Thursday, July 31, 2008

Oops!

Somebody didn't think things through very well. Darn those unintended consequences, anyway!

Turns out that McCain pissed off some deep-pocketed donors with his "celebrity" ad...The Hilton family.

The father and grandfather of Paris Hilton have donated tens of thousands of dollars to both the campaign and the RNC, and her grandfather, William Barron Hilton (co-chair of the Hilton Hotel empire), is furious. As in, on a scale of one to ten, he's at eleven. Her father Rick Hilton, who has also kicked in a few thousand bucks to the McCain effort is none too happy, either.

Every time Paris Hilton is in the news, it damages the brand, and that likely steams another large donor - The Blackstone Group - which is a part-owner of the hotel chain. Blackstone's chairman, Peter G. Peterson has given over $30,000 to the McCain campaign this year.

Guess who else had his secretary put through a call to the campaign this morning?

UPDATE I: 532PM / Warren
Yes, we know there's a picture of sweet, adorable Paris in the side-bar--we're not reporting or blogging about her latest flashing incident. We're talking about the tens of thousands of dollars her family has given to Republicans over the years--decades--and we're laughing our asses off at how mad the Hilton family and their associates are at the McCain campaign. This is not twittery--its schaddenfreud!

UPDATE II: 636PM / Warren
Huckleberry Graham and Lyin' Joe Lieberman defend the Paris Hilton ad. Graham tries to make the case that the fame enjoyed by Spears, Hilton and Obama is "fame without portfolio." If that's not the most damning indictment of a man who went through five planes, set an aircraft carrier on fire, graduated near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, traded in one wife for another and helped nobody but lobbyists throughout his entire Congressional career, I don't know what is. The stupid burns like nothing else...

~BG

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