I’m posting this for Little Flower- he deserves all the credit.

The big debate in Democratic circles right now is focused on the best strategy for reclaiming Congress. If Dems get control of one branch of Congress, someone could stop the Bush empire from doing too much more damage to the country and possibly uncover some of the bodies, maybe literally.

So is it wise to move to the center or energize the base? Democratic Leadership Council clones, Republicans in sheep clothing and Beltway journalists unanimously advise the former. But that’s not the formula that took the GOP into power.

Here’s former Republican operative Allen Raymond, interviewed in the Boston Globe after a three-month stint in jail for jamming Democratic phone lines during the 2002 elections, helping John Sununu win a seat in the Senate:

“A lot of people look at politics and see it as the guy who wins is the guy who
unifies the most people,” he said. “I would disagree. I would say the candidate
who wins is the candidate who polarizes the right bloc of voters. You always
want to polarize somebody.”

Raymond stressed that he was making no excuses for his role in the New Hampshire case; he pleaded guilty and told the judge he had done a “bad thing.” But he said he got caught up in an ultra-aggressive atmosphere in which he initially thought the decision to jam the phones “pushed the envelope” but was legal. He also said he had been reluctant to turn down a prominent official of the RNC, fearing that would cost him future opportunities from an organization that was becoming increasingly ruthless.

“Republicans have treated campaigns and politics as a business, and now are
treating public policy as a business, looking for the types of returns that you
get in business, passing legislation that has huge ramifications for business,”
he said. “It is very much being monetized, and the federal government is being
monetized under Republican majorities.”