Politico reports: McCain, advisers divided over Wright attack (but perhaps not about this leak)

According to Mike Allen at Politico.com: "John McCain is at odds with many of his top advisers over launching a renewed attack on Barack Obama's ties to his long-time pastor and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, according to campaign sources.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and several top campaign officials see a sharp attack on Wright as the best — and perhaps last — chance to rattle Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill. ) and force voters to rethink their support of him. But McCain continues to overrule them, fearing a Wright attack would smack of desperation and racism, the officials said.

With McCain unlikely to budge, GOP officials are hoping groups outside of the campaign will finance an ad attack on Obama-Wright ties. It is unclear if any conservative group has the cash to bankroll a serious effort, however."

The story goes on to quote unnamed campaign officials, painting McCain as adamantly opposed to raising Wright while his advisers have tried to persuade him that it is a legitimate issue.

The article raises a couple of questions for me. First, why is Allen allowing a top campaign official to retain his or her anonymity? What possible journalistic purpose is served by letting campaign operatives leak stories to the press without providing readers with information about who they are? The official obviously wants this story out there, as do the anonymous GOP officials cited in the article, so make his or her name public. That way, should ads start running about Wright, the public can make their own judgments about who is behind them and why (and other journalists can further investigate).

The second question it raises, and part of the reason I object to the use of anonymous sources, is whether this is a legitimate split between McCain and members of his campaign staff or just a ploy. At this point, if we get flooded with ads about Wright (and if it has the desired effect of producing numerous news reports and op-ed columns revisiting Wright's sermons), then McCain can say that he stuck with his earlier public pledge not toraise the issue while reaping the benefit of having done so. Since the article indicates that unnamed GOP officials are hoping for an outside group to fund such ads, it's clear that there's a desire to have a 527 do the campaign's work for it. Why, then, is Allen providing them with political cover?