GOP Money Plan: Donors Are Motivated by 'Fear' of Obama's 'Evil Empire'

A Republican Party fundraising plan recommends belittling President Obama and Democratic leaders as actors in an "Evil Empire" and mocking them as comic book caricatures who, if left unchecked, will lead the country to socialism, Politico reports.

The 72-page document amounts to a draft battle plan for an aggressive fundraising campaign. Small donors, it says, are motivated by "fear" and "extreme negative feelings for the existing Administration." At the higher end, fat cats are "ego driven " and want access to the people in power.

Politico said it got the plan, which includes a PowerPoint presentation, from an unnamed Democrat who noticed a hard copy in a Boca Grande, Fla., hotel that had been the site of a GOP retreat on Feb. 18. It was presented to leading fundraisers at the event by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele did not attend, "disagrees with the language, and finds the use of such imagery to be unacceptable," spokesman Doug Heye said.

One page of the plan depicts Obama as the Joker (a villain in Batman comics and movies), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Cruella DeVille (tormentor of Dalmatians) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as Scooby Doo (a slobbering scared-of -his-shadow cartoon dog).

In fairness, manipulations using crude caricatures and playing on the electorate's fears are not just the province of the Republican Party, Politico's Ben Smith says. The Democrats had plenty of experience raising money off of former President George W. Bush.

But Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse didn't miss the opportunity to fire back. "If you ever had any doubt whatsoever that the Republican Party has been taken over by the fear-mongering lunatic fringe, those doubts were erased today," he said, according to the Washington Post.