Dems to brand GOP as party of Gingrich, Cheney

National Democrats are embarking on a new campaign to brand Republicans as a party led by widely unpopular faces like former Vice President Cheney.

The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday released a Web ad featuring Cheney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Bush political strategist Karl Rove. The ad characterizes the trio as the face of the Republican Party.

{mosads}“Meet the new GOP,” the ad says. “Same as the old GOP.”

“We’re going to come back to this repeatedly,” said DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse. “It’s a growing theme: Party of no, party of no new ideas, and now party of no new leaders.”

The effort is meant to make it more difficult for the GOP to turn the page to an era of new leaders like Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and a host of rising stars in both chambers.

Strategists privately stress the GOP needs to move past old faces, and one veteran Republican said the attacks could be effective.

“The conservatism of the 21st century should be divorced from personality politics and simply be about ideas,” said Craig Shirley, a biographer of former President Reagan. “But since the GOP appears to be bankrupt of ideas, this line of attack will be effective from the standpoint of putting them on the defensive again.”

All three Republicans have image problems. A January Pew Research Center poll showed just 31 percent viewed Cheney favorably. Rove’s appearances serve to remind the American public of the similarly-unpopular Bush administration. And Gingrich, who is said to be considering a presidential bid in 2012, never enjoyed widespread popularity during his tenure as Speaker.

Cheney, Gingrich and Rove have all sucked up time on cable news networks and sparked new controversies. Media outlets fixating on remarks the three Republicans make, Democrats say, are robbing the congressional GOP of oxygen they need to get out their own message and fight back against Democratic initiatives.

“I think most voters, especially those under 50, see Cheney, Gingrich and Rove as the symbols of a Republican Party built on intolerance, deceit and division,” said Democratic strategist Peter Giangreco. “Where voters are tired of the old politics of conflict, these men still want to divide America into red states and blue states, into good Americans and bad Americans.”

“If the GOP continues to follow their lead, they risk permanently alienating vast parts of the electorate that will only become more important as time moves forward,” Giangreco added.

Republicans say the effort only serves as proof that Obama and national Democrats are going back on their promises of a post-partisan Washington.

“This is another example of Obama’s political machine embracing old-style politics,” said Alex Conant, a Republican communications specialist. “Obama’s team is spending more energy trying to define the Republican Party than work with it. Voters who expect their leaders to work together will be put off by the Democrats’ partisan politics.”

Republicans, strategists say, should respond to the Democratic push by advocating their own alternative plans, much like the substitute budget Cantor and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) put forward several weeks ago.

The GOP should be “continually pointing [out] that unpopular policies are being pushed by the Democratic monopoly, which at the same time is fraught with in-fighting, and offering specific alternatives to get America moving,” said GOP strategist Doug Heye.

The new effort comes just weeks after Democrats tried to tie Republicans to Rush Limbaugh after several party leaders had to kowtow to the bombastic talk radio host following their unflattering comments.

In recent days, Cheney sat for an interview with Fox News during which he repeated earlier assertions that Obama has made America less safe. Gingrich has made similar claims while beginning to associate Obama with former President Carter.

And Rove, the former White House deputy chief of staff and political consigliere, has emerged to defend Bush’s legacy, most recently characterizing Vice President Biden as “a serial exaggerator” following Biden’s claims that he chastised Bush during a meeting Rove and others have said didn’t happen.