Republicans spread message of Democrats’ disunity

DENVER — Republicans have infiltrated the Democratic National Convention as they seek to exploit and widen the divisions between supporters of presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and his former primary rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has set up shop in downtown Denver, and a number of high-profile Republican surrogates are making the media rounds at the Democrats' convention. They’re pushing the idea — disputed by Obama (Ill.) and Clinton (N.Y.) aides — that the Democratic Party is badly divided and Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is poised to peel off Clinton supporters.

{mosads}The Republicans are breaking somewhat with tradition, launching a much larger presence at their opponents' weeklong party than in the past. While rapid-response teams from both parties are generally dispatched to the opposing party's conventions, this year Republicans are being much more aggressive.

Alex Conant, the RNC press secretary, said Monday that he doesn't think this year's effort is more aggressive than the one in 2004, but he said that the accommodations this year are more convenient and more "media ready."

The RNC has two-dozen staffers on the ground in Denver, Conant said, and they will have at least one high-profile McCain surrogate in town every day of the convention. Victory 2008 Chairwoman Carly Fiorina was in town Monday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be in town Tuesday, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday. Pawlenty and Romney are considered finalists to be McCain's running mate, and Giuliani is the keynote speaker at next week's Republican convention.

At the heart of the GOP's efforts is a Democratic convention that still has an 800-pound gorilla of a question — party unity. Republicans continue to point to a poll last week that showed only 52 percent of Clinton supporters lining up behind Obama, with 21 percent saying they will support McCain.

And CNN released a poll Monday that showed 66 percent of Clinton supporters are now backing Obama. That's down from 75 percent in the end of June. And 27 percent of her supporters now say they'll support McCain, up from 16 percent in late June.

"We didn't create all the disunity in the Democratic Party," Conant said. "I think Barack Obama did. We'll do all we can to shed light on it with the goal of reaching out to Hillary Clinton supporters."

Conant added that all the Clinton supporters in the convention hall "are not the product of the RNC."

Because of the Republican offensive, senior advisers to Obama and Clinton were furiously trying to extinguish constant reports of party unrest Monday morning before the convention had even officially begun.

The RNC and the McCain campaign have already launched an ad entitled "Debra" that features one such disaffected Clinton supporter who says she is supporting McCain.

In the ad, Wisconsin delegate Debra Bartosevich says that the New York senator has "the experience and the judgment to be president."

"Now, in a first for me, I'm supporting a Republican, John McCain," Bartosevich says. “I respect his maverick and independent streak, and now he's the one with the experience and judgment. A lot of Democrats will vote McCain. It's OK, really."

The Obama campaign has dismissed this and other McCain ads as amounting to nothing but "video press releases" because, they say, the McCain camp isn't putting any real resources behind the effort.

But shortly after that, the McCain campaign announced another ad featuring Clinton's own words.

The ad features one of Clinton's more memorable lines questioning Obama's experience, and the RNC said it would run through Sunday in Colorado, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Western Pennsylvania with an ad buy between $2 million and $2.5 million.

"Sen. McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign," Clinton says in the ad. "I will bring a lifetime of experience. And Sen. Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who originally supported Clinton, said in a statement that the ad represents the kind of "cheap political stunts" that Democrats will recognize as a trademark of the Bush administration.

“This ad does not reflect the sentiment of the thousands of former Clinton supporters from my congressional district who have embraced Barack Obama's message of uniting Americans and getting the country back on track," Wasserman Schultz said.

The "Debra" ad was the second televised effort to push the Democratic rift. The first, "Passed Over," featured Clinton's own remarks criticizing Obama, saying that Clinton was neither vetted nor picked to be Obama's running mate because "the truth hurt, and Obama didn't like it."

A Clinton aide responded in a statement that Clinton's support for Obama "is clear."

"She has said repeatedly that Barack Obama and she share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq and expanding access to healthcare," Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said in a statement. "John McCain doesn't. It's interesting how those remarks didn't make it into his ad."

Despite the pushback, the Clinton and Obama teams will likely have their work cut out for them throughout the week as the Republicans in town institute their full-court press and the media army in town continues to question whether the Democratic Party is truly unified.

Monday night, the GOP was hosting a "Happy Hour for Hillary" in downtown Denver, and earlier in the day, the Republicans released their first of the week's daily "Not Ready '08" memos — this one titled "A Party Divided."

"On the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Democrats will come together under the theme of 'one nation' to stress their unity as a party," the memo reads. "However, the news recently has shown anything but a united party."

Despite the intensity of the Republican efforts, some Democrats in Denver say the attempt to highlight the rift will backfire and only serve to unify the party.

"It did for me," Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), a Clinton supporter, said Monday morning when asked if the Republicans' efforts could backfire. "They're pouring salt in our wounds."