McCain praises Schmidt and Wallace, says "it's time to move on"

I held out on Palin posts today as long as I could but some drama simply must be blogged, my friends. A diplomatic statement by Maverick, and no doubt an attempt to exert a little authority in defense of his loyalists, but the famous McCain temper can’t be suppressed forever.

I figure he’s at about DefCon 3 here.

“There’s been a lot of dust flying around in the last few days and I just wanted to mention that I have the highest regard for Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace and the rest of the team … and I appreciated all the hard work and everything they did to help the campaign,” he said.

“I think it’s just time to move on,” he said…

“Campaigns are high-pressure situations. The only more high-pressure situation that I’ve been in is combat and prison,” said McCain, a Navy flyer shot down during the Vietnam War and held prisoner for 5-1/2 years.

“But you know, I’m proud of Nicolle and Steve and (senior campaign official) Rick Davis and (senior adviser) Mark Salter and I’ll always have great affection for them,” he said.

McCain, who has largely kept silent in the high-profile run-up to Palin’s book release and tour, said he remained proud of Palin, whom he plucked from obscurity as governor of Alaska last year to join him in his campaign.

Er, didn’t he ask his campaign staff just two days ago to not give the story any extra oxygen by eschewing TV interviews on the subject? Does he not realize that defending those staffers from his former running mate will … actually give it a lot more oxygen? It’s not like Palin’s going to follow his lead and agree that “it’s time to move on,” either. She’s got a book to promote and this is one of the chief topics. If he’s trying to smooth this over, he’s doomed to fail, at least in the short term.

If you missed it in Headlines, here’s video of Nicolle Wallace obeying McCain’s wishes — sort of. Such is Wallace’s credibility these days that even Maureen Dowd tends to believe Palin over her. Yes, really.