Year: 2008

Will Palin Choice Be McCain’s Macaca Moment?

Jon Ponder

If they weren’t Republicans, you could almost feel sorry for them. Inside the GOP convention hall — the ultimate dittohead echo chamber — party faithful in St. Paul seem to be blissfully unaware that a concensus is forming that Sarah Palin, John McCain’s choice for vice president, is irreparably flawed.
To gauge the level of panic in the McCain campaign, note that the news of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy was timed to hit the airwaves just as Hurricane Gustav was making landfall near New Orleans.
But the real scandal here isn’t Palin’s thin resume, her ornamental status as what a commenter here described as McCain’s “trophy VP,” the ethics investigation into her personnel practices as governor, her past membership in the Alaska Independence Party, which treasonously promoted secession from the Union, or even the pregnancy of her 16 year old daughter despite Palin’s fervent, if fantastical, belief that abstinence is the only acceptable form of birth control.

The real scandal here is John McCain’s colossally bad judgment in what is universally regarded as any presidential nominee’s most important decision. It borders on an act of criminal negligence for a man who would be the oldest-ever first-term president to nominate as vice president someone as inexperienced as Sarah Palin, a former sports reporter and beauty queen with no foreign-relations experience — who just months ago admitted she had no idea what a vice president did every day.

Choosing Palin reveals that, despite his slogan of “country first,” politics trumps everything with McCain, including the security of the United States. It ought to be a career-killing moment, in the way that former Sen. George Allen’s revelatory use of the racial slur “macaca” ended his presidential ambitions.

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McCain Hires the Guy Bush Used to Smear McCain in 2000

Trish

Are there any tatters of John McCain’s soul left for him to sell in his aspiration to be president?

Former officials of Sen. John McCain’s 2000 campaign expressed shock and disbelief Monday to learn than the GOP presidential nominee had hired South Carolina political consultant Tucker Eskew.

Eskew, along with Warren Tompkins and Neal Rhodes, were key members of then-Gov. George W. Bush’s South Carolina team during the 2000 primaries. McCain and his team long held Bush, Tompkins, Rhodes and Eskew responsible for the various smears against McCain and his family in the Palmetto state during that contentious contest.

…Eskew’s talent notwithstanding, he was loathed by McCain’s 2000 campaign team. When the media first reported push-poll phone calls from Voter/Consumer Research, a company hired by he Bush campaign, asking South Carolinians if they knew about McCain’s role in the S&L crisis and his scandal as a member of the Keating Five, it was Eskew — Bush’s South Carolina spokesman – who acknowledged, and defended, the calls.

“Show me a baseless comment in those questions” about McCain, Eskew told the Charleston Post and Courier in February 2000.

Eskew is on the McCain payroll now to whip Sarah Palin into shape.

Eskew will help Palin prepare for her Wednesday night acceptance speech at the GOP convention and for her stump speech as she hits the road, brief her on policy matters, and help her handle the media scrutiny a lifetime in Alaska does not necessarily prepare one for.

God help her if she doesn’t perform.

The tactics used against McCain by Bush and his allies in South Carolina left a deep scar on both McCain and his wife Cindy.

When then-Gov. Bush called upon Eskew, Tompkins and Rhodes to help him during the Florida recount, a senior McCain adviser told me that “when the going gets tough for Governor Bush, he turns to the darker side of our party. We saw that in South Carolina, and we see that today.”

Eight years later, with a tough fight of his own, McCain has turned to one of the same men.

Palin’s Lawyer Yells, “Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton!” as Her Defense

Trish

A kick butt and take names lawyer is in charge of defending Alaska Gov. and Republican Vice Presidential pick Sarah Palin in her abuse of power case in her home state. Thomas Van Flein’s first move was to try to have the investigation taken out the hands of the legislature and put under the control of the state’s “Personnel Board” (I guess Human Resources is too fancy for Alaska).

Anchorage attorney Thomas Van Flein has doggedly thrown in Bill Clinton references at every opportunity

Why would anyone care who looks into Palin’s firing of the guy Palin asked to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper? Well the legislature answers to the voters, who elected its members. The Personnel Board consists of three people appointed by…the governor.

To say Anchorage attorney Van Flein seems like a political hack doesn’t do it justice. He has doggedly thrown in Bill Clinton references at every opportunity.

[S]tate Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former state prosecutor who is project director for the legislative investigation…asked, “Governor Palin has repeatedly stated that she has nothing to hide and that she and her administration will cooperate fully with this investigation. Is your client aware that you seem to be challenging the Legislature’s jurisdiction?”

And Palin’s lawyer’s answer?

“We don’t have any sex. We don’t have any drugs. And there’s no blue dress. Nor are there any shady real estate deals here,” Van Flein said. “In the big picture, I think people are going to be disappointed that this is not a scandal.”

It’s only been a few days and these people are already turning my stomach.

Sarah Palin Is a Secessionist

Buck Banks

The woman who, if she becomes the vice president of the United States, will have to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Problem is, she was a member of a political party whose aim was to subvert the Constitution and have the state of Alaska secede from the Union:

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) “was once a member of their party, which since the 1970s has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States,” reports ABC News.

The AIP platform states that the purpose of the party is to “seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution … To prohibit all bureaucratic regulations and judicial rulings purporting to have the effect of law, except that which shall be approved by the elected legislature … To support the privatization of government services …”

Here’s the big problem for Republicans: Marc Ambinder has a party official on video saying party members must “infiltrate” — his words — the other two parties and push for the cause of Alaskan independence.

Palin’s Husband Was Arrested in the ’80s for DUI

Trish

Isn’t it fun to find out all the things about the Palins that a vetting committee should have, but to do it at the same time as the McCain campaign? On the same day we find out that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, we get the news that her husband, Todd Palin, was once arrested for DUI.

In the original story, the year of the arrest was listed as 1986, when Palin was 22 and dating Sarah

A senior adviser to the McCain campaign confirmed Monday that Todd Palin, husband to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 1984.

“Yes, 24 years ago he had a DWI,” senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told reporters in St. Paul.

Schmidt was asked if he was worried about the news, and replied, “I was not.”

The story was first reported by David Brody, a CNN contributor and Christian Broadcasting Network News Senior National Correspondent.

In that original story, the year of the arrest was listed as 1986, when Palin was 22 and dating Sarah. Brody refers to the incident as “22 years ago.” He also equates Palin’s arrest to Barack Obama volunteering that he drank beer, smoked cigarettes and tried pot and coke sniffing while sitting around debating issues of the day with his friends in college. He then makes this idiotic statement:

The Palin family looks to be a big plus for McCain not a negative. My guess is that when it is all over and we learn more about this Alaskan family they will probably end up making a pretty positive impression on the nation.

Here’s my guess, David. Sarah Palin will not make it out of September as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Will John McCain Get a Do-Over on Palin?

Trish

Shortly after McCain announced his vice presidential pick on Friday, I told Jon and Buck, “Somewhere, John McCain is praying to God for a do-over.” Since then, there’s been nothing but drama unfolding around Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

McGovern’s campaign showed that it is possible to replace your vice presidential pick after you’ve made it public, but it isn’t necessarily a good move

It appears she might have covered up her oldest daughter’s pregnancy by claiming the baby was hers, but she now says the same daughter is pregnant. The “Troopergate” scandal in her state belies the idea that Palin runs an impartial ship, since is she is said to have fired the state’s public safety commissioner after he refused to fire her brother-in-law, who was locked in a bitter custody battle with her sister. And in her first flip-flop-slash-lie as a vice presidential candidate, she claimed she opposed Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Ak.) “bridge to nowhere” when public records show her enthusiastic support.

I am thinking John McCain might just get his do-over. In 1972, when Sen. George McGovern’s (D-S.D.) running mate, Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.) was found to have been previously hospitalized for mental disorders, Eagleton eventually withdrew from the ticket. McGovern replaced him with Sargent Shriver, who was married to Eunice Kennedy and whose five children include Maria Shriver, wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.).

Richard Nixon was viewed as fairly unbeatable that year, with promises of a secret plan for victory in Vietnam to be revealed after the election. McGovern, always a bit of a dark horse, never recovered from his campaign’s initial disarray and went on to lose the election. Nixon, of course, later resigned after it was found that even though his lead was always comfortable, his own paranoia inspired him to break the law in what would become the standard for all political scandals: Watergate.

McGovern’s campaign showed that it is possible to replace your vice presidential pick after you’ve made it public, but it isn’t necessarily a good move. On the other hand, going forward with a running mate who is a laughing stock is no winner either.

McCain has already lowered expectations for the Republican National Convention. After most senators who are running for re-election pulled out rather than be seen with either Pres. Bush or candidate McCain, his campaign took advantage of Category 2 Hurricane Gustav, using it as the reason the convention would be “scaled back” and “depoliticized.” That their guy is in more trouble than the millions of evacuees from Louisiana seems apparent.