Democratic Memo Urges Broader Corporate Offensive
By John Whitesides
Wed Jul 31, 10:12 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Democratic consulting firm on Wednesday urged the party to broaden its offensive on corporate irresponsibility to areas such as the economy, Social Security ( news - web sites) and pension protection.
A strategy memo from Democracy Corps, a consulting firm that includes James Carville, a top political adviser to former President Bill Clinton, said Democrats stood to make political gains by expanding the corporate accountability debate.
"We get there by taking the battle over corporate irresponsibility to four new fronts where the Republicans are in a weaker position, where they have more difficulty regrouping and where the political conclusions for November are much clearer," the memo said.
It said the four fronts are the relationship of President Bush ( news - web sites) to the corporate world, Republican handling of the economy, pension protection proposals and Social Security.
"All of these areas -- the Bush administration's corporate favoritism, the economy, pensions and Social Security -- represent terrain where Democrats are more trusted and where the Republicans have not yet or cannot mount effective defenses," said the memo, released by the consulting firm.
Democrats have voiced growing confidence about November's mid-term elections in the aftermath of corporate scandals and falling stock markets, and mounted strong attacks on Bush and Republicans for being too close to corporate interests and for loosening corporate regulations.
CONFIDENCE SAID DETERIORATING
The memo says the firm's most recent poll, conducted July 22-24, showed deteriorating confidence in the economy, a finding that mirrors other recent national polls. It said the economy is rising on the list of voter concerns, and voter interest in the election is increasing.
Bush signed a law on Tuesday that cracks down on accounting fraud and makes it harder for companies to deceive investors, promising "no more easy money for corporate criminals, just hard time."
Democrats have claimed credit for the law, which was largely written by Maryland Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes, and say Bush and Republicans embraced it under public pressure.
"The key is to stay on the offensive so that the current Republican 'get-well' band-aids ( news - web sites) do not cover over the deeper problems," the memo said.
It said attacks on Republican Social Security privatization proposals and the tapping of Social Security funds to cover budget deficits was the most important extension of the corporate malfeasance debate.
"Privatization of Social Security and the draining of the Social Security trust funds are gigantic issues -- and they are directly linked in people's minds to the practices that have already endangered people's savings and pensions," the memo said. |
