Fortunate Flyboy
by digby
Atrios calls this a Rovian ratfuck and says that McCain should be thrilled about this and he’s right:
Is John McCain a lesbian? Maybe we’ll learn the answer from Edward Klein, who insinuated as much about Hillary Clinton in his 2005 biography — largely a clip-job of hit pieces, reviewers said — and is apparently hard at work on a poison-pen book about the Arizona senator. According to Crain’s New York Business, Klein claims he’ll chronicle the Republican presidential front-runner’s “sexual infidelity, chronic gambling and anger management.” I can hardly wait.
Atrios rightly claims that this is innoculation. To me it says Rove is working to get McCain elected. It’s right out of the “Fortunate Son” playbook:
In 1999, St. Martin’s Press published a critical biography of Bush titled “Fortunate Son”. The book quoted an unnamed “high-ranking advisor to Bush,” who revealed Bush’s 1972 drug bust. The source told author J.H. Hatfield, Bush “was ordered by a Texas judge to perform community service in exchange for expunging his record showing illicit drug use.”
Hatfield later revealed that his source was none other than Karl Rove. That might seem ridiculous, considering Rove’s lifelong loyalty to the Bushes and the fact that he now has an office adjacent to Bush’s in the White House. But leaking the story to Hatfield essentially discredited the story and sent it into the annals of conspiracy theory. Soon after the book was published and just as St. Martin’s was preparing a high profile launching of the book, the “Dallas Morning News” ran a story revealing that Hatfield was a felon who had served time in jail. In response, St. Martin’s pulled the book.
“When the media stumbled upon a story regarding George W. Bush’s 1972 cocaine possession arrest, Rove had to find a way to kill the story. He did so by destroying the messenger,” says Sander Hicks, the former publisher of Soft Skull, which re-published “Fortunate Son.”
Howie Fineman writes:
Private though it was, the McCain call was emblematic of the ’08 strategy that he and his circle have decided to pursue. They want to build out their campaign with members of the Bush circle, and base McCain’s pitch on the notion that he is the only sensible, electable and competent commander who can take control of the war on terror.
“Competence and electability,” that’s what we’re going to talk about,” said a key advisor. “If you support the president’s vision, John can carry it forward.”
Known as an outsider and maverick, McCain in 2008 has chosen a different route and probably had no choice, given his prominence and experience. He and his aides are making the best they can of it, and one aspect of doing so involves trying to reel in Bush’s top operatives and supporters.
Here in Memphis, McCainanites worked closely on straw poll strategy with Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a Bush loyalist widely regarded as one of the sharpest strategic and organizational minds in the party. They are wooing him to come aboard officially, which would be a major coup for McCain.
Word around the Peabody lobby is that another former GOP chairman, Richard Bond, is part of an unofficial circle of counselors, too.
Barbour is the tip-off. He’s the establishment guy’s establishment guy, former RNC chairman, southern good ole boy, K Street lobbyist extraordinaire. The party pooh bahs are beginning a soft push for McCain. And by having him run as the man who can complete Bush’s vision, he redeems Bush.
This has Rove’s blessing, I’d bet money on it. They may not know how to govern, but they are masters at campaigning. We’ll see if it works.
Fineman concludes:
…they exposed the risks of their embrace-the-president strategy. If they are such good buddies, and if McCain is the natural follow-on to George Bush, shouldn’t the senator have been the toast of more folks in the Peabody lobby?
It’s a tough hand to play. “Is there a playbook for how to run as an insider and outsider, establishment and anti-establishment?” asked a weary McCain strategist. “If you find it, let me know.”
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