A hard-hitting piece on Sarah Palin in the new Vanity Fair has touched off a blistering exchange of insults among high-profile Republicans over last year’s GOP ticket – tearing open fresh wounds about leaks surrounding Palin and revealing for the first time some of the internal wars that paralyzed the campaign in its final days.
Rival factions close to the McCain campaign have been feuding since last fall over Palin, usually waging the battle in the shadows with anonymous quotes. Now, however, some of the most well-known names in Republican politics are going on-the-record with personal attacks and blame-casting.
So what is Palin up to? From the fascinating Vanity Fair article:
In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has done none of this. Rather, she has pursued an erratic course that, for her, may actually represent the closest thing there is to True North. […] She created a political-action committee—Sarahpac—with the help of John Coale, a prominent Democratic trial lawyer. But just months into its existence the pac’s chief fund-raiser, Becki Donatelli, a veteran of Republican campaigns, suddenly quit. One person familiar with the situation told me that Donatelli could not stand dealing with Palin’s political spokeswoman in Alaska, Meghan Stapleton, who has drawn withering fire from Palin friends and critics alike for being an ineffective adviser. Also with Coale’s help, Palin formed the grandiosely named Alaska Fund Trust, to defray a reported half million dollars in legal expenses arising from a slew of formal ethics complaints against her in her home state—prompting yet another formal complaint, that the fund itself constitutes an ethical breach. Onetime supporters have become harsh critics. Walter Hickel, 89, a former two-term governor and interior secretary, and the grand old man of Alaska politics, who was co-chair of Palin’s winning gubernatorial campaign, in 2006, now washes his hands of her. He told me simply, “I don’t give a damn what she does.”
And on and on… So, do you think Palin will run for Prez in ’12?
Plus, Sarah’s a liar:
http://breepalin.blogspot.com/2009/07/sarah-palins-guide-to-lying.html
Yeah, I know Bobbo. But I like to give the benefit of the doubt once in a while.
#100, ‘tempt,
If brains were made of dynomite, you still wouldn’t have enough to blow your own nose.
Republic and Democracy are like apples and oranges. They are not directly comparable although they may, or may not, be related.
The United States and Iran are both Republics. Britain and Saudi Arabia are both Monarchies. The US and United Kingdon are both Democracies. Saudi Arabia and Iran are both dictatorships. I hope you can tell the difference.
A Republic is solely the type of government; does it have an inherited top leadership. A Democracy is how the leaders are CHOSEN; by election, coup, or otherwise.
108, Mr Fusion
Well done!
Impossible to take serious material written in a mag. titled “Vanity anything”, unless of course hem lengths or hair styles.
It’s just like getting news from the Comedy Channel or the Enquirer, fun but not reliability accurate.
#108 Mr. Fusion
>>The United States and Iran are both Republics.
Finally we agree – The US is a Republic.
Was that so difficult? You do get that I’m messing with you don’t you?
Now, back to the original complaint – if you can prove that Obama doesn’t think he is a god or at least worthy of being thought of as a god then I will consider never busting your chops again… well maybe… no I doubt it.
Here’s an interesting article on Republics and Democracies.
http://tinyurl.com/l8xtz2
Jim Geraghty sums up liberal hate:
why, eight months after the election, Palin still arouses such fury amongst liberals and so many rank-and-file Democrats.
After all, even if you think her election to the vice presidency would be the worst disaster ever to befall the Republic, Palin has, by and large, gone away. She’s mostly focused on her work as governor of Alaska. She doesn’t appear on many talk shows or do many interviews. She’s been outside of Alaska . . . four times? Once to the National Governors Association meeting, once to a pro-life dinner, once to the Alfalfa Club dinner, and once to Albany for an event raising money for a museum honoring William Seward, the 19th-century U.S. secretary of state who acquired Alaska for the United States. There’s no clear sense of her future plans; the near-daily denunciation seems to be just in case she decides to run for national office, a far-from-certain event that would occur, at the earliest, three and a half years from now.
My first thought was that it tied heavily to her appearance. In liberals’ minds, conservatives are supposed to look like the couple from the painting American Gothic: Dour and joyless, aged, spartan and frail. Political leaders aren’t supposed to be young, really good-looking women, full of energy, smiles, and winks.
Hugh suggested it tied to the contrast between her lifestyle and her critics: “She is the embodiment of the anti-choice, the opposite of every choice that lefty elites have ever made — as to going back home instead of moving to the west coast, having children, having a child with Down’s, staying married to one man the whole time, choosing rural or suburban over urban and living a generally conservative lifestyle, working with her hands . . . That everything she is is the antithesis of everything that liberal urban elites are, so it’s not just enough to say, ‘I disagree with you,’; she has to be repudiated and crushed.”
And now, I would submit a slight refining of that idea, that the seeming happiness of Palin’s life is a 24-7 irritant because it challenges the way some liberals see the world.
Liberals believe that their ideas, philosophy, worldview, and policies liberate believers, and that the conservative equivalents limit people. Liberals see themselves as rejecting outdated beliefs and obsolete ideas, overturning established orders, and discarding traditions established by superstitious and ignorant forebears who weren’t as enlightened as we are. Conservatives, in their minds, are runaway cultural superegos, always wagging their fingers about individual responsibility, dismissing excuses, reminding people that they can’t always do what they want because of the consequences to themselves and to others.
Conservatism, they suspect, will leave you in a marriage that doesn’t satisfy you, burden you with children you don’t want, repress your passions, and trap you in a empty, boring, and unfulfilled life, with no hand of government able to help.
Today almost everyone faces some sort of challenge in balancing work and family; I don’t know too many people who believe there are sufficient hours in a day. And then along comes this woman who’s made all of these “conservative” choices and now has an amazing career, a supportive husband, a beautiful family, and great health and appearance, and she bears it all, including the inevitable hard times, with pluck and a smile, as far as we can tell. (For all we know, perhaps behind closed doors, Sarah Palin screams into a pillow when it all gets to be too much. But what we know about her suggests she relieves her stress by shooting moose.)
A short while back, Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum suggested, only half-jokingly, that actress Angelina Jolie’s “entire Oscar-winning, serial-adopting, Brad Pitt-snagging, plane-piloting, unattainably hot-looking existence makes women around the world feel hopelessly inadequate and therefore unhappy.” Perhaps Sarah Palin is the Angelina Jolie of the political world.
In her opponents’ minds, Palin’s made all the wrong choices, and cannot, they insist, be very bright. Yet she’s happy and successful. She is an anomaly that invalidates their worldview, and for that, they attempt to immiserate her — regardless of whether she wishes to run for national office again.
#111 – Contempt for intelligence,
I think if you’re going to make the claim that Obama thinks he’s god, it’s your job to prove that. But, I wouldn’t expect you to understand about burden of proof. You’ve never given any hint of understanding it before.
#114 Misanthropic Scott
>>if you’re going to make the claim that Obama thinks he’s god, it’s your job to prove that.
The original idea before Jägermeister lead me down a different path was Obama’s Mount Olympus symbolism with the Greek columns and the use of the Mile High city. The entire act was designed to make Obama appear like some kind of Greek God.
Very distasteful.
#111, ‘tempt,
You do get that I’m messing with you don’t you?
No. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been arguing so much. WAIT !!! What was that you wrote back in #37?
You’re kidding, right? That doesn’t even make sense if for no other reason than the US is not a democracy but a republic.
Then in #42,
Wow, I hardly know what to say… the government school system strikes again.
and #46, arguing with Jagmeister,
You can blame either one you like since neither made you aware that the US is a Republic.
And you continued to argue in #52. Face it, you’re an idiot that needed correction
#113, I think you hit it on the head. I’ve suspected that but could never put it in words. Well done.
That being said, I’m not a Palin fan. She is a bit too “big government” for my tastes.
#116 Mr. Fusion
In the context Jägermeister presented the thought the correct answer is the US is a Republic, not a democracy in the form that existed in ancient Greece.
Had Jägermeister presented his thought under a different context then maybe democracy would have been the right answer.
The fact is you and he are just using this argument to deflect from the original accusation that Obama has this perverted belief that he is worthy of being treated as a god.
Palin/Bachmann 2012!
# 117 LibertyLover said, “I’m not a Palin fan. She is a bit too “big government” for my tastes.”
Nor am I. Plus I get the definite feeling we’d have the start of a theocracy under a Palin administration.
Ahh, nuthin’ to worry about. I truly do not believe she is a viable candidate for 2012.
113 MikeN
Oh, bother…
“And now, I would submit a slight refining of that idea, that the seeming happiness of Palin’s life is a 24-7 irritant because it challenges the way some liberals see the world.”
Really? Do you honestly believe that “liberals” are sitting around saying “What is to be done with Sarah Palin?!?! My life is so confused, 24/7, because she is so different from us!”
Holy crap! Americans, the most freedom loving, freedom eating, freedom defending, freedom spreading people on the entire planet since God ejaculated out Adam and Eve (and Lilith) have made the word “freedom” so contradictory that a prisoner in George Orwell’s 1984 appear to be a king amongst men.
I don’t know how to define “liberal” in the US lexicon because everything about your country is so screwed up, but if I may say that in ORTHODOX literature, a “liberal” is someone who, for lack of a better euphemism, is a “live and let live” believer. An American “conservative” is a God preacher telling you what is wrong with world morality while he’s banging HIS OWN sister.
Why is is that a “liberal” that believes in the individual rights of people is so anathema to the “American” conservative way of thinking (GOD GUNS WAR)?
I just don’t get it…
And check this:
Liberals believe that their ideas, philosophy, worldview, and policies liberate believers, and that the conservative equivalents limit people. Liberals see themselves as rejecting outdated beliefs and obsolete ideas, overturning established orders, and discarding traditions established by superstitious and ignorant forebears who weren’t as enlightened as we are. Conservatives, in their minds, are runaway cultural superegos, always wagging their fingers about individual responsibility, dismissing excuses, reminding people that they can’t always do what they want because of the consequences to themselves and to others.
Conservatism, they suspect, will leave you in a marriage that doesn’t satisfy you, burden you with children you don’t want, repress your passions, and trap you in a empty, boring, and unfulfilled life, with no hand of government able to help.
Yep. Just about right. And liberals are bad?
#121, “live and let live”[…]Liberals believe that their ideas, philosophy, worldview, and policies liberate believers
A false belief, unfortunately. Our liberals liberate other people’s money to satisfy their own egos. They feel, in their hearts, everything they do is good and therefore above reproach. And as they think it is above reproach, anybody who doesn’t agree with them is obviously defective, selfish, arrogant, non-team player, wing nut, etc. Their only argument to justify this stance is “it’s the right thing to do.”
IMO, a suicide bomber does less damage. He’s dead at then end of step 1.
Conservatives aren’t any better.
Oh come on! Does anyone seriously believe that the GOP wanted to win in 2008, so they couldn’t pick any one better than this fruitloop, as a VP candidate? I call her nomination a self-inflicted wound, to get out of the “fight” without actually “throwing in the towel”. First, they picked an aging codger like McCain. And then, in case that wasn’t bad enough, saddled him with Palin. UP against smarter and younger Obama, and wiser and more experienced Biden.
Did the GOP really think Palin was their Hillary clone? They’ve got to be kidding! No, nobody’s that stupid. They purposely threw the election. Because they didn’t want to be saddled with fixing the mess, that they and Bush mainly created. So now it’s Obama who gets the blame for not getting the country out of their mess, fast enough. But the GOP isn’t coming up with any better ideas.
122 Liberty Lover
We meet again!
“A false belief, unfortunately. Our liberals liberate other people’s money to satisfy their own egos.”
Meh. This is why I made the declaration “I don’t know how to define “liberal” in the US lexicon because everything about your country is so screwed up, but if I may say that in ORTHODOX literature, a “liberal” is someone who, for lack of a better euphemism, is a “live and let live” believer.”
So, “libery lover” please define a Liberal in the American sense, since your comments declare it to be so detached from the real world…
Liberty Loser and Lyin’ Mike,
It would be much more illuminating if your gave YOUR opinions instead of just posting someone elses opinion.
Although it might be well written, it doesn’t explain your thoughts.
#124, Fusion/Named,
I described American liberals in #122. If that doesn’t suffice, please take some reading comprehension classes.
#125, Fuasion
Oh, you mean as opposed to supporting everything that spews from Obama’s mouth?
Puh-Leaze!
When you have an original thought, THEN com talk to me.
#122
A conservative’s values are the same as a suicide bomber? Sounds like some good drugs are kicking in to alter the reality you see.
#113
Isn’t funny how simple, little statements she makes – observations of what she sees, pisses off soooo many people in so many different ways.
Funny how honesty has that effect on people.
# 122 LibertyLover,
Thanks for speaking up for us liberals. We’re obviously incapable of speaking for ourselves and need people like you to foist your false beliefs about our beliefs on the world.
Why not stick to stating your own beliefs and let liberals speak ours?
Or, are you so opposed to freedom that you do not even believe those with opposing beliefs to your own should not be allowed to speak their piece.
Liberals believe in two things, primarily: 1) Liberty. 2) Helping those less fortunate than ourselves.
And, we do put our money where our mouths are. I’m not only asking others who are well off to pay more. I’m offering to do so myself. My own politics would raise my own taxes.
I prefer to pay less just like the next guy. But, not when it means that the next guy can only get health care when in critical condition by going to the emergency room, and then only to a public hospital that is far inferior to any that I would consider walking into.
So, do me a favor, stop speaking for me. You don’t really know what goes on in the mind of a liberal and you don’t care enough to listen and find out.
126 Liberty Lover/Alfred1
I get it now. You believe that the American version of a “liberal” is actually a communist circa 1956. Now that you’ve explained that, I will recirculate that.
As long as the Republicans attack Sarah Palin and other Republicans, they will get no where.
I am shocked at what is being said by fellow Republicans.
BTW, McCain (The last choice for presidential candidate by EVERYBODY that I know.) would have NEVER gotten my vote if it not been for Sarah Palin. She was the backbone of that ticket. McCain just wanted to “Have fun.” How stupid was that??????????????
I have become an independent because of the above and Republicans who are such weak wimps.
Get a darn backbone and fight for this country.
Lu
Liberals —
I get it now. You can state how you think non-liberals think but they can’t state they same thing about you?
Sounds hypocritical to me.
At one time I was told Libertarians were “selfish” because they didn’t believe in being forced to help someone else.
If anything, you proved my point. In your mind, anything “you” think is for the good of all is beyond reproach. Everyone else is wrong. What I spoke was the truth. Say it, live it, love it.
#127, No, I said a suicide bomber does less damage than liberals. Suicide bombers only kill a handful of people. Liberals destroy entire civilizations. And conservatives aren’t any better.
#132
Will concede your intent….but that isn’t what you said.
A clarification for your files:
Republican(modern defination=McCain,etal) is not an interchangeable classification with conservative.
#132 – LibertyLover,
Liberals –
I get it now. You can state how you think non-liberals think but they can’t state they same thing about you?
Sounds hypocritical to me.
If you say so … OK, you are an anarchist. Since you want to reduce taxes to zero with all due haste, we can simply do away with all of the services provided by government. We don’t need roads, police, firefighters, air traffic controllers, what little public transportation we have in the nation (most of which is thankfully in my home town), trash removal, sewage treatment, public water, courts, laws, defense (necessary despite my hatred for its current state, which could more accurately be called offense), …
What else did I miss?
#134, What does anything you just said refute my statement? Quit changing the subject. You’re getting as bad as fusion.
Admit it cannot be refuted so we can move on.