Bush Attack Dogs Gear Up for Third Bush Campaign
March 10, 2008
Days after President Bush endorsed John McCain and promised that McCain offers "no change," some of President Bush's top campaign strategists are jumping aboard the McCain double talk express. According to the Politico, Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman "is now serving as an unpaid, outside adviser to" McCain, and Karl Rove gave McCain political advice in a recent "private conversation." Other leading Bush staffers, including former Bush communications expert Dan Bartlett and former White House political director Sara Taylor, "are eager to provide any assistance and advice possible to McCain." [Politico, 3/8/08]
Mehlman, Rove, Bartlett and Taylor are reuniting with two other prominent elements of President Bush's 2004 campaign team. As the Politico notes, "Steve Schmidt, Bush's attack dog in the 2004 election, and Mark McKinnon, the president's media strategist, are performing similar functions for McCain now." [Politico, 3/8/08]
In joining the McCain campaign, these Bush loyalists are lending a helping hand to a candidate who has never shied away from helping President Bush's agenda. According to the Washington Post, a Congressional Quarterly analysis showed that John McCain voted to support President Bush's agenda 90 percent of the time. [Washington Post, 3/10/08]
"John McCain has already cast aside his 'maverick' image to pander to the right wing of his party, so it makes perfect sense for the candidate who promises a third Bush term on everything from Iraq to the economy to bring in the President's attack dogs to run a third Bush campaign, too," said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Stacie Paxton. "President Bush said it best himself, a vote for John McCain is a vote against change."
