Updated: McCain hires Rove's boy

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 5:07 PM on December 20, 2006.

Many have commented negatively on John McCain's hiring of Henry Kissinger to be honorary co-chair of his presidential campaign (New York chapter), but apart from the the repulsive nature of hiring someone who can't leave our blessed shores for the possibility of facing war crime prosecution, it's not likely to effect McCain's policies much.

Hiring Steve Schmidt, a Karl Rove protegé and Cheney assistant, is a different story.

Ken Mehlman, another Rove protegé, gushes: "he's a great spinner and extremely effective at helping to form a message."

When he was hired by the Schwarzenegger campaign, Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain said that:

"this is a campaign that knows how to hit hard ... and (this) will be a tough campaign. ... This is an aggressive person who will not sit on his heels when the Democrats go after (the governor)."

UPDATE: According to , McCain's other new hire has some issues too:

Jill Hazelbaker it seems has a little penchant for posting on liberal blogs and lying about it. Bluejersey is the site that caught her, and the New York Times had the story:

The Internet postings came from people calling themselves "cleanupnj," "usedtobeblue" and "AmadeusNJ." They said they were concerned Democrats, "lifelong liberals," and they were troubled by the United States senator from New Jersey, Robert Menendez...

In related news, Steve Benen is logging McCain's flip-flops:

• McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.
• McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans "deserved" the 9/11 attacks. (Indeed, McCain has now hired Falwell’s debate coach.)
• McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.
• In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending "dirty money" to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.
• McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June, he abandoned his own legislation.
• McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile with Norquist.
• McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.
• McCain gave up on his signature policy issue, campaign-finance reform, and won’t back the same provision he sponsored just a couple of years ago.
• McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.
• McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.
• McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

Tagged as: 2008, rove, mccain

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.