I don't know how seriously to take this Washington Times story -- it's a story built on pure speculation and published on a very slow news day -- but I'm also seeing it at Fox Nation, so it suggests that there might be a serious demonization campaign coming:
The GOP's secret campaign weapon: NYC's uber-liberal new mayor Bill de BlasioMaking Democrats in other states own the actions of Bill de Blasio? It's hard to imagine Republicans pulling this off -- unless they make de Blasio's New York into the new Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, flooding the zone with every story of every crime or act of corruption, until your exurban uncle who watches Fox News all day eventually knows more about NYC crime than those of us who live there. That could be the plan. And I suppose it could work, at least with regard to crime -- even at our current record-low murder rate, we have more than one homicide a day. (It's a low rate because we have a population larger than all but eleven U.S. states.) The crime rate could stay low and there'd still be enough gore to keep the Drudge headlines blood red day in and day out.
Bill de Blasio's win in New York City's mayoral race has put the Democrat in charge of the nation's largest city and smack in the middle of the nation's largest media market -- giving him an unmatched platform both to pursue liberal policies and to cause all sorts of headaches for his party's leaders in Washington.
... Republican strategists already anticipate being able to use the mayor's stances as a wedge against Democrats running for national office, and analysts said some Democrats may indeed have to spend time defending their left flank.
... Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said Mr. de Blasio's victory ... could cause headaches for some Democrats in competitive races.
"Republicans will time and again be able to ask vulnerable Democrats in red states if they agree with the New York mayor about his left-wing policies," Mr. Bonjean said....
The rest of the allegedly radical agenda is, I hate to say it, not likely to be particularly radical. But I'm sure we'll hear about every whiny millionaire allegedly fleeing town because of the "confiscatory" taxes (although we hear that already and he's not even mayor).
And the visual component of this narrative would be -- well, see how Fox Nation illustrates the story:
Do I have to explain the message of this?
On the other hand, the New York Post is reporting that not even Rudy Giuliani is criticizing de Blasio's short list for the job of police commissioner. So maybe de Blasio isn't going to give these vultures much to work with.
