McCain Sells (What's Left of) His Soul: Hires Man Who Sunk His 2000 Campaign

By: Bill W. on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
CrooksandLiars

John McCain has claimed that he believes “there is a special place in hell” for Tucker Eskew and the others who were behind the push-poll that implanted the idea in S.C. voters’ minds in 2000 that he had fathered an illegitimate black child, but that sure didn’t stop him from hiring Eskew to help prepare Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Jake Tapper: McCain Hires GOP Operative Who Helped Smear Him in South Carolina in 2000

Former officials of Sen. John McCain’s 2000 campaign expressed shock and disbelief Monday to learn than the GOP presidential nominee had hired South Carolina political consultant Tucker Eskew.

Eskew, along with Warren Tompkins and Neal Rhodes, were key members of then-Gov. George W. Bush’s South Carolina team during the 2000 primaries. McCain and his team long held Bush, Tompkins, Rhodes and Eskew responsible for the various smears against McCain and his family in the Palmetto state during that contentious contest. […]

Asked if the McCain campaign would have a comment about hiring one of the South Carolina strategists the senator and his 2000 campaign team once held responsible for smears against him, McCain 2008 spokesman Brian Rogers emailed, “No.”

(Continued here, with hotlinks.)