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marfrks, paul rosenberg and nick,
let me add my voice to those who see this technique as key to the success of the conservative movement in largely defusing debate.
I was first struck by the technique of pre-emptive projection during the first Bush/Gore debate, when Bush hit gold by mimicking Reagan and going all folksy and wagging his finger as he said "No fuzzy numbers." He then promptly provided the fuzziest and most dishonest numbers possible to misrepresent his tax cuts. The media bought it whole, analyzed the shit out of Gore's claims and ignored Bush's (by far the majority of my tax cuts go to those at the lower end of the income scale.) Who could expect him to understand his own errors anyway. Having noticed this m.o. (at the time I thought of it as a policy of 'accuse the opponent of doing whatever it is you intend to do') it soon became apparent that this was a conscious and highly effective strategy.
The Florida recount was a triumph of this. James Baker announced that people couldn't be trusted to count votes, because they were partisan and dishonest. Machines you can trust, but volunteers? They must have a hidden agenda. Meanwhile Republican party operatives were being shipped in to pose as 'grass roots' protesters and harrass and disrupt the vote counts. Nothing new or uniquely republican about hardball vote manipulation. What was unique was the coordinated assault on the truth that accompanied it. As the Republicans actively worked to prevent a proper counting of all the votes, they loudly attacked the Democrats for trying to prevent military votes from being counted. As they actively tried to prevent an actual tally of who won Florida, they accused Gore of trying to use the courts to get a dishonest result.
Maybe the best term for this particularly venal brand of politics is really "Swiftboating", since that was perhaps the most absurd example of turning reality upside down. Whatever yout think of John Kerry, to suggest he's not a combat vet or that his medals are phony is to suggest that all wounded vets may be liars and any medals given may be bogus. We support the troops by attacking them for their service. Those who served are obviously self-loathing.
The rules are simple. Whatever I am about to do that is not acceptable, I accuse you of doing. Whatever I am that I am ashamed of, I accuse you of being. Whatever I do not have has no value, whatever you do not have is what is essential. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
