The CNN story I linked to yesterday reporting that top McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann had been fired for "trashing" the campaign staff to the media was evidently not accurate. As Scheunemann told the New York Times, "anybody who says I was fired is either lying or delusional or a whack job."
But while Scheunemann may not have been fired, it's not that hard to see how a non-delusional person might have believed he had been. CNN's followup cites campaign spokesman (and Scheunemann ally) Michael Goldfarb on-the-record:
Goldfarb did concede that Scheunemann's campaign e-mail was cut off, and his blackberry was taken away late Friday. Goldfarb admits that senior McCain aides were mad at Scheunemann, and wanted to fire him, but he insists they stopped short of that, and instead simply turned off his campaign communication.
Goldfarb says Scheunemann was in the office on Saturday. He was, however, noticeably missing on election night when top aides to John McCain and Sarah Palin gathered in Phoenix, Arizona.
No word yet on rumors that Scheunemann spent the last 96 hours of the campaign locked in a lavatory. In the meantime, the pro-Palin counterattack has begun at RedState:
RedState is pleased to announce it is engaging in a special project: Operation Leper.
We're tracking down all the people from the McCain campaign now whispering smears against Governor Palin to Carl Cameron and others. Michelle Malkin has the details.
We intend to constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you'll see us go to war against those candidates.
It is our expressed intention to make these few people political lepers.
They'll just have to be stuck at CBS with Katie's failed ratings.
Initial list:
- Nicolle Wallace
- Steve Schmidt
- Mark McKinnon
The tent grows smaller by the day.
--Christopher Orr