Sarah Palin

The GOP is still going through their post-mortem and trying to figure out just how they became so insignificant, which is leading to even more problems:

During a closed-door Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday, DeMint offered proposals to impose term limits on the Republican leader and to restrict how long members can serve on the Appropriations Committee. The resolutions were soundly defeated, but not without bitter exchanges among the Republicans present for the meeting.

Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida said the meeting was “terrible” and “caused consternation” among his colleagues because of the dispute over DeMint’s proposals.

Not sounding too hopeful for the party that just four years ago was going to be the “permanent majority”. Shockingly, one of the voices of reason seems to be coming from DeMint in this:

“We think the whole problem is George Bush and not us, and we’re part of the problem,” added Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

One solid first step would be to stop acting as the party of smears. The American people aren’t buying onto the old GOP catch phrases they try to paint their opponent with. Just four years ago, Liberal was considered an insult by many. Now more people are associating themselves with that name. Instead of engaging in the policy of pettiness, try to engage in actual policy. Forget being the “obstructionist” party, something even the GOP leaders applaud, instead learn to work with the controlling party.

The GOP has simply become a party of hypocrisy. Look at all the ethics problems that have plagued them over the past several years. They damn near want to have you executed for being an adulterer, yet they circle the wagons when one of their own is caught. And can switch adulterer out with other words like “gay”, “lesbian” or “drug user”.

A new ethics complaint has been filed against Sarah Palin:

Zane Henning, a North Slope worker from Wasilla, said he filed the complaint with the attorney general. He says Palin is promoting her future political career on state property, pointing in particular to the governor's Nov. 10 interview with Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren.

"The governor is using her official position and office in an attempt to repair her damaged political image on the national scene," Henning wrote.

The GOP’s sweetheart is also become the countries most ethically challenged Governor. Ernie Fletcher may have met his match

Yup – that’s what the foundation of right wing idiocy, the National Review, is pushing, along with an attempt to get Time Magazine to name Palin “Person of the Year”. What’s one of their qualifying factors?

On the lighter side, one foreign-policy expert showed up for a panel in a towel (but fully clothed underneath) in an act of solidarity with Palin (referencing the now debunked post-election story that she once appeared to top campaign officials in a towel). What is it about Sarah?

For many folks on the Right, she represented an influx of social conservatism in the campaign. All she had to do was arrive at the scene with her son Trig to demonstrate her pro-life bona fides. Some estimated 90 percent of Americans faced with the knowledge that they might give birth to a child with Down Syndrome wouldn’t have made the choice she and her husband, Todd, did to let the child live.

Trig is the reason she would make a great President. Talk about laying all your hopes on one little thing.

(h/t Sullivan)

Now that Sarah Palin is done playing celebrity (hopefully), she gets to go back to work in Alaska and face some big problems:

Palin's state budget proposal is due in a month, with plummeting oil prices slashing Alaska's revenues by billions of dollars.

The 1,700-mile natural gas pipeline she bragged about on the campaign trail — "We began a nearly $40 billion-dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence," she said at the Republican National Convention — is nowhere near being built.

Some hard feelings linger over her administration's initial decision to ignore subpoenas in the investigation of whether she abused her power in firing the public safety commissioner who wouldn't oust her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if she ended up not getting that oil pipeline done? What if her state ended up following suit of the rest of the states when it comes to economic hard times? Her actions in the next couple of years can cause more harm than good when it comes to her 2012 aspirations. I doubt she can do much to come out looking more prepared for high office, but she sure can put the final nail in her coffin. Oh it will be so much fun to keep an eye to the north these next four years.

In my ongoing effort to help the right wing blogs go after those who trash Sarah Palin, I have decided to submit another name; Newt Gingrich:

“I think that she is going to be a significant player,” said Gingrich during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation”. “But she’s going to be one of 20 or 30 significant players. She’s not going to be the de facto leader.”

How dare Newt diminish the rising star in such a way! Who does he think he is? The right wing blogs will make sure Newt has no place in American politics anymore. Or will they have a serious crisis as one of their idols is starting to shoot down another idol? Oh the head spin!

Sarah Palin talked a lot about education, but let’s look at her own state for some clarification:

• Alaska's dropout rate, at 8 percent, was double the national average in the 2005-2006 school year, according to the latest figures available from the U.S. Department of Education.
• 38 percent of today's ninth-graders will have no high school diploma 10 years from now, according to the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education.
• Alaska ranks 50th, or last, in the number of ninth-graders who will likely have a bachelor's degree in 10 years, according to the commission.

And amongst that 8 percent of dropouts is Palin’s own son. These numbers will be interesting to keep an eye on when Palin tries again in 2012. Perhaps she should talk to that “terrorist” Bill Ayers about how to fix her state’s education problem.

I never have liked Dennis Miller. His comedy always sucked, which is why he is now stuck being a butt boy for Murdoch and Co. In his latest sick attempt at humor, Miller says women on the left are jealous of Sarah Palin because "she has a great sex life". Check it out:

For all the accusations of sexism coming from the right when they talk about Palin, this has to be the most sexist thing I have ever heard. Two old white guys sitting there talking and laughing about the sex life of a political figure. Have they ever said the same thing about George Bush?

I guess this is the family values that Bill O'Reilly loves - minus the luffa.

(h/t Think Progress)

Keeping up with my promise to help the blogs on the right build a list of Palin haters they need to avoid in 2012, I have a new name for the list - The Republican Governors Association.

Some Republican governors tell CNN they were not particularly happy with the way the Republican Governors Association press conference was executed Thursday, saying that they agreed to go as a show of GOP governors’ unity — but they ended up feeling like silent Palin supporters, since it was clearly a press conference called for her.

Let's keep adding to this list for the right wing blogs. Before long we can change GOP to Guarding Our Palin.

Here's the video of Sarah Palin's much anticipated press conference she held this morning. She ended up answering only four questions. Aides tried to cut her off after three.

Sarah Palin is a big liar. Last week she blew off reports of an audit of the clothes. Now it turns out there is one:

Her father, Chuck Heath, said Palin spent part of the weekend going through her clothing to determine what belongs to the Republican Party.

"She was just frantically ... trying to sort stuff out," Heath said. "That's the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for. Nothing goes right back to normal,"

Palin's father said his daughter told him the only clothing or accessories she personally had purchased in the past four months was a pair of shoes.

So much to take away from those three little paragraphs. First off - why is the RNC buying the kids underwear? Did we need to make sure they were all nice and clean on the trail? I guess it is the Republican party, so kids might be at risk.

Second - the only thing she personally bought was some shoes? Traveling this country, that's all you buy? Not even a nice Hard Rock tee shirt for memories sake?

But the most serious thing I take from this is the fact that her father is involved in this. What would be said if a male candidate's father had to answer about an ongoing audit like this? Are things so bad that she has to run to daddy to help out?

This is the women the Republican Party is placing all their hopes in for 2012. It really looks like a two term presidency for Barack Obama. That is awesome.

This is what we have been warning about on the left; that Sarah Palin's increasingly dangerous rhetoric was putting Obama at danger. Well it looks like the Secret Service also agrees with us:

The Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for accusing Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists", citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers.

The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.

But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.

This also goes hand in hand with Palin being a dumb ass. Anyone with a shred of common sense would know that such a dangerous tone could lead to dangers against their opponent. Palin is too dense to figure that out. She is a danger to this nation, and if the Republicans want her to run in 2012 they better think about what might happen then. If she decides to go on the same attack paths as she did this year then the Secret Service might actually have to take action. I got a feeling the brain trust in the GOP also feels the same way, which is why we are seeing this increase in leaks about the real Sarah Palin. They want to destroy her before 2012 so they don't have to take this very dangerous risk.

In order to show my bi-partisan nature and reach across the digital aisle to those on the right of the blogosphere, I have decided to aide them in Operation Leper, the attempt to go after anyone wronging Sarah Palin and make them pay in 2012. My first contribution will be The RNC:

Sarah Palin left the national stage Wednesday, but the controversy over her role on the ticket flared as aides to John McCain disclosed new details about her expensive wardrobe purchases and revealed that a Republican Party lawyer would be dispatched to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in her possession.

So my friends on the right, please add the name RNC to your list of people you will not support in 2012. It's the least I can do to show a sense of bi-partisanship.

This video is from MSNBC this morning when they were talking about the revelations about Sarah Palin. Some new stuff has now been released. One biggie is the fact that she didn't want to appear on the stage with Republicans John Sununu and Jeb Bradley because they didn't share her views. Working together - not with Palin!. Also the rumors of Palin running in 2012 appear to have come from Todd Palin.

Be afraid Republicans! Erick Erikson has launched "Operation Leper" to go after the McCain staffers who leaked stuff to the media about Palin. TBogg has all the great details, along with evidence of the power of Erickson.

Welcome to a war our nation as a whole isn't in. This is a war we can sit back, watch and laugh at. For months we heard about a divided Democratic Party, but that was possibly to hide this growing division.

The wingnuts have had a horrible year. They saw the loss of their first great white hype hope, Fred Thompson. Then they really lost out when the people of their party stood up and rejected their pick for nominee three times over. First Fred, then Mitt and finally Huckabee. They were forced behind a candidate they couldn't stand. Now their new messiah, Sarah Palin, is being exposed for the fraud and idiot she is. The righty blogs can't pick a winner for anything.

This video has been making the rounds on the internet. Yes Sarah Palin makes George W. Bush look like a Rhodes Scholar. That is scary enough, but there is something much more telling in this video:

Carl Cameron says the he wishes he could have said this before the election, but it was all "put off the record". So Cameron decided to let this exposure of the person who could have been one 72 year old heartbeat away from President remain untold until after the election. This is journalistic malpractice and not the first time we have seen it. There has been another case in recent history which has cost this country the lives of almost 4,200 brave soldiers and nearly a trillion dollars. And the big news outlets wonder why they are losing out to the internet.