David Kurtz just caught up with famed GOP dirty trickster and hatchet man Roger Stone who explained how he’ll be “taking the wood” to Obama over the next eight weeks.
One of the fun things about running TPM is that over time we’re building a cadre of TPM alums out reporting for other news organizations. And this week, TPM alum Laura McGann, who broke the Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) house deal story for TPMmuckraker last year, is up on location in Alaska reporting on Sarah Palin. You can see her running series of posts here.
Harry Reid is “disappointed” with Joe Lieberman’s speech last night. That and other political news in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.
There’s quite a tear-jerking piece in the Post by Howard Kurtz today about the McCain campaign’s wailing about the media treatment of their botched veep roll-out …
Sen. John McCain’s top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being “on a mission to destroy” Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying “a level of viciousness and scurrilousness” in pursuing questions about her personal life.
In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels “under siege” by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child’s parentage.
…
Schmidt, a former spokesman for President Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, talked openly about his frustrations in an interview with The Washington Post. He said the McCain camp is in the middle of the worst media “feeding frenzy” he has ever seen.
Schmidt, by the way, is one of the most hard-boiled GOP operatives and Rove proteges around. I guess he and his McCain colleagues missed the whole Rev. Wright episode, Clinton impeachment episode and, what, maybe twenty other episodes over recent years.
It’s also notable that while virtually all the aggressive questioning of Palin has been on her troopergate scandal, her manifest lack of qualifications, ties to a political party that embraces secession, etc. Schmidt focused on stories that if you look closely were actually never written. Yes, there was a storm of speculation on blogs. And maybe reporters followed up with inquiries. But who published any of it? Think about that for a second.
The McCain camp is using the rumors about Palin’s family as a cudgel to beat back entirely legitimate questions — which may amount to a feeding frenzy — about Palin’s political record, alleged pattern of abuse of the power of her office and political associations. When you see Steve Schmidt getting weepy, believe me, you’re getting played.
It didn’t take long. We’ve already brought you news of the official investigation into Gov. Palin’s firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Steve Branchflower, the lead investigator, began trying to arrange a deposition of the governor days before her veep selection. And despite claiming executive privilege to shield requested emails, up until that point Palin had promised full cooperation with the probe.
Now, however, she is refusing to submit to questioning by Branchflower unless he and the legislative committee that appointed him agree to relinquish control of the investigation and turn it over to a state review board made up of three Palin appointees.
Yesterday, Palin took the unusual step of having her lawyer, Thomas van Flein, file an ethics complaint against her with the state’s Attorney General. This, she hopes, will lead the AG to give the investigation to the aforementioned state personnel board. Unless that happens, and Branchflower agrees to close down his investigation, she will refuse to testify.
From an insider and longtime friend of the site …
Either McCain’s vetting process was a complete sham. Or his press operation is the worst in modern presidential politics history. Or some unholy blend of both.
Campbell Brown isn’t the story – people are underestimating her, as they always have. No, the story is that Tucker Bounds went on national television without material to answer what is maybe the simplest, most straightforward follow-up question any reporter can ask: “What’s your evidence for that assertion?” And I suspect that the reason they canceled Larry King is not to punish CNN (it doesn’t work that way) it’s that they still couldn’t come up with an answer to the question by the time his show aired.
Now look at this comment from McCain honcho Steve Schmidt to Katie Couric last night: “Members of this campaign went to off-the-record lunches with reporters today, and they were asked if she would do paternity tests to prove paternity for her last child. Smear after smear after smear, and it’s disgraceful and it’s wrong. And the American people are going to reject it overwhelmingly when they see her.”
First of all, that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone in the campaign/political press throw out the notion of paternity tests. So Schmidt is to blame for bringing that issue into the mainstream. If anyone is smearing the candidate, it’s Schmidt. This is as cynical a tactic as I’ve ever seen in politics.
Secondly, how can it be a “smear” if it was during an off the record lunch with McCain campaign aides?
Thirdly, hey, colleagues, you’re on notice: Steve Schmidt does not respect “off the record.” Watch your backs, my friends.
Apparently realizing that the Sarah Palin rollout is going badly, the GOP is holding a series of press conferences here in St. Paul to push back.
Underway now is a presser with female GOP officials talking about the purported “smear campaign” against Palin. “The Republican Party will not stand by while Sarah Palin is subjected to sexist attacks,” says McCain surrogate Carly Fiorina, comparing it to sexist comments endured by Hillary Clinton during the primary.
Still, the GOP is having trouble with its talking points. At an earlier press conference this morning, former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin was asked what Sarah Palin’s position on comprehensive immigration reform is. Marin’s response was that there will be no doubt what the “ticket’s” position is, apparently unable to respond directly to the question.
This of course is all part of a convention schedule that today features Palin’s acceptance speech.
Late Update: Chris Hayes of The Nation sees this for what it is:
One of the most bizarre spectacles in modern politics is watching the Republican Party attempt to reverse engineer the Chris Matthews/Hillary Clinton-in-New-Hampshire-moment as a means of stoking some kind of feminist backlash in favor of their extreme-right-wing, Eagle-Forum friendly, pro-life, creationist candidate. The same one who called Hillary Clinton a whiner when she pointed out the sexism of the coverage she faced.
Later Update: Faux outrage is not enough in and of itself. The full GOP battle cry requires an amorphous enemy accused of vague treachery. As usual the media is filling that role now.