Putnam Emerges As GOP's Top Aggressor

By BILLY TOWNSEND The Tampa Tribune

Published: Feb 20, 2007

LAKELAND - It was Tony Snow, the Fox News anchor-turned-presidential spokesman, who in effect ended the recent scandalette over whether the military plane that would fly Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi back and forth to California was too luxurious.

"This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker," Snow said, according to published reports. He was countering voices in his own party.

One of the most prominent was U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow. Putnam, the third-ranking House Republican, had pushed the Pelosi story aggressively the day before, both in print and on television.

"This is not about having secure communications and secure aircraft available to her. It's about an arrogance of extravagance that demands a jumbo jet that costs $22,000 an hour to operate to taxi her and her buddies back and forth to California," Putnam told Fox News.

It turns out there's no evidence Pelosi requested any such thing. A day after Snow's remarks, the nonpartisan House sergeant-at-arms released a written statement explaining that for security reasons he asked for a plane that could carry Pelosi nonstop to her home in San Francisco, a much longer distance than former Speaker Dennis Hastert, of Illinois, had to cover.

Putnam now acknowledges he had no personal knowledge of any Pelosi request. He said he was commenting on an anonymously-sourced story in The Washington Times and additional coverage from CNN.

"This was a classic case where the media got out in front of us," Putnam said. "Did we jump on it? Yes."

And he is unapologetic about that. He calls the Pelosi plane story, whatever its legitimacy, "the first break [Republicans] have had from the media in driving our message since before the Mark Foley story broke."

And these days, as chairman of the House Republican conference committee, it is in Putnam's congressional job description to care intensely about that.

It is the conference chairman's responsibility to coordinate message and manage media relations for House Republicans. That means developing themes that counter and discredit an agenda set by the new Democratic majority. It's a role Putnam has embraced in the new Congress.

Putnam managed floor and media strategy for Republicans in the House debate over the resolution opposing a troop increase in Iraq. He couldn't stop the rebuke to President Bush from passing. But in waging debate, Putnam said, he tried to help his party create a clear rhetorical narrative: Resolute Republicans vow never to cut funding for military operations in Iraq and will battle shifty Democrats, who are using a "toothless" resolution as the first step in a "slow bleed" of Iraq funding, a way of ending the occupation by underhanded means.

That tone of harsh contrast echoes a series of statements and talking points blasting Democrats' plans and actions found on Putnam's conference committee Web site.

Part of that is Putnam's formal role as conference chairman, but it also reflects his personal aggressiveness and the reality of life as a minority party.

By most accounts, Putnam has attacked Democrats more aggressively from the conference chairman role than his immediate predecessors, including former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts and Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce.

Putnam doesn't disagree, though he said Watts' skill in managing message and generating publicity far exceeds his own.

The big difference, Putnam said, is that he's a leader in a minority party, which is trying to stop legislation it opposes and to win back power. "It's a very different role. It's apples and oranges."

Putnam said a lesson he learned from the 2006 election is that Republicans must do a better job of explaining their broad agenda on security, economics and social policy and contrasting it with Democrats'.

He says any rhetorical attacks from his office - tough though they may be - are aimed at Democratic policy and based on evidence.

"We're not targeting [a specific] congressman from a vulnerable seat," Putnam said. "That's what we have political committees for."

Pelosi's leadership office declined to comment for this story.

Quick Rise Of A Quick Thinker

Now in his fourth term, Putnam, 32, formally became a Republican House leader about a year ago when he was elected chairman of the House Policy committee, the fifth-ranking position in the House leadership at the time. He developed a close relationship with then-Speaker Dennis Hastert.

His public presence soared in September after Hastert and other members of the House leadership came under scrutiny for their handling of the Foley page scandal.

Putnam, who was not linked to the scandal, became a regular Republican media spokesman. He strongly condemned former Rep. Foley and defended Hastert's handling of the matter.

After Democrats swept to a congressional majority in November's elections, Putnam moved up in the Republican leadership to conference chairman, the third-ranking House Republican position. Only Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the whip, Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, outrank Putnam.

In 2004, there were 899 references to Putnam in news stories, according to a Lexis-Nexis search. In the past 12 months, references to Putnam in news stories topped 2,000. The same research shows a surge in recent months in national news stories referring to Putnam.

John J. Miller is national political reporter for the National Review, a magazine and online news service founded by William F. Buckley Jr.

Miller said he recently got together with Putnam at the behest of a Washington observer who told him, "You've got to meet this guy."

Miller came away impressed with Putnam's political and communication skills.

"He combines the ability to master details with an ability to communicate them to people who haven't mastered them," Miller said, adding that it is a rare politician who can do both of those things.

Until now, Putnam perhaps has been best known nationally for his red hair and youth. Bush, the nicknamer in chief, often has referred to Putnam as "Red." He occasionally has been called "Opie," after "The Andy Griffith Show" character Ron Howard played as a boy.

As Miller indicates, Putnam's presence and style of communication are anything but aw shucks. He speaks bluntly and articulately - both in interviews and political functions - in a manner that feels unrehearsed.

"He does not just read from talking points," Miller said.

Putnam's congressional district is dominated by Polk County, his lifetime home, but includes Plant City, Temple Terrace, Brandon and a sliver of western Osceola County.

Rhetorical Battlefield

Putnam's increased public stature already is ratcheting up the scrutiny of his words and even his body language.

The Washington Post's wry political reporter-columnist Dana Milbank wrote about Putnam's coordination of Republican rhetorical strategy in the Iraq resolution debate.

Milbank spent a full paragraph describing Putnam's "nervous energy" as he waited to make his floor speech. He then called Putnam's arguments against the resolution - that it's both "a toothless 97 words" and terribly damaging to the country - contradictory.

"So which one is it: toothless or catastrophic?" Milbank wrote.

Though loyal to Republican leadership, Putnam has not had a reputation in Washington as a partisan bomb-thrower. It's an image that Putnam cited in talking about his new role.

Yet a set of talking points titled "Air Force 3 - A symbol of Democrat Excess" remained prominently displayed on the regularly updated Web site of the House conference committee days after the story was discredited. It mentioned Pelosi by name and said she was pursuing "an unprecedented perk."

Asked about the talking points Friday, Putnam responded: "You must check the Web site more often than I do."

He then added he would make sure what's published on the Web site is accurate.

Putnam blamed any unfairness in how the Pelosi plane issue was portrayed on the media that covered it, and he said he found it "curious" that reporters would question how the story spread.

Democratic organizer and activist Chris Bowers, co-operator of the influential MyDD political blog, was only too happy to counterattack. Asked about the Pelosi story, he used Republican involvement in it to further his own rhetorical narrative.

"This story of faux Republican outrage was the height of stupidity from the get-go," Bowers said. "Any Republican in the House pushing this story fits the model of the blatantly dishonest, do-nothing, antireality member of Congress that led to the Democratic takeover in November. Even the White House wasn't dumb enough to go along with this one."

It's a reminder that in an era when the phrase "media war room" has become a cliche, Putnam is a general and a target.

Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com.