Yob picks up new client ... independent Democratic foe of a Romney guy

by: Eric B.

Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 08:04:32 AM EST

From Hotline:

While other GOPers took heat, only ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) was smart enough to avoid endorsing a candidate in NY-23, the race that pitted a Conservative Party candidate against a liberal GOPer. But Romney's run of good luck may be coming to an end.

...snip...

The third candidate, state Treas. Tim Cahill, is no gadfly. He already has $3.2M in the bank, according to state campaign finance reports, and he's won election statewide -- albeit as a Dem. Now, he's signed on a top-level campaign team, including John Weaver, John Yob, Mark Salter and Mike Dennehy, all high-profile GOP strategists.

Emphasis not mine.  Yob and Weaver are high-ranking advisers to Rick Snyder, and although there was a connection to Scott Brown's recent win in Massachusetts that could explain things in a rational, sane manner, most of us know Yob and Weaver from other things. Weaver was a high-level McCain adviser ... and, hey, so was Yob.  And, hey, they both worked McCain in a year when McCain was going up against Mitt "Mittens" Romney for the GOP presidential nomination.

Most of us fans of history remember that Michigan was supposed to be a "firewall" for George "Dubya" Bush back in 2000, declared as such by John Engler, who himself was said at the time to covet a place in The W's cabinet. That didn't happen, because Michigan proved to be no firewall. The guy backed by the Yob clan, John McCain, wound up winning with their assistance and The W had to smear McCain down South to win the nod. (There was the Big Eff Yoooooo! from the Yob clan to McCain for pulling out of Michigan back in 2008 and making them look bad.)

And, then, waaaaaaay back in 1998, this all started with the Yob-Engler split over the attorney general's race. Engler switched from backing boring old John Smietanka to Scott Romney, brother of Mittens, while the Yob clan stuck by Smietanka, who wound up with the nomination and then wound up losing the general election. At the time, I think Tim Skubick took credit for Granholm's win. Anyway, the whole thing started a giant GOP slapfight that I think maybe continues to this day, especially since the Yobs are today in the corner of Rick Michigan.

Once you get past all the interesting history and eddies to this thing, I'm sure what will really matter to Michigan's wingnuts is that Rick Michigan's top political gun is going to work for a pro-choice independent who won statewide office in Taxsachusetts as a Democrat.

Update! ... Well, now this was quick.  From the days right after Scott Brown was elected.

The software will not be available to Snyder’s GOP opponents nor will it ever be available to a Democratic campaign, Yob said.

“There’s no doubt the Obama campaign was light years ahead of the McCain campaign,” said Yob, emphasizing he is selling exclusively to Republican campaigns.

Did he mean it, or is the new definition of a Republican really anybody without a 'D' after their name and who has a lot of loose money?