David Axelrod Like

You know except for the talent and judgment thing.

Leave it to a bunch of brainiacs to launch a company with a name like Urquhart Media, pronounced “Err-kit.”

Rhymes with … nothing.

The behind-the-scenes team of Dan Proft, Brian Timpone, Jeff Davis and Bill Pascoe formed a public affairs and consulting company they hope to grow into a David Axelrod-esque firm for Republicans. One of their specialties will be crisis communication, and they’ve certainly got experience there.

Two words: Alan Keyes.

Proft and Pascoe met while steering ? or shall I say rearing ? the self-destructive Keyes campaign.

The company is named after character Francis Urquhart, the loathsome but likable character in an early 1990s BBC series “House of Cards.”

“He’s a classic political figure,” Proft said.

No word if Axelrod has filed a defamation suit. I hear Proft likes to sue people. How is that John Kerry suit going by the way?

Pascoe is the king of bad press releases and oppo research that was nearly as bizarre as Keyes himself.

One of my favorites was this

“Alan Keyes does not need a prime time slot at the Republican National Convention to get his message across,” Pascoe said. “Barack Obama needed to be pumped up by Democrats in Illinois and nationally because he is just so much hot air.”

To which State Democrats just have to respond with

SCOREBOARD!

Pascoe seems to be distancing himself from Keyes scorched earth strategy, but the problem is that is Pascoe’s strategy too.

Actually, the Illinois Democrats ought to fund them. Both Pascoe and Proft believe going to the right to win a primary is the way go and it’s working great so far in both New Jersey, where Pascoe managed Bret Schundler and worked with Doug Forrester and in Illinois where Proft has suggested that Senate Minotity Leader Frank Watson isn’t conservative enough in the Illinois Leader.

4 thoughts on “David Axelrod Like”
  1. Choosing the name “Urquhart” is interesting. In the first of the series, “House of Cards,” Francis Urquhart ends up murdering a young journalist, Mattie Storin, with whom he had an affair. Throughout the series, Urquhart routinely blackmails and frames his political enemies, and arranges murders of his opponents.

    Urquhart’s murderous political games continue in “To Play the King” and the “Final Cut.” In none of the installments does Urquhart come close to being human, let alone someone to emulate.

    Urquhart meets his end when his wife arranges to have him assassinated in order to avoid public revelation of his murderous past.

    Anyone who has watched the series — and it is a great series — must wonder why a communications professional would want to be associated with Francis Urquhart — or FU as his confidants call him.

  2. Vasyl,

    You took the words right out of my mouth. I have read all three books in the “House of Cards” series and seen all three miniseries, and while Urquhart is without question loathsome, I seriously dispute the contention that he is “likable.”

    Of course, I suspect that these Alan Keyes ?bersupporters find the fictional, conservative Urquhart “likable” not despite the fact that he’s an amoral, homicidal maniac, but rather because of it.

  3. The name’s not all that surprising considering Timone’s web development firm is named after the year Chicago burned.

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