Rick Perry's advisers are pointing the finger at each other (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)
Rick Perry's campaign staff and advisers couldn't even wait for the first caucusgoer to show up in Iowa before getting on the record pointing fingers at each other for the disaster of the Texas governor's campaign. Perry, of course, entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination as the brightest and best hope to defeat Mitt Romney—like the former Massachusetts governor, Perry could raise real money, but rather than coming off as a robotic, slick-haired Mormon businessman, Perry had the booted Texan swagger Republicans are supposed to go wild for. Then he opened his mouth. Again and again.
The excuses for Perry's collapse have been many and varied, but now Politico airs the one that seems likely to stay with us until the campaign comes to whatever ugly, brutal end it's destined for: the national-level team of consultants Perry brought on late in the game is arguing that the longtime Texas staffers who led his campaign in its early days are incompetent fools:
“There has never been a more ineptly orchestrated, just unbelievably subpar campaign for president of the United States than this one,” said a senior Perry adviser. [...]
“They put the campaign together like all the other Perry campaigns: raise a bunch of money, don’t worry about the [media coverage], don’t worry about debates and buy the race on TV,” said a top Perry official. “You have to be a total rube to think a race for president is the same as a race for governor.”
These consultants may not have been able to save Perry's campaign as they were hired to do, but they're proving their Washington insider cred by realizing that this campaign was such a disaster they needed to go to Politico to shiv their internal opponents before voting started. This is so entertaining that you almost have to hope Perry does better than expected in Iowa, prolonging the "warring campaign advisers" storyline.