May 10, 2022

"Immediately following the story’s publication, John and Cindy McCain both lied to the American people."

Wrote Steve Schmidt, quoted in "Former Top McCain Aide Says He Lied to Discredit a Times Article/'John McCain’s lie became mine,' Steve Schmidt wrote about Senator John McCain’s relationship with a female lobbyist" (NYT).

Defending his long silence on the matter, Mr. Schmidt said in his post that he “didn’t want to do anything to compromise John McCain’s honor.” His post then questioned Mr. McCain’s judgment in choosing the relatively unknown governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate and accused Mr. McCain of cowering before her — “terrified of the creature that he created,” he wrote. 

In an interview on Monday, Mr. Schmidt said he was motivated to speak up now in part because he felt he had been unfairly associated for nearly 15 years with Mr. McCain’s choice of Ms. Palin, which he called “a burden.”

Speaking of honor, you should have unburdened yourself while the man you accuse of lying was still alive. Now, it looks like you just can't get enough of kicking Sarah Palin around. Go away.

61 comments:

Skeptical Voter said...

NYT and behind a paywall I suppose. But the title suggests that Senator McCain had an improper relationship with a female lobbyist. If that's a correct assume, the "Maverick's" honor took a ding right there.

As for McCain (and Schmidt) being terrified of a "creature he had created", Schmidt was the weasel who tried to bring her down.

Now Obama did not make that sort of mistake--he selected Slow Joe, secure in the knowledge that Biden would never outshine him. And when Slow Joe got elected POTUS in 2020, he got lucky. He could not have known just how lousy Kamala would be as Veep.

Temujin said...

Nothing like listening to a lifelong liar talk about another liar who has since passed away. All in the effort to continue to attack Sarah Palin, who, let's face it, brought more enthusiastic excitement to the McCain's run than anything any McCain- or Steve Schmidt brought.

Schmidt is one of those career political 'strategists' who rarely did the right thing, rarely won, yet kept getting jobs. It's a remarkable career choice, political strategist. There is no downside. You succeed once, you become 'expert for life'. You lose, you get to write a book about why they lost, and a contract to appear as a regularly featured talking head on MSNBC or CNN. It's remarkable.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Steven Schmidt's credibility is.... cow pie.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Schmidt = Murkowski insider $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Stephen St. Onge said...

        Steve Schmidt has united the country.  Everyone, regardless of political opinion, despises him and thinks he’s a liar.

        But what else would you expect of a guy who did his best to cover for a pedophile?

JK Brown said...

McCain was headed for a historical defeat he was such a poor choice. The selection of Palin saved Republicans from being wiped out even as the DC Republicans worked to undermine her during the campaign.

rcocean said...

Wow, John McCain a liar? Well color me schocked. Like Mitt Romney, this Man of Honor was never honorable. "The Straight talk" was always filled with lies (Just build the dang fence!) and evasions.

As for Schmidt, he's a strange drama queen, who always seems to be fighting women (Tulsi, Megan, Palin, Laura ingraham, etc.). People need to go read his twitter feed where he attacks Megan in 14 tweets and calls his debarrment from the McCain funeral a "cruel" and "Devasting blow". This from a man, who only talked to john McCain twice from 2010-2018!

Its the same with Palin. He knew her for 10 weeks in 2008. And he's still attacking her and repeating insults first made in Jan 2009. That's 13 years ago. In fact, he just sent out this kooky tweet to Sarah Palin:

You and I have unfinished business. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you never hold a position of responsibility in the United States Congress. You are an unstable, narcissistic, ignorant, grifting quitter. Magnificent, Majestic, Alaska deserves better.

Yancey Ward said...

Honor and Steve Schmidt are two things that never go together in a sentence.

Dave Begley said...

Steve Schmidt is a fucking lunatic. I've seen him foam on TV before. Not credible.

tim maguire said...

Sarah Palin was one of the few good decisions McCain made. She was the only reason the election was close. He was a disaster otherwise and his abandonment of Palin was a serious failure of judgment and character. McCain spent his life borrowing against the respect and goodwill he earned as a POW, and by the end there was none left. The well had run dry.

MikeR said...

These people's only role is Designated Betrayer of Republicans. Democrats love them.

Joe Smith said...

So the pedophile-enabler wants to preserve his reputation?

The man is a loathsome toad.

And that's an insult to toads...

Dude1394 said...

Go away indeed. An for this republican, Sarah Palin was probably the only reason for excitement when that skeleton was running.

Lurker21 said...

Schmidt doesn't seem to understand that going after Palin won't make either McCain or Schmidt look good, but everybody in the media nowadays lives in a fantasy world where there are no consequences. In Schmidt's case, not even the Lincoln Project's #MeToo scandal shut him down or shut him up. One would think that at this point media outlets that nobody believes any more would have gone out of business, but they have a way of clinging to life. Maybe the recession will knock off a few.

Craig Howard said...

It’s easy to forget that Sarah Palin was the extremely popular Republican governor of Alaska — her approval rating was 83%.

hawkeyedjb said...

What is it about older men choosing highly unsuitable female vice-presidents? Their advisors don't seem to have served them very well, even though they - the advisors - can see the problem. At least in the case of John McCain, he probably had something to do with the choice. Joe Biden probably had no idea who his handlers had picked to run with him.

Mr Wibble said...

McCain compromised his own honor if he had an affair with a lobbyist. The only honor Schmidt compromised was his own, by lying about it. Of course, he had no honor to begin with. He was a grifter, and he has been exposed as such. All this is because he realizes that his career in politics is dead, so the only thing he has left is to smear everyone he once worked with in the hopes of getting a juicy book deal or columnist gig.

Humperdink said...

It should not surprise anyone as to who the NYTimes gives credence to. A classless worm.

McCain’s gone, Schmidt’s toast and Palin may resurface in congress.

Amadeus 48 said...

The Times article caused me to contribute $5,000 to the McCain campaign. I didn't care if it was true or not. It was low of the Times to publish it.

Steve Schmidt is a piece of sxxx*.

*imperfect rhyme with Schmidt.

Michael K said...

Blogger hawkeyedjb said...

What is it about older men choosing highly unsuitable female vice-presidents?


The only reason I supported McCain was Palin. She was the sign of the coming populist revolt that brought us Trump.

Isn't Schmidt one of the pedophiles at The Bulwark?

rcocean said...

The book "Game change" you'll notice all the stuff about Schmidt and Palin is told from his Point of View because Palin didn't talk to the authors and Schmidt did. What you find is that Schmidt really got off on telling Palin what to do. He practically goes into a little Victory dance everytime he's able to pull out the "I'm the boss here, card" and overrule her objections.

Yet all his advice and decisions when they weren't minor and irrelvant (like allowing her to take the VP plane somewhere or do some local radio show) turned out to be wrong. In fact, Schmidt made so many bad decisions regaring Palin's campaign you have to wonder if it was deliberate sabotage. Why have her do long interviews with hostile Network reporters who could edit her answers and made look bad? Why force her to do SNL, and be the subject to face-to-face ridicule? Why try to make her into a foreign policy expert in 10 days, instead of just explaining she's the VP and a State Governor - not the President?

wendybar said...

John McCain handed the FBI the Fake Steele Dossier. John McCain stained his own name. He is a traitor who fucked over America because of his hatred for Trump. Trump did more for America than HE ever did. How's that Obamacare repeal that he promised??

Mr Wibble said...

McCain spent his life borrowing against the respect and goodwill he earned as a POW, and by the end there was none left. The well had run dry.

This, in a nutshell, is the story of the entire Boomer managerial class. They spent decades borrowing against the cultural, political, social, and economic capital accumulated for decades and at significant cost of blood, sweat, and tears, in order to throw it away for hare-brained schemes, personal enrichment, petty political fights, and empire building. Now they're panicking because they have nothing left.

R C Belaire said...

I won't (can't) read the NYT article but will wager a large latte that Trump's name is buried in there somewhere. Schmidt can't help himself...

rcocean said...

Here's his bizzare attack on Tulsi:

Of course. Putin’s Aloha Stooge @tulsigabbard is warming up for the White Piwer Hour on
@FoxNews You doing @TuckerCarlson or @IngrahamAngle
@USArmyReserve? Why is this Putin stooge wearing the Silver Oak Leaves of a Lt. Colonel?


Its amazing how you can put so many lies in three sentences. Also, note that this is Schmidt's standard way of discourse -calling for anyone he dislikes to be cancelled or fired. And that when he's attacked, he cries and plays the victim. Why he's recieved "death threats". OMG. OMG. OMG. Please pray for him.

Lucien said...

Imagine the leverage that J. Edgar Hoover had over the Kennedy brothers because the press was too sycophantic to publish the truth. If you think you are helping by covering thins up, think again.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The more the truth about the McCains and Schmidt and Wallace comes out the better Sarah Palin looks by virtue of not being as insane as the people who call her insane act. That and the fact the same things she said were her principles in 2008 are still her principles now: Wallace and Schmidt? Not so much, and they now serve the same administration (Obama's third term) that Sarah was running against back then.

"But muh principles..."

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

And how much mansplaining arrogance does it take to claim he "created" Sarah Palin? Toxic masculinity much, Steve?

I've seen her up close, way back in 2008, and she was fully formed in mind and body and political skill before they got their claws in her. Their big regret is they could not contain the public's excitement over her and McCain blew his big chance for not seeing her worth at the time. When the former head of NOW in LA introduced her to the crowd at Home Depot Arena the place was palpably electric. They had to open the tennis arena to the overflow crowd. I hope my grandchildren never forget being there that day!

Narr said...

I can never remember whether Schmidt is the left or the right of the Republican consultant testicles that talk.

Original Mike said...

"Schmidt is one of those career political 'strategists' who rarely did the right thing, rarely won, yet kept getting jobs. It's a remarkable career choice, political strategist. There is no downside'."

Kinda like weather forecasters. Wrong time and time again, but nothing happens to you.

Jim Gust said...

Schmidt's continued access to the public square sums up all that is wrong with US politics today.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

"Defending his long silence on the [infidelity] matter, Mr. Schmidt said in his post that he “didn’t want to do anything to compromise John McCain’s honor.”

AA: Now, it looks like you just can't get enough of kicking Sarah Palin around. Go away.

Thank goodness a good feminist is here to remind us that by compromising a man's honor, women (and minorities?) are hardest hit. As usual.

Did someone say *men* are boring?

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Steve Schmidt(D) should fuck off.

Readering said...

Article pretty mild on Palin. Mostly about the lobbyist story. She sued for libel and NYTimes published mealy-mouthed clarification. Times has a long memory.

Jupiter said...

That ain't the half of it;

https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-when-tokyo-rose-ran-for-president/

Bob Boyd said...

Grifter

n.n said...

judgment in choosing the relatively unknown governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate and accused Mr. McCain of cowering before her — “terrified of the creature that he created,” he wrote.

Elitism. Misogyny. Progressive conditions.

Iman said...

This ponce is striving to accumulate “generational corksoakery”.

Schmidt has always been a douchbag.

Iman said...

This ponce is striving to accumulate “generational corksoakery”.

Schmidt has always been a douchbag.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

LOL no one shows up to defend the Lincoln Lughead! Still a few Sarah haters out there but it’s weak sauce. Boy Murkowski better hope she’s as popular as Schmidt tells her she is. McCain wasn’t.

Whiskeybum said...

McCain and Palin made their first public appearance together on the campaign trail just down the road from me at the intersection of Washington Ave. and Columbia Road in Cedarburg, WI - right in front of The Chocolate Factory restaurant and Amy's Candy Kitchen. The crowds were ecstatic to see Sarah. That was the high point of the campaign before Schmidt and his crowd started the back-stabbing that united the Dems and the RINOs against her.

Clyde said...

Of the four major party candidates on the Presidential/Vice-Presidential ballot in 2012, Sarah Palin would have made the best President. There, I said it.

Clyde said...

Oops, my bad, that should have been the 2008 ballot. More years have gone by since then than I thought!

farmgirl said...

Amadeus48:
I think they rhyme just fine.

Earnest Prole said...

No one cares. Everyone already knows McCain was a weasel; even if I cared who Schmidt was I'd assume he's a weasel too. There's no need for him to confirm it now, fifteen years later. Go away and don't come back.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

All of the above.

gadfly said...

Oh No! My least favorite GOP RINO politician - and daughter Meghan (famously appearing as a talking head on "The View") - actually told lies. But in his defense, since he was a POW, McCain likely told far fewer lies in his 36 years of politics than Donald Trump's rapid-fire daily lies since 2015.

narciso said...

John weaver is the chief pedophile at the so called lincoln project

narciso said...

Dr evil and norma desmond still sleazing 14 years later.

gahrie said...

Did someone say *men* are boring?

Remember, Althouse likes boring.

Gunner said...

Didn't the entire planet assume that McCain was banging this blonde lobbyist who looks almost exactly like a younger version of his wife? Why is this some sort of "bombshell"?

Václav Patrik Šulik said...

There's another person involved in this story - Vicki Iseman. She has denied the affair and filed a lawsuit against the NYT - as a result of the settlement, the Times published this statement:

"The article did not state, and The Times did not intend to conclude, that Ms. Iseman had engaged in a romantic affair with Senator McCain or an unethical relationship on behalf of her clients in breach of the public trust."

Narayanan said...

so all in all Sarah Palin is a better man that John McCain!

Narayanan said...

As for McCain (and Schmidt) being terrified of a "creature he had created", Schmidt was the weasel who tried to bring her down.
========
do weasels hear their MastersVoice; could Master have asked him to stop?

Odi said...

The same Steve Schmidt (D)Lincoln Project, who never met a conservative he wouldn't bash, or pass an opportunity to mock the voters who elected Trump. The man who covered for God's sake. Why is anyone still listening to him and who is he to comment on Honor?

Narayanan said...

Steve Schmidt on the /Right/ and andrew sullivan on the /Left/ ->>> fixated on Palin

some kind of psy-transference?

Narayanan said...

Their big regret is they could not contain the public's excitement over her and McCain blew his big chance for not seeing her worth at the time.
=========
how many think McCain wanted to win rather than just have all the attention for a while

Rory said...

"What is it about older men choosing highly unsuitable female vice-presidents?"

Palin had some biographical points in common with Teddy Roosevelt, who was McCain's favorite president.

hombre said...

Schmidt has demonstrated many times over that he is not an honorable person, particularly where Palin is concerned. This is more of the same.

Yancey Ward said...

"I can never remember whether Schmidt is the left or the right of the Republican consultant testicles that talk."

Neither- he is the anus.

M Jordan said...

I would love to say what I really feel about John McCain but I will wait until his funeral is over before I vent my spleen. Which means never.