WHEN ATTACK DOGS BARK UP THE WRONG TREE

Last Wednesday in Cleveland (9/8) President Barack Obama criticized John Boehner eight times.  The Democratic National Committee has released an ad attacking him.

The New York Times published a hit piece on Mr. Boehner Sunday (9/12).  George Stephanopoulos of ABC and Bob Schieffer of CBS attacked him in interviews.

Who, you may ask, is John Boehner?

Rep. Boehner, R-Ohio, is the House Minority Leader.  If you didn’t know that, you have company.  In a CNN poll Sep. 8, fewer than half the public knew who he was.

Mr. Boehner will be important if Republicans take the House, so Democrats are trying to “define” him early.

The attacks on Mr. Boehner are a tacit admission by Democrats their earlier strategy of blaming George W. Bush for just about everything isn’t working.  That strategy was whiny and lame, but had an inherent plausibility.  Virtually everyone knows who George Bush is.  He was very unpopular when he left office.  And in most polls, a plurality of respondents blame him more than they blame President Obama for our current economic troubles.

The death knell for the “Blame Bush” strategy was a poll for Democrats last month by the Benenson Strategy Group.  The poll indicated only 25 percent of respondents think a Republican majority in Congress would return to the Bush agenda if elected.  A new devil would have to be found?

Why have a devil at all?

The obvious reason is that Democrats need something to talk about this fall.  They can’t talk about their “accomplishments,” since these are toxic.  Nor can they talk about their plans for the future, since these sound suspiciously like their “accomplishments.”

There’s another reason.  President Obama is a fan of Saul Alinsky, the Chicago Marxist and community organizer.  In his 1971 book, “Rules for Radicals,” Mr. Alinsky stressed the importance of personalizing politics:

“Rule 11.  Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.  Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies.  Identify a responsible individual…”

“Rules for Radicals” are strategies for discomfiting The Man.  They don’t work so well when you are The Man, as Mr. Obama is finding out.

When the president attacks a person who is as obscure as Mr. Boehner currently is, it elevates Mr. Boehner’s stature and reduces his own.  Americans like to have their presidents act presidential.  This is why vice presidents traditionally play the role of attack dog.

Vice President Joe Biden is a buffoon, which may in part explain why Mr. Obama is doing the growling and barking himself.  But this is not a president who can afford further dimunition of his status.  Wags say skiier Lindsey Vonn is thinking of giving Mr. Obama the gold medal she won at the Winter Olympics, because no one has gone downhill faster than he has.

The demonize Boehner strategy might work better if there were more to demonize.  The thrust of the New York Times article is that he knows a lot of lobbyists, and sometimes votes the way they want him to:

“One lobbyist…ticked off the list of recent issues for which he had won (Boehner’s) backing: combating fee increases for the oil industry, fighting a proposed cap on debit card fees, protecting tax breaks for hedge fund executives and opposing a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.”

These are typical views for a Republican to hold, as the Times acknowledged when it corrected its online story after Boehner aides complained.  The corrected version said the lobbyist “sought” Mr. Boehner’s backing, and added: “Mr. Boehner’s office said these were positions he already agreed with.”

The effort by the Times to imply Mr. Boehner is corrupt without a shred of evidence to support the charge is reminiscent of February, 2008, when the Times, also without a shred of evidence, insinuated Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee, had a romantic relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

Mr. Schieffer attacked Mr. Boehner for being a smoker.  Mr. Stephanopoulos criticized Mr. Boehner’s tan.

Attacks like these are more likely to harm the credibility of the news organizations that make them than Mr. Boehner, because, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer have taken more money from lobbyists in this election cycle than Mr. Boehner has in the last six.