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Be afraid. Be very afraid. Timing is EverythingBy Rick Horowitz Only days ago, in a large white house... "OK, gang, where are we?" "We've been better, Karl. First of all, they're getting good early numbers on the Edwards rollout, which -- " "Good numbers? Or great numbers?" "So far, just good numbers. Normal bounce, pretty much, and we're already hitting him hard on the experience thing -- that should boost his negatives with the undecideds. But he's getting really kissy-face press -- comparing him with Ol' Grumpy Pants, that kind of thing." "Plus there's the report on the CIA coming out -- we're gonna get clobbered on that one." "Correction: The CIA's gonna get clobbered. Hey, if they messed up and gave us faulty intelligence -- Congress looked at the same stuff, came to exactly the same conclusions, right?" "Think it'll fly?" "It had better fly. That's why they pay us the big bucks, gentlemen -- to get the word out. What else?" "Enron. Ken Lay's indictment is coming down any time now." "Poor 'Kenny Boy'..." "'Kenny Boy' my butt! He's 'Mr. Lay,' and we don't know him from Adam. Got it?" "I just meant that he -- " "Got it?" "Got it." "Good. What else?" "That isn't enough? We're losing ground in the head-to-head, we'll lose even more on 'Was the war justified?' And now we'll have the whole Enron thing tied around our necks again -- that's all anybody's gonna be talking about!" "Not necessarily." "You mean...?" "I mean it could be time for another terror-attack warning." "I don't know, Karl. Sure, we've done it before, and it's great for changing the subject, but we're starting to take some flak for it, too. Ashcroft's got about zero credibility at this point, so -- " "So who says it has to be Ashcroft? People still trust Ridge, don't they? What if it's Ridge out there?" "Well, we -- " "He can talk about 'increased chatter.' How they're planning something big to 'disrupt our democratic process.' How it's coming right from 'senior-most levels of al-Qaeda' -- look, he's not making it up, it's all out there, more or less. It's just a question of how often we go public with it." "And you're thinking this might be a good time? Kind of like a 'periodic reminder'?" "No details, no specifics. Don't even need to change the alert level. Just get the word out. And if it happens to hit in the same news cycle as the Lay indictment -- well, I can live with that." "And if it also happens to remind people that the president and Cheney have already been through the wars -- " "Careful..." "Sorry -- have already been 'tested in times of crisis.'" "Better." "Karl, what if -- I know it sounds crazy -- but what if we also floated the idea of canceling the election? Or at least postponing it? You know, if there's an attack right beforehand. We wouldn't actually have to do it, but just putting the thought out there -- " "It'll scare the bejesus out of people." "Exactly." "I like it! Can you two get moving on that? And the rest of you -- " "Karl? A timing question?" "Shoot." "Do we do all this before or after the president says we're safer?" Posted 7/13/04. Get
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Rick Horowitz
