McCain's Media Team Resigns, Futher Shaking Up Campaign

[babylonsister]

Source: WSJ

McCain's Media Team Resigns,
Futher Shaking Up Campaign
By JACKIE CALMES
July 25, 2007 6:28 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain's well-known media team has resigned, an indication that his campaign shake-up is continuing to backfire and imperiling the Arizona Republican's presidential candidacy.

Political ad-makers Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, veterans of President Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, on Monday emailed the new campaign manager -- lobbyist and longtime McCain adviser Rick Davis -- to say that they were quitting. The two men told friends they had considered leaving for days, as they hadn't been paid and the campaign's financial straits raised questions of when and how much they would be.

Their resignations came on a day in which The Wall Street Journal reported on Mr. Davis's business and lobbying activities. Current and former campaign McCain advisers say those activities -- which involved a business he started and another launched by an acquaintance of his -- amounted to profiteering at the campaign's expense and risked embarrassing the senator. (See related article.)

Since Mr. McCain accepted the resignations of former campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver two weeks ago, and put Mr. Davis in charge, more than a dozen senior staffers have left from the headquarters in northern Virginia as well as state offices in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina -- all states with early nominating contests. Several fundraisers have cut their ties to the campaign, which reported a debt at the end of the second quarter.

Now the loss of the Schriefer-Stuart media team is considered a new blow, Republicans strategists say. The McCain campaign had long planned to begin running ads this fall in early-contest states; those plans are at risk given Mr. McCain's debt, compounded now by the difficulty of getting donors to invest in a troubled campaign.

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[AndyA]

1. Hi, John. Welcome to Has Been Estates. Where old men with trophy wives

are always welcome.

Your orientation will begin in January, 2009.

[bluedeminredstate]

8. ROFL!

[SKKY]

10. You obviously see the world through rose-colored glasses...

...there's no way in hell he will last that long.

[bemildred]

2. I have an image of an airplane in flames heading into the ground with all engines on full here.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow, except perhaps Bush or Cheney.

[Quantess]

3. Stick a fork in him.

He's done.

(Well done. Overcooked, even.)

[TwilightGardener]

4. Media? He don't need no stinkin' media!

Now expect LOTS of Senate floor speeches. LOTS of them. CSPAN'S free for him, isn't it?

[babylonsister]

5. Oh, spare us, please! You're right; he'll get his 'message' across that way

until he throws in the towel; shouldn't be long now. Then he'll just be a plain pest.

[IndianaGreen]

6. We may not have rigor mortis yet, but McCain's political corpse is beginning to look ragged

McCain died of self-inflicted wounds. His deranged defense of Bush's war did him in.

[MadMaddie]

7. It's beyond the shakeup up point isn't it....can we just say

so long...farewell....don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you

[tanglefoot]

9. Poor Mister McCain

First he loses his credibility, then he loses his whole staff dozens at a time. Think he's getting the picture yet?

[Vidar]

11. Good riddance. Had he stuck to his guns in opposing Bush,

McCain could be playing the part of Goldwater in Nixon's demise. Unfortunately, the need to whore himself out won over duty, patriotism & any other virtues.