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Reprisals, Recriminations

Have to admit I have not been paying a lot of attention to the reprisals and recriminations. McCain-Palin is so 2008. Moving forward, not much interested in the rearview. Fortunately others are doing the important work of determining who screwed who for future reference. Quick trip through the recent past to the near future, from McCainaan to Obamaland, starts with Boston Herald re Mitt: 

Mitt Romney’s camp is firing back at reports his foot soldiers are behind a brutal smear campaign against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a backdoor strategy to position the former Bay State governor for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

“It’s a completely absurd allegation that is totally divorced from the truth,” Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said.

Fox News, the New York Times [NYT] and Newsweek have reported on a host of criticisms of Palin, including that she threw tantrums that made staffers cry and didn’t know Africa was a continent. Several media outlets reported some of the leaks came from within the McCain campaign. But the political blog, The Palmetto Scoop, citing “very good sources,” said it was Romney loyalists working for McCain who were behind the “premeditated last minute sabotage” of Palin.

Fehrnstrom took issue with the Scoop’s claim that as much as 80 percent of Romney’s campaign staff went to work for Sen. John McCain’s team after the GOP primary. Only “a handful” of Romney operatives joined the Arizona senator’s campaign, he said.

“The truth is, there are no former Romney staffers in senior roles at the McCain campaign,” Fehrnstrom said. “I can think of a handful of people, maybe three or four, who went over, all in junior positions.”

However, Romney’s former campaign spokesman Kevin Madden was among the ex-Romney staffers to bash Palin. In an interview on CNN just a week before the election, Madden called Palin “unseasoned” and questioned whether she should have been McCain’s pick.

“When you put out an unknown and you give them 70 days with which to go through a vetting process, both by voters and the national press corps, ugly things can tend to happen,” Madden said.

Since McCain’s loss, Palin has been accused of dragging down the ticket in what her spokeswoman Meg Stapleton reportedly called “a circling firing squad.”

GOP strategist Holly Robichaud, who writes the “Lone Republican” blog for the Herald, said: “It’s definitely Romney’s people. They’ve been doing it for a while. Romney is thinking about running again in 2012 and he needs to kill off Sarah Palin in order to get there.”

Romney himself has defended Palin, calling her a “positive addition to the ticket” in an appearance on CBS’ “Early Show” a week before the election.

“For a first-time candidate on the national stage . . . you’re subject to the national spotlight. It’s more like a national torch,” Romney said. “She has been able to keep cool under the pressure.”

Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll shows that 64 percent of Republicans want Palin to be the GOP presidential candidate in 2012 while 11 percent prefer Romney.

Daily Beast, Kristol as Palin’s NYT Mole.

NYT: Palin to critics, “Jerks!”

Ambinder: Romney camp spreading rumors? 

Hot Air, with vid: It wasn’t Romney, reporter says. Also, Palin “Jerks!” vid.

Malkin, Character is Destiny and Send a Message to Palin.

Meanwhile, in other business, about Obama, Barnes at the Weekly Standard: Put on a happy face! And take the high road.

You know how Bush gave Obama a couple of housewarming gifts … peace and quiet in Iraq and Petraeus in Afghanistan. Here’s another freebie for Obie: Economic recession as a weapon against Iran and Venezuela. Richard Haass at WSJ. Problem there is not whether you have a weapon but being willing to use it. But this post is about reprisals and recriminations, and to end on a forward-looking note, opne of the more significant developemtns of the week was how the recession immediately emerged as Obama’s out on actually having to accomplish anything.

Topics: pols

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:14 am on Saturday, November 8, 2008

One Response to “Reprisals, Recriminations”

1. RebeccaH Says:
   November 8th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

   Malkin had to close her message of thanks petition to Governor Palin because of the many trolls who left hateful, ugly posts. So much for reconciliation and “getting along”. Hypocrites.

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