McCain Slammed As "Confused" On Front Page Of NY Times...By Former Advisers Wanting Super-PAC To Go Super-Negative

No sooner do we write about Senator John McCain (R-AZ)  talking with Democrats about reviving a bill that would regulate the flood of Super-PAC money and influence in federal elections, than the front page of the New York Times features an article about a proposal for a Super-PAC to go Super-Negative.  The pitch - by some of McCain's 2008 advisers - starts off slamming the 2008 GOP nominee as "often seem(ing) confused" and wrong for not allowing the independent expenditure campaign to run ads based on the relationship between Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

In the opening paragraphs of the proposal, the Republican strategists refer to Mr. McCain as “a crusty old politician who often seemed confused, burdened with a campaign just as confused.”
“Our plan is to do exactly what John McCain would not let us do: Show the world how Barack Obama’s opinions of America and the world were formed,” the proposal says. “And why the influence of that misguided mentor and our president’s formative years among left-wing intellectuals has brought our country to its knees.”

The proposal was leaked to the New York Times.  It is a pitch to the conservative founder of TD Ameritrade for $10.0 million to pursue the Obama-Wright relationship in a big way, including trying to literally overshadow the Democratic National Convention.  The entire proposal is now published on the Times' website.

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Commentary:  One aspect I find very interesting - especially for purposes of this Arizona-focused blog - is that McCain rejected this plan four years ago.

(A) Strong hints that coordination between candidates' campaigns and independent expenditure campaigns takes place as strongly as everyone involved in politics figures that it does.  (Remember, Arizona's Attorney General Tom Horne is currently in hot water for such coordination, too, and leveled allegations that his opponent coordinated even more.)

(B) Will Romney (Romney's campaign) surreptitiously - or, openly - put the kibosh on such IE campaigns as his high-profile supporter did four years ago?




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