Behind The Scenes In The All Out Hate War Between Romney And McCain
Related stories: Everybody… Hates… Romney
NRO:
Manchester, N.H.— If you think things got a bit testy between John McCain and Mitt Romney during the ABC News debate here at St. Anselm College Saturday night, you didn’t see the half of it. After the debate, when top campaign aides and surrogates came to the Spin Room to tout their candidates’ performances, members of the Romney and McCain camps said the things their bosses might have been thinking but did not dare utter onstage.
McCain delivered “cheap shots,” said one Romney adviser. Another called McCain’s criticisms of Romney “snide remarks” and “name calling.” Yet another said they were “unbecoming.” All of which caused Mark Salter, McCain’s closest aide, to go off.
“Come on, Mitt, tighten up your chin strap,” Salter, standing just a few feet away from the Romney team, told reporters. “Of all the ludicrous suggestions – Mitt Romney whining about being attacked, when he has predicated an entire campaign plan on whoever serially looks like the biggest challenger gets, whatever, $20 million dropped on his head and gets his positions distorted. Give me a break. It’s nothing more than a guy who dishes it out from 30,000 feet altitude and then gets down in the arena and somebody says, O.K. Mitt, gives him a little pop back, and he starts whining. That’s unbecoming.”
What had McCain aides particularly heated was Romney’s exchange with McCain on the issue of McCain’s immigration proposals and the question of amnesty. “The fact is, it’s not amnesty,” McCain said during the debate. “And for you to describe it as you do in the attack ads, my friend, you can spend your whole fortune on these attack ads, but it still won’t be true.”
“I don’t describe your plan as amnesty in my ad,” Romney answered. “I don’t call it amnesty.”
With that, the issue became not whether McCain’s plan was or was not amnesty but whether Romney had or had not called it amnesty. And jaws dropped at McCain headquarters.
“What got us all going was when Governor Romney said, ‘We never called what you did amnesty,’“ said McCain confidante Sen. Lindsey Graham said. “Look on TV. Look in your mailbox in New Hampshire. John’s been pounded by Governor Romney with that charge. I was just dumbstruck.”
Indeed, after the debate, McCain aides produced a Romney mailing which said “John McCain: Supports Amnesty.” An e-mail from the Romney campaign earlier in the day referred to McCain’s “amnesty plan.” And a new Romney TV ad featured Romney supporters saying McCain “supported amnesty for illegal immigrants” and “wrote the amnesty bill.” In light of that, it is hard to see how Romney was being straight when he said he didn’t “describe [McCain’s] plan as amnesty.” After the debate, Romney’s spokesman, Kevin Madden, choosing his words carefully, said McCain favored “an amnesty-like approach.”
What was really playing out in the amnesty fight was the growing antipathy between the McCain and Romney camps as the New Hampshire primary approaches. Each man’s fortunes pretty much depend on what happens next Tuesday, and a new CNN/WMUR poll, released a couple of hours before the debate, showed McCain with a six-point lead over Romney, 33 percent to 27 percent. Romney has been on the attack because he is behind with little time to catch up. And when it came time to debate, the bad feelings bubbled up onstage.
In the end, they overshadowed some other noteworthy aspects of the debate. The first was the solid performance of Fred Thompson. He was sharp and focused, making his own points effectively as well as sometimes picking apart his opponents’ positions. But Thompson, at one percent in the new poll, wasn’t trying to win over New Hampshire voters. He’s only in New Hampshire because that is where the national press is, and that is where back-to-back Republican debates are being held this weekend.
“Forget about New Hampshire,” Thompson aide Karen Hanretty said after the debate. “We’ll get two or three percent in New Hampshire. We have no illusions about that. And a debate, I don’t think, is going to change that.” Indeed, Thompson has no plans to campaign in New Hampshire while he is here, and on Monday, before the voting in New Hampshire, he will head to South Carolina, where he will make the stand that will either make or break his candidacy.
For his part, Rudy Giuliani also delivered a solid performance, with impressive discussions of terrorism and immigration. But the winner of the Iowa caucuses, Mike Huckabee, turned in his weakest performance ever in a GOP debate, bobbling national security questions and attempting to finesse what he meant when he wrote, in an article in Foreign Affairs, that the Bush administration had an arrogant bunker mentality. Although Huckabee gave good answers on health care and the policy differences between himself and Barack Obama, he simply wasn’t up to the standards he has set for himself. Afterward, his top aides stayed out of the Spin Room — while they might have wanted to avoid talking about a sub-par performance, they also, apparently, wanted to let the various Romney-related feuds take center stage. No harm in that, from Huckabee’s point of view.
So now the candidates get ready to turn around and do it again tonight, in a forum sponsored by Fox News. When that happens, the voting will be 24 hours nearer, so don’t look for the tone to change.
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“McCain aides produced a Romney mailing which said “John McCain: Supports Amnesty”
….and you see then you have all these f*cktards who go on attacking the man based on someone else’s false rhetoric…
like I said previously, verbal master b…
Personally I would have punched Romney right in his F*ing mouth…oops I digress, but he seriously would have no doubt getting my vote then
January 6th, 2008 at 8:58 amLook closely at that picture. I think you just might be seeing the “pairings”. Thompson and McCain … Romney and Huckabee w/ Rudy filling some seat in their administration.
BTW, Thompson’s turned shoulder to Ron Paul might be read (as you do tea leaves) as shutting him out of a McCain/Thompson administration. Not sure if he’d have a place in the Romney/Huckabee Admin.
Romney, as THE presidential candidate, might just take on Huck as VP candidate to calm those evangelical Christian fears about his own religion. Might …
A McCain/Thompson ticket would balance the whole “McCain’s not conservative enough” and “Thompson’s just not exciting enough” …
I believe either ticket would be strong … and could stomp the heck out of the dem ticket …
Having said all that, and holding Duncan Hunter close in my political heart. I would like to see Hunter take a spot in a republican administration … and then run again in the future.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:58 amMcCain’s biggest problem is that he’s a typical senator! He carefully crafts his words so he can position himself on either side of an issue, all the while claiming he never said such a thing.
According to our grand Senators , we’re just to stupid to understand how the world works. We need to shut up and trust them, they know better than we do.
Senator = weasel
Tell me the difference between how Obama,clinton,Biden,Dodd and McCain talk to us.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:20 amDrillanwr:
Duncan Hunter is my Congressman, he is a good guy. Breaks my heart that he’s got no traction in this election cycle. He’s the closest we’ve go to a movement conservative
January 6th, 2008 at 9:23 amMcCain doesn’t support AMNESTY, what exactly was a Z-Visa if it wasn’t AMNESTY. No matter what price the illegal alien has to pay for the bribe, it’s still AMNESTY.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:39 amI sure wish Fred had a chance.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:44 amI’d like to see Fred in the White House with McCain, Rommney and Guiliani all in the administration. There’s a lot of talent there.
The main thing, though, is that there can’t be an Obama or Clinton or, God forbid, an Edwards in the White House.
What I think all you “McCain supports amnesty” dimwits are missing is that McCain helped craft this legislation as a compromise to get at least something through congress that would help to address the immigration problem. No other bill was proposed and none would have passed without compromise with the democratic controlled congress. This bill isn’t an end all, it’s a first step. A first step that no one else had the balls to make because they were afraid of the stickiness of the issue. Doing something is a lot better than sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to make the first move so you can escape the political fallout. More Importantly, McCain supports the full implementation of the Petraeus Report and the increasing of troop levels in Iraq, making for a permanent surge, another issue the rest of the candidates are to cowardly to address in terms other than servile political rhetoric.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:51 amI have no issue with folks disagreeing with McCain’s positions and not voting for him, but calling him a “weasel” or a sell-out is ludacris. This guy was tortured beyond comprehension in Vietnam and had the opportunity to leave because of his father’s position.
He chose to stay with the men. And what ensued after that decision was even worse torture, which is why the man cannot live his hands over his head today.
Do you really think a guy that wouldn’t sell out under those conditions is gonna sell out because of political pressure?
Please.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:07 amA couple of observations:
1. No U.S. Senator has been elected to the office of President of the United States since John F. Kennedy. That was nearly 50 years ago.
2. I’ve sat here for six months and wondered just why Fred Thompson seems to have no “fire” for this nomination. And last night I think I figured it out. Fred Thompson is close friends with John McCain, that is common knowledge. But last night, at one of the early exchanges between McCain and Romney, who was it that butted in with a shot at Romney in defense of McCain? Yep, Fred Thompson. This showed to me that Fred was more comfortable defending McCain’s run at the Office than putting 100% into his own campaign.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:03 amMcCain does support amnesty - He sells out the citizens of this country for a compromise with Teddie K . . . he is a compromise in a suit for the sake of what is right - sovernignty is right, not compromise . . . Blastdad, you are so correct in your analysis.
Still love Duncan Hunter - wish the media would give him a chance, but clearly he is too rightous for the job.
As an aside, Fred rocked on this interview:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2008/01/06/fred-after-false-withdrawal-rumor-i-owe-media-nothing
January 6th, 2008 at 1:17 pmThe last sentence sums it up nicely. This country needs a man like McCain at a time like this. He knows what he’s talking about when it comes to fighting terrorism. I trust him to hang tough and tell America like it is more than any other.
McCain all the way. Romney is a douche bag.
January 6th, 2008 at 2:00 pmMcCain is a loose cannon, period.
January 6th, 2008 at 3:27 pmCompromise my ass, don’t see the left in this country compromising much.
The border fence was just compromised, that’s pseudo intellectual word smith lingo for gutted.
The mexican truck incursion into the U.S. under the guise of NAFTA, rejected by congress last week was just “compromised” by the POTUS.
Seems that this “compromise” crap only works one way, but gee, can we talk? This country doesn’t need another pull toy for the left, or mexico.
People always qualify any criticism of McCain with “He is hero for his service in Vietnam, he was a POW”. Well lets look at that. Being a failure as a fighter pilot and getting yourself shot down does NOT make you a hero. It makes you a failure and a POW. Then breaking under the torture administered to you by a signature of “The Geneva Conventions” and signing war crimes confessions, also does not make you a hero. It makes you a traitor and a failure as a Soldier in the US Military.
I believe John McCain’s actions as a prisoner and as a Senator prove that he was not only broken by the Vietnamese but turned.
The Vietnamese Communists love the “Prince”, as they call him.
January 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pmRoger that Zeke Eagle
January 6th, 2008 at 4:35 pmAs you all know. I am a single-issue voter: GWOT. From this perspective, I came to an interesting realization. Rudy is the only one who has any real experience fighting terror. He has built his entire career on fighting organized crime. Al Qaeda is essentially that. It is a gang in structure and also in its vulnerabilities. Rudy knows how to take down this organization.
McCain is also very experienced. Either would serve our cause well. Experience counts for a lot here. However, I don’t think that Romney or Huck have the slightest clue when it comes to warfare of this (or any other) nature. I’m sure they mean well and look good on camera but none of that matters as we are being besieged by the worlds greatest threat to our way of life.
January 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pmYeah, me kant emadgin where all’n us “dimwits” gottha idear McCain is weke on illegible aleans migrashun stuff.
Just possibly, could be a stretch but maybe, just maybe it came from his voting record on immigration - http://profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=AZ&VIPID=33
Yeppers Americans for Better Immigration (aka - dimwits)gave McCain a D on his immigration voting record.
Check the dates and notice how McCain seemed to have an epiphany on immigration after his cough…amnesty…bill got shot down by outraged Americans letting their Representatives know just how bad McCain’s position sucked. Oh, and coincidentally his epiphany also occured when McCain announced he would like to be a candidate for POTUS. Maybe it was just McCain’s way of saying sorry - I’m sure it had nothing to do with damage control for pissing off the Republican base.
Although also late to the party, I do appreciate McCain’s new position on supporting Bush’s policy on Iraq but there is more to consider with McCain than just this one isssue. Remember he was the “hero” that brought us the McCain-Feingold-help-incumbants-get-reelected finance deformity bill. Who needs that wascally ol’ first ammendment anyway? Living, breathing, yada, yada…
That said I am a single-issue voter myself. That single issue being I will vote for anyone in ‘08 with an R after their name including McCain if it comes down to that. But the primaries are the time and that time is now to make sure the R doesn’t stand for RINO (memo to fellow dimwits - RINO stands for Republican In Name Only).
January 6th, 2008 at 5:46 pmBrave words. I’m sure you would fare much better. I’m sure you would tell those slopes what you thought of them as they were breaking your arms.
Your a pussy for even thinking what you wrote. You too, cb10.
You would break as soon as they threatened to stamp “no dessert” on you ration card.
January 6th, 2008 at 5:47 pmGrumpy - I think that being a single-issue voter is not a bad thing, but I would have to ask ALL on this site to think about the lack of security on our border as a huge overall problem in the GWOT. That is the way I see it and I would have to say that I too am a single-issue voter - the security of our country is my priority and I feel that aggressive military dominance abroad is important along with a strong defensive position on all borders of our home land. Having said that, I think that those candidates who do not see the importance of both border security and military strength as of the utmost importance are inept.
That is why Duncan Hunter is the perfect candidate. The media, which does not have our country’s best interest at heart, hides Hunter away - where is he in the debate that is on television right now - no where to be seen or heard from. If America is strong, then the media has nothing to “talk about” and therefore they root for weakness.
A single issue voter is not a bad thing . . . but the single issue should be defined as overall defense - external and internal.
January 6th, 2008 at 5:50 pmSenator McCain has voted time in again in the U.S. Senate for a weak defensive position on our border. That is a fact.
January 6th, 2008 at 5:53 pmAnother thing . . . McCain keeps saying that he will have the governors of border states “certify” that the borders are secure in their state . . . that is a bunch of crap. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry wants an open border and he would certify that the border was secured as it is today. He is a back stabbing, lying, cheater so don’t put it back on Governor Perry . . .
McCain is so “compassionate” for those who don’t respect our rule of law . . . that is a problem with the security of this country.
January 6th, 2008 at 6:11 pmFred T. is the right man for the border problem but he isn’t going to get nominated. None of the other choices are going to build a wall and stop the flood of illegals so we need to drop that as a qualifier for the time being (the art of politics). The only two men with a realistic understanding of the GWOT are Rudy and McCain so one of these has to be the correct choice for this moment. I put my faith on McCain even though I disagree with his view on water boarding because I know he has guts. And being a POW doesn’t make you a loser, it’s just wrong time, wrong place, and not your day! Ask any vet that has been in combat if he knew in the morning he would be alive in the evening. All I ever knew was I wouldn’t be taken alive because I wasn’t gonna be tortured by anybody!
January 6th, 2008 at 6:15 pmYes, McCain has blown it on the border issue. I agree. I really wish he would get it together and realize that our borders are the line in the sand that separates us from them.
In this war, borders are a false sense of security regardless of how tight they can be made. During WWII, we (OSS) and the Brits (SOE) were able to infiltrate operatives into German occupied territory regularly. Fortunately for us, “border security” didn’t stop us from destroying the Third Reich.
I am not afraid of the poor saps who run across the desert looking for work. What keeps me up at night are the Mohamed Attas of the world. These guys don’t care about borders nor do they fear la Migra. They will only stop once they have been hunted down and killed.
There is only one issue: who will do the killing.
January 6th, 2008 at 6:39 pmMr. McCain’s credentials as an anti-pork crusader are unassailable. He is the only senator who consistently takes to the floor to shame members of Congress for their budget-busting, special-interest spending.
Mr. McCain has repeatedly pushed for budget reform legislation that would reduce opportunities to get pet projects included in the annual spending bills.
TOM SCHATZ
January 6th, 2008 at 6:46 pmPresident
Citizens Against Government Waste
Washington
Sen. McCain has repeatedly said that an Iran with nuclear weapons poses an “unacceptable risk” to regional and global stability. His refrain: “There is only one thing worse than military action, and that is a nuclear armed Iran.”
January 6th, 2008 at 6:55 pmGrumpy I’m with you…though I was leaning toward McCain/hunter or Hunter/McCain. We sincerely need to build the best and biggest spec-ops community
Sen. McCain has strongly criticized Putin, whom he has called “a dangerous person.” In an October 2007 Republican debate, McCain expressed support for President Bush’s plan to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. “I don’t care what [Putin’s] objections are to it,” he said.
….said the West should send a message to Russia that NATO “is indivisible and that the organization’s doors remain open to all democracies committed to the defense of freedom.”
… has advocated continued U.S. cooperation with Musharraf to “dismantle the cells and camps that the Taliban and al-Qaeda maintain in his country.”
January 6th, 2008 at 7:10 pmThanks Jim. I have been a McCain supporter for a long time; since his first run at it.
The point that I was trying to make was that Rudy has very specific and relevant experience in combating terrorism. I was saying that his career as a prosecutor, going head to head against the mob is just what is needed in a leader in this war against AQ and friends.
As a soldier, it pains me to say this but as the song goes: “Send lawyers, guns and money.” So far we have done good with the guns and money. Now we need a lawyer.
From his web site:
Defeating al-Qaeda: Mayor Giuliani’s goal will be to kill or capture the al-Qaeda leadership, destroy the capabilities of the group, and discredit its radical ideology. The main fronts against Al Qaeda are in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
After joining the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rudy rose quickly through the ranks, becoming the Chief of the Narcotics Unit at age 29. In 1975, Rudy was recruited to work in Washington, D.C., and was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General.
In 1983, Rudy became United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he spearheaded successful efforts against organized crime, white collar criminals, drug dealers and corrupt elected officials. Some of his best known cases include the groundbreaking mafia prosecutions in the “Pizza Connection” and “The Commission” cases, Wall Street corruption cases, and the convictions of corrupt political figures. Few U.S. Attorneys in history can match his record.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:48 pm“Now we need a lawyer”
I feel the same way, he does have the attributes, (skill and clarity) to deal with the situation at hand
January 6th, 2008 at 8:56 pmhttp://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12512
“McCain is not a tax cutter in a party that has made tax cuts one of its most basic tenets for nearly 30 years. Not only did he vote against President George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 — cuts that clearly are responsible for the booming economy of the past four-plus years — but just last week he told National Review’s Rich Lowry that he was correct not to vote for those tax cuts.”
“THEN THERE ARE McCain’s weaknesses (from a conservative standpoint) on government regulation and on judges. On the first topic, what it pretty much boils down to is that if something moves, McCain wants to regulate it. He wants to regulate campaign speech, anything having to do with the environment, smoking, the price of medicines (interfering with free-market savings), oil drilling in Alaska, securities trading, and other things.”
January 6th, 2008 at 10:46 pmRudy- Will take care of terrorism
Mitt- Will run the country
Fred- Will keep conservative values
I can fix illegal immigratio. You have Wal-Mart, Mattel, Target build their own factories in Mexico.(sorry China) You can save on shipping costs and create many job South of the Border.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:40 pmI still don’t know who to vote for….At least I can sit back and watch that dried up, cunt Hillary implode
January 6th, 2008 at 11:41 pmYAAAAAAAAAHHHHH you BEEEOTCH
REN, where are you?? you lil bitch. I told you romney was a world class Lair and of course you have no retort. How bout mine get your sorry ass over to Iraq with me and get some!!!!!!!
January 7th, 2008 at 6:58 amZeke Fagle you SUCK,
January 7th, 2008 at 7:07 amFailure for getting shot down? You are a dumb shit.
If you choose so come to my FOB in Iraq and I will personally in front of my Battalion beat your fucking ass into the ground for insulting McCain. I love how you pussies run your mount from the safety of the blog. I am on FOB Warhorse so run over here and get your ass kicking!
Zeke fagle, one more thing about how dumb you are. McCain was NEVER a soldiers. Army = Soldiers (you know the guys in green), Marines = Marines, Navy = sailors, Air force = airmen> Zeke Fagle = poser loser jackass. roger that cb10 homo
January 7th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Rob 
January 7th, 2008 at 10:42 am