McCain advisor Schmidt has two-word response to Murphy, Noonan criticism

We assume you’re on the edge of your seats wondering what the John McCain camp thinks about the disparaging remarks aimed at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by former Republican aides Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy.

As The Ticket reported earlier today, Noonan, the former speechwriter for President Reagan, says the McCain campaign is “over.” Murphy, the former McCain strategist and the man who steered Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2003 gubernatorial campaign, said the pick reflects “cynicism” on McCain’s part.

You might think the disparaging comments, recorded in an MSNBC session when Murphy and Noonan thought they were not being recorded, might sting, coming as they did from GOP insiders and now being widely circulated on the Internet, including some obscenities added by the two Republicans.

Perhaps they did sting. But you’d never know it from Steve Schmidt, the man overseeing day-to-day operations of McCain’s campaign and the man Schwarzenegger chose to run his 2006 reelection.

“Who cares?” Schmidt said in an e-mail.

-- Dan Morain

Comments

[Grant]

"Who cares" --- well, judging by how fast this is spreading, most of the online population of the internet cares. But really, what else could they say when their own people trash their candidate and his decision making process when they're off the air and speaking honestly for once? "Those damn conservative pundits will say anything to attack Sarah Palin and John McCain"? They have nothing to counter this with *except* to fake that they don't care and hope it blows over as soon as possible.

[Patrick Mark]

So Steve is now channeling Cheney - way to go, Team McCain. When will these guys ever learn that if you are in a hole, stop digging:

Good Morning America, March 19 2008
ABC: Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting, and they're looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.

CHENEY: So?

Q So -- you don't care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No...

[Richard Rowland]

DAMN those liberal media people!! Uh... What?

[Patrick]

That kind of self-delusion is running the campaign straight into the ground. I hope that cocky attitude keeps them company come November.

[billp]

Hearing what comes out of the mouths of the spinners and other partisans, often makes me wish I could ask them off the record "Do you actually believe what you're saying?" It's nice to see the mask slip and get the straight talk. Anyone who is offended by (for instance) the fact that Noonan wrote differently about Palin iin the WSJ doesn't understand how the game is played. Noonan is under no obligation to tell what she really thinks, only to have people believe that she is. And she's too smart to bite the hand that feeds her.

Of course the McCain camp ignore this. They don't want to prolong its shelf life, and there's no way to spin this that would be credible. Attacking Noonan and Murphy not an option, either. Just let it die fast and quiet.

This incident reminds me of Michael Kinsley's definition of a gaffe: "When somene accidently tells the truth."

[Richard]

I said it 4 hours ago, the republican party won't care about murphy and noonan's truthful comment's. They live in a bubble above everyone else. We are bile to them and you are immediately bile if you are in there party. They will eat there own.

[Judy Kilgore]

So billp (@ : P.M.), you think that Jesse Jackson's open mike moment was just Jesse being truthful? I agree.

With "friends" like these, who needs enemies?

[Kevin]

Typical response from a political spinster who's backed into an inescapable corner.

Who cares? Just the entire country, stupid.

[TR]

And what else could Schmidt have said? He's the one, not McCain, who picked Palin after all. The damage is done. McCain will lose and the Palin pick will go down in history as a huge blunder. Schmidt will make the reasonable argument that McCain would have lost anyway. Peggy Noonan is only speaking for half of all McCain supporters when she calls the Palin pick "political BS," "gimmicky," "insulting," "cynical."

McCain was desperate and he can't make big decisions, so his advisers went for the Hail Mary pass. Big deal.

[Scott Marabi]

The truth comes tumbling out of the mouths of the spin doctors. (Makes me wonder: Whose side are the really on?) BRILLIANT!! And the new spin doctor tries to "pooh-pooh" the damage. If this continues to escalate by the media, I predict Schmidt's new damage control will amount to little more than: Spin the spinners. As we know, Republicans rely on charasmatic personalities--rather than real issues--to win votes, so it should be interesting to see how this gaffe plays out.

[sb]

noon did not say mccain's campaign was over--or so she explained. what she meant, who knows. clealry she's against narrative--Obama does it so much better. Palin is not the oldest or wisest Republican, clearly. But let's not get crazy about the great job of being VP. Qualified to sit as president of the senate and wait for Mccain to die?

[VJ Machiavelli]

Well, I guess Noonan and Murphy are now looking for a new line of work. It seems they "BLEW" it. Sarah The "New Republican Terminate" did an outstanding job she did what I said she would do is "TERMINATE" the "APPEASEMENT KID"

VJ Machiavelli
http://www.vjmachiavelli.blogspot.com
ps This is not longer your "GRANDFATHERS" Republican Party

[Tim Kelley]

Someone needs to gag Mike Murphy- Sarah knocked it out of the park....this choice by Mac shows that he is more crafty than all his advisors and may be looked on years from now as the most strategic and brilliant political campaign decision in the last 50 years! The republican party needed the vitality that Sarah brings to the table in the worst way..any objective observer should realize this after the speech she gave tonight. Viva Mac for this gameshifting decision!!! Disappointing that Peggy Noonan would pile -on...but maybe it shows that they too have been "insiders" for too long and they need to step down an let others lead!

[Drbanks]

Peggy Noonan tells the story a little more completely in her WSJ column...not quite as damaging as the NYT would like.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122044753790594947.html?mod=todays_columnists

[G. FitzGerald]

What a big deal that two pundits have such opinions that are such a controversial but truthful critique of the McCain vp nomination. I found them enlightening and worthy of consideration however unintended for my ears.

And ...I take their comments further:

Can't somebody from the Democratic and Independent sides communicate that fundamentalist Churchianity is the real "Bridge to Nowhere."

That's the "bridge" unqualified Mrs. Palin won't pull the plug on and McCain gags on having to cynically support it. Voters need to do it for her and him and spare us another four years of Theocracy

Watch Constantine's Sword by Jacoby/Carroll and get the deadly combination of ignorance and arrogance that drives these people. Enough already!

[Julescator]

How horrible it must be getting caught TELLING THE TRUTH!

[Independent Voter]

VETTING SARAH PALIN, UPDATE

Although the McCain camp has sent lawyers to the National Enquirer Magazine, they are sticking to their guns.

'Following our John Edwards exclusives, our political reporting has obviously proven to be more detail-oriented than the McCain campaign's vetting process.'

Despite the McCain camp's attempts to control press coverage they find unfavorable, the Enquirer will continue to pursue news on both sides of the political spectrum.

The National Enquirer also reported that Palin had planned to have a shotgun wedding after the RNC, after which she would announce the pregnancy. The Enquirer says that Palin was working frantically to get Bristol and Levi married before the the pregnancy was revealed. She even went as far as to make arrangements for a small wedding ceremony but Bristol refused. This resulted in a nasty fight between Bristol and Sarah Palin.

The Enquirer reported that a family source said that Sarah Palin has had a stormy relationship with her daughter. The source said 'Sarah has a hard time controlling her...she is so busy with her political career that it seems she doesn't have time for Bristol.'

One of the incredible charges that has emerged from the family feud is that: Palin, a mother of five, had an affair with a former business associate of her fisherman husband, Todd.

'Todd discovered the affair and quickly dissolved his friendship and his business associations with the guy. Many people in Alaska are talking about the rumor and say Todd swept it under the rug.'

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DEMANDING JOHN MCCAIN PRODUCE HIS MENTAL HEALTH RECORDS FOR "FITNESS".

Another Investigation
04 Sep 2008 07:14 pm
Governor Palin is going to have to hire more lawyers. She is now facing a second ethics investigation in Alaska:
The GOP candidate for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, may be facing yet another ethics investigation back in her home state of Alaska. An ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed Wednesday by the police officers union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper Mike Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law of Palin who is at the center of the "Troopergate" scandal.
The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."
John Cyr, director of the union that filed the complaint, told NBC News, "It seems obvious to us somebody has improperly accessed [Wooten's] personnel file."