ShareThisBy JOE GAROFOLI
Sunday, November 12, 2006
If Democrats win the House on Tuesday, expect the descriptor _ epithet, really _ "San Francisco values" to become a permanent part of the media conversation.
"If (House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi becomes speaker of the House, it will be on the Republicans' list of top five talking points every week," said longtime GOP media strategist and University of California-Berkeley political science instructor Dan Schnur.
Who's waiting until next week? The phrase is already resonating in conservative corners of the blogosphere, MySpace, right-leaning media outlets and even on newspaper editorial pages. It's a sign of how new media strategies can frame the debate quicker than in past elections. Especially the conservative parts of it.
Over the space of a few days, the phrase "San Francisco values" has passed from the lips of conservative FOX News commentator Bill O'Reilly and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich onto the editorial pages of the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, where the paper endorsed a Republican congressional candidate because a Democratic House would mean "Pelosi will be speaker and her far-left San Francisco values _ gay marriage, cutting and running from Iraq, coddling terrorists, raising taxes, amnesty for illegals _ will become the House agenda."
In a recent online fundraising pitch, Gingrich asked supporters, "Will everything you've worked so hard to accomplish be lost to the San Francisco values of would-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi?" In Thursday's National Review Online, House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked, "Do we really want Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco values leading the culture war?" Neither elaborated on the meaning of "San Francisco values."
In the Central Valley, the "San Francisco values" card is being played in online statements by Tom Berryhill, a GOP Assembly candidate from Fresno. He mentions in his Web site that, "San Francisco's law-breaking politicians and their supporters in the Legislature must understand that they should be held accountable. I will introduce a bill that if passed will send public officials to jail for breaking California's marriage laws."
While that is one of the more specific definitions, interpretations of San Francisco's values vary as the phrase spins across the country. A member of the social networking site MySpace.com interpreted it this week as including "removing Christmas from the federal holiday list" and allowing polygamists to marry.
Several analysts say the phrase is little more than the political flavor of the month _ the month being November before a hotly contested election. Schnur and Democratic analysts agree that conservatives are looking for a blowtorch to light under their hard-core activists to get them juiced for Election Day, and "San Francisco values" is this year's kerosene.
"It's pretty much the same thing as calling someone an 'ACLU liberal' or a 'Teddy Kennedy liberal' " said Schnur, who has consulted for presidential candidates like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "It's something that's said when you want to get your people excited. It's the same as Phil Angelides saying, 'Arnold Schwarzenegger is a George Bush Republican.' You identify your opponent with the extreme wing of their party."
Commentator O'Reilly said San Francisco values "seek to exclude spirituality from the public square but embrace displays like the Bay City's gay pride parade, where Christianity is often mocked and demeaned." He said San Francisco "wants to ban military recruiting while setting up citywide pot shops."
Chris Lehane, a Democratic political strategist who has worked on several national campaigns and lives in San Francisco, said O'Reilly's definition sounds a bit stale, "like they're talking about the Haight-Ashbury in 1969. It's not going to move anybody. It's basically just going to excite the base who are already on board."
