Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

I have no honest idea how well I can give political advice, but there are a couple here I think are definite winners.

First up is Tom DeLay, who recently announced his upcoming resignation from Congress so that the GOP can still win his seat in November. Whether that happens is up in the air, but conventional wisdom in DC holds that the bigger problem for Democrats is that their charge of a "culture of corruption" has lost its prime example.

In general I think this argument is ridiculous: Republicans run against Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean in every election (and Ted Kennedy before them) regardless of who's on the ballot, and tying pretty much any Republican in the country to Tom DeLay is not hard. But if Team Democrat's not up to it, keeping DeLay front and center as the symbol of Republican excess is even easier:

And it became more and more obvious that I can do more outside of Congress right now than inside.

Right there! He said it! Straight from the horse's mouth, Tom DeLay said he's resigning from Congress because he wants more power in Washington, and more power within the Republican Party. Think about that next time the question arises of how far in the past the DeLay era really is.

Second example is a little more innocuous, but in a close race it could prove a decisive edge. I feel kind of bad for Christopher Shays, actually; he seems like a pretty reasonable, well-adjusted and normal guy who's stuck in a DC political culture that values party loyalty above rational, independent thought. That is tough. But still, don't say stuff like this:

"This Congress needs to be rescued," said Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut Republican. He added that members are being put on the defensive and need to tell voters: "We aren't as corrupt as you think."

Shays' Democratic challenger, Diane Farrell, lost by only four percent of the vote in 2004, and she's running again with the contacts and experience she picked up the first time around. Hopefully this time she'll be smart enough to list corruption problems with Congress and then say, "I think we need reform. Christopher Shays, on the other hand, doesn't think the problem is that bad." If that's unfair, change it to "doesn't think the problem is as bad as you think." Either way, it's creative manipulation like this that will drive Shays from Congress soon enough, whether it's this year or when he decides to give up and not run again. Here's hoping: I'm sure he's a good guy, but I want a Democratic majority.

UPDATE: I got this awesome IM from a friend on an '06 Senate race:

Unfair? Who cares?

How about: Image juxtaposition: Diane Farrell pic next to Capitol pic with the following: "Diane Farrell wants to reform Congress" to Chris Shayes and Tom Delay with names underneath to jail bars and "Chris Shays says 'we're not as corrupt as you think'" to Farrell looking into the camera and saying, "I'm Diane Farrell and I approved this message because, when it comes to reform, Chris Shays just doesn't get it anymore."

It plays on DeLay, it plays on reform, and it plays on Shays' age (he's getting up there, or at least looks it).

Absolutely right.