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Kevin Madden Flashbacks:

Traitor Kevin Madden: Responsible for the anonymous attacks aired on FoxNews tonight

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/2126663/posts

One week prior to the general election, former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden took to the airwaves (on CNN) and defamed Sarah Palin, setting off a media storm over an alleged fight between Team McCain and Team Palin. They were the very early opening salvos in the battle for the party. Fox News expanded on off-the-record anti-Palin comments tonight. Was traitor Kevin Madden for those comments?

Romney Supporters Trashing Palin

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2118686/posts

It looks like there might be some truth to those rumors former Mitt Romney supporters are already trying to clear Sarah Palin from the GOP presidential deck to make room for their man Mitt in 2012.

Former Romney Spokesman Kevin Madden was particularly harsh on Palin in an interview on CNN. His criticism of Palin is especially noteworthy because we’re only days from the election.

In a spot with Campbell Brown Madden said Palin’s wardrobe flap showed how “unseasoned” Palin is.

RedState: Romney Surrogates Sabotaging Sarah Palin?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2117945/posts

When I was in St. Paul for the Republican Convention, more than a dozen people told me acolytes of Mitt Romney were feeding all the stories to the media portraying Palin in a negative light.

In fact, I heard that one of the biggest pushers of anti-Palin stories, including encouraging reporters to pursue the “Trooper-gate” story was Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.

Flashback:

Red State and other reporters accuse Romney staffers, including Kevin Madden (former Romney press-man) of pushing reporters into “Troopergate” stories

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2126515/posts

All I see is Madden stating fact, in the interview with Brown. Palin was a political tyro (on the national level) and therefore "unseasoned" by definition and she did make some terribly rookie mistakes in that campaign.

It is also a simple truth that vetting is usually done over a longer period than McCain's campaign took with Sarah.

Picking Sarah was a political ploy for the McCain Campaign. She was picked primarily to give some life to his run for the White House. Fortunately she turned out to be a net positive to the campaign and it probably the reason he did as well as he did, but had she been as prepared as she would be today, she might have put him over the top.

All the rest of what you posted is hearsay . . . not credible . . . not sourced. The Red State article comes closest to credibility as the author claims to have spoken to several people at the time, but it is still nothing but rumor.

Madden may indeed have been everything you claim, but the evidence is very thin. Besides that, the whole topic is irrelevant. I don't care what he did in the past, I care whether he is a competent campaign strategist. Sarah Palin is irrelevant to the current race. She isn't running.

I'll reserve my judgment until I have seen the results of this move--I don't start out from a position of irrational Romney-hatred.

Flashback:

Swampland: Top 10 Dirty Political Tricks

http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/19/top-10-dirty-political-tricks-2/slide/phonyfred-org/#phonyfred-org

Team Romney knows a thing or two about playing dirty. In 2007, Romney’s political consultant, Wesley Donehue, was discovered as the “anonymous” culprit behind the website “Phony Fred.” The site attacked GOP candidate and former TV star Fred Thompson with unflattering photos and taunting names like Flip-Flop Fred, Moron Fred and Fancy Fred. Under one heading that read “Playboy Fred,” the site posted the question: “Once a pro-choice skirt chaser, now standard bearer of the religious right?” PhonyFred.org was quickly removed once reporters from The Washington Post began investigating the site. Thompson’s spokesman, Todd Harris, condemned the trickery saying, “There is no room in our party for this kind of smut.”