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Chris Frates reports that Republicans are frustrated that everyone is misinterpreting their opposition to raising tax rates on the wealthy. So on Monday, a group of K Street’s “top GOP communicators” got together to discuss how they can change the narrative that they’re the ones getting in the way of a fiscal cliff deal:

“How can we fight back against that and how can we make that point and how can we message that we’re the party of small business owners and we’re not defending the rich?” asked a meeting participant.

It’s sort of fascinating to read this kind of thing. The obvious problem Republicans have is that their single-minded opposition to raising tax rates on the rich is, in fact, employed in defense of the rich. Even the fabled low-information voter knows this perfectly well, and mounting a messaging campaign to convince the public that Republicans are actually defending small businesses is an exercise in futility. It will just convince people that Republicans are unusually shameless hucksters who think their constituents can’t distinguish fecal matter from shoe polish.

But reading stories like this, I wonder if the GOP brain trust understands this? Have they drunk their own Kool-Aid so deeply that they truly think they’re not defending the rich? Or is stuff like this purely for public consumption, and they just haven’t figured out yet that it has no chance of working? It’s a mystery.