Gustav halts Democratic attack machine

ST. PAUL – Hurricane Gustav has sidelined Democrats who had traveled to the Republican National Convention to counter last week’s strong performance by the GOP spin machine in Denver.

Democrats know that any attacks on Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and President Bush, who is overseeing efforts to help the Gulf Coast deal with the powerful storm, could backfire as political opportunism in a time of crisis. So they have been eager to show that they can leave politics aside and are doing all they can to assist the region affected by Gustav.

{mosads}“Like all Americans, our hearts and prayers are with the families in the Gulf Coast. This is not a day for politics,” said Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokesman Damien LaVera. “We’ll continue to monitor the situation and continue to do what we can to help.”

Democrats here have severely curtailed efforts to put their spin on the GOP convention.

LaVera also pointed out that several local events planned throughout the country were converted from political rallies to efforts to help the areas affected by the storm. He noted that a Mississippi Labor Day rally became a Gulf Coast-related fundraiser and added that other events were also switched to pro-Gulf Coast efforts.

When Republicans announced that they would curb their convention activities, Democrats followed suit and cancelled a media walk-through of its spin center scheduled for Sunday night. In addition, Monday’s briefing at the “More of the Same Media Center” was also called off.

The only reminders of the Democratic spin efforts are periodic e-mails informing reporters of cancelled events and the billboards that the DNC has positioned throughout the Twin Cities and the Xcel Center.

However, Democrats at their response center across the street from the convention site continue to monitor the Republican gathering, ready to go into attack mode as soon as the convention returns to its original schedule.

“If they launch political attacks, we’ll be prepared to respond,” LaVera said.

If the DNC spin effort resumes as scheduled later in the week, Democrats will have a tough act to follow after their Republican counterparts in Denver skillfully spun the media.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) sent some of its biggest stars to Denver to counterbalance the Democratic convention, beginning with RNC chairman Mike Duncan, who led the media walk-through of the “Not Ready in ’08” center last week.

In addition to its party chairman, the GOP also flew in Republican bigwigs like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — who both ran against McCain in the 2008 primary.

Republicans in Denver were successful early last week to push the story that there was disunity between supporters of Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). They did this not only by bringing a former Clinton supporter to Denver to be part of their spin effort, but also by releasing ads seeking to exploit any potential rift between the two former rivals and their backers.

Top Republicans also were available to the media to discuss why, in their view, Obama was not ready to be president. With McCain’s running mate still unknown at the time, Republicans skillfully utilized several of the potential vice presidential candidates to keep the media attention on their spin efforts high.

In addition to Romney and Giuliani, Carly Fiorina, Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty joined the GOP effort in Denver throughout the week in what some media outlets characterized as vice presidential tryouts. In addition, congressional heavyweights such as Minority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) also appeared at the Democratic convention.

On Thursday, ahead of Obama’s acceptance speech, McCain’s camp made sure that the Arizona senator was seen as being above the fray by releasing an ad in which McCain congratulated his rival on a historic accomplishment.

On Friday, McCain’s camp made sure that Obama’s acceptance speech was not the main event on the cable news networks by leaking the news that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be the second person on the Republican ticket.

However, if the focus shifts away from Hurricane Gustav toward politics again by week’s end, the DNC indicated that it would not use the news that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is having a baby as part of its attack.

“Our focus is on McCain and whether he is suited to lead our country,” the DNC’s LaVera said.