Disciplined in the "Extreme"

By now you've heard the reports of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, unknowingly caught on an open mike, revealing that the Democrat caucus had instructed him and his colleagues to use the word "extreme" when referring to GOP-proposed budget cuts.  I'm guessing it was a focus group-tested word.  While it's easy to cluck at the underlying cynicism this also reveals, frankly, I was more than a little impressed by it as well.

"I belong to no organized party, I'm a Democrat."   Will Rogers could once use that line to great effect, but, to me anyway, it hasn't felt anything like the truth for some time now. On the contrary, the Democrats and their fellow travelers in the elite media are nothing if not disciplined in advancing their vision for the country.

On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh will from time to time demonstrate this aspect of that discipline for comic effect.  Take the word, oh I don't know, "incoherent", for example.   As in, "the Bush policy in Iraq is incoherent."  Rush's team will splice together soundbites from the day before's newscasts, tapes of journalists, pundits, and Democrat politicians, in which they all, in seemingly choreographed fashion, use the exact same word over and over again.  It's funny, but it's also amazing, and, I suspect, at least somewhat effective as well.  By doing this they help frame the issue in a manner more favorable to liberal Democrats.

By contrast, if the Republican caucus does anything like this, counseling, for example, the public use of the word "extreme" to describe Democrat Party policies, they can count on Senator McCain using instead the word "excessive", "extravagant", or "outrageous", if for no other reason than to retain his status as a maverick.