Oh, gee: the Democrats are ‘rebranding.’ AGAIN.

Let’s unpack the important parts of this bit about the Democratic Party’s latest rebranding effort.  First off:

In the months since their party took another electoral beating and lost the Senate to Republicans, senior Democratic strategists have launched a major effort to rebrand the party, after concluding their message no longer inspires voters who turned out to elect President Obama but sat on their hands during midterm elections.

The rebranding project is being led by Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.)…

OK, stop there.  Steve Israel was head of the DCCC in the last election cycle: which is to say, he managed to lose about twice as many seats as many people privately estimated.  It took real skill to do that, that cycle: the GOP was already enjoying a commanding lead in the House.  So, yeah, perfect choice there (sayeth the partisan Republican hack).  Moving along:

Wednesday’s meeting comes a few months after a group of polling and communications experts briefed House Democrats at a retreat in April. At that meeting, Pollock, along with strategists Anita Dunn, Doug Thornell, John Lapp and Jim Kessler…

Continue reading Oh, gee: the Democrats are ‘rebranding.’ AGAIN.

No Labels (remember them?) quietly starting to suck up to the GOP.

I should be appalled at the sight of a notoriously faux-disinterested group like No Labels behaving in such a shamelessly sycophantic fashion:

“Should the balance of power in the U.S. Senate flip following the 2014 midterm elections and Republicans gain control, No Labels sees an opportunity to bridge the gap between Congress and the White House,” the document reads in its “Break Through Strategy” section. “With Republicans holding control of both chambers in Congress and a Democrat in the White House, the likelihood of gridlock will be higher than ever before.

“We have already begun back door conversations with Senate leaders to discuss this increasingly likely scenario,” the document continues.

[snip]

…to openly discuss its role in a future, hypothetical Republican-led Congress is especially unusual, given that of the 10 senators who belong to No Labels, three — Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Warner of Virginia — are embroiled in difficult re-election races and might have to lose in order for the GOP to take back the Senate.

Continue reading No Labels (remember them?) quietly starting to suck up to the GOP.