Rove: GOP infighting 'a sad sight to see' David Edwards and Andrew McLemore

Published: Sunday October 26, 2008





Print This Email This Republican strategist Karl Rove bemoaned finger-pointing within the GOP as the McCain campaign continues to fall behind in the polls, calling it a "sad sight to see."



Speaking with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Rove said the problem lies with politicians who lose confidence "before the decision is made."



"It is a sign of undisciplined people who do not have the loyalty they ought to have to the candidate whom they are serving," Rove said. "Nobody makes themselves look good in this process."



He admitted when prodded by Matthews that infighting usually spells a losing campaign, but criticized an article in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, which detailed the dissidence among McCain aides that has drawn media attention.



Rove said he "was appalled by the personal attacks" he claimed the article made against McCain's chief campaign strategist Steve Schmidt.



The magazine depicted Schmidt, an acknowledged protégé of the Rove-style campaigning associated with the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry in 2004, as largely responsible for the biggest gaffes of the McCain campaign.



The following is an excerpt from the article.



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Discussion carried on into the afternoon at the Morgan Library and Museum as McCain prepared for the first presidential debate. Schmidt pushed for going all in: suspending the campaign, recommending that the first debate be postponed, parachuting into Washington and forging a legislative solution to the financial crisis for which McCain could then claim credit. Exactly how McCain could convincingly play a sober bipartisan problem-solver after spending the previous few weeks garbed as a populist truth teller was anything but clear. But Schmidt and others convinced McCain that it was worth the gamble.



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When asked by Wallace about recent accusations from McCain aides that Sarah Palin is a "diva" who has "gone rogue," Rove said campaign aides have "enormous respect for her abilities."



"We got two people that I know inside the McCain campaign who are not throwing in the towel," Rove said, referring to McCain and Palin. "Both of them energetically out there on the campaign and this is what is going to really matter in the next ten days, not what staffers are trying to cover themselves with."



This video is from Fox's Fox News Sunday, broadcast October 26, 2008.









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