Time Magazine has an interesting, though somewhat brief, article about how badly some of the Republican candidates hate Mitt Romney. The most interesting part of the article comes about halfway in.
The campaigns have denied there’s any political collusion going on; they insist all of them simply feel the same way about Romney.
To be sure, the candidates’ staffs do seem to have bonded in their dislike of Romney. “It was very common for e-mails to be flying around between the Thompson, McCain and Giuliani campaigns,” says the former Thompson staffer, “Saying, ‘No matter what happens with us, we all need to make sure it’s not him.’” The staffer says that campaigns would share opposition research on Romney and offer each other tips on how best to undermine him: “Like, ‘Hey, I saw you hit Mitt on immigration – have you thought about going after him on this issue?” In some cases, the attitude even extends to the top of the campaigns. The night of the Iowa caucuses, after getting a congratulatory call from McCain, Huckabee told the candidate, according to aides: “Now it’s your turn to kick his butt.”
I don’t know about you guys but that seems an awful lot like collusion to me. When three campaigns are comparing notes and handing off who gets to play the heavy from state to state, I’m not sure what else you’d call it.
And if that last statement attributed to Huckabee isn’t collusion, then nothing is. If that quote is true, then Huckabee was basically saying it was McCain’s turn to rough up Romney and win the next state. it’s not a long leap to conclude that maybe the Huckster wouldn’t try very hard to beat McCain so he could concentrate on Romney.
Not collusion? Sure. Wanna buy a bridge in New York City?
More general thoughts after the jump, including a great point from a fellow blogger.
The article certainly does explain why the Huckabee and Giuliani campaigns refused to hammer John McCain on any of his policy inconsistencies. It’s a bit disappointing to see that at least some of the folks who worked for the Thompson campaign also played along with the high-school nonsense and, though Thompson himself wasn’t mentioned, it might explain why he didn’t stick McCain when he could have before the South Carolina primary.
If it’s true that Romney hate overrode Thompson’s conservative principles, I’d be terribly disappointed in him. And I’d be glad that he got out of the race. I don’t need a President who can’t throw a political punch where it’s needed because of some personal animus or lack thereof. Politics, contrary to the general opinion from the left, isn’t personal.
Robert McCain makes a great point.
So after conspiring against Romney for months, now these professional Republicans have joined Team McCain and are demanding unity. Sweet.
( via Hot Air)
(Updated: I don’t know how I managed not to put a title on this. But I did. It’s fixed now.)
It appears more and more probable that Fred Thompson was a mole. He never laid a glove on McCain, but went after Elmer Gantry with both guns firing. Thompson had a death bed conversion to real conservatism, that only lasted as long as his campaign.
He and Huckabee are as self serving as that phony from Arizona. Put all three of them in a shaker and nothing but bubbles would pour out.
Hey Jimmie….I am a reporter with Cronkite News Service in Phoenix…wondering where you are from because I am doing a story on political blogging and would like to talk politics with you…please contact me I’m on deadline…anne.mccloy@asu.edu
I’m not particularly a Romney fan, but I’m _definitely_ an anti-McCain voter(even though I received _3_ pre-recorded phone calls Sunday – I’m in Calif). I don’t know about the collusion deal, but I definitely think that Huckabee will endorse McCain when he quits, and throw his delegates to McCain if possible. I’m not sure just how that works – but I think the religious factor is just too big for Huckabee to ignore it and even just not endorse McCain.
I agree with you on Thompson – if it is found out to be true, I’d be _very_ disappointed. On the other hand, it’s been said that he was looking for VP all the way along, and of course, his friendship with McCain is long standing. He could have endorsed him, though, and he didn’t. That doesn’t seem to fit the collusion angle.
[...] they were told. That wasn’t “deciding”, it was acting on orders. But don’t accuse them of collusion. No, sir. Folks like me have been accused recently of suffering from McCain Derangement Syndrome, [...]