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A friendly suggestion to former McCain campaign staffers.

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  July 1st, 2009 at 11:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Background: Hot Air (Allahpundit), Hot Air (Ed Morrissey), The Weekly Standard, ConsiderThisNews (Pat Hynes), The Politico

Since everybody else is piling on, let me add my own comment to the fray.  If you were one of the people who participated in that Vanity Fair hit piece, and we find out your name, you will be a net drag on any national campaign for the rest of your professional career.  Not because you helped the Left go after Governor Palin, but because you are an untrustworthy sneak who is dedicated to propping up the elitist system in DC, not fixing it.   Any candidate that hires you will have to overcome the base’s natural reluctance to work with a campaign that would hire someone like you.  This can be done; but it’s much easier to hire people with your skill set and a name for basic party loyalty.

If you are a McCain staffer who did not talk to VF, I suggest that you find some way to demonstrate that you aren’t one of the people in the first paragraph.  Because until we know who talked, the default assumption is going to be that you may have talked.  This will not wreck your career, but it will blight it if the base has anything to say about it.  On the bright side, a simple and declarative denial will do; of course, if your denial is a lie and we catch you at it, brush up on your typing skills.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • bk

    Wouldn’t that hurt their chances of getting hired later by the Romney campaign?

  • mr_underhill

    This should make things easier –

    http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/mccain/mccainorg.html

  • Rod_Patrick

    BK has raised the bar for uttering sarcasms at Redstate, in a very good way.

  • azaeroprof

    The smear-Palin stories may have embarassed her (and McCain) during the late stages of the campaign, and even shortly thereafter. But I truly believe that today, stories like the VF article and its associated infighting, actually work to Palin’s favor. What happens is that the anti-Palin stories (which first of all VERY FEW people even read) serve to rally conservatives and even moderate Repubs to Palin’s defense and cause folks like us at RS to “out” the a**holes who were the sources of the story. And what’s more, these stories throw gasoline on the fire of those who suffer from PDS, to the point where they look so ridiculous that they are starting to fall into the category of the 9/11 trufers (or more appropriately, the Trig trufers). I mean, is there a person alive who is not a deranged radical liberal who gives Chris Mathews ANY CREDIBILITY WHATSOEVER! Between his tingly leg and his anti-Palin vitriol, he has truly “jumped the shark into crazytown”.

  • djemi
  • azaeroprof

    I would love to see a permanent link at the top of the RS front page. This link should pull up a list of all of the McCain staffers (see above) where you can present their responses to PERSONAL LETTERS from you, inviting them to explain to the Conservative community (via RS) that they are NOT the sources of these bash-Palin stories and pledge to keep their yaps shut in the future. You would think the ones who have not been involved would love the chance to clear their names rather than be drug down in the gutter with the…well, guttersnipes.

  • http://dezignworx-ae.com tsquare

    Why are you going soft of these guys?

    My advice to the McCain staffers?

    Find yourselves a job as far away from politics as you possibly can. Hope that we don’t hunt you down there… and that we can find some forgiveness for you as you hand us our order out the drive through window.

    No Love… tsquare

  • Sundayjack

    Thank you for that. Every last one of them should wear the McStain until they prove themselves lily white.

  • jimmuy8

    Everyone who worked on the McCain campaign ought to have a scarlet M branded to their forehead and banished forever.

    Time has blurred many of the stupid moves and acts of that campaign . But, an elephant never forgets.

    If any of them were honest and had a shred of decency, they’d publicly apologize to the party for their blind personal stupidity and greed. On the internet side, there’s several who got out front telling us how great McCain would be, that he was the only Republican that could win, how all these “independents” and cross-over Democrats who were helping him win were going to vote for him in November and–worse–how stupid we all were for saying it wasn’t going to happen, that the GOP lost the day McCain won NH and FL. Gee, who turned out to be right?

    Funny how the McCain backers won’t tell us how great he is anymore and the insiders have resorted to propping him up by tearing everyone else down—just like their boss. And by funny, I mean typical and predictable elitist, insider parasitic behavior.

  • Martin Knight
  • http://www.meforum.org/ NittanyLion

    Though I think all McCain staffers should also be required to pass a basic competency test prior to hiring. Not being a backstabber is a good start, but not enough after the Straight Talk Trainwreck.

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    ..been the subject of constant and concerted political and personal attacks at such a high level for this long (almost 8 months and running) after they’ve lost. Especially if they’d never held national office before.

    Thinking back, I can’t think of a similar case.

    This says that her opponents view Sarah as the key condensation nucleus for a defeated Republican party that is ineffectively swirling around the atmosphere.

    Her ability to articulate conservatism and connect with a national audience at this point is something that no other Republican comes close to at this time – and the Democrats see this.
    n(This is not a Sarah for 2012 endorsement – nor a commentary on her skill in being governor nor her ability to effectively deal with state issues – but rather a more basic recognition that she is a key player at the national level in our efforts to reestablish an effective Republican party grounded in conservative principles.)

    Which is why we need to rally to her side in the face of these kind of attacks and especially turn on anonymous and cowardly backstabbers.

  • Rod_Patrick
  • azaeroprof

    You summed it up perfectly! Whatever conclusion anyone (or Art) can reach about her ability to actually govern, it is undeniable that she has a gift in her ability to connect. But not just to connect with a certain type of person, but a wide range of folks: from well-educated conservatives to not-so-well-educated folks who rarely follow politics. And the left sees this. She may or may not have what it takes to make it out of the 2012 primaries, but she can serve a useful purpose in helping to lead the GOP out of the desert of 2008.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    We not going to allow them to control the image of our party leaders via their well organized and potent spin machine.

    I think some may be reticent becasue they see as Palin worship. But this fight has already been started, so its a stand we must take. And make no mistake, the Dems will do this to every potent candidate. This is activism agaisnt media bias not a Sarah for 2012 fight.

    This is activism. Maybe the most important activism. Calling out and exposing the media hit pieces. And fighting back. The batttle and victory against Letterman was epic.

    The biggest fools are the Republicans who buy into the spin. It starts with a liberal think tank, spreads to the blogs, Hollywood hack pick it up, Dems toe the line and perpetuate the myth and then some dumb Republican like Scarborough sits there and says

    “Geesh, hasn’t she become tainted”; or “isnt she kind of joke”.

    No kidding dipsh*t.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    We not going to allow them to control the image of our party leaders via their well organized and potent spin machine.

    I think some may be reticent becasue they see as Palin worship. But this fight has already been started, so its a stand we must take. And make no mistake, the Dems will do this to every potent candidate. This is activism agaisnt media bias not a Sarah for 2012 fight.

    This is activism. Maybe the most important activism. Calling out and exposing the media hit pieces. And fighting back. The batttle and victory against Letterman was epic.

    The biggest fools are the Republicans who buy into the spin. It starts with a liberal think tank, spreads to the blogs, Hollywood hack pick it up, Dems toe the line and perpetuate the myth and then some dumb Republican like Scarborough sits there and says

    “Geesh, hasn’t she become tainted”; or “isnt she kind of joke”.

    No kidding dipsh*t.

  • redloft

    Worked on that campaign that were nowhere close to Sarah Palin? And now folks here want to bannish them from working in politics . Are you kididng me? Look, I think anyone that works for a campaign has an obligation to keep the dirty laundry to themselves–that’s professionalism. Trust me, no future candidate will hire someone they can’t trust. But, to cast a shadow over anyone associated with McCain campaign is absurd. Yes, the McCain campaign wasn poorly run, but blame the people running it, not the low-level staff that worked tirelessly.

    I would love to know who the sources were in that article, and hopefully we will find out one day, but the tone this topic has taken is downright scary.

  • Aaron Gardner

    I hope my tone is downright scary as well.

  • red_oakster

    Schmidt is the one whose fingerprints are all over the Vanity Fair piece. After he was called on it by Kristol (incidentally, an early and continuing supporter of Palin), Schmidt went ballistic.

    Schmidt is the one who should be held accountable.

  • Achance

    Everyone who reads here knows that I don’t like Sarah Palin and disagree with her on many, many Alaska issues. That said, we have some things in common, foremost among them the fact that we are both longtime Alaskans, she only a few years longer than I. She grew up here and I have spent almost my whole adult life here. Alaska isn’t as different now as it was back when John McPhee wrote the lines that VF quoted about it in the ’70s but life here is still very different from the life most people live Outside. Most longtime Alaskans are fiercely prideful and individualistic, many to the point of, shall we say, eccentricity. They do not play well with others! Especially, they do not play well with those well-tailored oleagenous sorts who tend to be campaign staffers and Beltway luminaries. At least until her stint as VP candidate, I probably had considerably more experience in dealing with the Beltway types than she did and, frankly, I cannot stand to be in a room with them. Even today, it takes every fiber of my being to remain civil with that sort and I only do it if I have to, which means if I’m being paid to.

    One thing Gov. Palin and I had in common back in the Murkowski Administration was detesting Greg Renkes, Murkowski’s first AG. The man oozed Beltway, the Governor had brought Renkes to Alaska from his DC Senate staff, and I viscerally disliked him from the moment I met him. I didn’t go as far as Sarah and rat him out to the media and the Public Offices Commission, but I did everything in my power to undercut him as his actions might effect my turf. Renkes had the same style and affect as practically everyone I’ve ever met who worked in DC for any length of time; they simply cannot turn the superiority off when they deal with mere mortals. That is a demeanor that will quickly make you a lot of enemies here and in some places expose you to bodily harm. Frankly, I’m surprised that there are no stories of Sarah or Todd taking a swing at one of the staffers; I know I’ve come close more than once with some superior creature from DC telling me how something was or was going to be.

    So, while I and others who have dealt with her here might echo some of the criticisms of her, and unlike most, probably all, of you I know all the Alaskans cited in the VF piece, I can fully understand why Gov. Palin would absolutely hate the McCain/Beltway staffers and they her.

  • bc3

    John McCain was unique in that he selected a campaign team that not only was incompetent, but also had a number of members of questionable chaqracter.

  • Susannah

    First of all, Todd Purdum (the author of the Vanity Fair article ) has a history of writing unsourced hit pieces, without any links, that only quote anonymous staffers (most of whom probably exist only in his head). For example, during the Democratic primary, Todd Purdum wrote a totally unsourced hit piece on Bill Clinton that only quoted “anonymous staffers” who supposedly stated that Bill Clinton was “out of control”, partying all of the time, and dating a bunch of women. Now to be fair, even though Bill Clinton does have a long history of womanizing, during the Democratic Primary, he was perpetually by Hillary’s side and was ALWAYS a very visible and very busy presence on the campaign trail. Therefore, I think that if Bill Clinton was doing all of the things that Purdum accused him of, someone, somewhere, would have seen this and would have reported on this besides Todd Purdum and his “anonymous sources” (translation-made up). I mean, look at what happened to Mark Sanford–you can’t sneeze or fart in politics without somebody finding out. Here is the actual quote that Bill Clinton said in regard to the Todd Purdum story:

    — Tightly gripping this reporter?s hand and refusing to let go, Clinton heatedly denounced the writer, who is currently married to former Clinton White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers.

    ?[He's] sleazy,? he said referring to Purdum. ?He?s a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him . . . And I haven?t read [the article]. There?s just five or six blatant lies in there. But he?s a real slimy guy,? the former President said.

    When I reminded him that Purdum was married to his former press spokesperson Myers, Clinton was undeterred.

    ?That?s all right? he?s still a scumbag,? Clinton said?

    ?You know he didn?t use a single name, cite a single source in all those things he said.. It?s just slimy. It?s part of the national media?s attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. It?s the most biased press coverage in history. It?s another way of helping Obama. They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he didn?t do anything about it. The first day he said ?Ah, ah, ah well.? Because that?s what they do? he gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain?maybe I better quit the church. It?s all politics. It?s all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don?t think anything about it.?

    ?But I?m telling ya, all it?s doing is driving her supporters further and further away? because they know exactly what it is? this has been the most rigged coverage in modern history? and the guy ought to be ashamed of himself. But he has no shame. It isn?t the first dishonest piece he?s written about me or her.?

    Here is the link–

    http://hotair.com/archives/2008/06/02/the-final-meltdown-billy-jeff-loses-it-over-the-vanity-fair-article/

    Anyway, my point is that the Bill Clinton is right–the reason why Todd Purdum went after Bill Clinton is because he was seen as opposing The One during the Democratic Primary, and thus became “the enemy”. Now, the MSM (and scumbags in it, like Todd Purdum) see Sarah Palin as “the enemy” of the The One, and so now they are going after her–it’s simple logic.

    Anyway, I have two points here. One, is that during the Democratic Primary, I saw too many conservatives (such as Dick Morris) cheering for Todd Purdum and calling him a “great reporter” when he did his hit piece on Bill Clinton. I always thought that this was dangerous, because when you jump on a bandwagon like that, it can always swing around and hit you in the ass–today it’s Bill Clinton, tomorrow, it’s Sarah Plain. I think that our side is always best served by calling out shoddy journalism no matter who the target is, so when they do come for us we can say, “See, they did this before”.

    My second point is, that I think that Bill Clinton is right, in that Todd Purdum is just a slimy guy who makes up blatant lies and then finds some low level staffer to kind of sort of agree with what he thinks and then writes it as fact. Think about it. If I were to write a blog here that said Obama was using drugs and was back attending Reverend Wright’s church, but only quoted “anonymous sources” and provided absolutely no links, you guys would laugh at me, and I would probably get banned from Redstate. However, Todd Purdum basically does the same thing to other politicians and he is revered as some kind of great journalist ?! Whatever.

    By the way, my husband saw Purdum on “Hardball” basically admitting that he made up the whole Palin story. He said that he “doesn’t write for today”, and “that people will say in 15 years that it was pretty close to the truth” (translation–”I made it up”). See the link to the video below if you can stand the Chuck Todd man love for Purdum. (Fast forward it to 8:35 to see the incriminating quote–don’t sit through the whole thing unless you feel that you need to be punished for something).

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/30/todd-purdum-discusses-his_n_223569.html

    Anyway, my point is that I bet my new white Gucci sunglasses (that I recently bought on vacation in the Bahamas) that most of Todd Purdum’s “anonymous sources” exist in his head, and the rest probably just half-heartedly agreed with a little of what he said and he twisted their words. I think that instead of wasting our time going after “anonymous McCain staffers” (that mostly exist only in Purdum’s head), that we should be going after Todd Purdum himself, and other MSM hacks that make up blatant lies and try to smear anyone who dared to run against The One. Just my thoughts.

  • azaeroprof

    You seriously hit the nail on the head with this comment. Purdum is scum and is of course married to the woman who had to make excuses for Bill Clinton’s misogyny. Hard to imagine a more disgraceful couple.

    But I believe there is more going on here than just Purdum acting like the scum he is. This, along with many of the anti-Palin efforts, just screams of having David Axelcrook and Rahm Emanuel’s fingerprints all over it. This is Axelcrook’s specialty: building up or trashing people in ways that look like other people did it. And no, I’m no conspiracy theorist by any stretch. But it’s their MO. And if those two guys are involved, you know d*mn well where the orders came from.

    (Oh, and I’m sure glad you took a little study break to participate today!)

  • Susannah

    He quotes “anonymous sources” in the Republican Party that are relived that Sarah Palin didn’t get to be vice president. OK–John Edwards was a whole lot closer to being VP than Palin ever was–Kerry and Edwards came much closer to winning, remember? Anyway, I would be willing to bet that there are a lot more Democrats out there who are relived that John Edwards isn’t VP than there are Republicans who are relived that Palin isn’t VP. However, six months after Obama was inaugurated, Purdum is still bashing Palin?! That is both strange and pathetic.

  • Aaron Gardner

    Dick Morris is no conservative….other than that…great comment.

    Although I still would like to put the heat to McCain staffers, as they have in the past put out lies about Gov. Palin.

  • Susannah

    I missed you guys here at RS. I had fun dropping by. :-)

    Now back the grindstone and more USMLE World questions. :-(

  • mom2oneson
  • navychick1993
  • djemi

    Coming to expect nothing less, but I would say that we need to be going after both, even if it is all in Purdums head. If we go after the ?anonymous McCain staffers? and we find none it only brings more creadence to the ‘ exist only in Purdum?s head ‘ thoery.

  • azaeroprof

    I’m not even from Alaska, and I think I would feel the same way about these DC folks!

    BTW, that’s the closest I’ve seen to you saying something nice about Sarah. I kinda like it! :-)

  • Section9

    ….and then put up a List of former McCain Campaign Operatives with applications out to Free and Strong America (Mitt Romney’s PAC) and made a Venn Diagram out of it, you’d have quite a chart, wouldn’t you?

    Not that I want to start any trouble or anything.

    Anyone hiring Steve Schmidt to run their campaigns, btw?

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    I’m firmly in the anti-palin camp. I just don’t get the appeal.

  • Section9

    …that he can be the Republican Presidential nominee.

    I’m not kidding. Heard this from a well-placed Republican source in Florida.

  • Section9

    ….perhaps some time with the Free Credit Report.com band might be in order.

    “Would you like a Pirate Hat?”

  • Aaron Gardner
  • azaeroprof

    Oh, and BTW Art, I just found out that one of my closest childhood friends, who currently lives in Okinawa, owns property on the NW part of Prince of Wales Island. I’m hoping when he decides to build his retirement home there to go up and help him build. (Sure hope he doesn’t have to follow Obama’s new national building codes!)

  • Warrior

    I’ve said this same thing repeatedly on RS. Most losing VP candidates cannot be remembered even two months after the election, much less continue to be the focus of anti-conservative vitriol nearly nine months later.

    Consider this an endorsement for Sarah Palin at the TOP of the Repub ticket in 2012. Here’s why:

    1. The left are frightened to death of her
    2. She is not intimidated by anyone on the left (see #1)
    3. She is as far outside the beltway as any American resident can be on the continental United States (and liberal Hawaii doesn’t matter anyway)
    4. The Repubs will not win with another white man this time around
    5. We can beat the Dems to the punch with the HISTORICAL election of the first female POTUS (besides, I can’t stand the thought of yet another year of crowing by the Dems claiming the HISTORICAl election of the first female POTUS)
    6. She’s got integrity (yes, character matters — writers from Time Magazine, call your office)
    7. She doesn’t have to “connect” with the common folks — she IS one.
    8. She’s a babe

  • Section9

    I know you’ve had your differences with Sarah, and God knows there’s stuff she could have avoided this session had she listened to people like you (such as the WAR debacle), but this Purdim article was an execrable hit piece that could have been written by Joe Klein, so many of its sources were “anonymous”. Lot’s of it can be dismissed, I suspect. Other parts of it have more currency with reality.

    I simply regard this article as yet another piece in the media war on the Governor by the Democratic Party.

    BTW, how is the new Anchorage Mayoral administration coming along? And what do you think of the new AG, Sullivan?

  • djemi

    I’d like to know why “firmly in the anti-palin camp”? It’s only 09.

  • Aaron Gardner

    So I am not really sure why his opinion should make a dimes worth of difference.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • djemi

    I thought something was fishy when I checked his history too.

  • Achance

    I spent a couple of days up there with the transition team and, frankly, couldn’t get away quickly enough. It was deja vu all over again with the same sort of mess the Democrats had made of the State government in the Knowles Administration. Fortunately, the State being much larger had much stronger institutions and was able to restore its functions fairly quickly. The Begich Administration did the usual Democrat thing and ran off all the senior career employees and replaced them with either Democrat operatives or very junior employees who don’t even know what they don’t know. Mayor Sullivan is going to have a very hard time restoring honest functioning to the city government.

    I worked with his budget director when she was Murkowski’s head of OMB and I worked for his new Employee Relations director when she was Gov. Hickel’s Commissioner of Administration. I met his COS when I was up there. And beyond that, I’ll just observe the Republican 11th Commandment and only add that I don’t anticipate relocating to Anchorage.

    I don’t know the new AG and as far as I can tell, neither does anybody else in Alaska. I surmise he is the result of some DC connection she’s made.

  • djemi

    The “Republican 11th Commandment’ answers my question about this, ” I didn?t go as far as Sarah and rat him out to the media and the Public Offices Commission, but I did everything in my power to undercut him as his actions might effect my turf “

  • janis

    She believes in:

    American exceptionalism
    Strong foreign policy
    Small government
    God and Family Values
    Pro-Life
    Huge respect for our military
    Tax cuts and incentives to encourage business

    And that’s just for starters. Hmmm…….. I just reread what I listed and I agree, it’s a mystery why we like her. (Rolls eyes.)

  • icbm

    Why should they be guilty until proven innocent because a handful of senior staffers are behaving badly?

    Here’s one of them, who happens to be running for Congress now:

    http://www.vaughnward.com/about.html
    http://www.vaughnward.com/issues.html

    Why should he be forced to defend himself because Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace are idiots?

    Find out who has been doing the backstabbing and make sure every Republican knows their names. Calling everyone who worked for the McCain campaign dirty is ineffective (and offensive).

  • djemi

    Christine Pelosi, Attorney, author and Democratic activist:
    10,000 words and they still don’t get it: Vanity Fair just gave Sarah Palin a huge gift. Why is character assassination via biased reporting and anonymous sources a gift? Because it exemplifies the coarseness and elitism she claims is undoing America in general and undermining her in particular. Speaking as a proud Democrat who opposes just about every one of Sarah Palin’s policies, I know there was a civilized way to explore her charisma and flaws, but this story was not it. The tone seemed to be “Palin practices the politics of resentment so we will too.” My guess is Palin circulates this hatchet job and raises a fortune.

    Form

    http://www.politico.com/arena/

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    And because some other idiots decided to make anonymous attacks. Which is unfortunate for the people that the cowards are using to shield their attacks, but that’s not my fault.

    Your specific case should be fine. All Vaughn has to do is say something along the lines of “I had nothing to do with that Vanity Fair article” and if he’s telling the truth he’ll be in the clear.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    palin_runner1.jpg
    [h/t AoS]
    .
    .
    Any more smart questions?

  • IJB

    I do, however, *dislike* the people that dislike her.

  • DONTREADONME
  • E Pluribus Unum

    It’s here in a Runners World August 2009 article. And this one’s not the best pic .

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    If you were really ‘firmly in the anti-palin camp,’ you wouldn’t have been able to write an entire comment without personally attacking her once. Or her kids.

    I am not actually joking.

  • DONTREADONME
  • E Pluribus Unum

    I’m just glad my boss did not walk by my desk in the last 5 minutes.

  • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

    telling everyone what a good job the zero is doing? I thought they were too busy to bother with Pallin. I have noticed Nicole Wallace trying to rehabilitate herself on Fox, from “formerly known as Doctress Evil”.

  • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

    is someone for Republicans to treasure and nurture. Besides, if they keep twisting in the wind this much, we won’t need to import so much oil.

  • Cheryl

    that I need to get off this computer and over to the gym!

  • icbm

    Because almost all of them sacrificed a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of energy to serve the country, despite the long odds, and most of them are not to blame that the campaign was horribly run.

    Your position – that they are all guilty until they publicly avow themselves innocent (thus exposing themselves and their reputations to accusations from unscrupulous persons) – is simply irrational, and, as I said before, completely ineffective.

    Perhaps you should just throw them all into the water and see if they float…

    “Life isn’t fair” is not a reason to condemn hundreds of people outright because a few persons at the top or the organization were immoral idiots.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    As somebody who never gotten paid for a single word written here at RS, for a single fundraising pitch I’ve made, or a single candidate I’ve promoted, I don’t feel bad for the people who get to do that for money.

  • icbm

    N/T

  • Aaron Gardner
  • Jack_Savage

    And let us know who is smearing Palin. If they aren’t doing it, they need to do the decent thing and tell us who is. Again, if they’re interested in doing the decent thing.

    Silence puts them in the same league as the cowardly “sources”.

  • Finrod

    .

  • Section9

    I suspect that what you are saying is that Mayor Sullivan has to conduct a complete purge of the cronies to get Anchorage back in to decent working order.

    Yeesh, them’s tall odds, Art.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    I think you could make the case that Dem loyalty to their 2000 VP pick was worse the McCain staff loyalty to our 2008 VP pick.

    But that is the closest I can come. Maybe Quayle? But that wasn’t the GOP marginalizing him.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    Boss of mine was called up to the Hill to answer some questions. Robert Byrd wanted to know what we were doing, and why it wasn’t being done in West Virginia.

    My boss got to Byrd’s office, and he was ushered into a conference room. There was a long table, with Byrd sitting at the end in front of a big picture window. He was sitting in profile, a shadow outlined against the backdrop of Washington.

    My boss was made to sit at the other end of the table, and then questioned and berated by one of Byrd’s staff for over an hour. During the entire time, Byrd didn’t say a single word, and didn’t acknowledge my boss’s presence. The staffer referred to Byrd the entire time in the 3rd person, as “The Senator”, as if he wasn’t even in the room.

    My boss’s next job was Under Secretary of the Navy.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    Hell, the Obamation voted for their savior for less, right?

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    As another poster suggested. I’m not a Republican.

    I agree with some of things she says, but I don’t trust her. She just doesn’t seem very sincere nor ready for national politics. I guess I’ve been tainted by the liberal media. I just was not impressed with her showing in the McCain campaign. I disagree with McCain. I did not vote for McCain, but I trust McCain. The same cannot be said for Palin.

    Because I was not impressed with her VP run. I’m curious to how you go from that to her being a Republican front runner. I’m sure I’m wrong. I just don’t see her winning anything nationally. Not that winning is everything. However, I don’t see her as the principled candidate either.

  • DONTREADONME
  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    I would rather vote for a candidate that does what they say. Than a candidate that is bought and sold like a hooker.

    “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” – George W. Bush

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    and some folks insist there is no such peoples as 100%ers…. lol… That’s a 100% crowd if there ever was one…. noone for anything will ever do short of “him”

  • Warrior

    made to another post:

    Most losing VP candidates cannot be remembered even two months after the election, much less continue to be the focus of anti-conservative vitriol nearly nine months later.

    Consider this an endorsement for Sarah Palin at the TOP of the Repub ticket in 2012. Here?s why:

    1. The left are frightened to death of her
    2. She is not intimidated by anyone on the left (see #1)
    3. She is as far outside the beltway as any American resident can be on the continental United States (and liberal Hawaii doesn?t matter anyway)
    4. The Repubs will not win with another white man this time around
    5. We can beat the Dems to the punch with the HISTORICAL election of the first female POTUS (besides, I can?t stand the thought of yet another year of crowing by the Dems claiming the HISTORICAl election of the first female POTUS)
    6. She?s got integrity (yes, character matters ? writers from Time Magazine, call your office)
    7. She doesn?t have to ?connect? with the common folks ? she IS one.
    8. She?s a babe

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    Never even mind his deranged political views. He’s an expert, shameless porker who’s never lifted a finger to reduce government in this country.

  • DONTREADONME
  • janis

    that promised to “fight, fight, FIGHT!!!!” And then settled back in a corner with Reader’s Digest and a glass of Metamucil while his campaign went belly up? THAT John McCain?

    It’s no wonder you don’t like Gov. Palin. Perhaps you are a fan of Meghan McCain? I hear she’s extremely trustworthy, too.

  • icbm

    and most of those who are paid are foregoing tens of thousands of dollars at higher paying jobs they could have taken instead.

    Is that what you’re doing by blogging at RedState?

    Furthermore, if, say, Erick Erickson were to do something bad – akin to what Schmidt and Wallace have done (which, of course, he would never do) – would it be fair to call you guilty unless you publicly announced your innocence?

  • noufa

    There’s only rumors (regurgitated by the left-wing blogosphere, BTW) blaming Romney staffers for the smears. Anyone know how many Romney staffers actually worked for McCain?

    But hey, whatever. Let McCain off the hook:

    http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/12/14/mccain-wont-endorse-palin-for-2012/

  • icbm

    not sure why you’re trying to make disagreement personal

  • icbm

    Why would they?

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    He has always supported earmarks. So he does what he says.

    As far as lifting a finger to reduce government. He always votes against spending. He always votes against increased government. You can’t say the same for other Republicans. I don’t even want to hear that “he knows it will pass anyway”. What exactly are Republicans doing right now? That’s right. Voting no even though they know it will pass anyway.

    You don’t like him, fine. You don’t agree with him on foreign policy fine. You think Republicans as a whole have been doing a bang up job with limited government, fine. I’ll stick with a candidate whose record speaks for itself. Ron Paul’s record if fairly clear. You cannot say the same for the many in the Republican party.

  • janis

    quite the well-qualified McCain staffers. I would personally like to take this moment to thank each and every one of those know-nothings for the superb combined effort that made sure we would end up with Obama. Swell job, guys!

  • Aaron Gardner

    If I were really coming after you…you would know it. You’ve seen me post before.

    ;^)

  • icbm

    thanks

  • itrytobenice

    If I ever had to go to DC, I’d have to line up my job back home, because I’d promptly tell the arrogant SOB to pound sand. And if there were no recording devices and limited witnesses, I’d color it.

  • icbm

    but go ahead and take out your frustration with obama and mccain and schmidt and wallace on everyone at the campaign, if it makes you feel better.

  • itrytobenice

    I can come up with at least 100 specific lies, bad policies or personal failures to cite.

    You manage to croak out…

    I agree with some of things she says, but I don?t trust her. She just doesn?t seem very sincere nor ready for national politics.

    Not very impressive for several reasons.

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    No one is perfect. Perhaps McCain made some mistakes in the campaign. I personally think choosing Palin was a mistake, but that’s just me.

  • $peciallist

    that’s funny…

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    what can I say? I agree with much the Republican party says. I just don’t believe them when they say it.

    Obama was an empty vessel. Waiting to be filled with all the punditry and insider political crap that makes our politics so lovely. I believe the same about Palin. I believe she’ll say whatever would get her elected. Then, once elected, do whatever she needed to do to stay elected. She just does not seem authentic to me.

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    The reasons you listed are exactly why I think she is fake. I believe the McCain camp picked her for those reasons. I believe legions of Republicans continue to support her for those reasons. Only the integrity reason is valid criteria for a candidate. And I don’t believe that she’s got integrity. That is just my opinion.

  • djemi

    Because you don’t seem ‘authentic’ to me

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    (1) there is no difference in the parties
    (2) they are all crooks
    (3) they are all liars.

    But it is simply not true (at least not totally true). I give you the perfect example. Bush was a bit of a screw up, and there was a lot of mendacity in the Republican controlled congress. But for all their faults we are about to look fondly at the time they were in control.

    As we can see, the left did a good job of demonizing the Republicans to make them worse than they really were. But the Republicans didn’t borrow two trillion dollars over the already standing deficit, and the Republicans didn’t try to takeover whole major industries.

    Very soon now we will be facing a staggering economic wasteland with epic inflation, coupled with many new problems in foreign policy. And these clowns haven’t the slightest clue what to do.

  • Achance

    or unfriendly witnesses and you make it very, very colorful, focussing on ancestry and sexual proclivities. Make it so vile that they won’t even dare tell anybody they were talked to like that. Works like a charm; don’t ask me how I know.

  • Aaron Gardner
  • Aaron Gardner
  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    Or the Jesuits.

    Of course everyone knows they were really secret Jooooos.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    He says he favors a return to Constitutional limits, but the Constitution doesn’t give the Congress the authority to hand out money to support Texas shrimp fishing.

    So he’s a fraud.

    Ron Paul’s record is a sham. That much is clear.

    I notice you can’t point me to one accomplishment of his that reduced government. You start changing the subject. Your last paragraph is a monument to fallacy.

    That says it all really. Even his fans can’t defend him with reason.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    All the time I spend here, I could be using to work my tail off like Billy Mays, selling my self.

    I don’t though. Because I think this is important.

    And you bet: If Erick started undermining Republicans, I would absolutely call him out. I’ve publicly disagreed with him in the past. See, for example, my replies to his post a while back on Sen. Ensign.

    So not only is your tu quoque a fallacy and an admission you have no argument, but it’s not even true.

  • seesalrun

    9. She represents flyover Country, the single largest, strongest and least vocal of all the voting blocks.

    Ignored, stereotyped as a bunch of illiterate “funny talkers” & a cause of embarrassment to our lovely elitist Republican leaders, we are the base of the party, and they have every reason to fear her.

    Even though I still hesitate on her for real reasons (experience) she has 10x that of the current admin and 200X more integrity than all in the current admin. 90% of the Congress and and 95% Senate.

    I hope she is up for this, but we have to wonder if this is another Democratic set up.

    Like I told my Daughter this morning, it’s going to take a Superman (or woman) to derail this hijack of our Nation, and we have to wait, he could be appearing from the Heaven’s any day (that’s seesalrun’s Utopian Dream anyhow).

  • penguin2

    That’s what comes across. “Not genuine, insincere, lack of integrity”
    Pretty strong words with no examples to prove same. There are plenty of us who are just regular Americans and found her to be the opposite of what you said. In fact, you are down right insulting toward her and that makes me wonder why. To social conservatives, she has been a shining example.

    Politically, I’m not an Alaskan, only they can speak on the issues. But, to many in the lower 48 she sounded more real, down to earth and decent than any politician (left or right), that I’ve heard or seen in action.

    IMO, you continue to fool yourself about the worthiness and strength of John McCain’s campaign. He lost, but there is no doubt that his loss was not the catastrophe in numbers it could have been. Sarah Palin on the ticket saved the GOP from a painful embarrassment.

    P.S. I don’t know who will be on the ticket in 2012. that is yet to be determined. But, I don’t care for undeserved trashing of individuals, and you seem to be doing a hatchet job on Sarah. IMO.

  • icbm

    “Furthermore, if, say, Erick Erickson were to do something bad – akin to what Schmidt and Wallace have done (which, of course, he would never do) – would it be fair to call YOU guilty unless YOU publicly announced YOUR innocence?” (emphasis added)

    As regards your first answer, I think you are grossly exaggerating your lost revenue as a result of the time you spent on RedState. You don’t have to give up your day job to do it.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    So let me – as a site moderator – say this nicely: DO NOT ATTACK THE WORK ETHIC OF ONE OF THE TWO MEN WHO IS KEEPING THIS WEBSITE RUNNING.

    Is that clear?

  • JoeG

    They made me forgo a piece of my integrity by getting me to vote for that (whoops, follow the rules joe..)

    I figured McCain would probably lose, but I held my nose and voted for him anyway because the havoc that 0bama is causing is worse.

    I resent anyone who is affiliated with McCain in any way for what they did.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    for Bush. In reality there has been no one on the national scene I actually wanted to vote for since Reagan. Although my senators are both pretty decent, (I can live with them) and My congressman is Ron Paul, so at least he is reliable on most issues.

    But for president and VP? It hasn’t been easy.

  • Jack_Savage

    Probably most of them, and it is way past time for them to let us al know who these cowards are.

    Or come out, on the record, and condemn the continuing cheap shots at Palin. For what it is worth, until that time, if any of them are running for anything, or work for anyone running for anything, they automatically don’t get a dime from me. Period.

    It’s way past time for this to stop, and it is very, very hard for me to believe the McCain camp can’t make it so.

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    Just my opinion. She does not impress me at all. Is it a crime that I feel this way?

    Maybe she helped John McCain. I don’t know. From my point of view. She was a liability. No, the media was not kind to her. I’m sure my view of her is skewed by the media coverage. It is what it is. Sorry if you or anyone else took offense.

  • JadedByPolitics

    were also Romney staffers and I do believe those oh so smart inside the beltway people think we rubes out here cannot see there is a push for Romney and an attempt to undermine Palin. If they read anything on this site here is hoping they hear this ” YOU IDIOT’S WE ARE ON TO YOU”!

    BTW if Romney wants to have any credibility going into 2012 he had better man up and tell the youngsters to settle down and act as if We The People will decide and that the kool-aid drinkers in DC will NOT! I suggest in his next interview he might mention how petty and pathetic these “insiders” are at trying to destroy a great Governor of the GREAT state of AK!

  • DONTREADONME

    because no one appreciates having to address people like you every three hours. Plus if you want the last word, just say so, nobody wants to deal with your slowball replies.

    One last thought, I think you are either a man with a problem with women in power or your a woman that just couldn’t stand that the woman was hotter than you. Now take the bait, darn it.

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    He believes them (earmarks) to be correct. Thus he follows his convictions. You disagree with that belief. OK, I’m not so fond of the idea myself. The point was he does what he says. He has changed positions over the years. He is a politician. I get that. I just don’t understand the total hatred for someone who actually votes for less government and spending.

    His record is not a sham. If others would have voted no with him. We would not be so much in debt. So make your excuses. Your excuses to why your party continues to spend our money at an alarming rate. Why your party so hates and fears one of the few with a voting record to match the party’s rhetoric.

  • icbm

    It was a statement of what I believe is a fact. Neil does not have to give up his day job to do his job at RedState. If that is incorrect, let me know. I never maintained that Neil doesn’t work hard.

    It’s going too far to compare being an editor part-time at RedState to giving up one’s day job and putting in 70+ hours a week on a presidential campaign for scanty or no pay.

    As far as I know, the only exception to what I just said is Erick Erickson, who probably works those kinds of hours.

  • mbecker908

    Ron Paul is a fraud and a thief. He’s stolen his salary from the people of his district for over twenty years. In the period he’s been in Congress he hasn’t authored even one piece of legislation that has reduced any part of the government. He hasn’t even made one ally in his stated effort to reduce the size of government. The guy is an utter, shameless fraud.

    And for you to swallow his line of crap makes you pornographically stupid. You are right about one thing, his record speaks for itself. And it says absolutely nothing. So does your posting history.

    Spit.

  • icbm

    No one since Reagan. And before that – Calvin Coolidge (not that I was around then).

  • DONTREADONME

    you are quite the apologist, brother you are cracking me up. You are a dude then, because I do not remember seeing much estrogen at his rallies. Yah, you are one funny guy.

  • janis

    You cannot or will not produce any examples of why you think Governor Palin has no integrity, nor do list any examples of ANY kind to buttress your incoherent dislike of the woman.

    If you are so easily manipulated by the MSM in this day and age, you do not have sufficient discernment or intelligence to be at RedState. So off you go, little moby, practice your act or just take a hike because you are boring. And being boring at RedState is just not tolerated for long.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    I kinda get the same feeling with her. I admire her in some ways, but I get the feeling that she is just another ambitious politician who will be a disappointment to conservatives.

    Maybe i have been beaten up too may times.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    He’s a consultant who only gets paid when he’s billing hours to a customer.

    To get work I have to sell myself all the time, pretty much. And every hour I put into RS volunteer work, is an hour that’s not being billed to a customer or trying to get new customers.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    If some campaign wanted to pay me to be their full time campaign web admin, I’d take it.

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    Aren’t you tired of settling for less? The lesser evil argument has got us nowhere.

    If you believe that Republicans can fix our problems. Great. Just realize that there are those of us that don’t believe. I see no difference between the Republican members of Congress today vs. the group that rubber stamped Bush’s nonsense.

    Maybe they’ve had a change of heart. Maybe they finally get it now. I don’t know. All I know that is that a minority party that brings out the rhetoric and votes no when it is politically convenient to do so. Yet when the majority suddenly loves big government. Does not exactly inspire confidence.

    I hope Republicans can solve the lunacy that is our government. If they prove that they can. I’ll support them as best they can. What I will not do is choose a lesser of two evils. I’m not asking for perfection. I’m asking for a candidate that I 100% agree with. I’m asking for a candidate to be principled. To vote based on those principles. And for gods sake, stop stealing my money!

  • DONTREADONME

    I just dig her for some reason, of course I get that poltician vibe too, but hey so far she hasn’t outdone Mark Sanford, so until she steps off the reservation, why not dig her.

    BTW, kyle I am messing with this other guy in my breaks from my work. Do not take what I said personally. Trust but verify and all.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    then you could bill clients while you were blogging, eating, watching TV and taking a shower.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    don’t get me wrong, I am appalled at the vitriol she has taken from the lefties and from the rinos.

  • Aaron Gardner

    Who was responsible for 9/11? Give me your honest opinion.

  • mbecker908

    You’re a freaking idiot.

  • DONTREADONME

    no problem, your feeling is a survival mechanism and guess what, I am probably with you after last week. I am just to the point now, there’s nothing worse than what we have seen in only 6 months.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    But you have, in the opinion of a site moderator – which means that yours is irrelevant in this case.

    So why don’t you take the hint, and not escalate this further?

  • George Claghorn
  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    …I’ll pick the former, because you at least know they have a price for which they will leave you alone. And they can be channeled.The Republican Congress was venial, they got punished, but we can survive with our checks and balances that kind of politician as they will keep each other from getting too far out of line – like liars poker.

    But now between the Democratic Congressional leadership and Obama, we’ve got the utopians in charge, true believers – and history shows an unbroken pattern that these guys always create tyranny because they are control freaks – and they believe their utopia will work if they just can have more control over people. And failure of their programs just means they have to root out more enemies of the people who they know are responsible for things going wrong.

    So utopians just run roughshod over checks and balances. Look at Chavez, look at Zelaya, and look at the blatant thuggery that’s been coming from the White House – and unchallenged the behavior escalates.

    So yes, there is a very big difference right now between the Democrat and the Republicans. You can sit on your high horse and pretend there’s no difference because you can see the flaws through your microscope – or you can work to stop the march to totalitarianism.

    Your choice.

    Sarah is certainly not perfect, but she articulates a vision that America needs to hear if we are to repent and return to greatness. She may not be the one to run for high office, but we do need to protect the messenger against those who delight in envy and character assassination.

  • rmullins

    That tinfoil hat has antennas that point to the closest radio telescope.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    you know what, Ron is my congressman, and he is a pretty good one.
    But he is no presidential candidate.

    It is a bit unsettling for me to write this because I am usually the one making the case of not voting for the lesser of two evils. And I don’t plan on doing it.

    What I am saying is that there is a point at which you think that both parties are the same, but the evidence is that they are NOT.

    I don’t really want another Bush, but not because I believe that Bush was a horrible president. I don’t want another Bush because quite simply Bush leads to Obama. Just as night follows day.

  • http://wayofthebit.blogspot.com AskMeLater

    What more can I say. I don’t believe a word she says. She is a robot. A poor one at that. She was groomed briefly by the McCain campaign. It showed. She was not convincing in any of her interviews. She towed the party as if it were scripted for her.

    I don’t know why it surprises you guys why someone would feel this way. They way you guys hammer at Democrats or anyone you don’t like. Heck I thought I was being respectful.

    You don’t like me posting here. Petition the mods to have my account removed. Otherwise deal with it.

  • rmullins

    of his District. Most of them are Conservative and supportive of the Military. If he really cared about the government and it’s over spending, he could just give up his congressional salary for a year. If it works for the City of San Antonio, I’m sure it should work for Congress.

    BTW, Term limits until recently were 2 Two year terms max.

  • mbecker908

    business saying anything negative about anybody.

    I’m no particular fan of Governor Palin’s supporters around here, I’m neutral on her. But at least I’ve got policy and management reasons for my opinion. You wouldn’t recognize a qualified candidate if your life depended on it.

    And heaven forbid your account got “removed”. You’ll be fun to bash around on slow days.

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    You took your cheap shot in a context where that is a reasonable inference:

    I would rather vote for a candidate that does what they say. Than a candidate that is bought and sold like a hooker.

    So it’s time to take a stand. And just so you know, misogyny is greatly disdained here. And Moe isn’t afraid to use the blam stick.

  • George Claghorn

  • Jeff Weimer

    And SOMEONE is guilty, and deserves to have their reputation suffer, as it is their most valuable commodity. Also, it’s been pretty much narrowed down to about 3 people – all identified months ago when these allegations first surfaced. Vaughan Ward isn’t one of them.

    “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican” – Ronald Reagan

    This is not completely about Sarah Palin, even though I like her. It’s about the party and moving it forward successfully. This petty viciousness is unseemly, unprofessional, and self-destructive. It does nothing but hand a grenade with the pin pulled to the opposition, who will not pass up the opportunity to throw it.

    Now, disagreeing publicly about policies and positions is one thing, there is nothing wrong with that, it’s healthy and right. No lockstep thinking should be encouraged. We did it a number of times to GWB (Harriet Miers, anyone?). But, for the most part, we did not traffic in character assassination in public against our own elected officials until Sarah Palin. It’s just bad business, and it’s unbelievable we’ve fallen this low. It must stop, and stop NOW.

  • icbm

    who served the country during a difficult time, most of them at great sacrifice to themselves, and you did so, in a front-page post on the most popular Republican blog in America, only because two or three of the top advisors at the campaign were scheming, unscrupulous fools.

    Yet you are unusually sensitive to my disagreeing with Neil’s claim that what he does for RedState is akin to working for a presidential campaign – so sensitive, in fact, that you believe that my statement that Neil does not have to give up his other job in order to work at RedState is somehow a criticism of his work ethic.

    You owe a sincere, front-page apology to all those whose characters you have so lightly disparaged.

  • George Claghorn

    That she was able to wing entire speeches, and nail them without a flaw.

    Halfway through Sarah Palin?s speech tonight at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text.

    According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech. The malfunction also occurred during Rudy Giuliani?s speech, explaining his significant deviations from his speech. [see the update below on this part]

    Unfazed, Governor Palin continued, from memory [and relying on her printed text, clearly looking down occasionally at the printed page], to deliver her speech without the teleprompter cued to the appropriate point in her speech.

    Contrast this to Barack Obama who, when last his teleprompter malfunctioned, was left stuttering before a crowd unable to advance his speech until the problem was resolved.

    Sarah Palin. Winner.

    Those must be some coaches the McCain camp hired!

  • DONTREADONME
  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    glad I’m not you

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    Don’t lead with your chin.

    Or in a more modern idiom, you’ve started a gun fight armed with a knife. Warning shots have been fired. Proceed on your current course at extreme peril.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    The Coercive Utopians: Social Deception by America’s Power Players (Hardcover)
    by Rael Isaac (Author), Erich Isaac (Author)

  • TNJim
  • IJB
  • Aaron Gardner

    You are taking all of this way too personal, it’s really simple…there is someone spreading vicious lies and smears about a solid Republican leader. All known information leads us to believe that it was somebody on the McCain 08 campaign staff. So in order to do justice to the 100′s of good people who worked on the campaign we must find these traitorous little weasels who are selling out their party and their co workers on the campaign.

    To not openly investigate these allegations and find resolution would be to cast a shadow upon all of the workers.

    So who are you really looking out for by trying to sweep this under the rug?

  • Ed54

    This has gone from a reasonably defendable proposal to an irrational McCain hatefest.

    I’ve played on lots of sports teams in my life. And I’ve fought in a few wars too. And there is NOTHING more detestable than poor losers who turn on their own team and cast blame in hopes of absolving themselves.

    All the McCain haters are thinking that applies to Schmidt and Wallace. Well, it applies equally to all you McCain haters too. Get over yourselves.

  • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

    the bill he signed in Massachusetts has been a disaster. He is already dead to me.

  • mbecker908

    So, let me deal with the issue as a simple citizen and registered voter in the state of Arizona.

    No staffer who took money to work on the McCain campaign should ever work again in politics. I would say relocating them to West Virginia and putting them to work in the coal fields would be appropriate.

    If you think for one second that you’re going to sell the concept that there were “…two or three of the top advisors at the campaign were scheming, unscrupulous fools…” you are deluded. We ran a completely unprincipled candidate and his paid minions ran a stupid and baseless campaign. They should never, ever work again in politics at any level anywhere. Neither should McCain but he’s the poster boy (along with his good friend Ted Kennedy) for term limits.

    Bottom line, the folks you’re so concerned about deserve to have their character, and their judgment, disparaged and dragged through what ever mud can be found unless they can prove otherwise.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …thus justifying in your mind your defense of all those McCain staffers that I’ve so cruelly maligned, and never mind that it required you to go after one of the two people (Neil) who have kept this site alive through constant, and largely thankless effort.

    Well, I’m always up to fill my little part in other people’s drama.

    Blam.

    Moe Lane

    PS: Email the Directors when you’re ready to apologize to Neil.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    And I got more or less called a thug by the New Republic over this, so this particular exchange is pretty much pegged at ‘amusing,’ personally.

    But people *will* leave Neil alone. He has an absolutely critical job here at RedState, and it’s one that he does at personal financial cost to himself. We don’t talk about that, much – but when we do, we expect people to *listen*.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • ceili_dancer

    was that she was locked in a room and told to study every policy position and every possible contingent question that could be raised. When Katie Couric asked her what she read at home, simple question, after having so m,any things drummed in her head the hesitation comes from, “if I answer with a local paper what will that say about me and the campaign (because it always reflects on the campaign and she is a good soldier), if I answer with a trade magazine will that alienate some group and have more than the code pinks causing a stir,…” You have so many questions in your head that it’s information overload. Later in the campaign and on the stump speeches when she was not in tow by the McCain folks she had a chance to be herself and shine. As for integrity, having a pro-life position and living it really has spoken volumes on who she is to the core.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    But your next post will acknowledge that you spouted off about Neil’s efforts here: and that you did not retract and back off when your error was explained to you; and that you should have.

    I don’t give second chances, usually. Take this one.

  • Remington_Steele
  • Remington_Steele

    Romney’s plan is not the public socialization of Health Care that Obama is pushing. There are folks that hate how everyone gets forced into getting insurance in MA, but that’s far from a public entity becoming the monopolistic death knell of our private insurance industry.

    I’ve said before that none of Romney’s folks better be involved in the Palin attacks! If that is true, then we conservatives should not be shooting down Romney just like the VF punks want to shoot down Palin. Romney is still the smartest fiscal conservative in the bunch even if he makes chameleons sweat.

    Don’t shoot Palin and don’t shoot Romney, we have enough problems on our hands.

  • ColdWarrior

    you know you’re over the enemy targets.

    I heard Hugh Hewitt’s analysis as to why the Left, especially the FemiNazis, hate Sarah Palin so much and are attacking her so much.

    She is the poster woman for what they say a woman cannot be.

    She got “the handsome guy.”

    And he’s stayed married to her.

    She’s got a great batch of kids.

    She’s kept fit despite having the kids.

    She’s accomplished great things, on her own, and her husband supports her.

    She’s a Christian and happy.

    She lives in suburbia rather than in a city and is happy.

    She is an accomplished outdoorswoman and is happy.

    She is happy.

    They can’t stand that she’s successful and happy.

    Oh, and she can stand at a podium and speak from the hear without a teleprompter, unlike Teleprompter Boy (Hugh didn’t say this).

    Thank you.

  • peg_c

    Scarborough is on my list of Useless Idiots along with Frum, Brooks, Noonan and too many others to list here. USELESS IDIOTS (except to the Dems).

    You don’t bash Palin and get my vote. Not ever.

  • peg_c

    n/t

  • peg_c

    “Key condensation nucleus.” Love it., and you boiled PDS down to its essence.

    Yours is the best explanation for the outrage the conservative base is experiencing and the mission we are on. We don’t have to have Palin as nominee, but for many of us a nominee that embodies an articulates what she does is imperative and we will not settle for less. She’s the only one on the horizon, and Dems and Reps alike know it. She is Ground Zero for the coming battle.

    We thought Hillary would be polarizing. If the nominee were Palin, it would re-write the book on polarization but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Right now, America feels like 2 halves divided by an ocean. Some Obots are bound to run screaming from the moonbat side soon.

  • peg_c

    Perfect comment.

    I suspect it’d be quicker and easier to list the McCain staffers who DIDN’T partake in smearing and undermining Palin than did. The ones who did should never work again period. Some of us would like to get our hands on them, actually.

  • peg_c

    or be conservative if you don’t know why so many of us like her, defend her, and want a nominee who embodies what she does. What don’t you like about her, or is it just another case of PDS?

  • peg_c

    She’s a living testament to the fact that the feminazis’ dogma is all lies. She must be destroyed.

    This is why I love her!

  • Rod_Patrick

    nt

  • peg_c

    A pic sure to whip up more PDS, especially among the feminazis.

  • mom2oneson

    a fitness mag would ever want me for is to pose for someone’s “before” pic! :D
    When he got as tall as me I had to stop using the baby fat line! ;)

  • Warrior

    she likes to kill moose at 3 AM.

    And, she’s a conservative and she’s happy.

  • Warrior

    she likes to kill moose at 3 AM.

    And, she’s a conservative and she’s happy.

  • Warrior

    I don’t believe we will win in 2012 w/another vanilla male, no matter how pretty he is…

  • Warrior

    responsibility for his staffers. I’d be willing to bet he knows who is villifying Sarah Palin. The fact that he has done nothing about it is a testament to his total lack of moral leadership.

    His answer to the mortgage situation was to come up with a go along to get along plan for the govt to buy up bad mortgages. Just more “me too” politics.

    And, since the MSM acccuses anyone who objects to nationalized healthcare of being a shill for the insurance companies, Romney’s overtures in that direction here to date sound just like a carefully crafted PR game designed to split the middle…a startegy that didn’t work for McCain and won’t work for anyone else.

    And that’s why we need an independent thinker, free of hyper clever tactics ostensibly needed to get one’s self elected — like Sarah Palin. Her policy proposals come from the same common sensical view of the world necessary to hunt moose in the Alaskan tundra.

    BTW, this is a little off the subject. But permit me to take this opportunity to publically thank Neil and Moe for their tireless work in keeping RS afloat.

    Being a fairly retrograde hayseed from Alabama, I’m not real sure how the whole website thing works. I’m glad some conservatives do, however, and my hat’s off to them!

  • eburke

    about 4 feet to my right.

    Highly recommended read!

  • eburke

    short for my weight” line.

    Hey, it worked for me :-)

  • icbm

    They’re quite good.

  • icbm

    They’re quite good.

  • icbm

    in different circumstances.

  • icbm

    And Moe, don’t be a jerk all your life. Take a day off.

  • DONTREADONME

    listen, I understand what your problem is with a possible blanket statement, but I still think that the slimeballs are those that were paid in the campaign. I have seen these types of people they will love scapegoats; unfortunately, this type of behavior is typical of devious and scheming people, never trust them.

  • icbm

    that’s whom i’m protecting – as you should be. what purpose does it serve to defame them, except to satisfy some petty, passing hatred?

    the generals were feuding during the campaign, and still are. what the heck is the guy who handled the travel arrangements supposed to know about any of it? and the guy who prepared policy papers for speeches and debates? and the guys who worked on the website? the guys who handled office administration?

    the guys at the top embarrassed the whole campaign – and the country – and still are embarrassing them.

    i don’t have to have worked on the campaign to know not to court martial a private because his colonel didn’t know how to fight battles.

  • icbm

    or more, i’m guessing.

    the people who caused the problems that you’re seeing might number five.

    the people who worked on the campaign probably number 500 or 1000 – or more, depending on how you count them.

  • DONTREADONME

    the people that were paid as political strategists, not the average person who took time out of the day to work for the candidate. Someone or group of somebodies chose to find a scapegoat to protect their asses, I wish I knew who they were because frankly they are only worthy to work at McDonalds if that.

  • mbecker908

    And you make an excellent idiot, in current circumstances.

    First of all, you seem to be on a rant about low level and unpaid folks. In the context of this diary, they don’t exist. Moe was talking about high level, pay for play folks. But you obviously missed that.

    Second, the idea that you have people in an organization with a solid track record of utter failure and who are backstabbers and murmurers to boot who don’t have the courage to actually take credit for their backstabbing and murmuring and you want to protect them as opposed to firing them and making sure they never work again would seem that YOU would be the commie. Or employed in the education field. What I’m suggesting is pretty close to pure capitalism.

  • DONTREADONME

    I was in the middle of clarifying my statement above and right after you posted the 200 people I posted. Professional political strategists are the ones that deserve the highest suspicion, and all should be held as likely guilty party until the guilty party is fingered. They do this in the military to find out who is the one that deserved punishment by punishing the whole squad during basic. These people need to be fingered so we know who to avoid in future campaigns.

  • Aaron Gardner

    * I say twit because you are clearly a Republican and yet you can’t differentiate your emotions about the subject from the facts and are in fact projecting your emotions** in your argument against me. IF only you had taken the time to not only read but comprehend what I wrote you would see that you didn’t have to be a twit.

    ** I understand you put in a hard fight, you believed in the cause, you feel the righteous anger that comes with a hard fought loss. What I don’t understand is why you haven’t shaken the McCain Stockholm syndrome***.

    *** This is in no way meant to be an inference that John McCain was a secret communist****.

    **** Even though one could make the argument the John McCain is a progressive of the stripe of Teddy Roosevelt…his political hero oddly enough. Alas I don’t where tin foil hat’s either so…well…I suppose I will just table this comment right about..

  • Leon H. Wolf

    Blam.

    (I wouldn’t have unbanned you the first time and I certainly won’t do it now.)

  • http://cannedjam.com cannedjam

    battle. I can honestly say that as a completely impartial reader with no allegiances to any of the posters here, I did not take what ICBM said as an insult to Neil.

    I think he actually went out of his way to not insult him. He stated a premise (and prefaced it with that fact that he could be wrong) that Neil does not work for RS full time, after Neil himself brought up the issue. I did not get the impression that ICBM was belittling Neil’s contributions to this site, he was only pointing out that compared to the relative sacrifice of a full time volunteer (a comparison Neil himself injected) on a campaign who foregoes almost his entire means of income, is apple/oranges.

    Regardless of semantics I think we can all agree that the mud slinging from within the McCain Camp is counterproductive and needs to stop. But in my humble opinion (and as a Palin fan), to propose an assumption of guilt by association on a group of hard working people, as a default position, is illogical and antithetical to the values we all hold (and is also an illogical tactic that we have all had to defend ourselves against from the left).

    That said, as a frequent reader and occasional poster, I thank all the contributers to this site for providing daily thought provoking content, and I can truly appreciate the time and sacrifice to achieve that.

  • penguin2
  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I’m traveling.

    Ironically, I am taking a couple of days off… although if the lakeside camp had wifi… well. :)

  • surgeusaorg

    For a politician who has long professed his commitment to personal honor, McCain showed none at the end of the election when his staff made vicious anonymous attacks on Palin as a scapegoat and he did nothing to stop or expose them. His perfunctory comments at the time were a disgrace, as though the attacks were just politics as usual, and of no concern to him.

    The recent article is just more of the same. Since nobody exposed them, the personal destruction by these anonymous smears goes on. Their egos must be stroked by their media friends to convince themselves of their continued importance. They are like dogs, stimulated by the feces of other dogs.

    The first qualification for 2010 or 2012 Republican campaign staff should be to have no prior association with the McCain campaign. What a disgrace.

  • alexandriatulips

    That’s the only way to describe his second paragraph in the post:

    “If you are a McCain staffer who did not talk to VF, I suggest that you find some way to demonstrate that you aren?t one of the people in the first paragraph. Because until we know who talked, the default assumption is going to be that you may have talked.”

    Or in your world, is that kind of talk the height of reason?

  • alexandriatulips

    just as much as others do when it makes them feel good.

    Human nature is what it is.

  • alexandriatulips

    in the Senate.

    I still wonder, however, whether she might abandon certain federalist principles once she comes under heavy and sustained fire from the nattering nabobs Inside the Beltway. So many others have…

  • Aaron Gardner
  • alexandriatulips

    you do like to avoid the issue, judging by all your other comments above, and judging by your response.

  • Aaron Gardner

    if so…Hinz Rule.

    If not…then you have a reading comp problem and I still invoke the aforementioned rule.

  • alexandriatulips

    It’s been fun, Aaron, really, but I’m going to stop trying to get you to reason when it’s obviously the last thing you want to do.

    I read what you wrote. It didn’t make any sense – except it let you keep from thinking any about the issue.

    Take care now.

  • alexandriatulips

    It’s been fun, Aaron, really, but I’m going to stop trying to get you to reason when it’s obviously the last thing you want to do.

    I read what you wrote. It didn’t make any sense – except it let you keep from thinking any about the issue.

    Take care now.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com David Hinz

    the knowledge of time and space is open to he who is open to receive it….

    …grasshopper

  • DONTREADONME
  • Aaron Gardner

    I am known far and wide.
    /snark

    ;^)

  • alexandriatulips

    some people who read redstate believe in tolerating dissent

  • Aaron Gardner

    which is intolerable to the point that you signed up for an account to extend her argument.

    Yeah ok.

  • DONTREADONME

    skin, if you dissent expect to be lambasted, if you have been misunderstood make sure they know they did, and tolerating dissent does not mean that people have to be nice. That is the problem in this country everyone is supposed to be nice to one another, BS.

    BTW, there are a couple people around here who are tough SOBs, but that is the way it is, ignore them if they offend you (yes, I just learned this recently), no one will think differently of you for doing so, but it looks pathetic when you engage in attacking the offender, why? You are just going to piss the guy off, why bother.

    No Aaron I was not talking about you in the previous paragraph, unless you want it to be about you then it is. Look, geez, now I am engaging in the cryptic BS of a squishee :)

  • Aaron Gardner
  • http://applescorneroftheorchard.blogspot.com/ Pomme
  • http://theminorityreportblog.com David Hinz

    you sell yourself for money…

    …an honorable profession. 8-)

  • alexandriatulips

    i think you are suffering from the same inability as aaron to address an argument directly.

  • alexandriatulips

    by yet again sidestepping the actual argument.

    You’re either in 6th grade or a congressman.

    Do take the last word – I’m sure you’ll waste it.

  • alexandriatulips

    by yet again sidestepping the actual argument.

    You’re either in 6th grade or a congressman.

    Do take the last word – I’m sure you’ll waste it.

  • Aaron Gardner
  • DONTREADONME

    time to grow a pair.

  • DONTREADONME