The Problem.
Facing the public-relations disaster of the Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal and an erosion of support in the polls, President Bush has commenced a series of speeches meant to lay out a plan for the transfer of power in Iraq and to subsequently turn things around and clean up the mess that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made. It's certainly not where you want to be at this point in a presidential campaign. The administration botched the handling of the scandal right from the beginning -- a total rookie mistake in a city whose streets are lined with examples of how not to handle a scandal.
From my own experience with a little something called Whitewater, I learned the importance of fully recognizing the political implications of your moves. We made a critical decision right from the start not to release the Clintons' private records to the press even as we released them to the Justice Department. Maybe it's true, as some say, that we could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if we'd gone the other way. But we did what we did because there were concerns about whether doing so would have been inappropriate as a matter of law. On the press side, we were painfully aware that not releasing the records limited our ability to effectively fight untrue rumors and leaks to the press.
The Strategy.
Consider how different things might be for Bush if Rumsfeld had recognized from the beginning that they were facing a second -- albeit unplanned -- wave of “shock and awe,” and if he'd taken steps to get out in front of the story rather than be led by it. For starters, he needed a better coordinated and controlled strategy that more carefully determined which facts to release and when. That would have positioned the Pentagon as proactively taking steps to deal with the scandal in an honorable way while isolating the crisis so that it did not become a major distraction from day-to-day operations.
The best way to do this would have been to create an internal response team made up of senior staffers representing legal, political, public-relations, and military issues, tasked with forming and executing a strategy for handling responses to inquiries from reporters and members of Congress. Such a team would have determined what to say (the message, the documents to release) and how to say it (in a press conference versus leaks to a sympathetic outlet like FOX News, Matt Drudge, or The Washington Times versus an exclusive interview with David Broder).
Let's say we're part of an internal team formed shortly after Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's announcement on January 20 that a probe was being conducted. On April 15 we discover that the photos are out and that the story will soon be in the news. As General Richard Myers persuades CBS to hold off for a while, we go into crisis mode, knowing that we will need an announcement that addresses the most pressing questions but makes the story about both the scandal and how effectively the Pentagon is handling it.
As we form our strategy, there is likely some debate about what information to release, and whether to include the photos and videos. Perhaps General Myers argues that doing so could encumber the military investigation or jeopardize the safety of our troops, while Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita argues that we'll suffer a slow death in the press if we don't release them, as the photos are sure to leak out over time. We agree to release excerpts from the Taguba report in support of our message about our aggressive action. Recognizing that Major General Antonio Taguba is likely to be viewed as a hero outside of the military, we resolve to make him our hero. We thus position the integrity of his report as demonstrative of the true character of America and the majority of our men and women in the military, unlike the actions of the few who are accused in the scandal.
The Action.
We preempt the 60 Minutes II and New Yorker pieces by having Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt announce that the recommendations of a report submitted by General Taguba have been reviewed up the chain of command and will be discussed later at a Pentagon briefing. In between the two briefings, calls are made to a few reporters and pundits to begin to shape the story, drop the bomb about the photos that will be released at the briefing, and float the idea that we are considering releasing all or part of the Taguba report, pending review of the significant privacy and national-security issues involved.
At the Pentagon briefing, Myers and Rumsfeld discuss the time line of the scandal and announce a set of actions being taken based on recommendations in the Taguba report. They release the photos with remarks that walk a fine line of disgust, concern, and determination to stay the course in Iraq while getting to the bottom of the prison scandal. They stick to the message that these are the actions of “a few bad apples,” but they balance that by expansion of the probe to look more closely at issues from MP training to who if anyone authorized the behavior to Major General Geoffrey Miller's reassignment to Abu Ghraib. There is an off-camera, background briefing to address sensitive issues like the Geneva Convention, rules of engagement, changes that applied after September 11, and the nature of the training required for MPs.
For the “who knew what when” questions, we coordinate an answer with the White House that protects the president while sending the reassuring message that he and key members of his foreign-policy team were kept in the loop. To ensure the support of our allies on Capitol Hill, calls are made from our legislative staff to their contacts on the Hill prior to Kimmit's remarks. In the afternoon, we conduct briefings for staffers from both Democratic and Republican members of the Senate and House Armed Service Committees. Hopefully our allies will squash any call for congressional hearings.
On Saturday we release excerpts from the Taguba report and put the defense secretary and his surrogates (former or current Republican members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, military-intelligence operatives, retired generals) on the Sunday-morning talk shows so we can try to drive the news at the beginning of the week and move the story from scandal to solution.
The Conclusion.
We'll never know if it would have worked. Unfortunately, even after realizing the need for President Bush to clean up this mess, the first of his speeches was woefully long on rehtoric and short on substance, yet another sign that even now they just don't get it. Given how poorly this scandal has been handled, I couldn't help but think, upon hearing that President Bush is trying to fix things with a speech, of the final scene from Animal House: As a rogue float in a college parade spins out of control and chaos breaks out, Kevin Bacon's character attempts to stop the fleeing crowd of onlookers by declaring, “Remain calm. All is well.” He's then overrun by the crush of parade-goers, who can plainly see that all is a long way from well.
Karen Finney worked in the Clinton White House and on Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.
