of things you want to listen for:

1. So what?
2. Mistakes were made.
3. You go to war with the army you have...
4. No one could have predicted...
5. There've been problems on both sides of the aisle