I think we should spend far more time obsessing about what the other party is doing, and far less time wondering what the hell we're going to do.
We focus way too much on how to clean up our own house. That only gives comfort to our enemy. We should, rather, never make a move or stand up for a bedrock principle without wondering how it might somehow, somewhere, fit into a grand Republican trap designed to dupe us.
Schmitt's interpretation seems like a dangerous path for the Rove side. Is it so clear that a failed effort to reform SS in ways that people don't like will make the Republicans look dynamic and fun? I suspect an (R) failure on SS can be portrayed as a crazy risk-taking gamble with seniors: "the democrats: we got your back when Wall St comes to gut your retirement." Not fair, perhaps, but a plausible future spin. I mean, a lot of people seem to *like* social security.
This strikes me as akin to the "Rove planted the CBS memos" line of thought-- the kind of strategizing that pays off well only in bad films. (Next, Rove will build a robot army to justify a huge increase in stormtrooper spending.)