Day: September 2, 2008

McCain Hires the Guy Bush Used to Smear McCain in 2000

Trish

Are there any tatters of John McCain’s soul left for him to sell in his aspiration to be president?

Former officials of Sen. John McCain’s 2000 campaign expressed shock and disbelief Monday to learn than the GOP presidential nominee had hired South Carolina political consultant Tucker Eskew.

Eskew, along with Warren Tompkins and Neal Rhodes, were key members of then-Gov. George W. Bush’s South Carolina team during the 2000 primaries. McCain and his team long held Bush, Tompkins, Rhodes and Eskew responsible for the various smears against McCain and his family in the Palmetto state during that contentious contest.

…Eskew’s talent notwithstanding, he was loathed by McCain’s 2000 campaign team. When the media first reported push-poll phone calls from Voter/Consumer Research, a company hired by he Bush campaign, asking South Carolinians if they knew about McCain’s role in the S&L crisis and his scandal as a member of the Keating Five, it was Eskew — Bush’s South Carolina spokesman – who acknowledged, and defended, the calls.

“Show me a baseless comment in those questions” about McCain, Eskew told the Charleston Post and Courier in February 2000.

Eskew is on the McCain payroll now to whip Sarah Palin into shape.

Eskew will help Palin prepare for her Wednesday night acceptance speech at the GOP convention and for her stump speech as she hits the road, brief her on policy matters, and help her handle the media scrutiny a lifetime in Alaska does not necessarily prepare one for.

God help her if she doesn’t perform.

The tactics used against McCain by Bush and his allies in South Carolina left a deep scar on both McCain and his wife Cindy.

When then-Gov. Bush called upon Eskew, Tompkins and Rhodes to help him during the Florida recount, a senior McCain adviser told me that “when the going gets tough for Governor Bush, he turns to the darker side of our party. We saw that in South Carolina, and we see that today.”

Eight years later, with a tough fight of his own, McCain has turned to one of the same men.

Palin’s Lawyer Yells, “Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton!” as Her Defense

Trish

A kick butt and take names lawyer is in charge of defending Alaska Gov. and Republican Vice Presidential pick Sarah Palin in her abuse of power case in her home state. Thomas Van Flein’s first move was to try to have the investigation taken out the hands of the legislature and put under the control of the state’s “Personnel Board” (I guess Human Resources is too fancy for Alaska).

Anchorage attorney Thomas Van Flein has doggedly thrown in Bill Clinton references at every opportunity

Why would anyone care who looks into Palin’s firing of the guy Palin asked to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper? Well the legislature answers to the voters, who elected its members. The Personnel Board consists of three people appointed by…the governor.

To say Anchorage attorney Van Flein seems like a political hack doesn’t do it justice. He has doggedly thrown in Bill Clinton references at every opportunity.

[S]tate Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former state prosecutor who is project director for the legislative investigation…asked, “Governor Palin has repeatedly stated that she has nothing to hide and that she and her administration will cooperate fully with this investigation. Is your client aware that you seem to be challenging the Legislature’s jurisdiction?”

And Palin’s lawyer’s answer?

“We don’t have any sex. We don’t have any drugs. And there’s no blue dress. Nor are there any shady real estate deals here,” Van Flein said. “In the big picture, I think people are going to be disappointed that this is not a scandal.”

It’s only been a few days and these people are already turning my stomach.

Sarah Palin Is a Secessionist

Buck Banks

The woman who, if she becomes the vice president of the United States, will have to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Problem is, she was a member of a political party whose aim was to subvert the Constitution and have the state of Alaska secede from the Union:

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) “was once a member of their party, which since the 1970s has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States,” reports ABC News.

The AIP platform states that the purpose of the party is to “seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution … To prohibit all bureaucratic regulations and judicial rulings purporting to have the effect of law, except that which shall be approved by the elected legislature … To support the privatization of government services …”

Here’s the big problem for Republicans: Marc Ambinder has a party official on video saying party members must “infiltrate” — his words — the other two parties and push for the cause of Alaskan independence.