Audio: Tammy Bruce blasts Huckabee and Schmidt

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Courtesy of Palin TV, Tammy Bruce takes on Mike Huckabee ("conservatives don't let rapists and murderers out of prison"), Steve Schmidt ("obsessed with Sarah", "has mother issues") and Tim Pawlenty ("you can't learn charisma"). Mild language alert:



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- JP

GOP needs to shut Schmidt up or it will lose

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Bernie Quigley has a warning for the Republican Party establishment:

The Republicans need to learn one thing before February. If they keep sending out their longtime apparatchik Steve Schmidt as designated Single Combat Warrior against Sarah Palin, they will lose.

His recent comments on “60 Minutes” about Palin’s statement that her selection as John McCain’s VP was part of “God’s plan” was — nudge, nudge — pneumonic scorn that, in the context of the other reports edited by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, quite obviously intended to caricature Palin’s simple and sincere expression of Christian faith to an “upscale” secular audience.

It does, in turn, caricature the same simple (in the Tolstoyan sense) Christian faith of the tens and hundreds of millions of Americans in the heartland with similar devotion. This comment couldn’t have been more poorly timed, as other Christian conservatives rose to defend Brit Hume’s recent advice to Tiger Woods even on the op-ed pages of The New York Times.

Excellent advice. If the GOP is smart, it will heed it. The only problem is the party establishment has shown precious few signs recently that it is smart.

Read Quigley's excellent op-ed in its entirety here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (January 11, 2010)

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Glenn Reynolds:

"Does Schmidt expect to get more work now? From whom, exactly?"

- JP

Matthew May: Steve Schmidt is the GOP's Bob Shrum

On the American Thinker Blog, Matthew May slices and dices Steve Schmidt:

Steve Schmidt is a loser.

That is not a smear but a documented fact. Schmidt managed the McCain for President campaign. McCain, as you will recall, lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Schmidt and his candidate bungled the campaign so badly that an untested, smooth-talking, America-bashing dilettante now occupies the White House as Commander-in-Chief.

Great job, guys!

Like a diligent virus, Schmidt refuses to leave the body politic. He is back again to call Sarah Palin's new book "total fiction." Interesting.

[...]

The one thing - the only thing - the McCain campaign got right was introducing Sarah Palin to the national stage.

[...]

So when a hack like Steve Schmidt says that Palin's book is "total fiction," consider the source. He and his bitter aides should retreat to the sidelines for a long, long time and reflect upon how badly their bungling stupidity and unwillingness to tell the hard truths about candidate Obama has damaged the republic.

Read May's full post here to learn how many Michigan Republicans felt abandoned by Schmidt's decision to cede the Great Lakes State to Obama and how it hurt Michigan GOP candidates down the ticket.

- JP

Sarah Palin: "No more f-bombs around Piper, please"

Via Andy Barr, who seems to be at least a bit less biased than some of his Politico colleagues (Cough*Jonathan Martin*Cough), some more snippets from Sarah Palin's Going Rogue:

Schmidt, she writes, was “grim-faced” and “cool,” and tried to pin the campaign’s troubles on what he claimed was Palin’s post-partum depression, and even went to so far as to try and dictate her diet.

According to excerpts published on the Huffington Post, Palin “took in his rotund physique and noted that he used nicotine to keep his own cognitive connections humming along.”

“I'm a forty-four year old, healthy, athletic woman raising five kids and governing a large state, I thought as his words faded into a background buzz. Sir, I really don't know you yet. But you've told me how to dress, what to say, who to talk to, a lot of people not to talk to, who my heroes are supposed to be and we're still losing. Now you're going to tell me what to eat?”

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Palin also faults Schmidt for his penchant for profanity, writing that he warned her just before the vice-presidential campaign that “moderator Gwen Ifill is "going to f*** with you."

"I'm thinking, Why are you telling me this? Last minute... what's the point? And no more f-bombs around Piper, please?"

Going Rogue confirms what we have long suspected about Schmidt.  Anyone who can't refrain from using the foulest of language around a 7-year-old child has no business preaching about what is morally "abhorrent" to others.

Our updated Going Rogue Book Tour schedule is here.

- JP

Running scared: Schmidt says Palin helped McCain's campaign

The same McCain advisor who has said that Sarah Palin would be a "catastrophe" for the GOP were she to become its 2012 presidential candidate, now says that she was an asset to the Arizona Senator's 2008 run for the White House.

Speaking at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Steve Schmidt also defended the decision to bring the former Alaska governor on board as McCain's running mate.

The Associated Press reports that Schmidt, who was chief strategist for McCain's presidential campaign, did not elaborate on his previous criticism of Palin, but volunteered that in his opinion, Palin has "great talents" for politics.

So Steve, please explain how the 2008 vice presidential candidate was helpful to McCain's '08 campaign, but would be a "catastrophe" at the top of the GOP ticket in 2012? You appear to be starting to backpedal a bit, Sparky. Is that fear we see in those beady little eyes? The impending release of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue memoir seems to have stirred your nest of weasels.

Good. Those critters are fun to watch when they squirm. 

More from the Arkansas News Bureau.

- JP

McCain admits 'tensions' between Schmidt and Palin camp

On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, John McCain acknowledged the obvious -- that there were tensions in his presidential campaign organization between senior strategist Steve Schmidt and aides who worked with his running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

McCain told host John King:

"With a high-pressure situation, there's always tensions that develop within campaigns, and there were clearly tensions between Steve Schmidt and people in the Palin camp."

"There are fundamental facts ... that cannot be denied. When we selected or asked Sarah Palin to be my running mate, it energized our party. We were ahead in the polls, until the stock market crashed. And she still is a formidable force in the Republican Party."

"And I have great affection for her. Did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No."

Video after the jump.

Update: Left Coast Rebel ponders McCain's motive, while FReepers say Whiskey Tango Foxtrot over his rather odd Maoist phraseology ("Let a thousand flowers bloom").

- JP

Armey: "McCain strategists feared Sarah Palin the moment she was chosen"

In a wide-ranging NewsMax.com interview, FreedomWorks chairman and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas was asked about Steve Schmidt's recent comment that a Sarah Palin presidential candidacy would be disastrous for Republicans in 2012. Armey's reply:

"You have to understand, McCain strategists feared Sarah Palin the moment she was chosen" because of concerns she might upstage the candidate at the top of the ticket, Armey said.

"Sarah Palin is I think now on her own terms and giving expression to her own voice.

"She's going to demonstrate herself to be a far more shining example of what small government conservatism is and how well it can be understood and expressed than the McCain campaign was able to do."

You can read the full interview here and here.

- JP

Five quick takes on Steve Schmidt

The Spag Report:

"Schmidt puts out the same uninformed narrative about Palin that elites and the liberal media spew, and that is that Palin is somehow some far Right extremist. In fact, Palin holds mainstream conservative views on every major issue and established a reputation for centrist positions her entire political career."

YankeePhil:

"[Steve Schmitt] says, 'We could have a catastrophic result for the Republican Party.' Ummm Like McCain?"

Neptunus Lex:

"I even like the way she’s stuffing McCain’s professional handlers into a sock, because it isn’t like the BlackBerry set has done done their man a favor, and all of this professional political class agonizing, pre-election fault-finding, beat-you-to-the-exit finger pointing, self-aggrandizing scapegoating and lifeboat racing is more than just a little off-putting."

Alamo City Pundit:

"I find it frankly unbelievable that Schmidt ever 'pushed McCain to nominate Palin as his running mate in 2008 and defended her against criticisms of her inexperience.' It sounds more like Monday morning quarterbacking to justify his 'sudden' negativity towards the best thing that’s happened to the Republican ticket since Teddy Roosevelt."

Political Integrity Now:

"All of the attention that Schmidt’s comments have attracted is yet more evidence of the fact that Palin is a — if not the — prime mover in the Republican party."

- JP

Quote of the Day (October 5, 2009)

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Be John Galt:

"The GOP getting advice from idiot Steve Schmidt is like the Pittsburgh Steelers or New England Patriots asking Matt Millen to make the team’s 2010 draft selections."

- JP

Coale: Schmidt "couldn't stand Sarah from day one"

After Steve Schmidt's weekend bashing of Sarah Palin, now we're beginning to hear other voices. Via Chris Cilliza:

John Coale, a Democrat and personal friend to the governor, insisted that Schmidt "couldn't stand Sarah from day one" and alleged that Schmidt and "his people" had "screwed up the ABC and CBS interviews."

Charlie Black, a close adviser to McCain during the 2008 campaign and a lobbyist based in Washington, was less confrontational about Schmidt's comments but did note that the criticism of the former governor "reminds me of the things some Republicans said about [Ronald] Reagan in 1977."

We can't wait to read what Sarah Palin has to reveal about the various players for Team McCain come November 17.

- JP

Palin Camp reponds to Schmidt slam: Wait for the book

Just off the CNN Political Ticker:

Sarah Palin is remaining silent about a sharp jab directed at her Friday by former John McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt, who predicted that a potential Palin presidential bid in 2012 would be "catastrophic."

A spokeswoman for the former Alaska governor said Palin is holding her fire until her new book is released next month.

"The governor will write about all of this in her book," Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said in an e-mail, referring to the internal fighting that marred the final weeks of McCain's president bid. "There will be plenty of time to talk about it then."

Steve Schmidt's mismanagement of the McCain campaign was nothing less than catastrophic, so his political advice is pretty much worth a share of Chrysler common stock right now.

At The Conservative Comeback, Schmidt conjures up images of George Costanza.

Our contribution to the Sarah Palin Automotivator photo meme:



Update: Rush has some advice for Schmidt and the rest of the McCain crowd:

Does the name Steve Schmidt ring a bell to anybody out there? Steve Schmidt was the campaign manager for John McCrazy -- McCain! -- in the presidential campaign in 2008. Steve Schmidt has told the Huffington Post that Sarah Palin in 2012 would be a "catastrophe for the GOP." This is one of the things that I was asked to comment on by a member of the State-Controlled Media today, and here's what I wrote back: "I think it's time for the McCain crowd to acknowledge that they're losers and pack it in. They've done enough damage to the Republican Party already. Move aside. Let a brighter, more principled, and more competent generation of people clean up the mess that the McCain people helped create," and that is exactly where we are right now. And now McCain, it is reported today, is trying to work behind the scenes to find candidates like himself to remake the Republican Party in a moderate, center sort of way. I guess Schmidt talking to the Huffing and Puffington Post is part of that mix, saying that Palin in 2012 would be a catastrophe for the GOP. Why would anybody listen to McCain? It would be like the Democrats taking advice from Dukakis. What in the world...? This is just more and more of the left trying to pick our candidates like they picked McCain, and it's time to stop that garbage. So there! That's my answer to it.

- JP

The Anti-Palin Leakers Strike Back

You can tell that the leakers who were working to kneecap Sarah Palin from inside McCain's campaign are feeling the heat of being exposed to the sunlight. They are fighting back, and they are using campgaign resources and a media which shares their agenda to do it.

Either Schmidt, Wallace or one of their cronies has supplied CBS with some internal memos to further trash Gov. Palin.

The result is this CBS hit piece.

The AIP issue was in fact a constant leftist talking point for at least a month during the campaign, and it is still being used against her.

Gov. Palin was right. Team McCain should have put the matter to bed. If Schmidt and his lieutenants were so overwhelmed that they couldn't deal with oppo, the exchange of memos says more about their incompetence than it does about Gov. Palin being uncooperative.

These creeps are literally trying to destroy Sarah Palin, and their media allies are only too willing to cooperate.

I suspect Schmidt and Wallace teamed up on this one. She's the one with all the connections at CBS. He could have easily passed on the memos to her, which she in turn could have handed over to her CBS pals.

- JP

Who are the anti-Palin leakers?

We already know about Nicole Wallace. And we've long been suspicious of Steve Schmidt. Mark Hemingway has obtained copies of some e-mail traffic between The Weekly Standard's William Kristol and Scheunemann, and some exchanges between McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times, which he reproduces here.

The more that comes out, the more Scheunemann looks like the fiercely loyal campaign aide to Sarah Palin we thought he was. He a real stand-up guy. Not so for Schmidt, however. I'm not surprised. He has said that what the GOP needs is more gays and less God. Not many who follow that way of thinking are supportive of Sarah Palin. He sounds like Kathleen Parker, for Pete's sake. She wanted Gov. Palin dropped from the 2008 GOP presidential ticket, an action, which if it had been taken, would have resulted in a losing landslide of McGovern proportions.

Update: Allah narrows it down to Schmidt, Salter or Davis. Smells like Schmidt to me. More from Melissa Clouthier, Patterico and Power Line.

- JP

Steve Schmidt talks Gov. Palin with Hugh Hewitt

McCain senior campaign strategist Steve Schmidt was Hugh Hewitt's guest on his talk show Monday night, and among the questions he was asked were several having to do with his boss' former running mate. Schmidt said that he, unlike most Sarah Palin's supporters, considered her treatment by ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS' Katie Couric to be fair, although he did admit that overall, she was treated unfairly by "a lot of the media" during the campaign.

When Schmidt was asked why McCain staffers waited so long to allow Gov. Palin to appear on conservative radio talk shows, environment which would be friendly to the governor, Schmidt said that she delivered "one of the great convention speeches of the last generation by a candidate of either party," Team McCain kept her away from the talk show circuit to "build suspense."

In Schmidt's opinion, the McCain campaign staff "served her well." yes, we all noticed how well-served Gov. Palin was by the leaked lies that she didn't know that Africa was a continent and couldn't name the member countries of NAFTA, even though she had to know at least two of the three to handle the trade negotiations she concluded with Canadian company Trans Canada for a major gas pipeline deal.

When Hewitt asked Schmidt if he had to do it over again, would he still pick Gov. Palin, Schmidt reminded the talk show host that it was John McCain who ultimately made the decision to choose her:

"Well, Senator McCain made the pick. I…and it’s been reported that I was a, that I was an advocate of it, and I was. And politically, I believe it was the right thing to do in the time. [...] But no, I don’t regret it, and I still believe electorally, her pick helped the Senator in the election. And I think that when you look at all the things that we had stacked up against us, I believe it was the right pick to make, politically, still."

Read the full transcript of the interview here.

h/t: Team Sarah

- JP