GOP politicians go behind enemy lines

At the height of the Cold War, a handful of the most elite U.S. soldiers were trained for the ultimate mission against the Soviet Union: In the event of an actual war, one or two of these men would parachute deep into Russian territory with small, tactical nuclear warheads attached to their legs, and detonate them in order to block the advance of the Red Army.

The Cold War is over, but as the political world gears up for the 2008 conventions — the closest thing either party has to a full-fledged, military-style mobilization — the best political operatives are preparing for the same mission: infiltrating the heart of enemy territory and doing whatever it takes to halt the opposition’s otherwise unchecked advance.

{mosads}The practice has been going on since Cold War-era conventions, but the tactics and methods for achieving counter-message success have escalated significantly within the last four years.

In 2004, John Feehery — who was then-Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) spokesman — joined a relatively small group of operatives who parachuted into the Democratic convention in Boston and did their best to set up roadblocks between the Democrats’ message and the press covering the convention.

“Conventions are designed to get one side of the story out,” said Feehery (now a regular contributor to The Hill’s Pundits Blog). “That’s why it’s so much fun to be there poking holes in the other side’s propaganda. And the media likes to have that counter-view.

Republicans will again send a healthy amount of staff to man a war room near the convention floor in Denver. But the GOP is rounding out their staff presence with a significant number of prominent surrogates who will be behind enemy lines throughout the week.

As of press time, Republicans scheduled to drop into Denver and help pump out the anti-Democratic message included former GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, as well as Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Fla.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), among other prominent Republicans.

“Traditionally, during the daytime of the convention there’s not a lot of news being made, so inserting ourselves into the narrative at that time is very important,” said senior McCain adviser Matt McDonald, who worked with the Republican National Committee on the party’s plans for Denver.

Democrats, who had their own convention to contend with before thinking about sneaking into enemy territory in Minneapolis-St. Paul, were keeping their cards close to the chest and refusing to release specific plans for how to keep the Republican message machine in check during the Twin Cities convention.

But they hinted that if past years’ operations — by both parties — were akin to sneaking in a SEAL team, then this year they, too, were preparing to send in the entire 82nd Airborne.

“I cannot get into details, but I can tell you that we’re going to take that to the next level, from paid advertising to surrogates on the ground to an intense rapid-response program,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera said.

LaVera offered no names, but said the number of Democratic operatives on the ground at the GOP convention hall could be in the dozens, and other party insiders suggested the Democratic effort at this year’s Republican convention could rival anything seen in the past — including what the Republicans do in Denver.

Feehery, for one, is skeptical of the effectiveness of such a show of force, and cited negative media coverage that Democrats received for so many protests of the 2004 Republican convention in New York.

“You do your best to show the flaws in their arguments, but you don¹t want to become a spectacle,” he said. “Which would argue for a small, lean, mean operation.”