McCain And Palin Personally Approved Internal Email Hunt For Leakers, Campaign Manager Says
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.
Schmidt’s revelation sheds new light on the campaign’s internal discord and on just how frustrated McCain and Palin both were about the leaks, which portrayed Palin as a “diva” and a “whackjob” at a key moment when the campaigns were battling over her image. Schmidt’s claim will also up the stakes in the fierce infighting among top Republicans over what went wrong.
Politico reported yesterday that Schmidt had ordered an internal email search to staunch the leaks, and quoted Schmidt claiming foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann had been busted and disciplined for leaking about the campaign. Scheunemann’s allies have disputed the revelations, pointing out he never leaked anything about Palin, and Scheunemann ally Bill Kristol went on the air and demanded to know who had authorized the leak hunt.
Now we have our answer: McCain and Palin. Or so says Schmidt, anyway.
“Senator McCain was informed that we were going to do this,” Schmidt told me. “Governor Palin was informed that we were going to do this. Both of them were delighted and hopeful that we would be able to find the person.”
Schmidt confirmed that both McCain and Palin were personally informed when the search turned up email leaks by Scheunemann and were told that “disciplinary action was taken.”
Schmidt denied, however, that he had personally read the emails of campaign staffers. He said the IT department had done a keyword search of the emails, using the epithets that had been applied to Palin. The privacy of the emails, he said, was “protected.”
Schmidt strongly defended the decision to undertake the internal hunt. “The intent was to catch a person who was dong incredible damage to the campaign, and to protect John McCain and Sarah Palin,” he said. “I make absolutely no apologies for it. I would do the same thing tomorrow.”
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The larger question, and I know you can’t touch this Greg, is why is the Washington Post now employing a person who threw away ALL of their journalistic integrity during the election season by pushing propaganda intended to help McCain/Palin because of his own role in promoting her for the VP slot as well as using his platforms along with his sychophantic cohort Fred Barnes to settle scores with McCain staffers??? Is Fred Hiat Kristol’s b*tch?
WaPo selling access to lobbyists for money.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=3B5502AA-18FE-70B2-A8FD90B34E41BF57
I want to know who came up with line about the Wasilla Hillbilly’s ransacking through Saks. That image still makes me laugh.
sg, I’ve been wondering the same thing: namely, Kristol is out there on a jihad against Schmidt about a campaign that he should have had no involvement in, being employed by the NYT during 2008 and now the WAPO. How is he part of this partisan infighting? Also, why is he employed by any newspaper at all? Isn’t this like Donna Brazille or James Carville writing OP-Eds in a major paper? I get the IOKIYAR that happens in the media a lot these days, but Kristol, really? What, the Hamburglar wasn’t available for Hiatt to interview for this job?
I have to say, at this point, who cares?
THEY LOST………………….GO HOME! SHUT UP! THEY LOST!
Sooo Sarah Palin 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.
Palin had the IT department do a keyword search of the emails, using the epithets that had been applied to Palin!
One question, how much is Palin being charged to do the email search?
According to Palin, and her staffers, Palin wanted $15million from the public to search her personal / official emails.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27228287/
I say we give her a discount and charge Palin $14,999,999.99.
Since when is leaking the truth so harmful?
If McCain/Palin had nothing to hide then leaks wouldn’t be a problem.
Obviously, they wanted to hide The Real Problem: McCain made a horrible choice selecting a woefully unqualified VP candidate.
He lost the election because of it.
If you really want to get into the head of Sarah Palin (that’s a scary thought )read some of the stories this week on The Mudflats by AKMuckraker.The details that tie it all together in the posts prove that the blog up there was wayyyy ahead of the MSM outlets about getting the Facts out there. MSM is just catching up.
I can’t beleive how much dirt Palin keeps digging herslef into… Whatmore is how she can sericously believe she still has a political career beyond her current term.
I am very liberal, and do NOT SUPPORT THE PATRIOT ACT SEARCHING THROUGH EVERYTHING EVERYTHING I DO AND SAY ON THE WEB… but, during a campaign, having an internal leak of confidentiality, would be investigated by any legitimate organization. The key word search that they are describing was taken by the McCain campaign is much less intrusive than what the Government, under the NSA program, Total Awareness, gathers on the average citizen when they send an email. I say, leave Palin alone on this one — keep the focus on her true buffoonery or risk watering down your real criticism. MCCAIN should not even give this any thought at all, except to dismiss his critics as unrealistic. I should add, I think the leaks were a patriotic act by a concerned citizen, so he was very in the right as well.
This was no different than a search that your emailer could institute within a company. The email system being used was the property of the campaign. People seem to forget that it’s not an invasion of property when you are using someone else’s property.
THANK GOD, McCain/PALIN and all their CAMPAIGN KLAN are on the SIDELINES where they belong.
Rush Limbaugh Republicans STILL EAT THEIR young. Like DICKcheney they take their typical hate filled thoughts and deeds and turn the same bile in on themselves.
Rich said:
“If you really want to get into the head of Sarah Palin read some of the stories this week on The Mudflats by AKMuckraker.The details that tie it all together in the posts prove that the blog up there was wayyyy ahead of the MSM outlets about getting the Facts out there.”
All more than true: check out this very highly regarded Alaskan blogger AKMudraker at themudflats.com. AKM always takes the high road, and is always on top of things. Alaskans have been watching Sarah Palin’s disturbingly chaotic behavior for years. Now, it’s catch up time for the rest of us. It’s time for the truth to be seen in the light of day. Then we move on.
OOPS! My mistake! AKM found at http://www.themudflats.net
What went wrong is McCain made two major maistakes.He sucked up to the people who stabbed him in the back and spread vicious untrue rumors about him in 2000,and he chose Palin instead of Romney because he was a Mormon.Romney could have given McCain financial gravitas,but he chose to appease the Nazi wing of the party. The majority of Americans weren’t having any part of Palin’s incompetence.It doesn’t take a blue ribbon panel to figure that out. The Republicans have got to move to the center and get rid of the Limbaugh/Hannity wing or they’ll NEVER regain the White House.
Why can’t Sarah Palin honor the American people by just shutting up?http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?1113nov8
McCain/Palin is getting what they deserved. I have no pity on them or the obstructionist Republicans.
The Wasilla Hillbilly-line isn’t a line, it’s the truth. You’ve all read about the family and extended family dynamics, their behavior is like many other Wasilla folk who’ve gotten some power and some money, upper middle class money, redneck tastes.
Kristol had the major hots for Palin after a cruise to Alaska and having lunch at the Gov’s mansion. He was instrumental in her being suggested for the VP position. It pays to live in Alaska sometimes. You get this info a lot earlier than most.
I knew a few “chicks” like Sarah in high school. You knew them too. They were the ones that dated the jocks and thrived on attention and kissed some major faculty *** to get on the right side of the grading curve. If some unfortunate soul was found to be equally attractive by the boys or stole their spot on the cheer-leading squad. They were subject to every form of immature torture and dismissal from the clique. All of her current actions are just a middle-aged version of this sophomoric behavior. Just give thanks things turned out as they did.
Back to Wasilla you goofball.Those of us on this side of reality have laughed enough.
Whoa. Who cares? Let’s stop squabbling about these idiots and get some major fixin’ goin’ on. Let Faux News worry about this stuff. The party of NOPe needs to get serious about finding ideas and solutions.
Do Republicans know how all this looks? Pity the fools.
I love how stuff like this has become news ever since that Vanity Fair piece (http://www.newsy.com/videos/vanity_fair_on_palin_what_s_it_all_mean).And by love, I mean hate. Who the heck gives a ****?
They were worried because it was all true, yet it wouldn’t take a leak for the public to get savvy, just listening to her was proof enough.
Post Publisher Cancels Plans for Off-the-Record ‘Salons’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201563.html?nav=hcmodule
it`s true that palin was not qualify for v.p.but it`s also true that mccain is not quality to be president.check his naval history out. crash and burn crash and burn.
Sarah, GOP.
Please GO AWAY. You LOST – They Won – NOW GET LOST.
Americans have huge, much larger problems right now than dealing with your narcissistic BS. GO AWAY, PUUULEEEZEEE! NOW.
For questions about the Kristol connection- from http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Scheunemann_Randy
A well-connected lobbyist and political insider who serves as an advisor to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign, Randy Scheunemann is the founder and president of the public relations firm Orion Strategies 1 and was an active supporter of advocacy groups aimed at building support for the invasion of Iraq. His firms have represented various military contractor and oil interests. Along with neoconservative figures like Robert Kagan and William Kristol, Scheunemann served as a director of the now-defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a letterhead group that played an important role in building support for the Iraq War and an expansive “war on terror.” 2 He also headed the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), a post-9/11 advocacy outfit that pushed for war in Iraq. Like PNAC, CLI played a key role forging a coalition of Beltway figures who supported a Middle East agenda that had at its core toppling Saddam Hussein. 3 CLI members included McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). 4
Sarah Palin Took An Axe.
Gave a Campaign 40 Whacks.
When She Saw What She Had Done
Decreed For POTUS She Would Run
No one called Joe the Plumber on the leaks?
Sarah never has realized her place on the ticket as an axeman….and axemen never have political futures
I am not sure I understand this … I don;t think we needed leaked information to see that Sarah Palin is a diva and a whackjob or that McCain didn;t know his butt from a hole in the ground.
Who really care about this stuff now? No one cared about it then, so why bring this up now?They are losers…get over IT.The GOP need to stop crying and do something that may help the country.
Whoever leaked this was a patriot and may have just saved this nation from an epic, unrecoverable disaster. Even McCain’s close aids have said they are glad Obama is POTUS. That is no small thing– and it says everything.
Palin is a narcissistic sociopath who believes God wants her to be President, and confuses being an elected official with being royalty — with the perks that Kind Henry 8th bestowed upon himself. If she doesn’t like a law, she just breaks it and says she didn’t.
Go away, Sarah. Just please…go away.
Astonishing! Someone is sabotoging your campaign and everyone signs off on finding out who the snitch is. What a novelty. The Palin haters are mostly homosexuals and demorat women. The others are those who can’t stand the fact she is stunning in her beauty. Then we have those who aborted a “deformed” baby and totally resent she not only kept it, but doesn’t keep it at home in the dark confines of obscurity. She also had to work her way through college and didn’t have a rich momma like Caroline “you know, like, er, I can help, er” Kennedy.
Of course they wanted the leaks stopped. They showed the internal working of what has to be the worst run campaign in recent memory, failing candidates and horrible policies. Heaven forbid that we should see the painful truth of the incredible mess that was the McCain campaign. hey tried to extend the Bush term using the same embarrassing tactics. These clowns wanted to run the country? It’s scary just thinking about it.
I agree, whoever leaked IS A NATIONAL HERO. They had the good sense to see the worst excuse for a public official in American history coming down the pike right after Bush, and knew that they had a role to play to help the entire country dodge that bullet.
Hat tip and 41 gun salute to you, Leaker! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.
Hey, I was no more for Caroline Kennedy for N.Y.S. Senator than I was for Sarah Palin as Vice President. Caroline was the Northeast version of Sarah. Both are charismatic women who somehow imagined they merited positions for which they were both unqualified. Both have public speaking, shall we say, challenges. There are plenty of people who have to work their way through college. Palin doesn’t get points for that. Most choose to “work their way” through 1 college in 4 years, not 4 colleges in 6 years like Governor Palin but so what. Considering her interviews, she certainly didn’t work too hard at the books in college. Of course, Caroline Kennedy cannot be blamed for her advantages any more than Governor Palin deserves credit for Alaska’s natural resources that allow her to bribe, I mean reimburse, Alaskan citizens. I don’t hate Palin although I am a female Democrat with a homosexual daughter which, apparently puts me in the “hater” demographic. However, I would never vote for Palin because she is certain of things she obviously knows nothing about. Plus she tell whoppers with a wink and a smile! Stupid doesn’t begin to describe her problems. “Stunning in her beauty” (sic) doesn’t cut it nor does a disabled child. We need leaders to solve problems not “be” problems. America deserves better. So does Alaska.
Schmidt attempted to fire Scheunemann not for leaking about Palin (Scheunemann is pro-Palin) but for having an exchange with Bill Kristol (an exchange that is online, btw, and on the record for all the world to see) regarding who the possible leaker might be. Schmidt has accused Palin of mental illness and the article in Vanity Fair gives a highly suspect account of people looking in the DSM-IV. Clearly, Schmidt is himself showing symptoms of delusion giving different explanations to different journalists that are wildly conflicting, and if the DSM-IV should be consulted in this mess, it should be in regard to Schmidt. Schmidt attempted to fire Scheunemann for naming the leaker, not for BEING the leaker. And why would he do that? Because Schmidt himself was trashing Palin, that’s why. Please. Give us all a break. The fox eating the chickens wasn’t searching for the fox. He was searching for the hound…….and tried to fire him. Did you not read his comments in Politico at all?
Here’s a funny little rundown on the thwarted Obama-Is-A-Big-Ape video reportedly created and released by SarahPAC for a 4th of July fundraiser:
http://breepalin.blogspot.com/2009/07/who-made-faux-sarahpac-video-or-sarah.html
So, “unapproved” words in emails were found, the sender was identified, and then the sender was disciplined, And yet the “privacy of the emails was protected”?
How exactly does that work?
“Stunning in her beauty”? You need to get out more, fella. I practically throw up every time she sucks her teeth or cleans them with her tongue.
Palin is stunning only in her ignorance of the world and in the fact that she is even ignorant of her ignorance.
Who give a MUCKED about hillbilly TRASH. They lost, let’s move on PEOPLE.
Sara is nothing short of a HO
Sarah who?
Just heard Palin was resigning from gov. job in july..Probably thinks she needs time to run for president.. Just what americans want someone who cries and quits her job as gov. because things dont go her way to be our president. Bet we havent heard the last of her as she thinks she is entitled..
There is much more to the Palin resignation,than meets the eye. Hold on to your hats folks, its about to get REAL UGLY for Palin