Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, The Examiner
2006-11-02 10:00:00.0
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Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin cover people, power and politics in the beltway each weekday. Email them at yan@dcexaminer.com .

Parties go after foes with ready-made Web sites

Many candidates running for Senate this year got one more Web site bearing their name than they bargained for.

Witness BobsBaggage.com, CluelessClaire.com and FancyFord.com, all produced by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to lampoon, respectively, Democratic Senate candidates Bob Menendez, New Jersey; Claire McCaskill, Missouri; and Harold Ford Jr., Tennessee.

Bobsbaggage.com claims that Menendez “brings more baggage to Washington with him than a hotel bellhop,” while Fancyford.com hits Ford for his “couture suits” and “parties with Playboy playmates.” CluelessClaire.com goes after McCaskill for being, well, “clueless.”

Also designed by the NRSC: PedersonsLiberalExpress.com, which targets Arizona candidate Jim Pederson; FarOutBrown.com, to highlight the “liberal record” of Ohioan Sherrod Brown; and SpinningAWebb.com, on Virginia candidate Jim Webb’s “scary record.” TicTacTester.com lets visitors play Tic-Tac-Toe with questions on candidate John Tester in Montana. And Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., gets not one but two spoof sites: MerciDebbie.com to highlight what Republicans call view as her fealty to Canada, and XieXieDebbie.com, to make the same point about China.

NRSC spokesman Brian Nick said, “This is by far the most work we’ve put into producing the different Web sites and their content and creativity.”

“It’s a great medium to drive attention” to the opposition's failings, he said.

Not that his own candidates are immune. In New Jersey, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee goes after Menendez’s opponent Tom Kean Jr., the son of former New Jersey governor and 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, with www.toojuniorforjersey.com, a site that prominently displays a fraternity paddle and a frat house emblazoned with the letters “GOP.”

Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., gets hit with DoubleTalkExpress.com, while the DSCC takes all GOPers to task with the FudgeReport.net, a spoof on the Drudge Report.

The Webb campaign bought GeorgesJourneys.com to highlight Sen. George Allen’s, R-Va., early campaign trips to primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

Even state parties have gotten into the act, too. Montana Democrats created www.buyingburns.com, to highlight Sen. Conrad Burns’ ties to corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Maryland Dems check in with www.therealsteele.com, which displays a photo of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele with President Bush.

We can only assume all the URL’s will be available for purchase after Election Day.

George Will’s son interviews with Nats

One of Washington’s biggest sports fans soon may have a view from the inside.

Jonathan Will, son of columnist and baseball-mad pundit George Will, can often be seen in the stands of our stadiums and arenas rooting on the local side.

Speaking Wednesday before the Alzheimer’s Association, George Will said his son has season tickets to “the Redskins, the Wizards, the Capitals, the Orioles and the Nationals.”

And the proud papa said he was about to drive Jonathan that afternoon to RFK “to be interviewed for a job working for the Nationals.”

George Will was receiving the association’s annual Monument Award along with Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her husband, Sargent Shriver. But he was paying tribute to Eunice for another area of her charity — her work with the mentally handicapped through the Special Olympics and Best Buddies.

Jonathan Will, 34, is mentally disabled. George Will said when his son was born, the doctor asked whether he and his wife “wanted to take Jonathan home.”

“That was an askable question in 1972, and that that question is no longer askable is attributable to Eunice Shriver more than anyone else.”

So much for party differences.

Coulter picks conservative chicks

After Yeas & Nays shared with you Wednesday the news of the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute’s 2007 pinup calendar of “Great American Conservative Women,” we got in touch with Miss December herself, Ann Coulter, in order to see just how honored she was.

Coulter admitted that she was flattered, but she also felt that lots of other conservative women could just have easily made the list.

“Phyllis Schafly is the greatest conservative woman of our time, bar none,” Coulter said. “And the magnificent Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, stood up alone against blowhard John Murtha, for which she deserves the thanks of our nation.” Schmidt famously branded Murtha, a Marine veteran, a coward on the House floor after he called for pulling out of Iraq.

Coulter went on to single out such other female conservative champs as Condoleezza Rice, Margaret Thatcher, Peggy Noonan, Fawn Hall, Tammy Bruce, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway and Barret Swatek.

“There is no shortage of hot right-wing women for Clare Booth Luce Institute’s calendars,” Coulter reminded us.

But is the partisan Coulter willing to concede that there might also be a hot Democratic woman? Absolutely!

“John Kerry,” Coulter said.

Parties in role reversal, says Dem strategist

Democratic consultant Peter Fenn sees history being stood on its head in this campaign season.

Speaking Tuesday at a panel sponsored by The George Washington University, he said, “Democrats are in the position of agreeing with [former Republican Speaker] Newt Gingrich,” in that they’re asking voters if they’ve “had enough.”

By contrast, “Republicans seem to like [former Democratic Speaker] Tip O’Neill’s slogan that all politics is local.

“That’s quite a switch now.”

Think tank

On Election Day, which state’s Republican Party will be most in need of a stiff drink to numb the pain?

“The Republican Party will need champagne to celebrate its surprise victories. The pundits and pollsters will need a stiff drink to dull the pain of their bad predictions.”

– Ron Nessen, The Brookings Institution

“Ah ha, it’s looking like it will take quite a few stiff drinks to numb the pain in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and may I suggest 151 proof rum with several strong shots of bitters. But wait, forget the states. What’s Karl Rove’s address?”

– Carol Joynt, Nathans of Georgetown

“Ohio, but one drink will not be enough. They’ll need an entire liquor cabinet.”

– Frank Luntz, Luntz Research Companies