We need to stop them. They're evil.

Top Bush advisers do not believe one election alone creates a political realignment, but they know that 2004 is the key date in their long-term plan for expanding the party.

One part of the strategy calls for continued care and feeding of the party's tripartite base of economic, national-security and social conservatives, with a policy agenda that touts U.S. preeminence in the world, pours more resources into the war on terrorism, calls for additional tax cuts and supports party orthodoxy with its positions on abortion, guns and judgeships.

A secure conservative base frees Bush and his advisers to pursue the other, more ambitious, element of their strategy, which is to use domestic and foreign policy initiatives, governmental appointments and symbolic actions to increase support among swing voters. Republican strategists believe they must move aggressively with Bush in office to reach out to nontraditional Republicans to offset demographic trends that would otherwise lessen the party's chances of sustaining power.

Bush's desire for a party-wide victory, according to strategists familiar with White House planning, means that the president's travel schedule, particularly in the final weeks of the campaign, will be determined by where he can do the most good for Republicans in competitive House, Senate and gubernatorial races as well as for himself. That would be a rerun of 2002, when Bush successfully used his political capital to rally GOP voters.

"There is total coordination," one party official said. "The message is coordinated, data is coordinated, the administration is coordinated. . . . The harmony between the political operation at the White House and the RNC is beyond what I've seen before."

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