I’m Calling Shenanigans on John McCain.

I’m calling shenanigans on John McCain.

Today, John McCain’s campaign suspended a staffer named Soren Dayton for spreading the word, via Twitter, about a video that’s making the rounds. The video, put together by former radio producer Lee Habib, mixes together quotes from Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright in a particular devastating way, accompanied by rap music. As videos go, it was pretty tame. It used direct sound bytes from both Obama and Wright. It didn’t misquote them. It didn’t add or remove anythign with sneaky edits. But, apparently, it was well over the line for McCain, who brought the hammer down on Dayton.

McCain’s campaign spokesman sent Matt Lewis the following statement:

We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy. He has been reprimanded by campaign leadership and suspended from the campaign.

Oh, really? Given Dayton’s past work on his blog, I think we ought to ask what type of campaign they’re running. Details after the jump.

Jonathan Martin said in his report that Dayton “drew the attention and favor of McCain’s campaign with his frequent attacks on Mitt Romney”. So let’s just see what sort of attacks Dayton made and compare them to the high standard touted by Johnny Mac’s campaign.

Dayton shut down his blog on March 2, 2008 with a post saying that he was now working for Johnny Mac. Before that, though, he indeed leveled several particularly vicious attacks against Mitt Romney.

In late December, 2007, Dayton said that the Romney campaign’s “staff and volunteer officials seem to resign regularly under criminal investigations”. Aside from the push polling story (and thanks to a Google Search) I didn’t find enough criminal investigations to warrant a pattern. In fact, I only found one other, in which a former Romney aid was not investigated as a suspect. He was cleared of all wrongdoing by the local authorities after a lengthy investigation. Does that warrant the word “regularly”? Not by any reasonable definition of the word.

Dayton also seems to like calling Mitt Romney a liar. He did it in posts here, here, and here. That came after he accused Romney of “childish personal attacks” and called him “dishonest, venal, and hypocritical” as well as “so brazen”. He was also quite willing to call Matt Drudge a Romney “shill” without any actual evidence.

I’d say that Johnny Mac is very clear on what type of campaign he’s running. It’s one that’s a lot more kind to Democrats than to Republicans. He was pretty darned comfortable hiring someone who took after Mitt Romney with a brickbat but just can’t abide so much as a small promotion of a video that accurately quotes the Obamessiah, his wife, and his racist friend.

Looks to me like Johnny Mac is a lot more interested in unleashing the dogs against fellow Republicans while holding back the heat on the Democrats in the race? It sure fits with what he’s done the past decade or so in the Senate. His worst political attacks get leveled at Republicans and conservatives. Leftist Democrats get the gentle words and soothing tones.

I want to make sure I’m clear about what happened hear. John McCain hired a man who gained his campaign’s attention by tearing into Mitt Romney. He suspended that same man for suggesting that people watch a video that did nothing more than edit together quotes from Barack Obama, his wife, and his racist preacher friend. Dayton didn’t say anything about Obama or Wright. He didn’t write anything about them. He promoted a video. That’s it.

And now he’s riding the bench. So tell me, do you think that John McCain will treat the left any differently when he is President? Do you think he’ll admire any less people who savage anyone who espouses even a few conservative ideals or do you think he’ll treat them the way he has treated his bestest progressive buddies in the Senate?

Yeah. Right.