On the Prowl
oN THe ProWl bailout fallout While many conservative Republicans viewed the Wall Street bailout bill as a disaster, others were privately pleased with the way the politics played...
...A version of the McCain story was eventually published by the Washington Post in mid-September...
...softball campaign estimated that more than 50 percent of the negative and so-called “investigative” pieces about her came from Obama opposition sourcing...
...oN THe ProWl bailout fallout While many conservative Republicans viewed the Wall Street bailout bill as a disaster, others were privately pleased with the way the politics played out...
...According to a former Hillary Clinton political adviser, her spent weeks on McCain research also wrapped up its work on Palin...
...he worked for former Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill...
...We were talking ourselves out of victory when the battle wasn’t even close to being over...
...Political consultants paid by the Obama campaign also attempted to shop opposition research on the McCains’ adoptive daughter, Cindy McCain’s finances and family-owned business, and John McCain’s role in the “Keating Five” scandal, as well as information on Sarah Palin’s family...
...But six months ago, both men’s base was the conservative wing of the House, and that wing has been decimated by the bailout vote...
...In fact, Hagel traveled with Obama during his Mideast tour earlier this year...
...Current RNC chairman Mike Duncan stepped up to fill the void left by Sen...
...Although Obama’s campaign has accused other campaigns of playing dirty and going negative, it more than any other has sought— and gained—the cooperation of reporters to attack his opponents...
...They only provide memos and little mateMSNBC talking head Chris Matthews is privately talking to longtime friends about the possibility of challenging Sen...
...They have the backup stuff, but won’t go that far...
...Further discussion will also focus on the team that surrounded McCain, which was famously ineffective and lived up to its nickname: “Dole ’08...
...mccain dole-drums If Sen...
...They are smart,” says the former Clinton hand about the Obama campaign...
...We don’t know how many of those guys are going to survive this election cycle,” says the House leadership aide...
...Mel Martinez’s exit, but has been a disappointment...
...These guys were backbiting, bad-mouthing their own candidates and doing just about everything wrong,” says a current McCain senior staffer...
...Matthews, who was rial unless the reporter asks for files he can’t get on his own...
...That hasn’t stopped the chatter about Cantor potentially challenging Minority Leader John Boehner or House Whip Roy Blunt, who led negotiations in the first round of bailout bill negotiations...
...That bailout bill is going to be end up being a huge problem for a lot of our guys, not just this election cycle, but possibly the one after that, depending on what happens...
...The same political consultant who pitched the McCain drug story likewise pushed a story that Palin was charging victims of rape for the rape kits used to detect the crimes and potentially convict those who committed the crimes...
...But both privately were supporters of the House bailout bill, when many conservative members were of a differing opinion...
...Barack Obama, were he asked...
...Both Cantor and Putnam privately pressed conservative Republicans to help with passage of the second, pork-bloated version of the bailout bill...
...John McCain to his wife’s problems...
...I’ve seen some of them and there are lots of breadcrumbs...
...14 THe amerIcaN sPecTaTor November 2008 oN THe ProWl obama’s oppos The campaign of Barack Obama in midsummer deployed a threeperson research team to Arizona, among other locations, to compile materials, articles, and backup documents on Cindy McCain’s struggle with prescription painkillers, and for about a month shopped the materials to media outlets they felt would be receptive to following through on the information, according to a producer for CNN, who was approached...
...Hagel has indicated to Obama staffers that he would be open to serving as defense secretary...
...I don’t want any of them back, but it’s not clear to me who else steps up...
...Putnam is said to be interested in the House Whip post as well...
...Hagel was the most prominent Republican to back Obama over his longtime friend John McCain...
...The story was peddled by a Democratic political operative paid by the Obama campaign, according to the CNN producer, who says that while none of the primary materials were shown to him, he was told he’d receive “enough information and guidance” to make the story what the consultant called “explosive...
...Both want to be higher-profile leaders,” says a House Republican leadership aide...
...There are some anchors and senior news people who I think believe it is in their interest to help Obama...
...John McCain loses the presidential election, recriminations will be broad and swift...
...Both have their eyes on bigger jobs in the next Congress...
...Matthews does have political experience beyond his TV yap...
...The Clinton consultant says that word among Democratic sources is that the same team that born in Philadelphia, has also spoken to Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell about possibly making a run, according to a longtime Rendell fundraiser in Philadelphia...
...In fact, some of McCain’s most trusted advisers—to both him and his wife, Cindy—were bad-mouthing Palin to the press in the days leading up to and during the Republican convention...
...Meanwhile, current leadership blocked any attempt by conservatives to add more stringent oversight and management amendments to the bill...
...We are no better than MSNBC in that regard, though not as blatant about it...
...We had senior McCain and RNC leaders going out a week after Sarah Palin was announced as the running mate bad-mouthing her, McCain, and the ticket...
...The producer says, “I didn’t touch it, and I know the Obama camp had difficulties finding a taker,” adding that he never spoke to his bosses about the information, in part out of concern that a higher-up might have been willing to run the story...
...I’ve never seen a group of people so happily bad-mouth their guy and gal,” says another longtime McCain adviser...
...The two most satisfied Republicans may have been House GOP deputy whip Eric Cantor and House conference chair Adam Putnam, who were both front and center for the cameras as the bill was initially killed, then resurrected by Republicans and passed...
...But the memos have enough info to make the reporting easy...
...Reporters up there digging in Alaska were seeing the Obama people pulling the same stuff they were looking for, so it’s not going to be clear whether the dirt is coming from Obama or real reporting...
...Even though that story had been debunked, the Boston Globe reported it as fact days before the vice-presidential debate...
...obama’s rummy Retiring Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel has told friends that he would happily serve in the administration of Sen...
...The guy kept trying to sell me on the idea that if we dug enough, we might find that Senator McCain had been using too,” says the producer...
...It was obvious to me they wanted this to become a hit on Senator McCain...
...We let down the American people, and I don’t see how any of us go home and look our constituents in the eye...
...Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania...
...Already, there is talk of who will take over management of a woefully mismanaged Republican National Committee, which because of McCain’s decision to accept public financing has borne the brunt of managing his national campaign...
...We needed a wartime chairman, someone who could be a real leader, and Duncan isn’t it,” says a current RNC employee...
...November 2008 THe amerIcaN sPecTaTor 15...
...The “explosive” nature of the story, according to the reporter, was the Obama’s campaign attempt to link Sen...
...Cindy McCain was just the starting-off point...
...We needed a [former RNC chairman Edward] Gillespie type, not a low-key manager...
...It’s disgusting and there ought to be reckoning...
...Boehner and Blunt were already on thin ice, and this may be the bill that ultimately puts them under,” says a House member who reluctantly voted for the second bill...
...But for the Obama campaign, either outcome works just fine...
...And both reportedly had opportunities to push more forcefully for a conservative alternative to the legislation pushed by the Bush administration and Treasury Department...
Vol. 41 • November 2008 • No. 9
