Updated: John McCain's People Can Not Stop Trashing Sarah Palin; Kristol Identifies Steve Schmidt; Two McCain Staffers Fight Back Against Article

I assume that everybody has read the hit piece that will be published in the August edition of Vanity Fair. The Castroesque article is written by liberal writer Todd Purdum, the husband of former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers. Bill Clinton actually doesn't think too highly of Purdum, notwithstanding his marriage to Myers:

“When asked about the article by Huffington Post writer Mayhill Fowler, Clinton said (in reference to Purdum): “He’s a really dishonest reporter…and I haven’t read (the article). There’s just five or six blatant lies in there. But he’s a real slimy guy.” When Fowler reminded Clinton that Purdum is married to his former press secretary, he responded: “That’s all right - he’s still a scumbag” and later added “He’s just a dishonest guy - can’t help it.”

I am amazed that somebody was actually paid to write this garbage, and that is exactly what it is: garbage. The same tired old lies and distortions are thrown at Governor Palin by the same tired old backstabbers from the McCain campaign. You know, I really hate to say this, but the behavior by these staffers really shows you what kind of people John McCain attracts as a politician. So, John, "my friend," please stop sending me fundraising emails.

First of all, let's get one thing straight: The timing of this article is meant to coincide with the release of SarahPAC's first financial disclosure. The article itself, as John Boehner would call it, is a "pile of sh*t." Did you know that Palin is a diva? That Palin personally purchased clothing worth up to $150,000? The truth is that Governor Palin did no such thing during the campaign. The clothing was purchased by the RNC and recently disposed of by the RNC, and it was never really Governor Palin's clothing at all. It belonged to the RNC and the governor borrowed it for the campaign trail. After the campaign ended, it all went back to the RNC.

These words, written by Purdum, are a flat out lie:

[A]nd the post-selection spending spree in which she ran up bills of $150,000 on clothes for herself and her family at high-end stores.

Sir, do you lie like this in your normal everyday life? Unbelievable.

The article (through unnamed McCain staffers) then makes the bizarre claim that Governor Palin has some kind of mental problems. Jim Geraghty over at the Campaign Spot addresses this here.

Other than the rehashed lies (nothing new here from the backstabbing McCain people), this article has some funny points. I'm not saying that the author was trying to be funny, but the way they present the McCain campaign is ironically funny. I still can't believe that this article praises Steve Schmidt. When was the last time Steve Schmidt's candidate won an election? Why does Steve Schmidt like to trash Sarah Palin so much? As Rush Limbaugh pointed out:

"John McCain’s campaign staff has spent more time attacking Sarah Palin than it did attacking Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers…and Obama himself."

When it comes down to it, John McCain was the worst Republican presidential candidate since Bob Dole. Who's brilliant idea was it to suspend this campaign? What was Schmidt thinking there? How did it help that McCain "flew back to Washington to solve the problem" and yet sat in on the meetings, said nothing, and then voted in the same manner as Barack Obama on TARP!?

Josh Painter makes a brilliant observation as to why the McCain staffers are behaving in such a manner:

Why, you may ask, are they doing this? It's simple, really. They want jobs with any potential GOP presidential candidate for 2012 who will hire them. In order to excuse the poor performance of the campaign they ran for McCain, they still need their scapegoat, and they long ago chose McCain's former running mate to blame their incompetence on. Though it's only 2009, we're approaching the point where the planning for primary campaigns begins, and staffing is one of the first things the nascent campaign organizations start thinking about.

Painter also links to an article that reveals which other Republican politician's minions are behind the attacks:

Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers, some of whom are currently working for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for the White House, have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election. "Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012," says one former Romney aide, now working for McCain-Palin. "The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney. He's in charge on November 5th."

In classic hit piece fashion, Purdum only speaks to Palin's critics. I bet it really gives you a clear picture of someone when you only talk to people who hate that person. I bet you can really gain insight into a person when you only talk to people who wish that person ill. It's almost like Purdum went out and read all the old hit pieces from the campaign and compiled a list of all the people who hate the governor, then tracked them down in Alaska to ask them for some new quotes attacking her. Can you believe that this article actually quotes Lyda Green?

“Remember,” says Lyda Green, a former Republican state senator who once represented Palin’s home district, and who over the years went from being a supporter of Palin’s to a bitter foe, “her nickname in high school was ‘Barracuda.’ I was never called Barracuda. Were you? There’s a certain instinct there that you go for the jugular.”

Unbelievable.

As for the McCain staffers, these people are so despicable that they even admit to the author that they would never criticize Palin on the record. I have never seen a group of anonymous backstabbers actually see their credibility decrease over time.

In the grand scope of things, the author of this article should be ashamed of himself. He repeats the same old tired lies of the campaign and uses anonymous sources to do it. You will see a lot of this in his article, "a former McCain staffer told me...," and " I heard this from a source."

I am also incredibly disappointed in John McCain. Again, I have to ask the question: What kind of politician attracts people like his staffers? Why doesn't John McCain put an end to this with a statement? After all, he was the presidential candidate. If these staffers really want to blame somebody for the election results, they should really take a long, hard look in the mirror and stop blaming the only person that people gave a damn about. The person who drew 20,000 people to campaign stops (while McCain was drawing 500). The person who was zooming around the country trying to drag that miserable campaign across the finish line and actually produced a respectable result.

This article is the most biased, lie-filled entry I have ever personally read regarding Governor Palin. It is a vile hit piece that clearly seems timed to try to undermine her PAC's first financial disclosure. It is also serves as a "tryout" for those looking to help on other candidate's campaigns.

Something about Sarah Palin scares people in the Beltway and media elite, Republican and Democrat alike. It reminds me of a scene in the movie Major League. The manager of the team, Lou Brown, is explaining to his players that everybody is against them. The media, the fans, and even the owner want them to fail. After the speech, the heart and soul of the team, Jake Taylor gets up and says, "Well, there is only one thing left to do... win the whole freaking thing."

I agree with Jake on this one.

And if you want to do your part to help with that: Go donate to SarahPAC.

Update: Bill Kristol calls out Steve Schmidt by name:

Here’s a highlight of Purdum’s reporting: “More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--’a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’--and thought it fit her perfectly.”

Is there any real chance that "several" Alaskans independently told Purdum that they had consulted the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? I don’t believe it for a moment. I’ve (for better or worse) moved in pretty well-educated circles in my life, and I’ve gone decades without “several” people telling me they had consulted the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Meanwhile, on the day Purdum’s piece hit the web (today), a journalist who had expressed suspicions in the past that elements of the McCain campaign had undercut Palin suddenly got a friendly e-mail from top McCain-Palin campaign strategist Steve Schmidt. This journalist hadn’t heard from Schmidt in months. Perhaps Steve was nervous someone would finger him for the Purdum piece. One reason people might do so is this passage in Purdum’s article: “All the while, Palin was coping not only with the crazed life of any national candidate on the road but also with the young children traveling with her. Some top aides worried about her mental state: was it possible that she was experiencing postpartum depression? (Palin’s youngest son was less than six months old.)” In fact, one aide who raised this possibility in the course of trashing Palin’s mental state to others in the McCain-Palin campaign was Steve Schmidt.

Update by Mel: Jim Geraghty has a longer piece up on this now. It's well worth your time. A taste:

Indeed, she outrageously voiced her disagreement by responding to the Michigan pullout with, “Oh, come on, do we have to?” Mutiny! (By the way, that early pullout and its effect on the state Republicans’ morale is partially blamed for an abysmal showing for the GOP in down-ticket races.)

More here.

Update II by JR:

Amanda Carpenter reports that some McCain staffers are fighting back against the Vanity Fair article:

Two McCain staffers were immediately willing to go on the record with the Washington Times in their support for Mrs. Palin.

Jason Recher, who worked closely with Mrs. Palin as a vice presidential candidate, said “The mean tone of this article is completely false, this is not the Sarah Palin I knew and spent two and a half months with” and he was tired of reporters taking information on background without attribution from people unwilling to go on the record.

Mr. Recher said he was never approached for the article although he was one of a handful of people who spent “every morning, day and night” with Mrs. Palin in the heat of the campaign and is openly supportive of her today.

David Welch, deputy research director for the McCain-Palin ticket said he was “shocked to read the Vanity Fair article about Gov. Palin and the allegations made against her by former staffers” and complained “significant parts of the story are based on half truths and gossip from staffers who refused to go on the record.”

Update II by Mel: Amanda Carpenter has added some new quotes from Randy Scheunemann:

Randy Scheunemann, director of foreign policy and national security for the McCain-Palin campaign and who played Joe Biden in Mrs. Palin’s debate prep, was happy to push back against the Vanity Fair piece, saying she was an impressive and capable candidate.

He recalled her performance in the vice-presidential debate where she “held her own and went toe-to-toe” against Mr. Biden, a candidate with much more experience in debates and decades of public service. She was “incredibly hard-working and concerned she’d do a good job for John McCain who was a national hero and plucked her from obscurity,” Mr. Scheunemann said. “That weighed on her every day.”

More here.

Update: Scheunemann is not backing down:

“Steve Schmidt has a congenital aversion to the truth,” Scheunemann said. “On two separate and distinct occasions, he speculated about about Governor Palin having post-partum depression, and on the second he threatened that if more negative publicity about the handling of Governor Palin emerged that he would leak his speculation [about post-partum depression] to the press. It was like meeting Tony Soprano.”

Bill Kristol:

Responding to Schmidt’s counter-attack, Kristol directly fingered Schmidt: “It’s simply a fact that when the going got tough, Steve Schmidt trashed Sarah Palin, both within the campaign and (on background) to journalists. This was after Steve took credit for the Palin pick when, at first, he thought it made him look good. John McCain deserved better.”

UPDATE by RAM: This photo of Schmidt seems appropriate...


This guy should never work on any campaign again -- any -- even a campaign for the local dog catcher.