The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Calling B.S. on Ed Rollins

Posted on | December 2, 2010 | 20 Comments

Dan Calabrese has had it up to here with the anti-Palin crowd: 

it seems that just about everyone else is obsessed with Palin’s presidential prospects, and that includes a certain Ed Rollins, who holds forth today on CNN.com with a piece titled, “Palin, I knew Reagan. You’re no Reagan.”
Well.
There is much to mock about a piece on Gov. Palin’s supposed lack of presidential qualifications, especially coming from a man who once tried to help win the presidency for H. Ross Perot, who was not only unqualified but also insane.

Jennifer Caballero at Liberty Pundits asks the all-too-obvious question:

“Why is Huckabee’s ex- campaign manager
telling us who’s worthy of Reagan’s mantle?”

Bingo, Jen. Whatever your opinion of Sarah Palin, the problem is that nearly all her most prominent critics are professional operatives of one sort or another. If they are not already on the payroll of some prospective 2012 GOP presidential candidate, then they are presumably seeking such work. And they know they can get headlines and ingratiate themselves to those prospective employers by publishing anti-Palin rants.

The real danger here, as I’ve said before, is that this relentless Palin-bashing from within the GOP can have no good result. Either (a) Palin wins the nomination anyway, in which case the GOP 2012 nominee will have been damaged by all these friendly-fire attacks, or (b) someone else will win the nomination as the beneficiary of a none-too-subtle “Anybody But Sarah” campaign in the primaries. And then good luck getting those people energized for the general election.

Rush Limbaugh did a great segment Wednesday on the anti-Palin crowd, featuring this quote from GOP operative Nicolle Wallace:

Only Sarah Palin can beat Sarah Palin.  And let me tell you why no one will take her on.  Her defenders and supporters, the likes of Rush Limbaugh and people I admire, are so powerful on the right that nobody wants to anger any of those people, nobody wants to end up in the crosshairs, and nobody wants to look like they are unwilling to let her do her thing.  I don’t think people should be, you know, uptight and angsting about Sarah Palin.  I think she’ll reveal herself, and people will love her or hate her.  I really believe that if it looked like she were about to become the nominee, or, heaven forbid, the leader of the free world, a whole lot of people would stand up and say a whole lot of things.

Understand one thing: Nicolle Wallace is Team Bush all the way. She is speaking for, and serving the interests of, the Bush wing of the GOP. I’ve long warned that there is a Jeb 2012 bandwagon geared up and ready to roll at a moment’s notice, if Jeb decides to take a shot at it. If that doesn’t happen, the Bushies are trying to keep their thumb on the scale, to make sure that whoever gets the 2012 nomination, it’s someone acceptable to them.

But the Bushies know that, whatever else happens, it’s all over for them if Sarah Palin gets the 2012 nomination. Establishment phonies like Nicolle Wallace will be persona non grata to a Palin-led Republican Party. 

Just keep that in mind. There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes of the GOP than most grassroots conservatives suspect.

P.S.: Ed Rollins? Dude worked on the Huffington ’94 Senate campaign.

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Category: Election 2012, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin

Comments

  • AnonymousDrivel

    Spot on. This is all about taking Palin out as soon as possible because she is, whether they like it or not, the big dog. She is the de facto money maker and mover-shaker from the Right. As you say, the old guard is deathly afraid of getting completely turned out should Team Palin win with any early momentum. Their goal is to deny this momentum.

    Their trick is to sabotage her without being seen to sabotage her since her most vocal and passionate supporters (which is significant) will punish them.

  • Kimchetwo

    “Heaven forbid” she become the leader of the free world? You mean like when she was the VP pick for your former boss, Nicole? Or does your opinion sway with the views of whoever cuts your paycheck?

  • http://twitter.com/sdo1 Steve in TN

    Let me tell you something: I was all for Palin when your crazy cousin chose her. She invigorated a dying campaign. I still like and respect the hell out of her. However, if you’re going to denigrate either Bush to support Palin then you have none of the smarts many of us think you did.

    Get this straight; this Tea Party Republican doesn’t take kindly to anyone bashing George W. Bush or his family, from you or from Sarah Palin. If Palin wishes to challenge Obama in 2012, and if she wins that right, fine. She will only win by standing on the shoulders of Bushes 41 and 43, not by trying to take out their knees. That goes for her self appointed supporters, as well.

  • Anonymous

    “The era of Ronald Reagan is over !” Jeb Bush the Reagan Slayer
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/03/gop-listens-in-drive-to-thrive/

    Where’s Ed Rollins and Joe Scarborough when you need them to defend the Reagan lagacy.

  • http://twitter.com/isleofyouth PhilipJames

    The Tea Party is a strong Bush supporter? Baloney. It was under George Bush and a Democrat House that spending starting going through the roof. It was during George Bush’s last years that the Republican Party crawled under the bed and hid.
    If the Tea Party people had to chose between Bush or Sarah Palin, I will put $100 down right now it would be Palin way ahead of Bush.
    So, get off your Bush high horse and realize that Sarah Palin is one of several potential candidates and as she has said many, many times, a strongly contested primary is good for voters and if she loses, so be it. But to try to bull crap your way into an argument that she should not run, that is a liberal or Republican establishment argument by people who realize just how tough she would be.
    And it is a realization that if she should win, then the leeches and hangers on and the suckers of campaign donations will find their gravy train disappearing as she would definitely try to clean house.

  • Anonymous

    Steve, have you been reading this blog for the past 3 years? Did you follow any of those links?

    As I have said before, the person who picked the wrong running mate wasn’t John McCain, it was Ronald Reagan. The first Bush presidency was a one-term disaster. The second Bush presidency took a little longer to reach a similarly disastrous conclusion.

    IMHO, the “brand damage” problem of the GOP — the reason Republicans lost Congress in 2006 and lost the White House in 2008 — was a direct consequence of Bushism.

    Whatever the future holds for the Republican Party, it cannot succeed by a return to Bushism. We need to get back to Reaganism.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

    I voted for George Bush, twice. But while I have reservations about all the old GOP dinosaurs of the last century, if Jeb Bush runs for President, I leave the party.

    This is a Republic, damn it, and dynasties are nothing but poison to them. Period.

  • mike

    Here’s what I would like to hear from the Palin fans: How is she conservative?

    This is the question that no one is asking. The establishment weenies and RINO types think she’s just a dumb hick, and her fans just seem to assume that because the RINOs hate her that she must be some great conservative. I’m not seeing it. Sure, she mouths the right platitudes about the free market, the Constitution, real America, God, etc… but I just can’t figure out what President Palin would actually DO about any of this. I don’t much like any of the other potential candidates (unfortunately, Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan are too old) but I don’t really see what Palin brings to the table.

    She’s doing a lot of good in her current role, and I think the best thing she can do is find someone better than the herd of geldings and throw her weight behind him. I think she makes a better kingmaker than she would a queen.

  • http://912member.blogspot.com just a conservative girl

    Mike:
    You are entering dangerous terrority. You are going to be considered a Palin basher. It is generally not allowed.

    Her record is sort of mixed,but most of it would leave someone to believe that she would govern as a conservative. Alaska got a whole lot of pork when Ted Stevens was senator, and Murkowski isn’t all that much better. She didn’t really turn most of that away. But then again, no governor does.

    Personally, I want to see Pence run. It would be really hard to say he is not a conservative.

  • nathan hale
  • BradCollins

    I get so tired of this “if you don’t like Palin, you’re either a closet liberal or an Establishment Republican” (whatever the hell that means) Boy, did you guys show the Establishment when you nominated Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle.

    Might I remind you the MAIN reason the Tea Party was established was in response to corporate bailouts, ie TARP, which Palin wholeheartedly supported when she was running for VP. She also was a big supporter of pork-barrel projects for her home state of Alaska. Now all of a sudden she’s the princess of the Tea Party.

    The Palinistas can scream all they want, there’s more to becoming President than bumper-sticker slogans. Palin is completely unelectable, and Obama is praying there’s enough idiot Republicans to nominate her and to ensure he gets a second term.

    I’m not going to blow an election and let Obama run this country into the ground just to flip the middle-finger at the beltway by putting Palin up in ’12.

  • PCP Smoker

    I’m glad that homely Bushite recognizes where the power lies. To her and all the Bushites…get with the program or get your ass kicked!

  • Tlcallow

    Sarah leads and inspires (see Tea Party, see Death Panels)
    Sarah wants both her and us (the electorate) to be better Americans, and is not running as a better politician.
    Sarah is ahead on the Trust Meter by being an Outsider, and she Walks her Talk (see Rino’s, Dems, etc)
    She has my vote and most of the Tea Party and the more people see her as a real person the more votes she will have.

  • Michael Lonie

    The last thing the GOP needs as a candidate in 2012 is another establishment Pack getting the nod because it’s his turn. That is a sure way to lose. No more Doles, no more Bush 41s.

    I like Palin and would vote for her, but I think she needs some more experience before running for Pres. Our current experience with the unprpared obama means that no one who hasn’t paid some dues in politics is going to get to the White House for some time. Palin should run for the Senate and serve there several years. Then her mix of executive experience and senatorial experience will make her an outstanding candidate.

    For 2012 I like Jindal. West looks good in the future; like Palin he needs some more political experience first.

    I think it is a real shame that Colin Powell did not accept the GOP nomination in 1996. It was his for the asking, but he could not summon up the moral courage to accept. I was hoping for him in 96. He certainly would have made a better president than Obama is doing now. He might not have bested Clinton, but he was a better chance than Dole by a long shot. I was disappointed in many of his attitudes as Sec State, but I still wish he’d run in 96.
    Michael Lonie

  • Michael Lonie

    Oh, I forgot to add, dissing Palin too much by the GOP establishment and its snobs will likely raise a fierce PUMA movement in the GOP. Palin supporters are protective of her because she has been attacked, on no better basis than arrrant snobbery and arrogance on the part of her detractors, by many of the most noxious liberals around. She has also been the victim of a concerted conspiracy to drive her out of politics by bankrupting her family, waged by the Democrats. That’s their idea of ending the politics of personal destruction, I guess. We do not apprecieate snobbish Packs piling on too.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    I love Sarah Palin, but even after a successful campaign season, her negatives with independents remain over 50%. Barring a strong improvement in those numbers, she simply cannot win a general election.

    We don’t have a Reagan right now – such as he come along once in a lifetime if we are lucky, and our once already happened. We don’t need lofty rhetoric and soaring symbolism now, either – that is just what got us into this mess. America is ready for a competent wonk with a record of results.

    Think Jindal, Barbour, Pawlenty.

  • Anonymous

    Jeb 2012? Really? You don’t have to be a he-man Bush-hater to say…too soon. If Team Bush doesn’t see that, maybe Palin supporters aren’t the most myopic crew out there.

  • Anonymous

    Palin? Paw-Paw? Hucka hucka burning nanny? Mitt? Too early for me to think about them, but I do know this: I am as sick of Bushes as a late-career Brazilian Wax Artist, and I’d just as soon vote for a Kennedy as one more of that ilk…

    … and I’d just as soon drive knitting needles into my eyes as vote for a Kennedy.

  • Anonymous

    “Think Jindal, Barbour, Pawlenty.”

    I’ve found doing so to be a wonderful treatment for insomnia.

  • http://twitter.com/sdo1 Steve in TN

    Yes, I have been reading – and linking – for the years you have had a blog. I dare say I was one of you first hundred or so subscribers. What I find objectionable is your habit of slamming Bush to support Palin. You just can’t resist. Very Obamaesque.

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