Can someone please explain to me what high level Democratic party operatives working with the 2004 Sen. Kerry presidential campaign were doing passing on insider information to the Bush-Cheney ticket?
According to Bob Woodward's STATE OF DENIAL, James Carville and Mike McCurry passed on information to the Bush-Cheney camp at a sensitive time when Sen. Kerry was deciding whether to challenge the Ohio vote.
I came across this disheartening and eye-opening bit of information via MyDD.com, where Matt Stoller writes:
Like Carville, McCurry owes an explanation to his fellow Democrats.
Here's what Matt was reacting to:
After 1 a.m., Card called Cahill.
Cahill said the Kerry campaign felt confident.
Card was caught off guard. ... --Is there going to be a phone call?"
"We won't be calling you," Cahill replied. She seemed to be half asking whether Bush would be calling Kerry to concede.
(snip)
Matalin is married to James Carville, a Democrat who had been chief political strategist for Bill Clinton in 1992. ... ...
"Look, I know this is hard for you," she told him sympathetically.
Carville told her he had some inside news. The Kerry campaign was going to challenge the provisional ballots in Ohio--perhaps up to 250,000 of them. "I don't agree with it," Carville said. "I'm just telling you that's what they're talking about."
Matalin went to report to Cheney.
What? the vice president asked. ...
"You'd better tell the president," Cheney told her. ...
"They're going to contest it," Matalin said.
"What does that mean?" the president asked. He had his note cards with talking points in hand, ready to go over to the Reagan Building to declare victory.
Matalin said somebody in authority needed to get in touch with J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican secretary of state in Ohio, who would be in charge of any challenge to the provisional votes.
(snip) skip forward to page 347...
"I'm the president of the United States," Bush said fuming, "waiting on a secretary of state who is a nut." ... ...
Reports came in that the networks wanted to go off the air without calling the race for either candidate.
Rove shouted, "They can't go off the air!"
At 3:36 a.m., a very sensitive communication from the Kerry camp was relayed to Rove and Bartlett at the White House. Mike McCurry, Clinton's former White House press secretary and a last-minute addition to the Kerry campaign, had e-mailed Nicole Devenish, the Bush campaign communications director, an off-the-record congratulations, advising that the Bush team should not try to force a resolution now. Don't pressure Kerry, McCurry said. In the end, he believed Kerry would do the right thing.
Bartlett and others told Bush about the e-mail, summarizing the message as "We'll do the right thing at the right time." They could trust that McCurry would be in a position to know what the Kerry campaign was thinking, Bartlett said, but they had to be careful not to put too much stock in it. At least we know there are people in the Kerry camp giving rational advice, Bartlett said. ... ...
Card said they should declare victory. ... ... ...
STATE OF DENIAL, by Bob Woodward (pgs. 344-347)
Taylor Marsh, who first reported on this, reacts to the Woodward revelation:
One important point, however, is that people have started talking about the Carville - Matalin angle, but everyone stops there. If you read a bit further Mike McCurry comes into the picture. It seals the deal.
Here's a story not in the Woodward book. According to one person I talked to today, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Joe Lockhart, in the middle of a heated presidential campaign, started making new business calls out of the Kerry war room giving out confidential campaign information while he was at it. Obviously trying to hedge his bets, he'd call out, give poll data and other info to people, while trying to drum up business for himself. Class act.
Frankly, it reminds me of what McCurry did on the Net Neutrality stuff.
For DC Democrats it's all about keeping your candidates close, but your business associates and their interests closer.
As for what's said in the Woodward book, one Kerry camp insider I talked to today certainly wasn't surprised by the revelations.
[...]
It's clear Carville and McCurry had their eyes on something else entirely. With Democrats like Carville and McCurry helping us out on election night we hardly need Karl Rove.
These two gentlemen owe the Democratic party base an explanation. While there were thousands of volunteers all across the nation sweating and canvassing for Sen. Kerry, here were two insiders working against the party's interests at a crucial time.
And, yet again, we see an example of how establishment operatives have gutted the soul of the Democratic party, and have put their own personal interests and connections before the interests of the men and women that toil for the Democratic candidates that these operatives are supposed to work hard for. After we win these mid-term elections, we need to continue cleaning house and expel the establishment's high priests from the people's temple -- and make sure that the Democratic party in fact represents our interests, and not the narrow interests of a few well connected operatives and lobbyists.