Ed Rollins is a nasty, nasty piece of work. Here he was tonight on Fox News:
Rollins: The wise men like you who say Huckabee doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in heck – well, he can still go out and take his message to the people. And we’ve seen all the wisdom doesn’t live in Washington, and all the wisdom doesn’t live in the press corps.”
Wallace: You can accuse me of a lot of things, but I would note we’ve had Mike Huckabee on Fox News Sunday several times—
Rollins: —and we’re very grateful for the opportunity to take our message to the people.
Chris Wallace: Back to you, Brit.
Brit Hume: Chris, it’s always a joy to interview a cheerful winner.
And here’s a bit of this charming man caught by Amanda Carpenter (thanks to Michael van der Galien):
-He distinctly talked about going negative in South Carolina and told someone on the phone to “put some good in there if you have to, with the bad. Do what you gotta do.”
-Rollins let the f-bomb fly twice and told his blonde female dining companion a joke about flying the Confederate flag in the South Carolina state capitol.
-Rollins indicated several times their campaign was the victim of “dirty tricks” and that they were being unfairly outspent.
-Rollins made a phone call to Lou Dobbs and said he would ready to have drinks with him after Iowa to talk about Hillary. There also was a reference to Rollins’ recent comments about wanting to knock Romney’s teeth out, as Rollins told Dobbs “they are all porcelain.”
-Rollins called said Fred Thompson was “as disgrace as a candidate. Fred has been a friend a long time, but has never converted a single vote. No one is taking him seriously.”
Rollins, of course, is Mike Huckabee’s main man. I’m ashamed that a man who acts like that would be working so closely to a man who purports to be a Christian. Huckabee has shown no inclination to reprimand him or rein him in. I can only assume that his venom and vulgarity reflects the character of the campaign. That or he’s the “aggressive” counterpart to the “passive” Huckabee.
Wasn’t he Reagans campaign manager? Has he always been this mean spirited? I was watching that interview and at the very end, I swear Chris Wallace rolled his eyes ever so slightly.
Yep, he used to be a Reagan guy and ran his ‘84 reelection campaign.
He’s always been really tough but I don’t remember him being quite that crass and inconsiderate.
“I’m ashamed that a man who acts like that would be working so closely to a man who purports to be a Christian.”
A couple of possibilities here:
1) he isn’t the Christian he purports to be – he’ll do what he has to do to win
2) Rollins keeps this side of himself _to_ himself
3) Huckabee doesn’t _want_ to see the signs of ugliness and deliberately avoids information that makes him aware of it.
He’s run for governor, so he isn’t a political newby…I strongly suspect 1) and/or 3) are the relevant ones.
2) I could forgive Huckabee for. 1) and 3) ? Not.
“He’s always been really tough but I don’t remember him being quite that crass and inconsiderate.”
This was the guy who paid black voters in New Jersey to not vote. That’s pretty ugly. Maybe you wouldn’t consider it crass or inconsiderate, but it’s certainly racist (and not exactly legal). I don’t remeber any Republicans complaining about it then. And I doubt you’d be complaining about his current actions if he were working for Thompson. But I’m glad you’re finally seeing the light on Ed Rollins.
fostert, as I recall the story, what happened was that Rollins’ paid folks who would normally “get out the vote” not to do it. He didn’t pay anyone not to vote. He paid the folks who usually run around and grab people up and get them to voting booths not to do it.
That’s a bit different.