At least, judging by what the Republican National Committee calls an "Agenda Of Aggression And Attacks in the following news release:
If that’s what strikes the nancy-boys at the RNC as heat, then they’d better not come anywhere near a kitchen, that’s all I gotta say.
Huh? Doesn’t that mean simply that Edwards is attacking in the sense of being the first to challenge the others? I don’t see where anything in any of that is saying that Republicans feel any heat from Edwards.
Tagging Howard Dean as “angry” in 2004 worked so well for them, they thought they would go back to that well again. “Let’s you and him fight” is pretty much the Republican strategy until after the conventions. To wit, the recent manufactured dustup between Hilary and Obama.
I think the Pubbies are just doing some glaoting: “Heh, heh, heh. We’ve got ‘Thou shalt not criticize a fellow Republican,’ and those pitiful Dems can’t even get to next year’s first straw poll without going negative on each other.”
I didn’t get a vibe that they (the RNC) felt Edwards was giving them (the RNC) any heat at all…
Why is his admittance that he isn’t inside Hillary’s head etc an attack? It’s a simple statement. Seems to me that the author of this piece wants to stir shit. Oh, wait a minute…
It’s such an old and tired trick. Does no one have any new chicanery?
I’m not sure Edwards could even generate any heat. Now, when Hillary gets going, the Republicans are gonna feel some real scorching! Bitch can fight.
Well, to be as fair as possible to Mr. Edwards, he made no honest attempt to answer the question. He wasn’t asked what was inside Hillary’s head; he was asked what is inside his own head (“do you believe…?”).
They consider this sequence of rather innocuous statements an “Agenda Of Aggression And Attacks.” And the first one, they say he’s “Lashing Out.”
IOW, they’re putting a thermometer in a pot of lukewarm water and screaming that the pot is boiling. Like I said, the poor dears had better stay away from actual heat sources.
To be fair, he stated that he didn’t know how to answer that question. Essentially, he is saying that he can’t answer, since he is not HC. Since it was a question obviously designed to stir shit, from a RL troll, he was most likely wise to answer the way he did. (why would anyone question someone else on someone else’s motivation or thought process? Fine for a speculative gossip, but not hard-hitting reporting).
They’ve always struck me as the “we can dish it out, but can’t take it” school.
Tim Russert is your idea of a RL troll?
Must have been a slow news day at the RNC.
well, once you screen out all of the news about the Libby trial, all of the news about Iraq, all of the news about global warming and all, any day becomes a “slow news day”.
Do you feel that the quote tagged as “Lashing Out” conveys any sort of hostile or angry affect that one might reasonably characterize as “lashing out”?
As Fear Itself mentioned, it was a strategy they used against Howard Dean. It was also one that Bush used against John McCain. McCain is such an unhinged hothead that he even hugged Bush, although much later, of course.
Oh, God, I don’t know. That’s all very subjective. One man’s “lashing out” is another man’s “stern stance”. That’s all just spin. Both sides spin as much as they can.
As I see it, Edwards’ only hope is to come out of the gate fighting. If he doesn’t catch attention early, the big kids are gonna start grabbing all the attention on the playground. He should be delighted that the Republicans are spinning him as aggressive. It gives him the plausible legitimacy he needs when he faces Hillary and Obama in showdowns on talking head shows.
Without that advance publicity, he might come across as mean or petulant. But with Republicans paving the way for him, he has license to attack. “It’s to be expected,” people will say, “Isn’t he hard hitter guy?” They can go straight to the substance of what he says, rather than getting sidetracked by how he says it. That part will have been disposed of.
Without this good fortune, he would be expected to sit still, take his lumps, and not interrupt while the political superpowers do what’s expected of them.
Nonsense! After all, some days have news about flag burning amendments, anti-gay-marriage legislation, people trying to post the Ten Commandments on public property, and other important stuff!
All that might’ve pushed Edwards’ remarks back to page 2 in their view of the news, had it been going on.
Yeah, I know: if I say you’re a mass murderer, I’m neither right nor wrong; it’s all very subjective. It’s all just spin, and everybody does it.
I don’t know about “aggressive”, but these quotes do make Edwards look like a calculating little weasel.
Yup, his vote giving Bush a blank check on Iraq is everybody else’s fault (including the Clinton Administration). I haven’t heard of Edwards having the guts to lead a funding cutoff to block the “surge”.
And this wonderful response re Hillary Clinton: “I don’t know the answer to that question. Honestly. I don’t know what’s inside her head and her heart about this. I can’t tell whether there are political calculations going on. I just don’t know.”
Translation: “Why yes, she could be a conniving, scheming bitch. I just don’t know.” 
It’s gonna be a fun campaign.
I don’t understand this pitting. Edwards has changed his tactics from 2004 when he was Mr. Nice Guy. While the examples given in the web site are kind of silly, there are quotes from MSM reporters like Howard Fineman saying pretty much the same thing about Edwards.
Exactly. That was the point of the Pitting.
Fineman is, IMHO, a media whore who is quite willing to pass along the GOP spin of the day.