PANDERING History

I decided to use this blog, the venue of many an intelligent and aware woman, to record my personal feelings about Johnny’s pick for VP today.

It makes me sick to my stomach.

To put this into context for you, I have to begin by quoting myself from Reconstitution a few days ago.

A lot of people think that Johnny is going to try to sway all those angry PUMA types by picking a woman for his VP running mate. Of course, Johnny will have to be careful when considering his running mate, since any woman is going to be an immediate affront to the Klanservative wingtard Gopper base. Johnny will, therefore, have to pick one with a proven record of self-loathing in order to placate the substantial percentage of his base that still see women as good for nothing but cooking, cleaning, and producing wee ones.

Well, you know, that is precisely what Johnny did.The Chimpromised MSM is crowing about this “surprise” choice of Johnny’s, but it’s no surprise to me, or you either, in all likelihood. When I wrote my piece I had Kay Bailey Hutchinson on my mind because I didn’t figure Johnny would want to send Sarah Palin to a debate with Joe Biden. I figured wrong, although I suspect that Kay’s history as Treasiurer of Texas figured heavily into Johnny’s decision. With Sarah Palin, he’s introducing almost a complete unknown to the national scene. That’s probably less risky than introducing a felon who skated on a technicality.

So what do we know about Sarah? For one thing, we know that she fits my description of the kind of woman Johnny would pick to a “t”; she’s rabidly anti-choice, she has a Jesusistan vision for creationism education in the schools, and she was among the first antigay crusaders in the country with her strong backing of a 1998 Constitutional Amendment in Alaska that banned gay marriage.

The story of Matanuska Maid is also informative as to how receptive Palin is to the best advice of others. Matanuska Maid is a state-owned dairy concern that has been bleeding massive amounts of money after the State of Alaska took over ownership when Matanuska Maid went bankrupt in the 1980s. The Alaska Creamery Board, tasked with overseeing dairy issues in Alaska, recommended to Governor Palin that she close the dairy and save Alaskans some money. Palin, having other ideas, simply replaced every member of the Alaska Creamery Board with people who were more amenable to her point of view. Draw what conclusions you will from this, but let me illustrate it even better for you before you do.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about this story in the days and weeks to come. When you do, put it alongside what I told you about her dealings with the Alaska Creamery Board…

When Sarah Palin was elected governor as a Republican outsider in 2006, she didn’t just take on an incumbent from her own party. She took on Alaska’s Republican establishment.

Ms. Palin vowed to clean up a long-cozy political system that had been sullied by an FBI corruption investigation. She endeared herself to Alaskans by making good on her reform promises and showing homey touches, like driving herself to work…

…

Ms. Palin — a 44-year-old mother of five and former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (population 8,500), and winner of the Miss Wasilla pageant — has gained national acclaim. She has been featured in a photo spread in Vogue. Some pundits have touted the antiabortion conservative as a potential running mate to Republican presidential contender John McCain.

A spokesman for the Arizona senator said he admires Ms. Palin but is still reviewing running mates.

“People see her as the symbol of purity in an atmosphere of corruption,” says Anchorage pollster Marc Hellenthal. “She is almost Saint Sarah.”

A native of Idaho who grew up in Alaska hunting and fishing, Ms. Palin made an early stand on ethics. In 2004, she resigned as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party to a seat on her commission while allowing him to keep his partisan post. “Someone has to take a stand and change some things,” Ms. Palin said in a June interview in her 17th-floor office in downtown Anchorage, whose decor includes a grizzly-bear skin.

When she ran against Mr. Murkowski in 2006, Ms. Palin says, she got a call from Ben Stevens, then president of the Republican-run Alaska Senate and son of Sen. Stevens. “He told me, “You’re not just running against Murkowski. You’re running against me, my dad, the whole state Republican party,’” Ms. Palin said.

Ben Stevens, who remains under the FBI investigation, didn’t return calls for comment.

Ms. Palin, whose husband, Todd Palin, is employed as an oil-field worker and fisherman, set an earthier style in office than her predecessors. She sold the jet Mr. Murkowski used to get around Alaska, relying instead on commercial airlines, her family’s Volkswagen Jetta or a state-issued black Suburban. “I love to drive,” she explained.

That penchant for independence — and driving — has occasionally caused problems. On June 18, she blamed her half-hour delay in arriving to a tourism-bill ceremony in Kenai on road construction. “Todd kept reminding me to bite my tongue, saying, ‘Good roads are comin’! Good roads are comin’!’ ” Ms. Palin said to laughter from a small crowd in a converted fish cannery.

Ms. Palin said afterward that she had ducked down to keep state troopers from seeing her as the family negotiated roadwork on the 160-mile drive from Anchorage to Kenai. “I knew they would wave me through,” said Ms. Palin, as her husband, a four-time winner of Alaska’s Tesoro Iron Dog snow-machine race, held their baby, Trig.

The controversy now surrounding Ms. Palin stems from a messy divorce between state trooper Mike Wooten and his wife, Molly McCann, who is Ms. Palin’s younger sister.

In 2005, Ms. Palin alleged to Mr. Wooten’s supervisors that he had threatened to harm her sister and father and had engaged in numerous instances of misconduct, including using a stun gun on his 10-year-old stepson, according to state documents.

In one instance, she told state investigators, she overheard him on the telephone threatening her sister: “I’m gonna f-kin” shoot your dad. He’s gonna get a lead bullet.”

Mr. Wooten told investigators he tested a Taser stun gun on the boy at his request but never threatened the Palins. An internal police investigation substantiated the stun-gun incident and some other charges but threw out most of the rest. Mr. Wooten was suspended for five days in 2006.

Through a spokesman with the Public Safety Employees Association, he declined to comment.

On July 11 of this year, Ms. Palin fired Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Mr. Monegan then complained that she and her husband had pressured him to fire Mr. Wooten.

Ms. Palin, in a statement, denied that, saying she had removed the commissioner she had appointed 18 months earlier because she wanted “a new direction.”

She said she will cooperate with the legislative probe, which is expected to be completed by November.

Sarah Palin has been able to fire people in a “slash and burn” style because the whole of the Alaska Republican establishment stinks like a pig barn. There have been allegations for awhile now that you do it either her way or no way, but her accusers have been dismissed because they are, to a man, corrupt wingtards themselves. But… just looking at the number of people she has personally fired makes you wonder about the motive. And this incident makes you wonder about her vindictiveness, and how far she’s willing to go to carry out acts of revenge.

We should acknowledge the obvious. Sarah Palin is pretty, and she’s obviously very bright, and the people of Alaska adore her (so far.) But we also have to look at what she’s done now for the proper perspective on the judgments we come to regarding her. Palin is young, and she has no political experience outside of Alaska, and there is no way that she’s going to be able to debate economic issues or foreign policy with Joe Biden. She is far from a suitable choice for the next in line to a guy who may well leave us needing to call on her services. What, then, caused McCavein to call on her?

Yeah. McCavein picked her because she’s a woman, PERIOD. He’s using her the same way he used Cindy Hensley to get his political career going. Sarah Palin has allowed herself to become the tool of a man who has shown nothing but contempt and disrespect for women his entire life. How long before he starts referring to HER as a “cunt” and a “trollop?”

This should be a moment to rejoice in; the Republican Party has finally elevated a woman to the top of a national ticket. But we know that the only reason Sarah Palin is there is so Johnny can pander to all those PUMA types that he needs to suck in so he can get himself elected in November.

Sarah Palin’s choice for VP is exactly as I said it is. It is a sickening, disgusting moment in our national political history.

Sphere: Related Content