Posted on 11/07/2008 3:20:51 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Last night, CNN's Campbell Brown had this to say about the attacks on Sarah Palin:
"I find it so stunning that the very people who introduced us to Sarah Palin, who told us she would make a great Vice President, have now turned on her with a vengeance..."
Yes, that does sound "stunning." So stunning, in fact, that it is unbelievable.
... How do I know the attacks on Palin are a calculated preemptive strike from supporters of a potential 2012 Palin foe -- not from a McCain loyalist? Aside from my personal knowledge that some of this stuff (not necessarily the Newsweek leaks, but other mockery) is coming from supporters of a potential competitor -- it also makes perfect sense.
Even if the attacks on Palin were true (they are not), no McCain loyalist would ever leak this stuff -- because an attack on Palin is also an indictment on McCain's judgment.
The attacks are coming from disgruntled McCain staffers, to be sure, but these folks have other loyalties ...
Who else can we speculate on?
I have no doubt it is Romney.
Romney looks like a used car salesman...wouldn’t surprise me....
Huck looks like a farmer trying to sell rotten tomatoes....
IF its Romney, he is the pig
Ex-McCain aide says he’s still loyal
By: Josephine Hearn
Feb 21, 2008 08:10 PM EST
Weaver had provided the critical, on-the-record foundation for stories denigrating the senator.
Photo: AP
After The New York Times published a story Thursday suggesting that John McCain had an improper relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, his campaign took to the airwaves to trash the story.
“All these things are implications, two unnamed sources and no facts in the article,” campaign manager Rick Davis told CBS’s “Early Show.”
But in fact, there was a named source who confirmed facts to both the Times and The Washington Post — and, unexpectedly, he came right out of the McCain camp.
John Weaver, the Arizona Republican’s former chief strategist and a longtime confidant, confirmed to the two papers that he had met with Iseman in 1999 and told her to stop bragging about her influence with McCain and the Senate Commerce Committee. He also said he had done so after “a discussion among campaign leadership” about her. Weaver’s information formed the underpinnings of stories in both papers about McCain aides being worried that Iseman could become a political liability.
In other words, Weaver, an apparent McCain loyalist, had provided the critical, on-the-record foundation for stories denigrating the senator.
This is not the first time Weaver finds himself in the middle of an uproar. A brooding, volatile, longtime top strategist who serves as a favorite inside source for political reporters, Weaver had a high-profile falling-out with Karl Rove in the late 1980s and a well-publicized reunion with him a decade and a half later. In 2002, Weaver left the Republican Party, worked for Democratic candidates, and then returned to McCain’s side shortly afterward.
Even after quitting the McCain campaign last summer in a staff shake-up, Weaver still maintains close ties to remaining staffers, he told Politico on Thursday, though his role remains minor.
Weaver said that when the Times confronted him in December with details of his meeting with Iseman, he felt compelled to corroborate the story.
“I’m not in the business of lying to reporters,” he said. “Here were the choices I had: Deny it or confirm it. It was a fact. And it was a fact that had nothing to do with John McCain’s integrity.”
Weaver vigorously maintains that he is loyal to McCain. “Not one day has gone by that I have not talked to campaign leadership, … that I haven’t tried to help him become president,” he said.
Indeed, the campaign brought Weaver in just last week to help broker Mitt Romney’s endorsement.
Weaver also said that he had not served as one of the unnamed sources who provided additional information to the Times. And everything he told the newspaper he immediately relayed to the campaign, he said.
Senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told MSNBC on Thursday that Weaver’s loyalty was not in doubt even though he no longer worked for the campaign.
“Nobody on the McCain campaign believes Weaver is the source of this,” Schmidt said.
A former executive director of the Texas Republican Party, Weaver first gained national prominence when he served as political director to McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign. When McCain suffered demoralizing losses in that race, which was marked by ugly intraparty conflicts in places like South Carolina, Weaver became disillusioned with the Republican Party.
In early 2002, Weaver left the GOP and registered as a Democrat in Manhattan. By May, he was consulting for the House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, plotting strategies to defeat Republicans. The DCCC’s then-executive director was Howard Wolfson, now chief spokesman for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Soon after, though, Weaver was back with McCain, orchestrating a public reconciliation with President Bush after the acrimony of the 2000 campaign. Putting together that meeting required that he make peace with his old nemesis Rove. Yet during the same campaign, Weaver was reported to be informally advising John F. Kerry and discussing with him the prospect of a Kerry-McCain ticket.
For now, Weaver says he remains largely on the sidelines in this campaign, working at his own public affairs firm serving corporate clients.
I wrote to the RNC today and told them they better put a stop to this, it is hurting Sarah and hurting the party (whatever is left of it) I also told them I hope they hadn’t sent a team of lawyers to count the clothes. I really let them have it. No support from me until they start growing a pair and doing something positive.
Is that an entire AP article? You might get some frowns from the Mods.
I would never vote for him.
Carl Cameron, who was Fox’s embed in the McCain campaign, is the one who reported being told these things directly by the McCain people. Cameron isn’t a liar as far as I know and he sure isn’t a lefty.
I don’t think the origins of this is the rats, unless of course some of the McCain people were rat operatives infiltrating the campaign, which I suppose is possible, McCain being the dolt that he is.
There’s nothing unusual or surprising about seeing Repubs shoot one another as well as themselves in the foot. Plenty of media personalities and spokespeople for conservatives tore McCain down publicly on TV, in writing, and over the airwaves, so there’s nothing new about it.
Romney. Huckabee went out and got himself a TV program and will probably be just fine, looking at some nice position in the next GOP admin.
Romney sat around and got bitter and blamed McCain, whose chances he tried to either damn with faint praise or sabotage altogether. And he was clearly really POed by the selection of Palin as VP. This is true even though I doubt that he had a chance; I and probably many other folks who voted for McCain would have had serious second thoughts if somebody as socially liberal as Romney had been on the ticket. If McCain had announced Palin earlier and supported her, he’d probably be in the “Office of the President Elect” now. Tough nougies, Mitt.
Sounds like Weaver is a SNAKE!! And McCain and Romney are STUPID for keeping a DEMOCRAT like him around!!
Sounds more like Hucklebee to me. Huck was closer to McCain.
Thats not Huck’s style.
It must be Romney. He brims with uber-ambition and winning at any cost. They all have that but his is more evident. He is a non starter for president. I have nothing against him but I could save him a lot of money...don’t bother Mitt.
Palin Jindal 2012 or 2016 (God I hope we don’t have to wait that long but if Barry has a decent term fughetaboutit, he owns the media now.)
Hey! I used to be a used car salesman.
LOL! What a joke! The slimers were just McCain "staffers" who were "loyal" to "others". The slimers are McCAIN'S TOP PEOPLE. Of course, they are no longer loyal to McQueeg--he's a politically dead man who won't be signing checks in 2010 or 2012, but these hack's are trying to blame Palin to (a) cut her out in the future (cause she sure knows better than to hire these hacks for anything) and (b) to divert the blame for the pitiful campaign THE HACKS and McQueeg were responsible for.
Implying anyone ELSE (I wonder who?) is responsible for the smears is a pitiful joke. It's McQueeg's boys and ultimately McQueeg himself. Period.
There is NO loyalty to McShame today from any side! He is a "has been" and he is done - stick a fork in him.
He will wander the halls of the Senate as long as possible thinking what might have been because (like Bob Dole) - damn it! the U.S. OWES him the Presidency! He will wander like the Ancient Mariner with a story to tell anyone who will stop to listen but no one will.
He is simply a footnote in history and the people around him are looking for the next meal ticket. Romney, Huckabee, maybe, but I think not.
“...Hey! I used to be a used car salesman. ...”
Is that you Romney?
Go back to Iowa in the primaries and examine what appened to Fred Thompson. IMO, there lies the answer.
NO MORE NEOCONS!
“How do I know the attacks on Palin are a calculated preemptive strike from supporters of a potential 2012 Palin foe — not from a McCain loyalist?”
Many of us are wondering that, and I hope the truth comes out.
Operation Leper: Sign Our Petition
Posted by: Erick Erickson
Friday, November 7, 2008 at 02:32PM CST
I pledge to publicly expose and actively oppose all of John McCain’s staffers smearing Sarah Palin and will oppose any candidate who hires these people for a 2012 race. These smear artists must become political lepers for the good of the country and the Republican Party.
Whoever it is will be meat. I love Sarah and want to see her in the White House for 2012.
The competitor's fingerprints are very, very clear.
The democratic party is trying to caricaturize Palin before next election because she could devastate them just like Obama did us.
Read the article again.
“The attacks are coming from disgruntled McCain staffers, to be sure, but these folks have other loyalties “
*******
How do they know that?
Sounds to me like the kind of nasty attacks that would come from incompetent McCain loyalists who out to find scapegoats for their own pathetic campaign. They are from McCaian campiagn staff aren’t they?
And McCain is yet to come out and slap these bottom feeders down has he?
No surprise McCain lost, with such idiots runing his campaign.
Well, if the insiders are voicing this many “complaints” post-mordem, then Sarah is just fine.
Bullhockey, it is not Romney.. that is ludicrous. It might be some plants from the Obama camp. Doint the Devil’s work for Obama
<<< ...he sure isn’t a lefty. >>>
*****
On what do you base your opinion. I have watched him for three presidential election cycles and he sneers at Republican candidates as he makes his daily reports.
Bingo! Bush and Cheney tried to push Romney on McCain as VP and if everyone remembers the same pundits that went after Sarah were pushing Romney for VP. You are right he should have introduced Sarah earlier because she had been at the top of the list for sometime.
Romney doesn’t stand a chance because all the other campaigns from 2008 primaries have long memories and know how he systematically tanked other campaigns with leaks that the NY Times would then retract on Page 67. All you had to do was listen to Romney’s speech at the Convention compared to Huckabee, Thompson, and Rudy to know who had their nose out of joint.
When does Romney plan on making good on his promise to stay in Michigan to help McCain/Palin win? I don’t want to see Romney or any other Republican that ran in the 2008 primary run again. Time for new blood.
As for anyone that said Romney would do better think again. In Oklahoma in 2006, the Romney candidate ran for Governor and got beat 2-1. In 2008, McCain/Palin ran and beat Obama 2-1. All of the out of state 2006 sleezy consultants went to Romney after the failed Istook campaign in 2006.
Just remember that Romney said his sons working on his campaign were the same as their serving in the military. That one statement still grinds me to no end!
Nicolle worked for Katie Couric before she joined the McCain 2008 campaign as an adviser where she eventually came to work with the Palin campaign.
Was is Nicolle that set up the five disastrous Palin interview sessions with her former boss Katie Couric, but never scheduled one appearance with Bill O’Rielly?
Not content with the lies and half-truths of discredited journalists, you concoct your own.
If Governor Palin retains even half of the core popularity she has today - and if she chooses to use it - she will almost have to unseat the power brokers within the party that gave us McPain for not-president.
People like Palin, Jendal, Hunter, and a very few others within the party CAN build on 2008 and take a serious shot at 2012. Probably none of them have the entire package today, and some, like Hunter, should plan for supporting roles only but are needed to give any new pubby party some brass.
NONE of them are on yesterday's "A-List".
The dark lords of the party, probably some that we don't even know about, others that we've been voting for over decades, are apt to fight tooth and nail to retain their Bush/Dole/McCain almost republican, not nearly conservative, policies alive.
Heck, that's what Americans want - right?
The attacks on Governor Palin come from deep within the party itself, not from some miffed gofer who can name the president of every cr@# hole in Africa.
To end on a humorous note: did I note today that as of president elect Obambi's first press conference, Senator Sheets stepped down from this chairmanship?
Maybe, fingers seem to be pointing to ex-Romney staffers moved to McCain’s campaign.
Hmmm... another incoherent story trying to stir up the anti Romney crowd. The press and a gang of hostile people on Free Republic continue to have a great time feeding dissension amongst republicans and all you Romney haters eat it up. The only former candidate I saw stumping for McCain/Palin was Romney. Not Thompson, not Hunter, not Huckleberry. If we had a republican primary where only Republicans could vote, and all held on the same day, we might not have “my president is black” tee shirts all the rage.
And if it isn't, he's not.
How friggin' profound can a post get?
Mitt is a traitor and an Edwards Hair-a-fobe
“The democratic party is trying to caricaturize Palin before next election because she could devastate them just like Obama did us.”
Yes, and the mind boggling part is that unlike Obama, Palin could accomplish it with far less effort because she would only have to tell the truth.
They probably screwed Romney over before they went to McCain's campaign.. Mary Matlin was one of Romney's staffers I believe.. wife to George Carville, I have been wondering about her loyalities for a while now.
Explain this to me will ya?
How the heck can Romney “loyalists” be so deeply imbeded in the McCain campaign then?
These people are Romney loyalists and they never even bothered to campiagn with a much richer Romney campiagn, bt campiagned with romney instead?
What on earth were they doing with a McCain campiagn?
If it comes from the McCain campiagn, its is from McCain loyalists. Simple.
This piece just doesn’t make any sense.
How do you know it’s Romney? ... How do you know who it is, if in fact it’s any thing other than the imagination of a reporter? Sarah is a threat, therefore she is attacked. Evidently Romney is a threat or you and your ilk wouldn’t be attacking him either. I’m beginning to think FR is filled NOT with conservatives but with moles. Sarah and Romney are on the same side. They both love liberty, are decent people and would make wonderful leaders.
It is the Media that controls the Politics, they are trying to caricaturize Palin, just as they Did Romney and Huckabee... when they were running for President nominee.
They don't know. They just believe what the media tells them. Media wins again.
Remember, McCain called himself a maverick. How many democrats did he have in his campaign? I imagine a number of them.
Who else can we speculate on? ...Democrats (Obama).
After the Convention, Romney sent the Bush people who had gone to him to McCain to help out with Sarah which is why I refer to them as Romney/Bush people.
The reason is it is obvious is that Rudy/Thompson/Huckabee staffers had been with McCain for sometime and no leaks or we would have known about Sarah. After the Convention the infighting and leaks started with the addition of the Bush people through Romney. Some of them came from Jeb and some from GW but they had not been with McCain before.
When the campaigns started out most of Jeb and GW’s people went to Romney along with some of the sleezy consultants that had been here in OK for a candidate for Governor. Some of these people ended up on McCain — bad choice — he should have done more with less.
worked for Democratic candidates,... Heck, I didn’t even have to read the rest of the posts!!!
Ok, one of the 100000 posts on this today blamed it on Nichole Wallace, who never worked for Mitt,Huck or Judy. Can’t remember which article.
I have never ever seen a used car salesman become a self-made multimillionaire.
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