MotherJones.com | MoJoBlog - Social Issues and Political Commentary: McCain Goes Looking In Slime Pool For More Questionable Staff Members

« Goodbye, Future Daughter | Blog Index | Latest Katrina Disaster: Waste Estimate Doubles to $2 Billion »

McCain Goes Looking In Slime Pool For More Questionable Staff Members

Sen. John McCain's recent hiring of Karl Rove protege Terry "Call me" Nelson didn't surprise those of us who have never bought into the "straight talker," "maverick" image that has been manufactured by McCain and his supporters. Now McCain has hired yet another morally-challenged staff member, Jill Hazelbaker, as communications director for his New Hampshire campaign.

Hazelbaker is known for posing as a liberal and stirring up trouble on liberal blogs. She was caught, too, but continued to lie about what she had done. These kinds of campaign dirty tricks, recently popularized by Rove and Karen Hughes, are probably pretty common, but in this case, the selection of both Hazelbaker and Nelson tell more about McCain than anything else.

Comments

Of course this is deplorable but let's not forget about Democrats knowing all about Foley for over a year before the story came out.

Corruption and dirty tricks are NOT exclusive to conservatives. When you only cover the dirty deeds of one side you lose your image of credibility with half the country.

why not go after this garbage in both parties with equal vigor?

Posted by: Mark on 12/25/06 at 8:56 AM

I hope some MF writers come to South Carolina and come soon. Talk to Beaufort Mayor Bill Rauch and see what he makes of the slime McCain is hiring. Rauch had the stellar chapter in his book Politikin about how Rove maligned/puked on McCain in Primary 2000 with the Right to Life slime of the Lowstate.
In meantime, play right out of the Rove playbook, indicative of the slime McCain is now courting in Friday's Greenville South Carolina "News" by State GOP hack, Mike Fair

http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061223/OPINION/612230310/1016

Posted by: Stephen Fox on 12/25/06 at 9:27 AM

Typo above, I meant MJ writers for Mother Jones, not MF writers; only God knows what that means.

Here are some of the thoughts of Fair, since the link did not enervate in the comment:

Which brings me to the 2008 presidential campaign, which will be jump-started next month as the candidates make their intentions official. Because of its importance, particularly in the Republican Party, South Carolina will quickly become the national focus of the primary season.

I hope we can all agree on one fact: We will be electing a wartime president in this country.

There are two wars being fought simultaneously. One is the war on terror; the other is the culture war. We must win both, and we must have a president who is steadfast on both wars.

If he runs, I will work actively to elect Sen. John McCain because he is the only conservative who can beat what will be a strong Democrat candidate. Right now polls show Hillary Rodham Clinton as the front-runner.

Sen. McCain has been an ally of President Bush in his valiant efforts to bring America back to traditional values, including putting justices on the Supreme Court who will not legislate from the bench.

Another GOP candidate, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has made trips to South Carolina trying to appeal to conservatives. But his record in Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the nation, suggests he espouses one set of values in South Carolina, but governs in Massachusetts with a decidedly different value system.

The man who now claims to be the anchorman for family values was anchored in a different mooring in 1994, when he declared, "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country ... I believe that since Roe vs. Wade has been the law for 20 years, we should sustain and support it." That was when he ran against Sen. Ted Kennedy.

According to the Boston Globe, Gov. Romney filled out a Planned Parenthood questionnaire in 2002 when he ran for governor. He answered "yes" to the question of "Do you support the substance of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade?"

That same year Gov. Romney restated his support of abortion in a survey from the National Abortion Rights Action League, while refusing to answer the survey sent by the Massachusetts Center for Life.

In a Dec. 9 article this year, The New York Times reported that Gov. Romney "is drawing sharply increased criticism from conservative activists for his advocacy of gay rights" because of a letter he wrote to a pro-gay group while running against Sen. Kennedy.

The letter, addressed to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts, promised that he would be a stronger advocate for gay rights than Kennedy. "For some voters it might be enough for me to simply match my opponent's (Kennedy's) record in this area," Romney wrote. "But I believe we can and must do better. If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern."

Those values may be what the people of Massachusetts consider mainstream, but in South Carolina we call such values liberal.

The next president will be challenged with perhaps more vexing problems than any president in history. A major focus of the campaigns will be -- rightfully so -- on Iraq and the broader war on terror. We must win this war.

But we cannot neglect traditional American values that stem from the Judeo-Christian ethic. The Supreme Court is one vote away from swinging left or right; the next president will have the opportunity to affect the balance.

America will need a commander-in-chief willing to do what is necessary to fight the war on terror, and the culture war at home. That's why I plan to be on the McCain team.

Sponsored links

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Drivers/Messengers Vault Tellers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR for Private Pre-School

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FT OFFICE COORDINATOR for busy office in Mauldin

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All Top Jobs
About Top Jobs

Posted by: Stephen Fox on 12/25/06 at 9:31 AM

Mark, I have ALWAYS gone after both parties with equal vigor, and did so even before I ceased to be a member of either. In the past few years, however, the Republicans have clearly given me more to write about.

Posted by: Diane on 12/25/06 at 11:57 AM

If the focus of Election 2008 centers on McCain versus Clinton--well, than I think we're all in big trouble...
On the one hand, McCain received over $100K in political contributions from Charles Keating, before going to bat for him in a bid to prevent the government's seizure of Lincoln Savings and Loan. Subsequently federal regulators filed a $1.1 billion racketeering and fraud suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's deposits into political campaigns..., and McCain received a mild rebuke from the MIGHTY ETHICS COMMITTEE for exercising POOR JUDGEMENT for intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating... Real funny?, how McCain's wife and her father had invested $350K in a Keating shopping center, and how McCain and his family made nine trips at Keating's expense (after the troubles began, McCain paid back the airfares...).
On the other hand, the Clintons were partners with the McDougals in a real estate venture known as the Whitewater Developement Corp. When the development failed, Mr. McDugal attempted to cover the losses with funds from a savings and loan he operated--one which retained Hillary's legal services... When the bank failed, investigators subpoenaed Hillary's billing records, but she claimed to be unable to produce them. The McDugals ended up in prison, but no charges were brought against the Clintons themselves because (multiple choice): a./ there was insufficient evidence, b./ other reason...
Also a central figure in Whitewater was Webster Hubbell, who Pres. Clinton appointed associate attorney general, and who was considered the third most powerful person at Justice... Hubbell wound up in prison after pleading guilty to charges in connection with his handling of Hillary's billing records...
So..., does it really come as a big surprise that, where McCain is Chairman of the International Republican Institute, this concern has been accused by a former US ambassador to Haiti of undermining negotiations between Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his opposition after the contested 2000 election...
Aristide was never "liked" by "Washington." He stood for the poor, and was a harsh critic of the operations of transnational corps in Haiti and elsewhere. According to a US Dep't of State publication, "The political impasse that stems from the FLAWED legislative elections of May 2000 and which inhibits international assiatance, continued in 2002. The economy continued to decline, increasing relience on income from DRUG TRAFFICKING..."
Alternatively, once upon a trying time, Hillary the Great defended her husband by stating, "LOOK AT THE VERY PEOPLE WHO ARE INVOLVED IN THIS. THEY HAVE POPPED UP IN OTHER SETTINGS. THE GREAT STORY HERE FOR ANYONE WILLING TO FIND IT, WRITE ABOUT IT, AND EXPLAIN IT is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president." And she adamantly (but later proven wrongly) explained that the sex and perjury allegations against Bill were all part of an effort "to undue the results of two elections."
And so..., one does wonder..., just exactly how did Hillary somehow lose her voice when it came to the real and ultimately blatant conspiracy to "undue" TWO presidential elections...
Like, what criminality...?

Posted by: Michael L. Wagner on 12/25/06 at 3:05 PM

I was, once upon a time since past, very impressed with Mr. McCain. His devolution has been very upsetting to me. I was willing to give him consideration, despite my hatred and loathing of the Republican party, but that consideration has made me aware of an apparent dark side that beggars my imagination. I would not have taken such good care of myself if I had had any notion of living to see the end of the American republic in the apocalypse of unfettered capitalism. When I was a youth I wondered long as to how Hitler "got away with his pathological manipulation of so many." He had his Rove too.

Posted by: John Bland on 12/25/06 at 11:47 PM

McCain will be the nominee. Deal with it.

Posted by: Ames Tiedeman on 12/27/06 at 2:10 PM

John, I know how you feel! We must remember that we are talking about "PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS" here. They will say or do ANYTHING to stay in the game. They know they can't rock the boat, if they do they won't be allowed to keep their position in the "SOAP OPERA" government and we know how lucrative that is. What we need is a real "OPPOSITION PARTY", one to put us back under a CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT! WE NEED REGIME CHANGE!

Posted by: Ranselar VanDerpoel on 12/31/06 at 8:22 AM