A New Scare Tactic

NYT has an interesting article about the latest use of fear to motivate the Republican base to turn out; only this time it's not fear of terrorists... it's fear of accountability:

Heading into the election, many conservatives are disheartened by the war in Iraq, upset at what they see as a White House tolerance for bigger government and escalating federal spending, and divided over issues like immigration. The abrupt resignation on Friday of the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Porter J. Goss, promised to feed the impression of an administration that is off balance.

But White House and Republican officials, trying to turn vulnerability to advantage, say conservatives could be united and re-energized by the possibility that Democrats could put Mr. Bush and his policies on political trial by winning control of even one chamber of Congress.

I would love to see this backfire on the Republicans bigtime, but my biggest fear is that every single one of the 32% dead-enders who still think Bush is a beleaguered colossus will turn out to vote for his enablers. Given America's typically low voter turnout, especially for midterms, this could easily save the Republicans' pasty, corrupt asses.

Oh, and did I mention fear of terrorists?

Senate Republicans sent out a fund-raising letter this week seeking to use that possibility to fire up the base, warning that a Democratic majority would put fighting terrorism "on the back burner" and that "our worst fears" could be realized.

I told you so. The Democrats need to counter with something along the lines of, "You mean like voting against port security? Or chemical or nuclear plant security? Or foot-dragging on securing Russian nukes? That kind of back burner?"