Posted on 11/14/2014 1:33:25 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Usually presidential campaigns don’t have infighting and meltdowns until at least a few weeks after the campaign officially begins. Hillary Clinton’s throngs of potential consultants and officials couldn’t wait a few weeks to begin jockeying for power in the Great Coronation March (New And Improved Edition). According to ABC News, someone on the inside of a private listserv has leaked e-mails in an attempt to kneecap two other potential campaign leaders:
For the past five years, a prominent Democratic operative who is a leading contender to manage a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign has maintained a private email listserv for friends and associates that carries a provocative name: the “Mook Mafia.”
The listserv, which one member said reaches more than 150 fellow campaign veterans, has been a means for Robby Mook and a close friend Marlon Marshall to stay connected with many of the operatives who would likely populate a Democratic presidential campaign in 2016. Mook and Marshall have both been mentioned as possible Hillary Clinton campaign managers.
And someone else really wants to keep that from happening:
Copies of a cache of the emails obtained by ABC News, and revealed publicly for the first time, show Mook and Marshall demonstrating an aggressive tone in rallying their friends behind political causes, in exchanges that are often self-mocking and sometimes border on being profane.
They include rallying cries to, in Mook’s words, “smite Republicans mafia-style,” and, to quote Marshall, “punish those voters.” Mook sometimes calls himself “Deacon” in the emails, while Marshall, now a senior White House aide, refers to himself as “Reverend” in many of the exchanges. …
The private emails were provided to ABC News by a Democrat on the listserv who has worked alongside Mook and Marshall on previous campaigns. The person who provided the emails is, like the vast majority of those on the listserv, supportive of Hillary Clinton, but does not support the idea of Mook or Marshall holding leadership roles in a second presidential bid. They were provided on the condition of anonymity.
There isn’t much from these e-mails that will shock anyone who’s been around campaign activists for any length of time. Mook and Marshall sound like geeks who get a thrill out of gangster poseurism, with lots of adolescent giggling at their own political virility. At times, though, they sound like they’ve lost touch with reality, as in this message to the listserv:
This has been a tough cycle — midterms always are — but what’s been so amazing to me is how from the Senate to the House to Governor’s races and beyond, we’ve been keeping the other side on defense. So many of you have played leadershp [sic] roles building field programs, managing campaigns, or running programs from allied groups. It’s been incredibly insipiring [sic] to see.
That message went out at 2:59 pm … on Election Day. In exactly which Senate races did Mook think Republicans were playing defense? The GOP went on to win a net gain in gubernatorial ranks of three seats (and maybe four, if Sean Parnell pulls off a miracle in Alaska), won eight take-aways in the Senate on November 4th, and got its largest House majority since Herbert Hoover. That’s a remarkable level of denial, which is not exactly going to inspire confidence in Mook’s ability to deal with the tough realities of a presidential campaign.
Even so, leaking messages from a listserv seems like a particularly “mafia style” move, to use Mook’s own terminology, especially at this stage of the (non-)campaign. What’s behind this eruption? Aaron Blake agrees that the “bro-ey” messages aren’t the story, but rather a measure of the competition for what may be an extremely limited number of campaign positions on the Democratic side of the ledger in the 2016 cycle:
Welcome the Campaign Operative Hillary Clinton Sweepstakes. It goes like this: Clinton is basically the only viable Democratic presidential candidate right now. The problem is: There are lots and lots of operative who want to work for the winner. Usually, these operatives would be able to work for Clinton or Barack Obama or John Edwards (or Chris Dodd or Joe Biden, etc.), believing they had a good chance of winning.
This year, it’s just Hillary Clinton. Add to that the fact that she’s seen as the favorite to win in the general election, too, and stakes are even higher for ambitious would-be White House aides and campaign consultants. (For proof, look no further than all the folks who have “former Obama aide” on their business cards.) Hence, there is a campaign to join the Clinton campaign, and someone — anonymously — just dropped some opposition research on their opponents.
And here’s the real takeaway — at least as pertains to the 2016 campaign: The 2008 Clinton campaign operation (even more so than most of these kinds of campaigns) was a study in factionalism and power struggles. One of the biggest questions Clinton confronts as she tries to get her 2016 campaign off the ground is whether there will be similar kind of infighting and back-biting that might have ruined her chances in 2008. …
If aides are preemptively leaking e-mails about potential competitors for jobs, just think what will happen when they are asked to work alongside one another and begin to disagree on the strategy of a campaign that won’t always be smooth sailing.
In other words … pass the popcorn. And don’t order those Hillary Clinton general-election posters and swag just yet.
I just don’t see a lot of real enthusiasm anywhere for this witch. The only reason any democrat operatives will support her is for their own pursuit of power. Which automaticaly means a campaign fraught with infighting, and where losers in the internal power struggles will turn on the campaign. (Which sounds a whole lot like McCain’s campaign). Shrillery has made too many enemies, is inherently unlikeable, and has too much public baggage.
In other words, she’s perfect. And not going to be their candidate.
Big fight brewing
The hard core leftist democrats want to make Hillary America’s First Queen.
The moderate leftist democrats just want to make her President For Life.
Disagree. The hard core want Warren.
it will all go to hell when she strokes out
I’ll renew my prediction...Fauxahontas for prez.
Dems starting to eat their own. Just the prelude.
Sux to be them.
But, but, but, but...wasn’t she “the one” and “inevitable” in 2007?
I can’t wait for some middle aged, good looking, far left liberal Hispanic to step up and take it away from Hillary this time!
yeah, it’s all just geeks being playful. Can you imagine how abc and the rest of the obammunist lapdog media would have screamed bloody murder if these emails had come from the Sara Palin camp?
who is leading up the strategy on the right for Presidential primaries, specifically New Hampshire and Maine (the only 2 states in N.Eng. of significance)?
Both races are likely to be Paulistas vs. the establishment.
Is there room in NH for a Cruz? If so, explain your answer.
Wishful thinking does not fit the definition of “explain your answer”.
14 months away. Paulistas are dominant in the rural western counties
Cheshire
Coös
Grafton
Sullivan
and the establishment candidate will dominate in Merrimack, Hillsborough & Rockingham.
I am planning to stay out of it like the rest of Freeperville, unless I hear convincing evidence.
F Paul and F Jeb and the F Fat Boys (Cristy Creme and Suckabee) and F Romney and F Portman.
My “strategy” is to support the best person running that has a chance and belittle all the idiots who won’t see reason. Based on 2012, that won’t work.
I backed Santorum, who was clearly the most conservative of the 4 remaining candidates and the only one in a position to challenge Romney. Most freepers continued to support Newt Gingrich, who in addition to being almost as big a RINO as Romney, had NO CHANCE of winning any further primaries after his disastrous attack on Romney from the left, and was even less electable than Romney in the general election due to his rambling idiocy and rancid stink of concentrated arrogance. Newty made Rick Perry’s campaign look good and Rick Perry’s campaign was shite.
Yet all logic fell on deaf ears, “Santorum is a stalking horse for Romney!” “Todd Palin supports Newt!” “Mama, I want my baba!”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIJJMa3y0ek
You tell me, are there still conservatives there or is everyone either a RINO or a libertarian douchebag?
Ah, the pesky use of logic:
In honor of Dumb & Dumber “2” (actually the third film) being released soon, here is a look at Santorum supporters (Lauren Holly) trying to explain Newt’s odds of winning the GOP nomination to Newt supporters (Jim Carrey):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCFB2akLh4s
The scenario also works well for 2010, with Brady supporters trying to explain the odds of Oberweis “beating Blago” to Obie supporters.
Santorum boycotted the Maine caucuses which made it difficult to support him there.
He had a barely visible campaign in NH ... and then made a weird effort after his IA victory. His campaign manager was a foul-mouthed frat boy.
So yeah, did the Iowa conservatives get it right?
The problem with boycotting New England is that it gives another candidate a chance to gain momentum.
Giuliani stayed out of NH in 2008 and it opened the door for McCain to emerge as the alternative to Mitt. Bad strategy for Rudy. Santorum need to compete in NH in order to finish a strong 4th place and eliminate Newt.
Santorum failed in SC and FL. What was that all about? Lack of resources. He also skipped Nevada and finished 4th.
As a conservative, it is necessary to compete everywhere ... as best you can. otherwise, another conservative alternative will emerge out of the vacuum.
“are there still conservatives there ? (New Hampshire)”
here is the problem with NH:
if the first primary were held in another state ... all candidates would be starting from scratch to build their organization. Not so in NH. There is a permanent RINO org in place for the sole purpose of dominating the NH primary and receiving the resulting spoils from the national GOP. the same org that backed ROmney is still in place and geared up for the 2015 campaign.
Likewise with the Paulinistas. A large grassroots org exists.
Not so with the conservative alternatives. They would be starting from scratch to build their team. Not good.
Cruz should still compete and finish 3rd ... otherwise it opens the door for somebody else.
Yes, there are conservatives in NH that normally would vote Cruz, but they have been co-opted into one of the other 2 groups ... the strong organizations suck up the random conservative voters. Strong campaigns do well, poor campaigns do poorly.
Again, if CRUZ boycotts NH and ME, could somebody rationally support him there?
AFTER Florida Pete, after NEWT lost Florida by talking like Noam Chomsky vis a vis Mitt and Bain Capital, Mitt won Nevada, but Santorum won the next batch of contests and was either winning or coming in 2nd to Mitt in almost every contest thereafter, Newt was coming in 4th to Ron Paul half the time. Mitt could have still been stopped at that point, the CRYSTAL CLEAR thing to do was to back Santorum. But no, the Newticles wouldn’t have it even though their boy was burnt toast. F.ing retards.
Now, 2016, Rand Paul is Paultarian like his pappy, not a conservative, and I doubt he can win a general election, so why should a conservative in NH or ME vote for HIM? Just to stop the “establishment guy”?
It’s clear we need primary reform, NH should not be so important. In lieu of that, what to do, I don’t know. Maybe we need a major campaign to marginalize NH, conservatives would need to get their talking points in order and go on the air and talk about how the state is not representative of the GOP to mitigate any momentum the winner gets, really drive the point home. That would take, you know, team work, are conservatives capable of that? I don’t know, I doubt it.
I don’t know about a “boycott” (remember Rudy’s “brilliant” strategy to ignore the early contests and focus on Florida? lololololololol), be on the ballot no matter how long the odds are, if the end result of that is that “the establishment guy” wins it over Rand, so what? An early exit by Paul would the best thing for conservatives, so he stops siphoning votes that should go to an actual conservative who can win the election.
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