WASHINGTON – Want to vote a Republican off the island? How about all of them? If so, House Democrats are here to help with a new Web-based cartoon program, Republican Survivor.
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney (search), House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (search), Attorney General John Ashcroft (search), Rep. Katherine Harris (search) and conservative commentator Ann Coulter (search) are the cartoon contestants in a program patterned after reality television shows. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (search) makes a late appearance as the "immunity fairy," whose function is to designate contestants who can't be voted off the island.
The cartoon moderator, no friend of any of them, says the overall instructions are to "lie, cheat, steal, coddle, cuddle and pander. In other words, do what comes naturally to you."
Suffice it to say the cartoon images are no more flattering to the GOP survivor crew than the dialogue.
In the first Webisode, Bush and Ashcroft are captains of two teams directed to play a game of "Capture the Flag." In reality it's paintball, played with automatic weapons. Ashcroft's team loses, and either he, DeLay or Coulter must be voted off the island.
"For four years, Republicans have decided your fate," Kori Bernards, communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says on the organization's Web site. "Republican Survivor will give viewers the chance to decide theirs."
Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Saturday the Democrats' hijinks won't help them win elections.
"They keep playing with cartoons, and we'll keep passing tax cuts and prescription drugs for Americans," Forti said. "They're only doing it to try to motivate their base. At this point, they need to do anything they can."
The program is at www.dtriptv.org, and the results for the first of six weekly Webisodes are promised for Monday.
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