The looming election seems to have sharpened the focus of White House messaging considerably. The diary title is directly from a White House official quoted by Talking Points Memo:
White House officials tell TPM that they think Boehner's comments about supporting an extension of the tax cuts for the middle class on Sunday give them the perfect window to hammer the man who wants to be the next Speaker of the House, just in time for the midterm elections.
Give the White House some much due credit: Republican opposition to letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire (on schedule) is a gift, and the administration is accepting that gift with open arms.
The President knows a good thing when he sees it:
A case in point: A White House aide tells us that Obama will talk about Boehner and tax cuts -- again -- during his kitchen table event in Fairfax later today.
And the message is spreading to others in his administration:
"We welcome recent indications that Republicans won't hold middle-class tax cuts hostage," Geithner said in a speech to a Congressional Hispanic Caucus event. "We can't afford to go back to the policies of the past decade when we passed large tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans without paying for them and saw little impact on job creation and years of stagnation in middle class wages."
"Holding middle-class tax cuts hostage". Framing 101, and it has the added advantage of actually being true.
And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is doing his part via Twitter:
Disarray = Boehner vs Cantor, Boehner vs McConnell & McConnell vs McConnell - why hold middle class tax cuts hostage to these disagreements
Cue the DNC:
For its part, the Democratic National Committee is going to slam Boehner for admitting on Sunday that the tax cuts for the highest income bracket would help just 3 percent of small businesses. "They've lost that cover," a DNC official said. "They are fighting for the super-rich."
Imagine that: not only unified messaging, but a strong message that cannot fail to resonate with voters. Credit where credit is due.