Bewitched, Bothered & Brotherhooded

You're a freshman congressman running against a genuine Iraq war hero with a national platform. Your Teaparty base lives up the Route 12 corridor north to the Wisconsin border. But your new Congressional district was sent south of I-90 to ethnically diverse Schaumburg. What's your campaign strategy? Haha run against the the President. Which according to one press release on his house-dot-gov website, is just what Lake County 8th District Congressman Joe Walsh is doing:

It's disappointing that an Administration - which continues to use inflammatory rhetoric against Republicans by using terms such as 'War on Women' - would meet with the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a group that would be happy to see women's rights returned to the Stone Age. The President is sending an unclear message. Just this week he felt the need to speak out against women not being admitted into Augusta National, but a day later is meeting with a group that discriminates against women. Which is it? The Muslim Brotherhood represents the exact opposite of American ideals: freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and women's rights.
Walsh Calls on President to Distance Himself from Muslim Brotherhood

The broadside is a semiotic gem. What is the Muslim Brotherhood? Nobody knows. But to link President Obama to the scary sounding Muslim Brotherhood telegraphs the coded message that the leader of the other party is a Muslim. Not to mention a brother.

The strategy comes right out of the Karl Rove playbook. Take your own shortcomings and paint them on your opponent. Walsh has drawn a female opponent -- in the year of the war on women. If you're a Congressman with that and other well publicized female problems, then the Muslim Brotherhood may be just what the doctor ordered. Walsh is careful not to attack his opponent on women's issues. Instead attention is diverted away from Walsh's own family-court problems by implicating his opponent's party with an anti-woman Muslin Brotherhood.

Haha readers of this blog should not be surprised ...

Walsh v Obama

this blog predicted Joe Walsh would run against President Obama.