Yesterday, David Halbfinger and Adam Nagourney described the dismissal of campaign manager Jim Jordan. Brutal detail:
Mr. Kerry held a 45-minute telephone conference call on Sunday to discuss the firing with aides, many of whom had been hired by Mr. Jordan and who were described by participants in the meeting as distraught and unsettled by this latest instance of turmoil in the Kerry campaign. Rather than calming the waters, three people who took part in the call said, Mr. Kerry was pummeled for nearly an hour by campaign aides who asked if Mr. Jordan was becoming a scapegoat for the candidate's shortcomings.
The participants also demanded to know what Mr. Kerry was going to do to set the campaign back on track, aides who participated in the phone call said.
"We know and you know that Jim wasn't the problem," one aide said in recounting what one staff member told Mr. Kerry. "We want to know that you know that the problem was not Jim: You need to understand that there needs to be fundamental changes in this campaign."
At one point, another participant said, Mr. Kerry — who could be heard eating his supper over the speakerphone as he conducted the meeting — blamed the news coverage for his problems.
Three sources for the news that Sen. Kerry is arrogant, aloof, and insensitive.
Today, David Halbfinger resumes, with a profile of Kerry adviser Bob Shrum. The resignations of the press secretary and deputy campaign finance director are noted, and this is today's brutal detail:
... it is a measure of Mr. Shrum's impact that few believed Mr. Kerry when he denied to his staff that Mr. Shrum was behind the choice of a Kennedy confidante, Mary Beth Cahill, as his new campaign manager.
His own staff doesn't believe him, and they are trying to sell him to the rest of us?
The article also makes half of a valid comparison:
...in 2000, Mr. Shrum was an important consultant to Vice President Al Gore, whose campaign, much like Mr. Kerry's is now, became known for being top-heavy with consultants, leaky as a sinking ship and riven by internal feuds.
Yes, and to complete the picture, the candidate had a reputation for being arrogant, annoying, and disliked by the press.
Sen. Kerry is not going to drop out, so I suppose we can look forward to more stories like this. Or, in a few weeks, we may see a spate of "Kerry Resurgent" stories - the firm hand on the tiller has righted the once-unsteady ship, blah, blah, blah. I will await comparable extended coverage of leopards changing their spots.
UPDATE: The Brothers Judd distill this to one sentence.
vivisection. you mean it's alive?
Posted by: baa | November 13, 2003 at 06:31 PM