McPain aides say Pale-lyn's 'going rogue'

With 10 days to go until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between repugican vice presidential candidate Sarah Pale-lyn and key aides to senator John McPain have become so intense they are spilling out in public, sources say.

Several McPain advisers have suggested that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Pale-lyn "going rogue." A Pale-lyn associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

McPain sources say Pale-lyn has gone off message several times, and they privately wonder if the incidents were deliberate. They cited that she labeled robo-calls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McPain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McPain campaign.

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McPain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

"Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

A Pale-lyn associate defended her by saying she is "not good at process questions" and that her comments on Michigan and the robo-calls were answers to process questions.

But this Pale-lyn source acknowledged that Pale-lyn is trying to take more control of her message, pointing to last week's impromptu press conference on a Colorado tarmac.

Tracey Schmitt, Pale-lyn's press secretary, was urgently called over after Pale-lyn wandered over to the press and started talking. Schmitt unsuccessfully tried several times to end the unscheduled session.

"We acknowledge that perhaps she should have been out there doing more," a different Pale-lyn adviser recently said, arguing, "It's not fair to judge her off one or two sound bites" from the network interviews.

The Politico reported Saturday on Pale-lyn's frustration, specifically with McPain advisers Nicolle Wallace and Steve Schmidt. They helped decide to limit Pale-lyn's initial press contact to high-profile interviews with Charlie Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, which all McPain sources admit were highly damaging.

But two sources, one Pale-lyn associate and one McPain adviser, defended the decision to keep her press interaction limited after she was first picked, both saying flatly that she was not ready and missteps could have been a lot worse.

They insisted she needed time to be briefed on national and international issues and on McPain's record.

Pale-lyn spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt came to the back of the plane Saturday to deliver a statement to traveling reporters: "Unnamed sources with their own agenda will say what they want, but from governor Pale-lyn down, we have one agenda, and that's to win on Election Day."

Yet another senior McPain adviser lamented the public recriminations.

"This is what happens with a campaign that's behind, it brings out the worst in people fingerpointing and scapegoating," this senior adviser said.

*****

Are we surprised?

In a word, NO.