The Republican party would be egregiously mistaken to take the advice of Frank Luntz on how to kill financial reform. Part of the success of Scott Brown and other 2009 Republican candidates was based on the perception that Democrats (Obama, Dodd and Schumer to name a few) are in bed with Wall Street. Bail readers know that both parties sleep with Street witches; this is not a solo affair. And the ire of voters will turn on Republicans at the first whiff of bank favoritism.
Luntz is a moron, and we could hope that Republican members wouldn't listen. Yet we've already seen signs from Shelby and Gregg that they are, in fact, listening quite closely and seem to be following Luntz's playbook with recent public statements.
So allow me to repeat the message for emphasis:
- Voters want Wall Street punished and reformed.
Stop the bank and credit-card abuses; stop the stimulus; stop the irresponsible deficit spending (generational rape) and stop the illegal wars.
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Luntz's Republican playbook for killing financial reform is inside. We have a summary as well as the compete report sent to Congressional Republicans.
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By Sam Stein
Nine months after he penned a memo laying out the arguments for health care legislation's destruction, Republican message guru Frank Luntz has put together a playbook to help derail financial regulatory reform.
In a 17-page memo titled, "The Language of Financial Reform," Luntz urged opponents of reform to frame the final product as filled with bank bailouts, lobbyist loopholes, and additional layers of complicated government bureaucracy.
"If there is one thing we can all agree on, it's that the bad decisions and harmful policies by Washington bureaucrats that in many ways led to the economic crash must never be repeated," Luntz wrote. "This is your critical advantage. Washington's incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."
Luntz continued: "Ordinarily, calling for a new government program 'to protect consumers' would be extraordinary popular. But these are not ordinary times. The American people are not just saying 'no.' They are saying 'hell no' to more government agencies, more bureaucrats, and more legislation crafted by special interests."
In Republican circles Luntz's words, which have helped the party score win the message wars over health care and other legislative battles, are often treated as gospel. Already, some of the advice he's offered on regulatory reform has found its way into the political discourse -- with a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency seemingly on life support under Republican objections.
In addition to tying regulatory reform to a massive government takeover, Luntz's memo includes several other data points and messaging suggestions as a blue print for the legislation's defeat. Opponents, he writes, would be well served to link the package to the financial industry bailout (which, it should be noted, is fundamentally not part of the legislation). According to accompanying polling data, 52 percent of voters said they would be "much less likely" to vote for their member of Congress if they voted for a financial reform bill that contained a fund to bail out banks and Wall Street.
"Public outrage about the bailout of banks and Wall Street is a simmering time bomb set to go off on Election Day," Luntz wrote. "Frankly, the single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout."
Another effective strategy to kill the bill, according to Luntz, is to make the case that it was written in secret by lobbyists.
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