Two words of advice for John McCain’s staffers and advisers: SHUT UP!

Anonymous sources in the McCain camp have been telling reporters about internal bickering and flagging spirits. Their stories may or may not be accurate, but one thing is sure: they are causing further harm to Republican morale.

Why would the McCain people undercut their own cause in this way? There are several likely motives, but close inspection shows that they are either illogical or dishonorable.

First, some leakers might be trying to “help” the campaign by spotlighting strategic and tactical mistakes. “I know exactly what the problem is,” the staffer thinks, “but I can’t get my message up the chain of command. They will only pay attention if it gets in the press.” Having been a low-level political staffer, I can understand this attitude. Just as every senator sees a president in the mirror, every campaign grunt sees Karl Rove. But most campaign grunts are not political geniuses. And even when they do have valid points to make, leaking them will usually backfire. Rare is the candidate who thinks: “Gee, these anonymous sources are making me look bad. I really need to go out and do what they want!”

It is especially hard to picture John McCain thinking that way.

Second, one can get an ego rush by talking to reporters on the sly. “Wow,” thinks the aide. “I helped shape an article by a bigfoot journalist!” Of all people, Aaron Sorkin stated the matter best. On an episode of The West Wing, the White House communications director dealt with a hurtful leak by talking candidly to his staff: “It’s great to be in the know. It’s great to have the scoop, to have the skinny, to be able to go to a reporter and say, `I know something you don’t know.’ And so the press becomes your constituents and you sell out the team.” Leakers might think that they are impressing reporters with their intelligence and political savvy. “Yeah,” they imply, “I’m way too smart to believe what our campaign is saying in public.” Journalists see things differently. Leakers are valuable to them only because they have temporary access to newsworthy information. When the access ends, so does the leaker’s value. If a reporter remembers the leaker at all, it will be as a disloyal little weasel. A third motive is defense of self, supervisors, or friends. Staffers sometimes leak in order to rebut leaks by rival factions within the campaign. Here’s the trouble: leaks and counter-leaks both hurt the candidate far more than the nominal target. When two sets of staffers go to war over who is botching field operations in a major state, few will remember their names. What will stick is the impression of a foundering campaign. The fourth and final motive is principle, whether real or imaginary. Staffers may come to have second thoughts, which they share with press by way of atonement. At least, that’s what they tell themselves. Most of the time, they are merely losing their nerve under fire. Only hypocritical cowards keep cashing campaign paychecks with one hand while secretly slapping the candidate with the other. If they truly disagree about key issues, their only honorable course is to resign. I do hope that we won’t see stories quoting nameless aides and advisors as saying, “This is not the John McCain that I once knew.” Obama says such things when he throws discarded friends under the bus. So here is a bit more advice to the McCain people: Yes, now is a tough time in the campaign. It’s awfully tempting to chuck the mission and instead focus on your individual goals and grievances. Don’t do it. The campaign is not about you, it’s about John McCain. He endured five years of captivity and torture. You can take a few more days of political difficulty. When you tell the media about campaign feuds, you not only hurt McCain, you betray the millions of Americans who want him to be president. McCain wants the election to be about character. Come on, folks, show some character of your own. – John J. Pitney, Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College.