Sat Jan 30, 2010 at 02:30:00 PM EST
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The Washington Post had an extensive story yesterday about Senator Menendez and his role leading the DSCC. The story went into looking at the Massachusetts debacle and found an anonymous White House official ready to air some dirty laundry:One senior administration official, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about the White House's grievances, acknowledged that there was plenty of blame to go around, especially in the failure to notice how intensely Republican voters were motivated. But the official also argued that Menendez bore a larger burden because it was his job to protect the seat.
"I don't understand how they could have missed how fundamentally unsound the candidate was," said the administration official. "They shouldn't have been surprised by it." The anonymous source continued saying that his predecessor would never have allowed it to happen:"Chuck Schumer would have been a rabid dog if he had one race in America and he wouldn't have rested, even if he had a 40-point lead," said the official, who argued the committee needed an A-team on the ground sooner. "They chose not to do that because it was a comfortable lead and they wanted to save their resources for what they thought were going to be really tough races." But of course once the dirt was shoveled on Menendez, the official on the record comment completely contradicted the anonymous comments:"That's not a view I share," said David Axelrod, White House senior adviser, adding that there was plenty of blame to go around. "I don't think any one institution or person bears a preponderance of responsibility for that. They have a very good staff over there, they do a very good job. This is not a case where you can say this was their fault." While I agree with Axelrod that everyone shares blame, he's pretty much trying to close the gate after the horses have gotten out at this point. For his part, Menendez said the anonymous comments weren't helpful:"Finger-pointing here is not only irresponsible, it risks misreading the political environment right now." The bottom line is the DSCC is charged with paying attention to make sure that just this situation doesn't occur. Coakley shouldn't have been able to go dark for weeks after the primary and when they went off the reservation, the campaign should have been reigned back in. They can say Coakley wasn't the best candidate or who they would have wanted, but you have the candidate you have at that point. They tried to get more involved but at that point it was to late. Massachusetts needs to serve as a wake up call and an opportunity to be better prepared for the difficult road ahead. It's going to be a tough climate out there, but turning the attacks inward isn't going to make that job any easier. They all should have seen this coming and they all should work together to make sure it doesn't happen again. |
| Jason Springer :: Menendez, the White House and the hurdles on the Road ahead |
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