Any time a critic — especially a Catholic critic — casts doubt on the wisdom of the Catholic hierarchy, Donohue fires off a press release attacking the attacker or otherwise changing the subject.
Families of some of the protesters, enraged at the suspect's release, attacked the courthouse, fighting with police officers and later blocking traffic on a major highway north of Cairo for several hours, according to the local news media.
Lazio campaign aides swiftly put out an afternoon news release attacking the Clinton administration for "arbitrarily small quotas" on the number of fluke that New York fishermen are allowed to catch for sale.
In 2005, when he first ran a Conservative campaign, his electioneering themes – "How would you feel if a bloke on early release attacked your daughter?" shouted one poster – were widely considered too crude, too foreign.
It did contain a line praising Brown for the dignity with which he handled his final days in office and wishing him well for the future, but mostly it was a press release attacking Labour.
The Lib Dems mistakenly issue a press release attacking Tory tax policies.
But slogans like: "How would you feel if a bloke on early release attacked your daughter?" were blamed for giving the Tories the reputation of the "nasty party".
When that happens, all of the familiar elements of the permanent campaign — fund-raising, releasing attack ads, using Congress to highlight ideological differences — become more important, while serious efforts at legislating diminish.
Blankenship has already released attack ads that go after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's "China family," as well as give him the moniker "cocaine Mitch".
Gun control looms so large in the race that even the staunchly anti-gun New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is throwing his political weight around: in January, a Bloomberg-back super PAC released attack ads blasting Halvorson's gun stance.
