"Determined to change the tone of the national debate over Iraq, the White House and Republicans in Congress launched a tightly coordinated effort last week to begin providing the media with stories of American progress in the still-turbulent country," PR Week's Douglas Quenqua reports.
"Members of Congress came back [from the August recess] with this sense of frustration that the positive stories weren't being told, or at least weren't being heard," said Roy Blunt, communications director to House majority leader Tom Delay (R-TX). "On the House side, you have 229 Republican members who can be a very powerful megaphone that hasn't been utilized." The effort is aimed to help get passed Bush's request for $87 billion for Iraq and to counter flagging public opinion concerning the US occupation. White House communications director Dan Bartlett is working with GOP "message leaders" to develop new tactics. "National security advisor Condoleezza Rice was dispatched to the Foreign Press Center on Wednesday to highlight accomplishments in Iraq, including the number of Iraqis now participating in the patrolling of their own country," Quenqua writes.