Romney Backers Behind Palin Smears?

I remember reading somewhere, right after Gov Sarah Palin was announced as VP running mate for McCain, that some Romney operatives were the ones feeding the "trooper-gate" stories to the media. I just kinda blew that off at the time frankly because I was so excited about Palin.

Now we have "sources" inside the McCain campaign feeding negative tidbits to Carl Cameron (who I have lost a lot of respect for since the election coverage started) about Gov Palin. Fingers are starting to point at Kevin Madden, the former communication guy for Romney and a talking head on Fox News. Madden also works for the McCain campaign.

Doing a little digging I found this update from Erick Erickson over at RedState which sheds some light on who might be doing the "talking out of turn" and why...

When I was in St. Paul for the Republican Convention, more than a dozen people told me acolytes of Mitt Romney were feeding all the stories to the media portraying Palin in a negative light.
In fact, I heard that one of the biggest pushers of anti-Palin stories, including encouraging reporters to pursue the "Trooper-gate" story was Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. I did not blog on it at the time because I perceived it to be people trying to finish off Romney. It likewise seemed clear to me that if this was going on, it was people loyal to Romney who were still hoping for his come back and not Romney himself.

Guess who else was another Romney Supporter? None other than Palin-hater extraordinaire, Kathleen Parker... Per the same RedState post...

These days it is hard to miss Kathleen Parker's savage attacks on Sarah Palin. She, along with several others listed here attacking Sarah Palin were also some of the first pundits in bed with the Romney campaign in 2007/8.

Typical of the GOP - eat your own just to get ahead in the game. To Hell with the party or the country - It's all about ME!!!!

I personally never found Kevin Madden appealing - he was like a white Bill Burton but cuter.

Another reminder - Nina Easton who has been simmering with venom against Palin and is a "Fox News contributer" is married to Russell John Schriefer. Schriefer was another advisor to Romney. There was almost a sense of glee as she joined in on the Election coverage on Fox last PM.

THIS is the kind of crap that must be weeded out of the GOP if we are ever to make any progress. I'll take Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney any old day - and I voted for Romney in the primaries. Toss Madden into the dung heap with Noonan, Buckley Jr, Frum, Brooks etc. Give me more Joe the Plumbers and Sarah Palins.