creative response concepts
for questions regarding creative response concepts inc contact us directly at greg mueller, president of creative response concepts inc on the following numbers, or find the appropriate contact on the homepage of creative response concepts inc via www. crc4pr. com .
please send written inquiries and notices to creative response concepts inc from abroad to the international fax number + 1. 703. 683. 1703 or to the company email address. call displayed telephone number to ask for respective email address of creative response concepts inc .
greg mueller the president of creative response concepts inc, the millwork manufacturer in 2760 eisenhower ave, the alexandria, the virginia 22314 .
creative response concepts 2760 eisenhower ave. , suite 402 alexandria, va 22314 telephone: 703 - 683 - 5004 fax: 703 - 683 - 1703 website: urltoken
on the c - span networks: the creative response concepts has 1 videos in the c - span video library; the first program was in a 2006, alito supreme court nomination .
creative response concepts is an american public relations firm best known for helping to devise the swift boat veterans for truth campaign attacking john kerry’s vietnam war record in the 2004 presidential race. wikipedia *
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on this page you will find important information about creative response concepts inc based in alexandria, va, like the address, contact person and details, as well as the email address and home page .
creative response concepts, an alexandria, virginia - based public relations firm ,
has many links to the republican party and the conservative movement ,
eric boehlert wrote september 10, 2004, in salon .
and put $ 5 million of his own money towards a television advertising campaign aimed at trying to build resistance to any proposal for a government - run health insurance program. creative response concepts is running the campaign .
without even realizing it, he then repeats gillespie' s directive :
our job is echo chamber .
caption: pat buchanan, left, and creative response concepts president greg mueller during the 1996 new hampshire primaries .
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to request more information about creative response concepts inc from abroad please call the international phone number + 1. 703. 683. 5004 under which you will be able to speak with president greg mueller or be directed to the appropriate contact person .
given crc' s well known track record, as well as an outline of naea' s plan sent to recruit members and obtained by rh reality check, it is a safe assumption that creative response concepts is less likely to promote abstinence only as they are to attack supporters of proven, evidenced - based, comprehensive sexuality education .
writing on a reproductive health blog in april 2007, scott swenson reported that ,
using membership dues paid in part by federal tax dollars, the national abstinence education association (naea) hired the washington, dc, public relations firm, creative response concepts .
[ 6 ] on behalf of the naea, crc will be heading a
proactive rapid response initiative to counteract negative attacks on abstinence education ,
reported o' dwyer' s pr daily. [ 7 ]
freddoso’s book is being promoted by the well - connected conservative public relations firm creative response concepts. the firm, headed by former gop operative greg mueller, also handled publicity for “unfit for command” and media relations for the 527 group swift boat veterans for truth, which in 2004 ran widely covered television advertisements featuring veterans who had served in vietnam with kerry, criticizing his conduct and character and claiming he had exaggerated his war record .
the always - alert creative response concepts, a conservative public relations firm, sent this bulletin :
former alito clerk gary rubman witnessed mrs. alito leaving her husband' s confirmation in tears and is available for interviews, along with other former alito clerks who know her personally and are very upset about this development .
in case that was too much trouble for the journalists, the firm also e - mailed out a statement from the
mueller is president of a little - known alexandria public relations firm, a hard - charging outfit called creative response concepts. with a client list that includes the christian coalition, human events magazine and regnery publishing, crc describes itself as the
blue - collar
communications arm for the conservative movement. that' s blue collar as in not blue chip. plain bagels from a torn paper sack on south washington street. not big - think breakfasts at the elegant hay - adams .
in july 2006, o' dwyer' s pr daily reported that
viacom' s paramount pictures is using creative response concepts... to build support among conservatives and evangelicals for oliver stone' s world trade center film that opens nationwide aug. 9... . crc arranged a screening in washington last month for conservatives such as washington times columnist cal thomas, national review' s jack fowler, media research center head brent bozell and foundation for the defense of democracies' cliff may .
[ 3 ]
crc ,
run by former pat buchanan communications director greg mueller, with help from former pat robertson communications director mike russell, sent out a media advisory [ september 9, 2004 ] to hawk a right - wing news dispatch:' 60 minutes' documents on bush might be fake.' creative response concepts has played a crucial role in hyping the inaccurate, secondhand swift boat allegations, with russell serving as the group' s official spokesman. a company spokesman could not be reached for comment ,
eric boehlert wrote september 10, 2004, in salon .
specifically, the membership recruiting letter from naea outlines
unlimited legislative lobbying
and mobilization in
key congressional districts
as well as a
rapid response
initiative that is intended to
counter attack negative attacks on abstinence education
. that last part makes one wonder if at one time a memo circulated outlining the swift boat ads as
rapid response to negative attacks on
scheiderer is a staffer with creative response concepts .
scheiderer acted surprised when i asked him who was paying his firm ,
reported zweifel .
he ducked the question, claiming instead that crc works closely with the' federalist society,' a group comprised mainly of conservative lawyers, but not known for shelling out money on election campaigns. i asked if they were filing campaign finance reports and, remarkably, he insisted that his clients aren' t promoting a candidate, merely providing' information' about the race. and i' ve got a bridge to sell .
[ 5 ]
explaining the party' s public relations travails, mueller says ,
i don' t think we' re being as a party, and a movement, creative enough. a lot of our focus is too much inside the beltway .
pr week reported on september 20, 2004 :
creative response concepts (crc), the va - based agency promoting the swift boat veterans for truth, used right - wing blogs and news sites to turn a cbs report casting doubt on president george w. bush' s national guard service into a potential black eye for both the network and the democrats. a crc client, the cybercast news service (cns), was among the first to voice suspicion that documents suggesting bush had received preferential treatment in the guard were forgeries... .' after the cbs story aired, [ cns ] called typographical experts, got them on the record that these papers were fishy, and posted a story by 3pm thursday,' said crc svp keith appell.' we were immediately in contact with matt drudge, who loved the story.' crc worked with cns and the media research center, another media watchdog client, to push the story into the mainstream press .
[ 1 ]
in august 2008, former employees of the failed california indymac bank began working with creative response concepts (crc), in an attempt to hold senator charles schumer responsible for the bank' s collapse. schumer, who chairs congress' joint economic committee, went public with his concerns about the bank on june 26, 2008. his negative assessments of indymac led to a run on the bank ,
with depositors taking out a net $ 1. 3 billion in the following two weeks ,
according to the los angeles times. with help from crc, 51 former indymac employees are accusing schumer of
a malicious, politically motivated act .
crc circulated a letter from the employees to california attorney general jerry brown to major media .
the letter, signed mostly by former staffers at indymac' s now - shuttered mortgage operation, asks brown to investigate schumer and to prosecute him under a state law making it a misdemeanor to spread false and damaging statements or rumors about a bank .
[ 1 ]
aldrich continues to stand by the book' s account. but in a recent new yorker article, jane mayer writes that aldrich had, in fact, backed away from the marriott hotel allegation in an interview with her. crc' s response? it claimed mayer has a left - of - center bias and it tried to undermine her credibility as a journalist .
a message went out ,
mueller acknowledges .
you' ve got to be careful when you' re dealing with her .
the same publisher that distributed the 2004 best - seller that took aim at john kerry’s vietnam service is planning a summer release of what’s scheduled to be the first critical book on barack obama .
conservative journalist david freddoso’s “the case against barack obama” will offer “a comprehensive, factual look at obama, ” according to regnery publishing president and publisher marjory ross .
but the book’s subtitle makes clear its perspective: “the unlikely rise and unexamined agenda of the media’s favorite candidate. ”
ross contends that the mainstream media has offered insufficient scrutiny of obama and likens the goal of freddoso’s book to that of “unfit for command, ” the scathing assessment of kerry’s war record that rocketed to no. 1 on the new york times best - seller list .
by highlighting negative aspects of obama’s record and background, ross says, freddoso may compel others to offer more critical coverage of the democratic nominee .
“i think it’s critically important that the country gets a clear and honest view of who is running and what they stand for — warts and all, ” ross says. “with ‘unfit for command, ’ like ‘the case against barack obama, ’ we believe the media has whitewashed the candidate. ”
but unlike the kerry book, which was co - authored by a fellow swift boat veteran and focused exclusively on the massachusetts senator’s actions in vietnam and immediately after, “the case against barack obama” aspires to be a full - length political biography .
freddoso has taken a leave from his job with national review online — where he has written posts with titles such as “obama’s problem with the truth” — to write the book, which is scheduled to be published on aug. 4. a former writer for human events, freddoso learned shoe - leather reporting at the knee of syndicated conservative columnist robert d. novak, for whom he worked as a political reporter on the “evans - novak political report. ”
ross declined to share any exclusive details of freddoso’s reporting since the manuscript hasn’t been filed yet, but said the 31 - year - old journalist has material from obama’s days in chicago, springfield, ill. , and washington, d. c .
in an effort to tarnish his cultivated image as a reformer, the book will examine obama’s relationship with members of the windy city’s vaunted politician machine, including mayor richard m. daley .
freddoso also will probe obama’s ties to more radical chicago figures including the rev. jeremiah wright, his former pastor at trinity united church of christ, and william ayers, the hyde park resident and former weatherman .
moving to the national stage, the book will argue that obama’s political views are far to the left of the mainstream. “he’s the no. 1 most liberal member of the u. s. senate, and nobody has really examined his record, ” says ross .
unlike his primary rival hillary rodham clinton, there is no canon of negative books about obama. thanks to his rapid rise on the national political scene, the two most influential books devoted to his life were written by obama himself, who hardly counts as a disinterested observer .
“dreams from my father” chronicles his youth and search for identity, while “the audacity of hope” is a more political tome, detailing his issue positions .
aside from these two books, the only other substantive volume on obama is chicago tribune reporter david mendell’s “from promise to power, ” published in 2007 .
also due out this summer is a mostly positive look at “the faith of barack obama, ” by the best - selling author of “the faith of george bush. ” and a critical analysis of the democratic nominee, called “the obama nation, ” will be published on simon & schuster’s threshold editions imprint and is also due out in august. the book is by jerome corsi, who helped kerry critic and swift boat veterans for truth co - founder john o’neill write “unfit for command. ”
says ross ,
the more people fall in love with a candidate, the more they need to know their track record and their real stand on issues .
missing out on the latest scoops? sign up for politico playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox .
among its clients are the republican national committee, national republican congressional committee and national republican senatorial committee. its client list also includes the christian coalition, national taxpayers union, media research council [ sic ] and regnery publishing. regnery is the firm that published unfit for command, the sbvt screed against [ john ] kerry' s military record ,
boehlert wrote .
interview requests for crc' s clients are routed through the main switchboard at a single telephone number; extensions 108 and 110 at the same number handle swift boat veterans for truth, while extensions 109 and 130 are for the judicial confirmation network ,
todd johnston wrote july 5, 2005, in epluribus media .
is a multimillionaire former hospital ceo who, in 2009, emerged as a prominent leader of the opposition to u. s. president barack obama' s healthcare reform plans. scott founded a group called
crc
was paid $ 165, 000 for repping both the swift vets and the conservative book company regnery publishing, which issued a tome about kerry' s military service, unfit for command ,
william triplet wrote in variety, february 5, 2006 .
that was just one day after the' 60 minutes' installment aired ,
boehlert said .
during the january 2006 u. s. senate judiciary committee' s confirmation hearings on supreme court nominee samuel a. alito, jr. , his wife, martha - ann bomgardner, left the hearing in tears. (she left as senator lindsey graham was apologizing for democratic senators' questions about mr. alito' s membership in the ultra - conservative group concerned alumni of princeton .) time magazine reported that, following this incident: [ 2 ]
the spring 2007 election for wisconsin supreme court pitted conservative annette ziegler against progressive linda clifford. on february 23, 2007, madison reporter dave zweifel wrote about a pro - ziegler pitch
from a public relations flack named tim scheiderer .
scheiderer' s email stated: [ 4 ]
the court' s impact on taxes, employment, health care, and many other areas will be felt by all. recently, the court has had a propensity to re - create laws rather than enforcing them. this is very problematic for wisconsin because it turns the law into an unpredictable guessing game and produces no confidence in the judiciary' s neutrality .
writing on the nation blog, richard kim noted that the formation of naea and its hiring of a well - connected conservative pr firm like crc comes after
a frigid winter for the abstinence - only crowd .
the government accountability office criticized the funding of abstinence - only programs without checking their
education materials for scientific accuracy ,
while the institute of medicine faulted abstinence programs in the president' s emergency plan for aids relief as jeopardizing
the vitally important end of saving lives .
[ 8 ] in addition, abstinence - only programs
favored by republicans and their conservative allies have lost momentum with the democratic takeover of congress ,
observed o' dwyer' s, adding :
the prevention first act, for instance, introduced by senate majority leader harry reid (d - nev .) and rep. louise slaughter (d. - n. y .) backs state level sexual education programs that provide information about abstinence, contraception and disease prevention .
[ 9 ]
critics of abstinence - only education warned that the pr work could entail
swift boat
- like smear attacks on politicians and groups supporting comprehensive sex education. swenson wrote, on the
rh reality check
blog: [ 10 ]
pr week ranked crc public relations as the fiftieth largest independent pr agency in the united states in 2008, with 2007 revenue of $ 7, 604, 274, a 24% increase from the previous year' s total revenue of $ 6, 117, 110. the ranking also notes its staff total of 27 (2006 total: 24), with $ 281, 640 in revenue per employee. [ 2 ]
discovery institute: seattle - based think tank that promotes
intelligent design
creationism. crc recently pulled off quite a stunt for the di when they got a roman catholic cardinal to write a letter to the new york times condemning evolution .
e. scott reckard ,
ex - indymac workers' complaint against sen. charles schumer may have political undertones ,
los angeles times, august 16, 2008 .
robert b. bluey ,
' 60 minutes' documents on bush might be fake ,
cybercast news, september 9, 2004 .
eric boehlert ,
swift boat flacks attack cbs. as the controversy over bush' s military record builds, a right - wing firm that works for the rnc pitches in ,
salon, september 10, 2004 .
douglas quenqua ,
two dc firms ramp up efforts over latest presidential controversies ,
pr week, september 20, 2004 .
todd johnson
swift boat pr team reassembles to market bush supreme court candidate ,
epluribus media, july 5, 2005 .
deb reichmann ,
activists priming for supreme court battle ,
associated press (committee for justice), june 9, 2005 .
william triplet ,
' swift - boat' pros in demand in d. c. spinmeisters go negative ,
variety, february 5, 2006 .
mike allen ,
gop confident as alito hearings wrap: despite frustrating democrats with his answers, the nominee has made no major slip - ups ,
time, january 11, 2006 .
crc gets praise for stone ,
o' dwyer' s pr daily (sub req' d), july 25, 2006 .
dave zweifel ,
swift boat firm aiding zeigler campaign ,
the capital times (madison, wi), february 23, 2007 .
scott swenson ,
when abstinence only policies fail, bring in the hatchet men to preserve bush' s billion dollar boondoggle ,
rh reality check blog, april 04, 2007 .
richard kim ,
abstinence takes a blow ,
the nation blog, april 5, 2007 .
crc supports abstinence education ,
o' dwyer' s pr daily (sub req' d), april 10, 2007 .
andrew clevenger ,
' legal experts' weigh in on u. s. supreme court' s benjamin ruling ,
managed outrage
blog of the charleston gazette (west virginia), june 9, 2009 .
kathy kiely ,
duelling health care ads ,
usa today
the oval
, june 16, 2009 .
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crc clients include some of the world’s largest corporations, industry groups, non - profit organizations, associations and legislative & public policy initiatives. whether you are launching a new product, facing an imminent crisis, or looking to educate the public, crc helps you achieve your objectives through customized public relations programs .
free press release distribution website. write press release. submit press release. distribute press release .
amid the summer reruns of
seinfeld ,
the x - files
and
er ,
you may find something slightly more intriguing: democratic and republican politicians riding the talk - show circuit putting their own spin on tax relief .
with congress back in session this week after the holiday recess, the house, senate and president clinton are trying to reach agreement on the first major package of tax cuts in 16 years .
but there is more at stake than hope scholarships and home - sale exemptions. the bigger fight is over which party gets the recognition for balancing the budget and providing tax breaks to working families .
this is not the kind of fight republicans have been winning very often over the past two years. remember the shellacking the gop took when it tried to piggyback two controversial amendments onto a disaster - relief bill this spring? remember how the democrats successfully cast the republicans as scrooges two years ago during the school lunch program debate? remember the drubbing the gop took over proposed medicare changes during last year' s election campaign? remember the government shutdown of 1995 ?
it doesn' t help that house speaker newt gingrich is badly wounded and has lost standing even among his own lieutenants. and it doesn' t help that republicans in the house and senate keep treading on each other' s nerves .
all of which puts added pressure on the pollsters and strategists and communications specialists designing this latest public relations assault - - message ministers like greg mueller - - to get it right this time .
now you have the pr game ,
mueller says .
who' s going to get the credit? nobody' s going to give us credit on our own .
in the big picture, we' re a little piece of the pie ,
explains mueller, who has the build of a small - college linebacker and the earnest pitch of a small - town car salesman .
we' re purposely not k street... . we come in every day and hustle... . we' re kind of on the outside looking in .
in pivotal moments, the republican national committee has been known to tap crc to help carry the party' s message beyond the beltway - - to the readers of the register star in rockford, ill. , and the listeners of blanquita cullum' s talk radio shows, all 65 stations worth, from richmond to palm springs .
three years ago crc was hauled in to promote the contract with america. the firm helped dozens of neophyte gop candidates generate local media attention across the country, fend off attacks and incorporate the contract' s planks into their campaign strategies. party bigwigs were impressed .
now, the rnc has tapped crc to help marshal conservative activists and sell the party' s tax - cut message throughout the country .
as outsiders, gop pollster kellyanne fitzpatrick says, crc is doing
a phenomenal job at a time when a lot of people within the party feel like the congressional republicans are failing them .
what we need to do ,
says keith appell, a crc spinmeister ,
is go back to doing reagan .
taking the heat
the ideas start bubbling up at crc' s 9: 30 a. m. daily staff meeting, where 10 conservative apostles gather around a conference table at the firm' s modest suite of suburban offices. by lunchtime, the ideas are ricocheting off walls, sometimes rising to grand strategy, sometimes petering out .
what about a
back - to - school tour
this fall with republican congressional leaders hitting inner cities from detroit to los angeles touting school choice? what about a three - day
promises made, promises kept
tour right now, featuring gingrich and senate majority leader trent lott talking about cutting taxes and balancing the budget at steel mills and state capitols and family farms? what about getting republicans to gather on the capitol steps and read excerpts from president kennedy' s 1963 speech promoting broad - based tax cuts? (soundbite :
mr. clinton, you' re no jack kennedy .
)
crc' s chairman and 50 percent stockholder is leif e. noren, a soft - spoken, professorial fellow who coaches girls' basketball in his spare time. with crc' s staff of mostly twenty - and thirtysomethings, noren is, at 43, the resident grandpa. in the 1980s, during the heyday of the conservative movement, noren was treasurer and executive director of the national conservative political action committee .
he founded crc in 1989 with $ 15, 000, and has since converted a fledgling direct - mail operation into a blossoming political and public relations tiger. (there are eight outside investors .) this year, noren says proudly, the firm expects to gross $ 1. 8 million - - a sum that still puts it in the little leagues, galaxies away from the planet of pr heavyweights like hill & knowlton or edelman public relations worldwide .
that is due in large part to mueller, the firm' s hyperactive president, and appell, his hyperactive sidekick. they are the batman and robin of crc .
appell, 36, the firm' s wiry senior account executive - political consultant, bears a slight resemblance to comedian chevy chase and has the wit to match. he talks fast. his delivery is good. in addition to doing a great phil gramm impersonation, he has the cornball charm of a carnival huckster. he was born to sell .
voice - mail message to washington post reporter, june 11, 2: 30 p. m. :
check this out, crc strikes again... . we' re launching a coalition to push for school choice in d. c. bipartisan coalition. being led by none other than alveda king, dr. king' s niece. she will say at this news conference tomorrow... that school choice is the next level for the civil rights movement. this, as the republicans are getting beat over the head with the flood aid issue and just prior to bill clinton' s racial relations speech... . are we good or what? i' m not trying to blow our horn, but i mean, man! you ought to be there .
mueller, 34, is best known as pat buchanan' s communications director during his 1992 and' 96 presidential campaigns. from the car phone or the van phone, he would dial up reporters all over america, trying to line up interviews for buchanan and making him available to react to the latest news on the wire. talk radio. alternative weeklies. local cable. anywhere an audience could be found .
operating on a small budget, the campaign could not compete over the paid airwaves, so it became the master of carefully staged events that were sure to draw
earned media ,
as the consultants call it, and generate newsworthy pictures - - like buchanan strapping on a six - shooter at the o. k. corral in tombstone, ariz .
he is one of the most capable press operatives in the party ,
said scott reed, bob dole' s' 96 campaign manager, who recently recommended that party officials use crc more often .
he gets more done in a morning than most press secretaries get done in a week... . he is very versed in the hand - to - hand combat .
reed should know. after it became clear that dole had wrapped up the gop nomination, buchanan refused to rally around the presumptive nominee. for months he was a pain, threatening to bolt the party and run as an independent in the fall .
mueller has had a lot of experience in the role of political firefighter. he has had to defend buchanan against charges of racism, antisemitism, protectionism, immigrant bashing and of being a gop turncoat - - especially in 1992 when buchanan challenged a sitting republican president, george bush .
i' m not being invited down to the george bush library dedication ,
buchanan quipped ,
and greg is probably not either. but he showed he had courage. he is willing to stand up for his beliefs. you don' t want yes men, and greg mueller is not a yes man .
and if you' re a conservative flamethrower, as some of crc' s clients have been, you need pr people who won' t wilt under intense heat .
when regnery publishing unveiled gary aldrich' s
unlimited access
last year, the book was billed as an expose of security lapses inside the clinton administration. it was a new york times bestseller, but was aggressively attacked by white house officials and picked apart by some journalists - - especially a section in which the retired fbi agent wrote that it
appears that the president is a frequent late - night visitor to the marriott hotel in downtown washington
and that
some information indicates
that clinton' s hotel companion is female and may be a celebrity .
but david brock, the american spectator writer who was once the darling of the right, also has taken shots at the book and the pr machine. in the july issue of esquire, he writes that regnery
perpetrated a hoax on the public by celebrating unlimited access' as legitimate and well - researched ,
but that aldrich had based the passage about clinton' s hotel trysts on a rumor that brock himself had just mentioned in passing. brock, who is gay, says that to undermine his criticisms
aldrich' s pr people put out the word among conservatives that my real problem was not the book' s truthfulness but aldrich' s anti - gay rhetoric .
mueller denies any effort by crc to discredit brock. he says that he believes brock' s criticism of the aldrich book stemmed from his desire to gain credibility with the media establishment before publication of brock' s book last fall on hillary rodham clinton .
but frankly ,
mueller says ,
i got no problem with brock .
sending the right message
there' s no doubt that we have lost some pr battles in the last several years ,
says charles black, a veteran gop consultant .
but first of all, we' re up against a master pr specialist in bill clinton... . so that makes it tough .
i' m not saying we couldn' t have done a better job ,
he continues ,
but it' s not as simple as saying let' s get everybody together and all speak from the same page .
a top clinton administration official notes that republicans are having the same difficulty democrats had during the reagan and bush presidencies of the 1980s .
it' s much more difficult as a congressional party to maintain discipline ,
the official says .
but it' s also much more difficult with a smaller microphone to be heard .
republicans are going through growing pains in transitioning to power ,
says republican consultant craig shirley, who proposes creating what he has called
the message center ,
an air traffic controller - style operation to coordinate and monitor communication .
you' ve got people all over the map on a variety of issues - - from disaster relief to the budget deal .
the recent debate over renewing china' s most - favored - nation trading status, for example, bitterly divided the pro - business and social conservative wings of the party. gary bauer, president of the family research council, which was on the losing end, says the party continues to miss opportunities to define itself .
the party elites think they' ve only got communications problems ,
says bauer, a former reagan administration official .
i wish our party would focus more on what it is we' re trying to sell instead of on the techniques for selling it .
just two weeks ago there was another issue that exposed tensions within the party - - this time between house and senate republicans. the gop - controlled senate voted to gradually raise the medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, boost the premiums of affluent recipients and add a $ 5 co - payment for home health visits to any recipient - - leaving some house republicans furious .
from their standpoint, here was a controversial vote, right before the fourth of july recess, that threatened to rally senior citizens and baby boomers against the party while gop members were supposed to be in their districts selling their tax - cut proposals .
no, that was not a good thing ,
says rep. j. dennis hastert (r - ill .), a member of the house gop leadership team .
and it is not a good message .
the republican party says it is determined to get the message right this time. but that is particularly difficult with issues like a tax cut, which can be framed in terms of class war, the rich versus the rest of us. and history shows that democrats often come out on top if they are able to cast the gop as the party of the wealthy .
their tax - cut proposals are inflated toward the wealthy ,
says laura nichols, spokeswoman for house minority leader richard gephardt (d - mo .) .
they have an enormous public relations hurdle to leap on who their tax cuts help .
gop pollsters have warned about this hurdle. ed gillespie, a former communications director for both the rnc and house majority leader richard armey (r - tex .), was recently hired by lott to help coordinate the communications strategy for the tax - cut package. he explained how the efforts of crc and others fit into the big picture .
it' s important to have a lot of smaller megaphones going off at the same time ,
gillespie says .
if they' re going off at the same time with different messages it' s just noise. if they' re going off at the same time with the same message, it' s an echo chamber. and right now, we' ve got an echo chamber .
one echo: three - quarters of the benefits under gop tax plans would go to households making less than $ 75, 000, republicans say. the gop message handlers have implored republican politicians to mouth the same themes, even the same words in public appearances (
a tax cut for every stage of life
is one popular refrain). as house gop strategist barry jackson puts it, driving home a message
requires repetition, repetition, repetition .
crc is largely focusing on media strategy outside the beltway. the firm has assembled a coalition of conservative interest groups, dubbed
putting families first .
it is booking the groups' leaders on television and radio chat shows, pushing them for print interviews and arranging conference calls with editorial writers .
crc also relies on its fax lists of 10, 000 media contacts, and on relationships cultivated with individual journalists around the country .
but that doesn' t mean crc ignores the beltway media heavies. one of the firm' s tactics is to generate a drumbeat of favorable coverage on an issue in small and regional papers throughout the country and then fax that package of news clippings to network producers and influential political reporters here in washington .
and then all the sudden it' s a national story ,
appell says .
press begets press .
so on june 30, crc sent a memo to all gop house and senate press secretaries asking for any press clippings of their bosses explaining the tax - relief package to
working - class families .
crc would then package and recycle the clips to other media outlets in washington .
the memo, supplied by a gop press secretary, even spelled out the kind of images crc was looking for :
midwest congressman or senator talking to farmers, northeast congresswoman or senator talking to union workers, california congressman talking to small businesspeople... you get the idea .
we' ve got to let people do a little bit more of our talking as a party ,
mueller says .
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creative response concepts ( crc ) public relations is an american public relations firm best known for helping to devise the swift boat veterans for truth campaign attacking john kerry ’s vietnam war record in the 2004 presidential race . the company 's alexandria , virginia office , is run by former pat buchanan communications director greg mueller , with help from former pat robertson communications director mike russell . crc was also hired by the discovery institute during the kitzmiller v. dover area school district trial over teaching intelligent design in public schools . in 2006 , they were retained to help promote the 2006 film world trade center directed by oliver stone . the company was hired to promote the case against barack obama , a 2008 book by david freddoso and put out by regnery publishing . crc is also the agency of record for the national organization for marriage . 
creative response concepts (crc) public relations is an american public relations firm best known for helping to devise the swift boat veterans for truth campaign attacking john kerry ’s vietnam war record in the 2004 presidential race. the company's alexandria, virginia office, is run by former pat buchanan communications director greg mueller, with help from former pat robertson communications director mike russell. crc was also hired by the discovery institute during the kitzmiller v. dover area school district trial over teaching intelligent design in public schools. in 2006, they were retained to help promote the 2006 film world trade center directed by oliver stone. the company was hired to promote the case against barack obama, a 2008 book by david freddoso and put out by regnery publishing. crc is also the agency of record for the national organization for marriage.
creative response concepts (crc) public relations is an american public relations firm best known for helping to devise the swift boat veterans for truth campaign attacking john kerry ’s vietnam war record in the 2004 presidential race. the company's alexandria, virginia office, is run by former pat buchanan communications director greg mueller, with help from former pat robertson communications director mike russell. crc was also hired by the discovery institute during the kitzmiller v. dover area school district trial over teaching intelligent design in public schools. in 2006, they were retained to help promote the 2006 film world trade center directed by oliver stone. the company was hired to promote the case against barack obama, a 2008 book by david freddoso and put out by regnery publishing. crc is also the agency of record for the national organization for marriage.