Speaking of Billmon and Political Manipulation

“These basic disinformation techniques were first pioneered by the totalitarian movements of the 1930s, such as the […] but they’ve been brought to their full fruition by the modern advertising, public relations and political consulting industries. Proving once again that what communism can do, capitalism can do better. One of the things that’s always impressed me about the modern conservative movement -- going back to when Newt Gringrich drew up his list of buzz words to be relentlessly associated with liberals ("corrupt," "degenerate," "depraved," etc.) -- has been the movement’s enthusiastic embrace of propaganda techniques developed by the same political regimes it claims to oppose with its life’s breath.

I guess they’re trying to proving that what totalitarians can do, modern conservatives can also do better. Karl Rove’s White House was, in many ways, the Olympian ideal of a disinformation operation -- a propaganda achievement that will probably never be topped, at least in American politics (God willing). But it looks as if the House Republicans are giving it the old college try. […] The specific disinformation technique in play is one I call "mirror image" (or, when I’m in a Star Trek mood, "Spock with a beard"). It consists of charging the opposing side […] with doing exactly what you yourself have been accused of doing, typically with a hell of a lot more justification.” -- Billmon

  Brad deLong

It’s lesson #1 in the Rovian guidebook. The GOP have gotten so good at it that I think it comes naturally to them any more. They are positively pathological about it, and it still makes my jaw drop every time they do it. Listen for it. You won't have to wait long, I think.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.