"Not a campaign but a war room"

[chieftain]

Axelrod's apt characterization of the menagerie of thugs, liars and fools of the McCain organization accurately captured their efforts first against Obama and now against each other. If you think of the Schmidt/Wallace team as the third generation of Atwater politics, you can see how Lee's descendants only approach is to demonize and destroy your opponent. Lee was an effective attack dog under the adult supervision of Poppy Bush and Jim Baker. Karl Rove inherited the mantle of genius from the bad boy from South Carolina. The conventional wisdom became that the Atwater/Rove brand of slash and burn was the surest path to electoral success.
Now third raters like Schmidt and Wallace having marinated for years in the witches brew of the politics of personal destruction have been given the reins of Ace McCain's last kamikaze mission. Confronted with likely defeat, they have resorted to the only thing they know how to do- attack. It matters little that their present enemies are on the same team. It matters not that the settling of personal scores comes at the price of pissing away the last week of a presidential race. It is of no consequence that their childish behavior will facilitate the ascension to power a philosophical view antithetical to their own. Nope for the enfants terrible at McCain/Palin HQ their agenda is limited to assuring that their opponents are trashed and that their own reputation survives the imminent train wreck.
There are lessons to be learned here by politicians and voters. For politicians, if you only hire pit bulls don't be surprised if in addition to devouring your foe, they turn on you. For the voters,candidates who campaign like Rove are likely to govern like W.