CONVENTION DAILY

A GOP Missile Defense in Denver

"You don't cede one minute or one hour of press time to the opposition."

by Will Englund

Mon. Jul 28, 2008



National Journal looks ahead at what to expect at the conventions.

Look for the Republicans to set up shop in Denver with a version of the war room they had in Boston during the Democrats' 2004 convention. Variously described as a gathering of "pilot fish," a "frat house," or a "submarine lurking in enemy waters," it was a rented office near the convention hall with a round-the-clock (or nearly so) staff of 30 and a constant rotation of GOP bigwigs holding news conferences and doing broadcast uplinks to denounce whatever the other party was up to that day.

"We'll be driving a contrast message," says a GOP official who asked not to be identified because the details haven't been fully worked out. The effort, as with the one in Boston, will be organized by the Republican National Committee in coordination with local party officials.

"As the chairman of the Colorado party," Dick Wadhams says, "I plan to be as visible as possible, to offer a voice of opposition, and that's what we're going to be doing that week." Wadhams is the Karl Rove pal who guided Sen. John Thune to his 2004 upset of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota.

It's unlikely that the effort will make the front pages of newspapers or lead the network news broadcasts, but the point is not to let the Democrats have a free ride for a week.

"It just gets you the ability to ensure that your message is in every single story and gets you on radio," says Chris Lacivita, one of the architects of the 2004 Swift Boat strategy that questioned John Kerry's Vietnam War service. "You don't cede one minute or one hour of press time to the opposition at any point in the campaign."

In Boston, the cadre of young staffers enjoyed the guerrilla nature of their task, even if they did have to miss out on all the convention-related (that is, Democratic) partying.

Will there be a White House role? Nothing formal, says Scott Stanzel, the president's deputy press secretary. It's too soon to talk about President Bush's own plans for the last week in August, Stanzel says. But if the phrase "clearing brush" crops up, that should be no surprise.

At both the White House and the Republican National Committee, officials swear there's never any real down time while a campaign is in progress. Anyone who wants to go to the beach can do so in November.