Another McCain Staffer Steps Up to the Plate, Trashes Palin
Jon Ward at the Washington Times called upon yet another unnamed "senior McCain official" to get a response to Vanity Fair's recent hit piece on Governor Palin. This quote stood out to me:
"While the Palin camp is surely marshaling the torches and pitchforks and baying for blood by now, my hope is that somehow — against the odds -- Palin is able to draw some sort of lesson out of all of this that helps her find a way to exist peacefully in the public space. It can’t be easy to spend every day under this kind of withering fire and I know that it is brutal on her family, who are generally good people that never asked for this," the political operative wrote.
First of all, I've yet to hear anyone from "the Palin camp" respond to Todd Purdum's hit piece. And, in the eight months since the campaign ended, I have yet to hear Governor Palin "name names" to call out the quislings, though she surely has some idea of who they are. In fact, she has not criticized -- in any meaningful way -- the people who were supposed to be working for her during the campaign (I think their actions since the campaign ended leaves a great deal of doubt about whether or not some of them were ever working in her interest).
In addition, the unnamed "senior McCain official" quoted here is, it seems to me, saying, "Get lost, Governor, and we'll stop targeting and attacking your children." I don't know about anyone else, but I find that highly disturbing.
As always, a good way to respond to this: Go donate to SarahPAC.
Update by JR: If "McCain staffers" were saying these things about Obama, McCain himself would hold a press conference denouncing them. Sickening.
UPDATE by Daniel: Here's Robert Stacy McCain's take on the McCain staffers that are attacking Governor Palin:
This is what the Blame Sarah First crusade by McCain campaign staffers is about: Exculpating them for their own bad judgment, including their decisions to join the McCain campaign in the first place. Make her the scapegoat, so they can walk away pretending that they're perfect.
More here.
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63 comments:
Next paycheck, I'll donate some more.
I can't wait to find out who these people are.
I'm going with Steve Schmit on down..
With the few exceptions that have broken away and defended the Guv.
A pox upon all of them.
Mel, I made the exact same points at HA. Great minds and all that.
Isn't the "Palin camp" attack strangely reminiscent of Ramras and other hacks down in Alaska who accuse C4p of being in Palin's pay? Guess weak minds all think alike too.
OMFG, again with the unnamed sources? This is bad comedy.
Tangled wrote - "...a bad comedy"
Indeed!! At least they could come up with some new stories and talking points. Their collective irrelevance must be eating away at them.
Are we really going to have to suffer this for the next 3+ years...?
I agree with Mel. The statement, if true, comes across as a threat against Governor Palin and her family.
Is this the way some in the GOP are now going to treat good and decent people whose only crime is they want to serve the public good? Is this the accepted standard now? Where is John McCain? Where is Mike Steele? For God sakes speak up and be men and put a stop to this.
I'm sure this is a Mittens supporter, one of the aides called out by Kristol and Scheunemann.
And since the sources aren't named, in all likelihood Jon Ward ended up calling one of the very same individuals who sourced the VF piece. Absolutely shocking that he/she thought it was an accurate prtrayal. Pitchforks, people! Someone's gotta talk eventually!
ok this is getting odd.
something must have happend this week...
all these unknown sources coming out of thw woodwork.
ok this is getting odd.
something must have happend this week...
all these unknown sources coming out of thw woodwork.
Sarah PAC releasing their numbers soon?
Let them all get it off their chests now. No one will remember them in 2 years and it will be old news. Jerks. This will have have a back lash.
JR,
Exactly!
This is driving me nuts! Not only are unnamed people trashing Palin, but people in her own party are faulting her for "getting drawn into it" and responding!
Palin has every right to stand up to these attacks. The GOP better learn their lesson quick.
I was so mad at this that I wrote a blog on it on my sites: www.cityonahillpolitics.blogspot.com and govpalin2012.blogspot.com
Does anyone have Michale Steels email address? He is going to be on Hannity tonight.
OT:
Why haven't any pictures of Sarah in Germany been seen??
DDJ: This is a conservative site, sir. Get your own d*** pitchfork!
JR, you're absolutely right. McCain is one of the biggest culprits in this whole mess.
He could have held one conference and say Palin has been an asset, she is not as described by these anonymous sources, and he will not tolerate it.
Nope, instead he lets this go on. I think he enjoys this. Because he has some kind of sick thinking that it will deflect blame off of him.
I also think Mitt is behind the scenes pushing this up. Palin is his main competition.
Hey "senior McCain official"..why don't you man or woman-up. NAME YOUR NAME you feckless coward.
Here we'll make it easy on you..just point to the name:
Tucker Eskew, Nicole Wallace, John Feehery, Carl Forti, Kevin Madden, Michelle Laxalt, Joe Pounder, Joe Gray, Steve Schmidt, Rob Gray.
What you say?..Not on this list? Well here is another:
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/mccain/mccainorg.html
Just highlight the name in yellow (your favorite color) and get back to us.
Oh, just so you know, Feckless - I have no doubt that you will eventually be found out. Probably just a matter of time, now.
===
I think I'll email Jon Ward just to let him know the the anti-Palin juju (not to be confused with the wonderful C4P commenter "juju") doesn't stick unless the source is..well..credible.
Tommy,
i tweeted Fred Malek to ask if he saw the VF hit piece. his tweets back:
@LoLornaMarie Yes, Todd Purdum's hit piece on Sarah is a disgrace. Worse than Vanity Fair's usual anti-GOP slant. #palin
Highly recommend @jimgeraghty's take on VF Sarah Palin hit piece: http://bit.ly/17Bw1n #tcot #palin #gop
Well Well, Romney just on Fox news talking about a potential run in 2012. Coincidence?
You know I don't know if I am mad or not. I think people across the spectrum are tired of this (hide behind anonymous crap). Excuse my language but grow a pair of nuts and man up and put your name to the E-Mail.
LadySam,
I think that Gov. Sarah visited wounded soldiers in Germany. Perhaps she didn't want those visits to appear to only be a photo op? I don't know, but I think that may be why.
We need to start a campaign of blacklisting everyone who worked on last years train wreck.
It won't get the "unnamed sources"
out, but it will get the Palin defenders to go public.
AKreport, not odd at all.
It's ALL about the Pac numbers coming out and I'm getting, ya' know, kinda' excited about just how great those #s must be, because we have not seen this kind of hysteria in the DC media since the very end of the campaign when they were all scrambling around trying to destroy her out of the gate.
Didn't work then. Won't work now.
I hope the good gov does some interviews when the #s come out, and if someone asks her if this feels like a personal vindication against the DC insiders, who were just criticizing her a few weeks ago, she says something like,
"Nope, not at all. It's not about me. It's about Washington and how angry Americans are about how Washington operates these days."
ICW - You are correct. If there are any photos it will come from either individual soldiers or PAO.
Hey Romney! We're on to you, buddy!
Here's my advice for Sarah:
Watch Tony Blair press conferences and Question Hour.
When the press says 'gop such and such,' you respond, 'Sounds like a possible opponent might be announcing something tomorrow.'
When the press says 'Letterman so and so,' you respond, 'Guess cap and fail isn't going too well. Whenever a story about me develops, it's usually a diversion. So let me tell you about cap and fail . . . .
Sarah: The NYT used to run a body count. You could run a jobs lost count. To every question, a jobs lost response. Take control of the interview.
I think it may be time for Sarah to run against the whole GOP establishment, against any congressman who votes for earmarks, etc. The conservative numbers are growing, and they are waiting for a candidate, in the GOP, not outside it, but willing to lead the housecleaning.
Some times I fall in love with my own posts. From Hot Air. This could have been more polished but I'm sure you will all admire the stunning depth of insight revealed here:
This has been going on for some time. Remember the NRCC dinner, the beltway clique which is trashing her now, reacted with outright paranoia, when it was announced that she’d be speaking to the GOP there. It was almost like the feminists who reacted with horror and anxiety when her nomination was first announced and who felt relieved that an economic crash happened because that would take away the Sarah Palin effect. Well, the same thing happened during the dinner too; only when they managed to have her invitation rescinded did these scumbags feel good and then they immediately went to press with anonymous whispers about how she was unreliable for the stunt they pulled on her.
During the campaign, Bill Kristol made some critical remarks which in my opinion were well-deserved and these people panicked like it was end of the world. Schmidt went on a witch hunt and found Randy Schuenmman was talking to Kristol and therefore got him fired from the campaign. They hired him back to save face. The ridiculous accusation was that Randy was close to Palin, he was helping her going rogue and he was being disloyal to Mccain! All because Randy had the temerity to suggest that the “palling with terrorists” line was vetted by the campaign, unlike the anonymous sources who complained to Politico that it was all Palin’s doing and they had nothing to do with it. For denying that, Randy was accused of treason.
Kristol even did a show with Fox n Friends where they wondered about the deep set paranoia of these people. I think that paranoia about Sarah hasn’t gone away with the campaign, it’s spreading within the entire GOP beltway establishment, within the ranks of its political consultants and its a deeply irrational and troubling emotion.
The same paranoia was evident when Sarah started her PAC. The Beltway clique was especially worried about the role John Coale, former Clinton supporter played in it. They all wanted information. What is he doing there? Why is he on board? Why is she talking with Democrats? Then somebody within the PAC leaked emails to Politico which did a breathless story on how Coale suggested Sarah do a fundraiser for Hillary. Sarah had to fire Becky Donatelli, PAC manager, another Mccain holdover and the leaks stopped. Curious, this isn’t mentioned in Vanity Fair.
They are worried about her every move and they attack her every time they perceive she’s doing something to spread her wings and then complain that she isn’t doing enough !
Word of caution: Before trying to ferret out who these unnamed McCain people are, bear in mind that they may not exist.
Romney's on Special Report at 6 tonight.
Anyone surprised? Didn't think so.
Where was he when Palin was in the lower 48 a few weeks ago? Ha ha ha.
He's about as brave as his anonymous people running around bashing the governor. Disappears when she comes within 100 miles. Only rears his head again when she's safely 4,000 miles away. Ha ha ha.
Notice how there haven't been any more listening tour events since Palin said she'd be involved? Doesn't anyone want to be on a stage with her? Afraid of being upstaged? Ha ha ha.
This is a concerted effort by Willard's Elite Media squads to push Palin to "step aside". If she won't they will destroy her.
She has the libs on the left of her, Rino's on the right, and quicksand from alaska beneath her feet.
The media & Willards Brigade saw how successful last month has been for Palin. The grassroots love her. This scares the daylights out of establishment.
We are Palin's only defense now. With afew media friendlies (Rush,Kristol,Greta,etc)
The grassroot journalism such as C4P, and barbarians will need to carry Palin through the minefields planted by our friendly saboteurs and the PDS Left.
I'm lovin' it, Mark.
Once Palin gets on a roll, they won't be able to stop her.
That's what they are afraid of, and it shows.
I'll bet all this backstabbing has been like a shot of adrenaline to SarahPac.
hrh,
Awesome point about the (lack of) listening tours!
Milhouse,
In some cases, I'm sure that's the case.
This current 'negative campaign' against Gov Palin will soon pass, and Sarah Palin will continue to be Sarah Palin, Wonderwoman.
She will make more appearences and give more interviews and will continue to become increasingly more popular...
Really is quite amazing the attention that Sarah Palin elicits!
Stories like the VF piece are why Republicans continue to lose elections.
The democrats rally behind their members while the republicans seem to get immense pleasure in trashing their own.
Every republican should respond to this article by pointing out Bill Clinton stating this author was a sleazy, scumbag liar.
True, that "Eisenstadt" person from the Harding Insitute, ended up being an internet hoaxster named Gorlin. Steve Schmidt has shown enough contempt and clueless
ignorance to lose any 'benefit of the doubt' that we might have about him. It really does seem that
Vanderleun's two aphorisms;
"Republicans; they thirst for death" and "Better dead than led, (by Palin)are the watchword.
You know these McCain staffers have stepped in it when even Art Chance is defending Sarah over at Red State.
http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2009/07/01/a-friendly-suggestion-to-former-mccain-campaign-staffers/
Scroll down.
Forgive me for being sanguine over this.
This is retread trash from last November when it persuaded no one. Round two is making even less of an impact. In fact, this time around some people in the McCain camp have been up front defending her.
It's all coming from insiders. Being an insider hurts with the voters. "Insiders" are always responsible for all messes. Insiders made the GOP the minority party.
This is an unforced error born out of the fact that Romney doesn't have anything to do and he's a negative guy. It's two whole years before any campaigning.
Besides, Team Mitt is showing already showing desperation. They know that approximately 800,000 people came out to see Sarah Palin in person in '08. They know about Chambliss, Evansville, and Auburn. Palin is screwing up their plans and there scared. She has almost a half a million more friends on Facebook than Mitt. They have no idea what Sarahpac will report.
They're amateur rich preppy frat boys. College pranks are their medium. Trying to defeat a tough, charismatic pro like Governor Palin puts them out of their league. They blew it in 2008. Mitt is doing it again already. He's a bad candidate.
I don't care about what any pundit or poll says from now on. This whole goofy process is merely giving Sarah Louise Heath Palin another coat of Teflon. Now, if unnamed insiders form the McCain campaign had a video, authenticated by the Vatican of the Governor, committing crimes against nature with that caribou she killed and I wouldn't believe it.
It's all about the SarahPac numbers.
Seriously. Consider the timing.
Why in the world would they choose now to rehash this stuff?
There's nothing going on now. Except the release of the SarahPac numbers.
So Mitt's been on Fox all day, including Special Report tonight. A day after (probably) some of his people contributed to the VF piece.
I prefer Brit Hume to Bret Bair, I hope Brit has commentary tonight.
hrh, I believe I heard that Megyn Kelly is anchoring Special Report tonight---first time ever a woman has done so according to the report I heard.
howlroll, cool beans, that'll be good.
Meanwhile our illustrious VP can't draw 100 to talk about the stimulus in Erie:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/blogs/fortyfourthestate/
He should've invited Sarah to come with him. 70 million might show up to see them together again.
hrh, more than sarahpac numbers it could be the legion of polls that show she is increasing her ascendancy. the straw poll where she spanked the rest of them and the other one where she clearly dominated the favorables in both cosnervative/moderate wings of GOP. i think the beltway got a body shock looking at those polls.
NRO is narrowing down the smear merchants!
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWNhZjNjMDBiMDk4MGFiMmU1MGU4NmZmZDMwMmZiZjM=
O.K. This a Must Read by Mark Hemingway:
Complete with emails fowareded to the NRO. Good stuff.
"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign?"
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWNhZjNjMDBiMDk4MGFiMmU1MGU4NmZmZDMwMmZiZjM=
Now we are getting somewhere. Hmm, both Weekly Standard and Corner are backing the Gov. I have never seen Corner go to such lengths to defend her. Interesting. Vinteresting.
I believe Governor Palin's take on these unnamed sources and leakers...they're jerks.
Here are 10 reasons for the recent attacks on Governor Sarah Palin by VF, Mike Allen on MSNBC and McCain staffers etc:
1)After Sarah fired Becky Donatelli, the leaks suddenly stopped. She built herself an inpenetrable fortress in Alaska and no matter how hard the opposition tried it couldn't breach it for juicy rumors. Politicos hate it when there is a major vacuum in their knowledge.
2)Except for a few SarahPAC loyal cronies such as Meg Stapleton, Pam Pryor, and Tim Crawford and of course Sarah nobody else appears to be privy to how SarahPAC has been doing in the last 3 months. Anti-Palin forces would like to know and so would the MSM. That perhaps the Palin train has already left the station and that there is no way of dismantling it and putting in back in the railyard has led to uneasiness and worry.
3)Now assuming the worst, anti-Palin forces had to find a way to redirect the narrative in July from Sarah's financial-political clout to Sarah's personality, mentality or judgment. I firmly believe this is an opening salvo by the Obama war room or anti-Palin GOP forces to test the waters to whether it might be advisable to tone down the 'Sarah is stupid' narrative to then highlight 'Sarah is crazy' narrative. Quite simply since Media Malpractice 'the Sarah is stupid narrative' has not worked as well. And the Lauer interview in the middle of June confirmed that Sarah had indeed gone a long way to transform herself. The Letterman apology was just icing on the cake.
4)As pointed out by PEC in the open thread (10:44AM)"The 20000 at Auburn NY (Seward celebrations)...shook the Republican elitists to the core. Everything they had done to destroy this woman...a very little publicized event in a small town in mid-New York still brought a huge crowd to support her...can you also imagine what that did for her also...since that moment the confident Sarah we all know and love has been back."
5)Then you have the release of the PPP poll and PEW poll which both show that Sarah has a 70%+ approval/favorability rating with all Republicans and the PEW poll further revealed that she had received the thumbs up from 84% of white evangelical Republicans and 80% of conservative Republicans; but the interesting number is that she also was receiving 61% approval from moderate Republicans throughout the nation. Even Reagan in his heyday probably did not do much better than that between 1976-1980.
6)Then you have the Obama war room who has been carrying on a daily vicious campaign through its various surrogates, including the 'ethical-complaint anklebiters in Alaska to destroy Sarah Palin. Obama and his team hate her guts. I know it and Sarah knows it. It started from the mockery of the Messiah in her convention speech, and Sarah defiantly has drawn blood from Obama on several occasions since then. This is payback from the Chicago thuggery.
7)The MSM hate Sarah for her Reagan conservatism beliefs. To it Reagan conservatism as an set of core beliefs is far worse that the radical Islam belief of killing infidels and terrorizing Americans.
And for some Sarah Palin is more a danger to America than Osama bin Laden.
8)George Soros and his cohorts on the Far Left including Ayres and Dohrn and Obama fear that 40 years of planning the radical takeover of the American government could go up in smoke if this 'hick from Wasilla' gains more traction. They have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at her but she still stands and appears to have emerged stronger than ever. But don't ever believe that they won't stop. And they will try anything if you know what I mean.
9)Forces tied to Romney including now the ex-McCain handlers have decided to play hard ball with this upstart from Alaska. They are warning her to cease and desist and not run or they'll destroy you and your family. Internecine warfare is not good for the GOP but they don't care. Romney intends to run again and he's vowed not to lose again.
10) If she is elected those who are now favored politicos will no longer be so. They are fighting for their own survival.
I think C4P needs to post the Mark Hemingway piece.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWNhZjNjMDBiMDk4MGFiMmU1MGU4NmZmZDMwMmZiZjM=
What happened to the Wallace story from Hemmingway?
I just saw this over @ Freep from a poster.
From the Statesman.com dated March 27, 2007 by W. Gardner Selby.
"Romney declares Texas finance committee"
"Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, seeking the GOP nod for president next year, aired his Texas statewide finance committee members today. We’ll guess there’s no overlap with the last Massachusetts fellow to run for president — U.S. Sen. John Kerry."
[
"Mark Wallace (Houston) - Wallace is president and CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s largest children’s hospital."
http://tinyurl.com/mhohak
Mark Wallace husband of Nicole Wallace.
Coincidence?
upinak,
It is still there - try this:
http://tinyurl.com/nhyuof
Boy oh boy....
As they say..."keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
Boy you just can't trust anyone!
I wouldn't have ANYONE, even remotely involved in the last election, on my team.
hopefully she picks from the "local yocals" and stays far, far away from the beltway trash.
I wonder if Governor Palin knows who the "leakers" were????
If the leakers are ever officially outed, this could really make Sarah look good and above it all.
Sarah disagreed with abandoning MI. Oh, she's now a 'diva'.
Ridiculous.
This is why it is so important for Sarah to show up at CPAC in Feb.
Not necessarily as a candidate in 2012, but to simply show that she is the conservative.
If she does on say the Saturday somehow and confirms early enough for all her supporters to get tickets to that day, she will crack the foundation of the hotel with all the ordinary barbarians with a 4 to 1 ratio vs. the college Romney frat boys.
She needs to give her people some red meat early next year.
I've given $1,250 more this week to SarahPAC to help them get those numbers up.
I don't want to give more though because I am storing up in case she needs it for a POTUS run.
Then it's job quitting time to jump in the longboat and raid England...I mean volunteer for her campaign.
Obambi and the Dems in Congress scare the bejeezuz out of me.
It would be different if I had no children, but I have a young boy so I have to fight for his future.
Are contributions to a PAC limited to a political race, or can you give the max each year? This is the first time I've ever thought of donating...
Update by JR: If "McCain staffers" were saying these things about Obama, McCain himself would hold a press conference denouncing them. Sickening.
Please explain--why would "McCain staffers" be dissing Obama?
Sarah isn't running for anything right now and they are attacking her. What makes them think that she will run for anything in the future? They attack her, because they enjoy it and there are no consequences for doing it. In fact, they get rewarded for doing it. She hasn't done anything to promote the Vanity Fair article, yet it was done.
I'm from the most conservative part of Michigan and let me say. Mitten's crazy if he thinks he's got the Mitten state sewn up against Palin. She filled the Van Andel arena in Grand Rapids with enough ticket requests to fill it again.
When Mitt came for his rally he could have held it at a Rally's. Basically they rolled baby Mitt out of the state on a gurney the day he was born. That's how deep his roots there are.
Clearly, McCain staffers are Democrats - Republicans in name only. But we knew that.
jimr3, that's a different Mark Wallace. The Texas Wallace is Mark A. Wallace. Nicole's hubby is Mark D. Wallace from Florida.
- JP
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