One of the men resposible for RW double talk didn't do it this time

[Enquiringkitty]

Monday, March 7, 2005 Posted: 2:36 PM EST (1936 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Frank Luntz, the renowned political message-master, is given much credit for persuading Republicans to substitute "death tax " for inheritance tax and for the Bush administration's billing its timber industry-friendly proposal as "the healthy forests" initiative.


Luntz recently gave a private briefing on Social Security to a Republican House retreat in West Virginia. Through a source we will not here name, I have before me the phrase-maker's advice sheet meant to reassure those GOP officeholders who, as support for President Bush's overhaul of Social Security heads South in the polls, have grown more nervous by the day.

Over and over again in the memo, Republicans are urged to chant a variation of the same mantra: "It's YOUR money. You earned it. You sacrificed for it. The government TOOK it from you," and, "This is not the government's money, it's YOUR money," and over and over again, "after all, it's YOUR money."

Clearly, Luntz is either committed to repetition as the first law of learning or he believes his GOP audience suffers from near-terminal attention deficit disorder. The problem is that the voters are not buying the mantra-message on Social Security.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/07/social.security/index.html