McCain And Palin Personally Approved Email Hunt For Leaks

The Plum Line:

John McCain and Sarah Palin both personally approved an intensive internal search of the emails of top campaign staffers in order to determine who had been leaking damaging information about Palin to reporters, McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt just told me in an interview.

"John McCain and Sarah Palin were both informed that we were doing this in an attempt to catch the person," Schmidt told me, referring to his decision to undertake the email search, which has been the topic of fierce controversy since it was revealed yesterday.

Read the whole story: The Plum Line

Comments

[RobDoub]

Everyone is still trying to protect their reputations, and not be to blame for the fiasco that was the end of the McCain/Palin campaign. Each book that is published will see some of these things flare up again, I imagine.

A couple of points.

First, there is nothing wrong, and no suprise, in McCain and Palin approving steps to find out who in their campaign was undermining the campaign with these leaks.

But what is really interesting to me about the news of the last couple of days, including the Vanity Fair article, the discussion on the email leak investigation, the Runners World article and pictures, and the awarding of the Sitting Duck Award to Sarah Palin....i­s that Palin has NOT responded!

Does this mean she has actually found an advisor she will listen to, who also has some political common sense? That would be two things that have, till now, never happened.

[dsmyre]

McCain has been low-profile since the election. Palin always seeks the spotlight (attacking Letterman, attacking the grandbaby's daddy, attacking pajama-clad bloggers). McCain probably wanted to let this email flap go away quietly, but Palin won't let it rest.

[hortonhearsdawho]

mccain is an arse in any profile...

[bethea3]

What is the purpose of this witch-hunt anyway? I mean, it's not as though they could sue anyone for slander or nullify the election results and have a do-over. Even with laws that allow employers to monitor emails, I do believe we still live in a country wherein privacy may be in question under these circumstances but the punitive actions of thought police will not stand up under scrutiny.
They claim this to be an effort to ascertain what went wrong. If anything, leaks via email were the least of their problems. Start with a candidate who sold out his core principals to ride the same bus that Bush did. A candidate that represented more of a lack of options, a sacrificial lamb so to speak, than anyone who had any real hopes of getting into office. ( The sacrificial lamb technique is seems to be incorporated whenever a party doesn't want to waste the resources of a viable future candidate at a time when they know they will not win. Think Kerry, Dole, McCain. I knew these guys were going to lose before they were nominated.­)

THEN, add a vp that is more akin to a cheerleader than a person you want to see conversing with the likes of Putin, has no national recognizition and thinks that Alaska would be stratigically important in a conflict with Russia.

Those reasons alone are enough to study for a year or two BEFORE you even consider email leaks1

[kubera622008]

The purpose is to make the person who leaked out to be the bad guy, instead of the emails that are truth about he who points the finger to a different direction. Republicans do this kind of stuff alllll the time. Distract people to a different direction and make them run over there. Gawwwwd. They are so predictable.

[mudkitten]

The purpose is to prevent more leaks that would be even more damaging from getting out.

[Carsy]

This is a warning from Palin, trying to discourage anyone from doing this again. Wow, she must be a total b**** to work for. I don't believe I have seen anyone so vindictive and insecure. I think insecurity fuels the vindictiveness.

[Ponderus]

And if elected, she will found the first National Trailer Park.

[hortonhearsdawho]

day care facilities ?

[DASChicago]

Oh please no...would that be for special needs?

[LANoir]

Whoever leaked had a great sense of humor.

I would have given anything to see "The Wasilla Hillbillies ransacking Saks."

And I am sure it was not far from the truth. Nor was anything else that was leaked.

The saddest part is, that the damage done most to Sarah Palin and John McCain was done by Sarah Palin and John McCain.

I hope they never find their "fall guy."

[kubera622008]

HAHA! Palin in her own spoken words supplied Saturday Night Live with verbatim scrips of her. And they can't figure out why on earth every time she opens her mouth, she keeps landing in a ditch she dug for herself. Gotta blame someone, may as well be the person who leaked emails. All the emails do is confirm what we already know based on Palin opening her mouth in the first place. Can you tell I'm so relieved to not have her second in line to running our country? LOL!

[LANoir]

Very true. Tina Fey did not have to write too much for those skits.

My bad on the quote. It was correctly:

"Wasilla Hillbillies Looting Neiman Marcus From Coast To Coast"

Either way, it's pretty funny to visualize. Maybe some day someone will make a movie about the Palin campaign. Like National Lampoon, or something. I'd go see it.

[mychagal]

At this very critical time for the republicans, they should not be wasting anymore time and energy than they already have with infighting, investigating activities, pointing fingers, and arguing.

The issue on hand is not who leaked this damaging information. The more pressing issue is that John McCain, without doing any vetting, has unleashed one of the most corrupt politicians in the history of this country, and she didn't go away, as most of us thought she would..

If her governorship were, instead, a regular office job, she would have been fired a long time ago, even if the owner of the company was madly in-love with her. You cannot run a business with a borderline psychotic (I believe she has Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Sociopathic Personality Disorder). The great news is that she was exposed for who she is and by all accounts, her career in politics should be over. If in fact, she is re-elected as governor of Alaska, and she manages to win the 2012, GOP nomination, then the republicans will have to live with the consequences.

As for the Democrats, this will only make it so much easier for Obama to be elected to a second term. However, regardless who becomes the GOP nominiee, Obama will win!

[kubera622008]

On the contrary, this is a perfect time for Republicans to be infighting. LOL! It validates why McPalin didn't win, and it will only help Obama to stay in for 8 years. They supply job security for Obama. Plus, what entertainment. grin.

[bethea3]

There is the very real possibility that she will be nominated as the sacrificial lamb candidate. There is nothing standing in the way of an Obama second term and rather than waste a viable future candidate on an exercise in futility, the repubs may put her up in an effort to influence future female voters having seen the Hilary effect.

[LeftLeanWing]

Sarah Palin Really Stinks
Runs Campaign with Forty Winks.

Although We All Know She's Done
She Still Gives Us So Much Fun

[LANoir]

LOL

[kubera622008]

LOLOLOL

[mychagal]

She is most certainly done, but her narcissism and her insatiable need for attention is causing her to keep pushing back. The question is, how much more beat up is she willing to be before she finally gives up and goes away.

[conservativesscareme]

That leaker was a great American hero!
Maybe it was the McCain staffers who appeared in her hotel room and she came out and talked to them casually wearing a TOWEL, for crying out loud.

[idisVA]

I still wonder why the Obama campaign never went after First Dude's membership in the AIP.

[on2them]

ditto

[dsmyre]

Obama focused on McCain and his policies. Not Alaskan trash.

[annetteK]

LOL - They weren't worried enough!

[NoToGOP08]

I still don't get it. Why are they still not touching that story (and the weird Palin pregnancy story where she traveled 18 hours while leaking amniotic fluid to deliver Trig)

[bethea3]

They had more important things to do than to be concerned with than Toads affiliation with an organization that is akin to a flea on a dog. At this stage of the campaign they were probably more concerned about where they would locate the White House veggie garden or where the kids would go to school. What color suit to wear. Or what to do about the economy before they were in office.
Besides to even comment on something so mundane would have been contrary to the overall tone of the campaign. That would have been as stupid as references to Roy Ayers. They ran one of the cleanest races I have ever seen.
Let the pundits handle the side-show.

[dsmyre]

Good old Governor Winky. Vindictive as ever.

[bethea3]

What is the purpose of this witch-hunt at this time anyway? It is not as though they could be sued for slander or the results of the election nullified and we have a do-over. I thought we live in a country wherein freedom of speech is a sacred right and the thought police have neither the right to invade the privacy of private correspondance nor the ability to impose sanctions upon an individual for having an opinion that conflicts with theirs. If you want that type of behavior move to Iran. And, Phobe917,not only are they not disputing the content, they do not seem to take much issue with validity of what was said.

On a more positive note, I hope Palin continues with her campaign for 2012. Her polarizing nature further disrupts and confuses the base disallowing any real Repub contender the chance to gain any traction. She refuses to go away and bone-up on the issues that could help her become a viable candidate in the eyes of the financial faction of the conservative right who probably reject her out of hand. She is just what the Democratic party needs; the gift that keeps on giving.

[oscartucker]

McCain/Palin campaign lives on through all of the fighting and accusations, now. Who's going to get whom? They all may just want all of this to go quietly "into that good night" so they can get ready for the next round--2012. I am sure some who worked for Mc want to work for someone else but perhaps not for SP.

[dsmyre]

Didn't we all ridicule the Governor of Texas recently for promoting secession?
What makes Sarah Palin think we'll overlook her husband's membership in the Alaskan Independence Party for 7 years?

[Decipherer]

Not to mention her tacit support and encouragement for this bunch of nitwits. I am delighted that this old news is being revealed, because it will take an enormous amount of work on her part to figure out an explanation for what she has actually said.

Not good, Sarah. You're toast, lady.

[Travis bdboy]

McCain and Palin will do what?....t­wo mavericks that are LOSERS

[Martha12]

Can you IMAGINE if Jill Biden belonged to a secessionist party for .........7­.....years­!!

Can you IMAGINE if Joe Biden had given 2 speeches for their convention?

Let ALONE the ties Palin CONTINUES to have with the AIP!

Palin' Around With Traitors should have been the headline!

Meet Sarah Palin's radical right-wing pals;

Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin's political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. "Her door was open," says Chryson -- and still is.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/index.html