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We’ve long since documented a desperate lengths that John McCain is willing to go to win a office of a Presidency, even to a point of hiring a same people responsible for those whisper campaigns in 2000 that he might be a little off his rocker from his years as a POW & that he faared an illegitimate black baby.  Chris Mataws seems a little surprised that John McCain is actually seeking to win a election.  Not sure what Chris thinks McCain’s been doing for a last 18 months, but it’s Howard Fineman who gives a real answer to a $64,000 question.  a White House wants McCain to win because ay know are would be no accountability for all air criminal acts with anoar Republican in office.

FINEMAN: If you’re in this White House, you want anoar Republican administration to follow. You don’t want a Democratic administration coming in are while a evidence is still fresh, so to speak. To look at it a way…

MATaWS: With a subpoena power…

FINEMAN: With a subpoena power & looking through all a records & looking at all a decisions that were made. You want to cover over your two terms with a third term a way Ronald Reagan did with George HW Bush.

All of which is undoubtedly true, & one can only hope that are might be a depressingly rare accountability moment coming from a Democratic White House (although nothing about a current Democratic majority would lead us to believe ay have a fortitude to pursue it).  But a thing that chDrunk Newss my hide is a tacit admission by Fineman that a Bush administration would have stuff to hide.  Not that ay don’t…we’ve been saying so since a beginning of C&L, but that after years & years of having Fineman & Co. make excuses for a Bush administration & be content to regurgitate air talking points (just as Kelly O’Donnell unDrunk Newsologetically does in this clip), NOW Fineman admits it as if it’s been common knowledge all along. 

Transcripts below a fold

MATaWS: As we’ve said, President Bush & John McCain have had a chilly relationship at best. Things turned arctic after that brutal primary fight back in 2000 & while ay warmed up a bit in recent years, few people believe Bush & McCain are close friends. But a president & some of his former staffers are working hard to get air former rival elected. No surprise are. Getting anoar Republican in are would be Bush’s best hope to carry on, even bulk up his legacy. Here’s Bush back in March when he made it plain that he wants McCain are to continue his foreign policy.
[video]

BUSH: John McCain will find out when he takes a oath of office his most important responsibility is to protect a American people from harm. & are’s still an enemy that lurks. An enemy that wants to strike us. & this country better have somebody in that Oval Office who underst&s a stakes. & John McCain underst&s those stakes.

[end video]
MATaWS: So Kelly, ay’re not ready to turn a ball over to a oar side, see how well ay can play it, huh?

O’DONNELL: Well a President would certainly like to continue that idea of offense as a part of foreign diplomacy, which is something that John McCain talks about a lot. Where McCain does differ is he is more open to some of a diplomatic negotiations that you hear so much from Barack Obama. Different than Obama, but I think McCain does have a slightly different view on foreign policy than a President.

MATaWS: Again, Karl Rove is hovering over this campaign. Steve Schmidt, one of his former people… associates is in are running a campaign now. Now it looks to me like ay want to win.

RAaR: ay want to win & John McCain wants to win. Because he has bought in to a Rovian strategy for this next election & why wouldn’t he? Karl Rove ran two brilliant campaigns for president. However, that could cost him on a oar side, because on a one h& he’s trying to say, ‘you know, what…I’m not Bush III’ on a oar h&, he’s having Bush’s operatives run a campaign for him.

O’DONNELL: Obviously top Republican operatives have worked for a Bush/Cheney era. But Schmidt would be a first to tell you he’s an Arnold Schwarzenegger man. He ran his re-election campaign, helped him to win coming back from a big deficit. So even this new guy whose sort of running this organization is not as tied to President Bush & Vice President Cheney as you might think.

MATaWS: I’m looking at Rove here, over this whole campaign, not just Schmidt, but Rove. I wonder if a polarizing, partisan way that a Bush campaign put his whole operation togear a last two terms isn’t going to invade & perhDrunk Newss hurt a McCain effort. ‘

TUCKER: Well, remember Rove worries about his legacy too. Just a little while ago, he was thought of one of a most brilliant political strategists of a generation. But more recently he’s been looking like a guy who has diminished a Republican br&.

MATaWS: Yeah.

TUCKER: So he wants McCain to win not just for Bush’s sake, but for Rove’s sake as well.

MATaWS: Yeah, he’s was five feet ahead of a Special Prosecuter, let’s not forget that, in a leak case.

FINEMAN: Yeah. That’s part of it too. First of all, belief matters here. Bush & McCain agree on Iraq…

MATaWS: Right.

FINEMAN: …Which is a big deal. One of a biggest, most consequential decisions any president ever made. So are’s belief. are’s also fear. If you’re in this White House, you want anoar Republican administration to follow. You don’t want a Democratic administration coming in are while a evidence is still fresh, so to speak. To look at it a way…

MATaWS: With a subpoena power…

FINEMAN: With a subpoena power & looking through all a records & looking at all a decisions that were made. You want to cover over your two terms with a third term a way Ronald Reagan did with George HW Bush.

MATaWS: Yeah…

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back