ABC's Jonathan Karl notes that Mitt Romney's press secretary, Andrea Saul, once worked for Charlie Crist's 2010 Senatorial campaign and said some pretty nasty stuff about his challenger, Marco Rubio.
- “With each passing day, voters are beginning to see the real Speaker Rubio, a tax raising Miami lobbyist-politician who has used public office for personal gain and political donations as a personal slush fund.”
- “This Marco Rubio is a wheeling and dealing Miami lobbyist and politician, always trying to scam the system for his personal benefit.”
Of course, we know Saul's boss was desperate (At that point in their race, Crist would've blamed Rubio for sinking the Titanic and listening to Nickelback while he did it), but those are pretty stinging attacks that come with this caveat from Karl.
It’s occupational hazard for people in the political communications business: Your words don’t really belong to you. You speak on behalf of the boss. When the boss changes, so do your public pronouncements.
I'll add one more caveat -- is this too much worse than the shift that happens when fierce primary opponents unite for a general election? I think the potentially more damaging thing at work here is the nature of the charges themselves; not who was was making them.
