NYT: McCain’s Advisers Once Made Ads That Drew His Ire

[kskiska]

Senator John McCain, intent on succeeding where his freewheeling presidential campaign of 2000 failed, is assembling a team of political bruisers for 2008. And it includes advisers who once sought to skewer him and whose work he has criticized as stepping over the line in the past.

In 2000, Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, said the advertisements run against him by George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, distorted his record. But he has hired three members of the team that made those commercials — Mark McKinnon, Russell Schriefer and Stuart Stevens — to work on his presidential campaign.

In 2004, Mr. McCain said the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advertisement asserting that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts had not properly earned his medals from the Vietnam War was “dishonest and dishonorable.” Nonetheless, he has hired the firm that made the spots, Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, which worked on his 2000 campaign, to work for him again this year.

In October, Mr. McCain’s top adviser expressed public displeasure with an advertisement against former Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., Democrat of Tennessee, that some saw as having racist overtones for suggesting a flirtation between Mr. Ford, who is black, and a young, bare-shouldered white woman, played by a blond actress.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/us/politics/04mccain....

[DemKR]

1. Gee ya think?

Can the media perhaps conclude that he is just a politician who saw ruthless advertisements lead to success and now he's paying them enough to help him out? Of course not...

[The Count]

2. He turned a blind eye to low ads and primary theft by * and MSM stll called

him "straight talk" and "maverick" rather than "opportunistic douchebag". And many DU-ers bought the hype until quite recently.
I hope those people who are feeling let down will be more circumspect about the motives MSM had for hyping/ignoring candidates.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. This is appalling! Has he not a shred of decency left? nt

[badgerpup]

4. Looks like he's got Duke-Harris/Lieberman Syndrome to me...

He's gonna do...and use...whatever it takes.

Reference to Doonesbury's Duke Harris, who runs for president everytime the position comes open.
His campaign slogan: Whatever it takes...

[skipos]

5. TheRealMcCain.com shows what a flip flopper this guy is

http://www.TheRealMcCain.com

[0.5.empty]

7. That site is really good

I bookmarked it.

[UTUSN]

6. But of course we will nominate another noble, high-minded non-fighter n/t

[Zenlitened]

8. A real man of integrity, huh?

What a joke.

[rocktivity]

9. If Kerry's a flip-flopper, McCain is a gyroscope.

rocknation