They report that a very subdued Team Hillary group assembled for a conference call with Hillary Clinton. minue campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, where they describe top team strategist Mark Penn as "dazed and subdued" as they waited for Clinton to come onto the line.
According to an unnamed participant who was already on the ground in New Hampshire, Hillary started with a brief greeting and made it clear there would be no looking back, only ahead and Mandy Grunwald whom they call the "message guru" asked other top advisers if they wanted to share any thoughts.
Silence.
Hillary jumps back in with her thoughts on the next steps for the campaign, just to be greeted with ..... more silence, prompting her to make this statement "This has been very helpful talking to myself," and hung up on the group.
Snippy, snippy!!!
The potential shakeup in Hillaryville, where talk of bringing in new blood and who should be booted, was given a reprieve after her win in New Hampshire, but new blood has been added the campaign which has insiders talking.
Evidently Team Hillary is not a happy group of people as staffers make statements like "I've never seen a campaign where everyone feels so bad about themselves."
....Too much is on the line. Everyone is exhausted. The public scrutiny (damn those scrounging reporters!) is relentless. But compounding these generic stressors, say insiders, has been the fear-inducing, high-handed leadership of the coterie of überadvisers known as "the Five."
High atop Hillary's disciplined, leakproof operation, Solis Doyle, along with Penn, Grunwald, policy chief Neera Tanden, and communications director Howard Wolfson, have kept an iron grip on everything from ideas to access. Characterized by their colleagues--and even themselves--as a collection of brilliant but not especially likable political talents, the Five are seen by many insiders as contributing to the candidate's image problem. Even those who profess fondness for individual members admit that none makes a compelling Face of the Campaign. So, when Team Hillary hit its Iowa speed bump, the thoughts of many immediately turned toward shattering the hold of the Five.
It also seems that there are some complaints about Patti Solis Doyle which includes one person referring to the Clinton campaign as "The Patti Show", other complaints about people constantly complaining to the senator and other members of the campaign family that their calls aren't being returned by Doyle, and they also say she is butal to staffers, just to name a few of those complaints.
The article goes on to show some of the "new blood", the additions that have been added to Team Hillary, one of which is Maggie Williams, Doyle's former boss, and was widely viewed as a vote of no-confidence in Solis Doyle, even though word is that Williams came on by Doyles request.
Rumors flew fast when Doyle steered clear of the office, missing key strategy meetings that included Bill Clinton, on Willaim's first day at headquarters.
Read the whole piece, just a glance inside of Team Hillary....
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