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!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.