McCain Hires GOP Operative Who Helped Smear Him in South Carolina in 2000

[DemsUnited]

Can we say DESPERATE?!

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/mccain-hires-go.html

ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper
September 01, 2008 8:46 PM

Former officials of Sen. John McCain's 2000 campaign expressed shock and disbelief Monday to learn than the GOP presidential nominee had hired South Carolina political consultant Tucker Eskew.

Eskew, along with Warren Tompkins and Neal Rhodes, were key members of then-Gov. George W. Bush's South Carolina team during the 2000 primaries. McCain and his team long held Bush, Tompkins, Rhodes and Eskew responsible for the various smears against McCain and his family in the Palmetto state during that contentious contest.

Eskew was brought on board the McCain campaign, it was announced Monday, to help prepare Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for her role as McCain running mate. Eskew will help Palin prepare for her Wednesday night acceptance speech at the GOP convention and for her stump speech as she hits the road, brief her on policy matters, and help her handle the media scrutiny a lifetime in Alaska does not necessarily prepare one for.

"He's one of the best and most collaborative talents in Republican politics," McCain senior adviser Nicolle Wallace told Politico, speaking of Eskew. "He also has a wit and an ability to turn a phrase like no one I've ever met before."

On Edit: I believe this is the same "Tucker" who was just taken to the woodshed by Campbell Brown on CNN...

Eskew’s talent notwithstanding, he was loathed by McCain’s 2000 campaign team. When the media first reported push-poll phone calls from Voter/Consumer Research, a company hired by he Bush campaign, asking South Carolinians if they knew about McCain’s role in the S&L crisis and his scandal as a member of the Keating Five, it was Eskew -- Bush’s South Carolina spokesman – who acknowledged, and defended, the calls.

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On Edit: I believe this is the same "Tucker" that just got taken to the woodshed by Campbell Brown on CNN...

[Olney Blue]

1. Can McCain be sure that Eskew didn't leak this Palin stuff?

[Kerrytravelers]

2. So, this is the "change" that America deserves?

Why does John McCain hate America? :patriot:

[Historic NY]

3. McCain is lying then when he says he wants to run a respectful campaign.

How is one to believe him when he keeps lying about what he is actually doing.

[ladjf]

4. McCain has no shame.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. K&R

[Orsino]

6. That faint shriek you hear...

...is the last remaining shred of McCain's soul, crying out for help from the depths of a CEO's pocket.

[Thrill]

7. No thats Tucker Bonds

[Occam Bandage]

8. Using the same Bush tactics you used to decry, eh Gramps?