Social Security:  Isn't The Intent Clear?
It seems that Social Security is the only topic I've written about, but this battle is an important one, not just for current recipients, but for those of us who have to look foward to what all of this means 30-40 years down the road.

Two things popped up today that are rather, well, "interesting".  The first is the leak of what Josh Marshall is calling The Wehrner Memo, which contains this nugget of inspiration to the ground troops (via MSNBC):

Calling the effort “one of the most important conservative undertakings of modern times,” Peter Wehner, the deputy to White House political director Karl Rove, says in the e-mail message that a battle over Social Security is winnable for the first time in six decades and could transform the political landscape.

That's a pretty significant statement.  This current battle isn't just over some undetermined future, it's about rewriting history to state that "Social Security has always been a bad idea".  That's why we're seeing the massive PR offensive in the papers, on the news, etc., etc.

From Josh Marshall:

This entire debate is about ideology -- between people who believe in the benefits Social Security has brought America in the last three-quarters of a century and those who think it was a bad idea from the start. There is an honest debate to have on this point, a values debate. Only, the White House understands that the belief that Social Security was always a bad program isn't widely shared by Americans. So they have to wrap their effort in a package of lies, harnessing Americans' desire to save Social Security in their own effort to destroy it.

I look for "Social Security - Destroying America!" to replace the "Christmas Under Attack!" meme in the coming weeks.

From Kos is a little trial baloon floated by Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK):

"He cannot afford to fail. It would have repercussions for the rest of his program, including foreign policy. We can't hand [Bush] a defeat on his major domestic initiative at a time of war." (Wall Street Journal, 1/6/04)

This attack on Social Security is going to get worse before it gets better.