One can imagine a Republican Party flunky talking to the Marquette College Republicans a month ago before Operation Continue to Make Liberals Look Like Fools: Sniper-Gate was hatched.

For the aspiring political organization of the 21st century, forward looking media management is the key to success.

The first step is getting in the news. That's not very difficult. No one in our neighboring ad department is going to call up an ad buyer and tell them, "Sorry, we couldn't fill enough pages to fit your ad better luck next time." How do you get people to read it? Make it subtly appalling.

Attention isn't enough. The Republican Party has spent the last six years mastering media message control. Creating controversy that is guaranteed to frame your enemies as military-hating terrorist apologists will keep you an elephant step ahead. As liberal ideologues rush to craft well-thought-out intellectual responses people will already have made up their minds, drawn their conclusions, rolled their eyes and turned the page.

So the idea to distribute the anti-Livestrong bracelet was born.

Should snipers feel remorse about being the most discriminate killing machine our military possesses? Hell no. Should we feel remorse that our country's relations with Iraq have digressed to this? Probably. Should we feel remorse for killing one person who's desperately trying to kill as many as possible, civilian or otherwise? Maybe. Most people don't though.

Election time rolls around and liberals stare at each other, palms turned up, wondering why anyone would vote for a bunch of uncouth good'ol boys.

On Monday FOX news ran a story about PETA calling for an end to recreational fishing because the hook causes undue suffering to the worm. Monday was not a slow news day; President Bush's 2006 Budget was released and the coming peace agreement between Israel and Palestine was announced. The story was chosen for a reason — to make liberals look like fools. That's what talented young politicians do — they create controversy.

This is a university and debate about the nature of remorse and its philosophical implications should be encouraged. Keep in mind that for the College Republicans the context of the debate doesn't matter nearly as much as starting the debate. If that sounds intellectually lazy — welcome to politics.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 10 2005.