The Sarah Palin Party
There has been endless discussion on this blog and elsewhere about Sarah Palin and her relationship with the Republican Party. Peggy Noonan wrote a recent op-ed about Sarah Palin, and how she’s a creation of the elite branch of the Republican Party:
America doesn’t need Sarah Palin to prove it was, and is, a nation of unprecedented fluidity. Her rise and seeming fall do nothing to prove or refute this.
“The elites hate her.” The elites made her. It was the elites of the party, the McCain campaign and the conservative media that picked her and pushed her. The base barely knew who she was. It was the elites, from party operatives to public intellectuals, who advanced her and attacked those who said she lacked heft. She is a complete elite confection. She might as well have been a bonbon.
“She makes the Republican Party look inclusive.” She makes the party look stupid, a party of the easily manipulated.
“She shows our ingenuous interest in all classes.” She shows your cynicism.
“Now she can prepare herself for higher office by studying up, reading in, boning up on the issues.” Mrs. Palin’s supporters have been ordering her to spend the next two years reflecting and pondering. But she is a ponder-free zone. She can memorize the names of the presidents of Pakistan, but she is not going to be able to know how to think about Pakistan. Why do her supporters not see this? Maybe they think “not thoughtful” is a working-class trope!
I agree with Peggy, she’s a creation of the Republican Party, and now they have to live with it. She suddenly decided to resign (cash in) with a bogus explanation and now an investigation is showing that her explanation doesn’t add up either.
The icing on the cake comes from work conducted out by Green and the Anchorage Daily News showing that the figures provided by Palin to defend her claim don’t add up.
In a nutshell, Sarah Palin claims that through June 23, 2009, the state had spent $1,963,840 defending her from ethics complaints. However, as Green and the ADN showed, there are several problems with that claim:
The document is remarkably devoid of details. For example, three line items total just over $1 million without offering any explanation. One of those line items is for the “Personnel Reivew (sic) Board” at a comfortably round $560,800. In cases where it does offer detail, as Palin’s own office admits, some of the numbers on the 2-page document are internally inconsistent. According to the document, less than 20 minutes of work was billed at an hourly rate of $30,000. In addition, one line item shows 119 hours of work costing $14,564, while a set of lines elsewhere total 13 hours of work at nearly identical cost of $14,565. Perhaps the nail in the coffin of these numbers is that before Palin invented her retirement explanation, the state was reporting the cost of her ethics inquiries was $296.042.
But despite all we’ve learned – the fibs (thanks, but no thanks to the bridge to nowhere), the incoherence, the thin-skinned victim complex and the outright unpredictable behavior (sudden resignations for no reason) – she is still popular with a large chunk of the Republican Party, just maybe not the Republican elite. Well, she’s going to show them! Here is a cryptic message she put on her SarahPAC page yesterday:
Palin Hints At Independent Conservative Movement
Excerpts from TammyBruce.com
Enter now Sarah Palin with very encouraging comments that lead one to believe that she is indeed planning to do what she must: build an independent conservative movement and take this nation back from the liberals which now control both parties.Thanks liberals, for provoking Sarah into the national scene while vetting that family at the same time.
One thing I will say, the Washington Times with their headline for this exclusive interview reveal an anti-Palin stance. She is, don’t doubt, a threat to every existing political status quo. I hope the Washington Times and their editors realize, sooner than later, that the Palin movement is unstoppable and their credibility would be saved simply by reporting the news instead of becoming a GOP version of the NYT.
Is Sarah Palin forming her own party? If so, who is she taking with her?
This is what I am hoping for:
A viable party for the rightwing nuts that splits the repubs enough that they can no longer compete with the Dems. This would then allow the formation of a viable party from the left to try to win elections based on winning a plurality in 4-candidate races.
I think that the D’s still win most of these races but strong challenges from a left wing party would pull them leftward.
Of course, this assumes a fair political process and free and fair elections, which I don’t think that we have anymore.
You have to laugh when left wing extremists self adjudicate the affairs of the GOP.
When one of the GOP mentions something critical of a Republican that person is one of the annointed to liberals. Next week they could be nobody but today they are a hero because they are so enlightened.
You have no more credibility than John Edwards does on marriage.
Sara Palin will do just fine and as Obama’s numbers crater who will look better and better.
Mike Protack
Personality-based parties have a notoriously short lifespan and little success in American political history.
Bull Moose Party, anyone? Reform Party?
And anonone — historically, such configurations last at most one electoral cycle before the two major parties absorb the alternatives through a process of triangulation.
Our system isn’t built to accommodate more than two parties on a long-term basis. Indeed, only a new constitution with a parliamentary system would enable such a configuration to last long term.
This seems like an idle threat, although, who knows when it comes to Palin. Why leave the Rs when most of what remains of the party loves her. Also, as mentioned in my earlier post today, why would she give up the instant benefits of the GOP – “balanced” media coverage, guaranteed debate seat, etc. for the 3rd party wilderness.
Which left wing nut are you referring to? Peggy Noonan? She’ll never be a hero to me or any liberal just because she sometimes has moments of clarity. I think she’s absolutely right that Sarah Palin is a creation of the modern GOP. In fact, she’s the perfect Republican, and that’s why she’s so popular with the Republican base.
pandora,
I absolutely agree that it’s probably an idle threat. Perhaps she’s trying to pressure the GOP into doing something she wants. Does she have the necessary charisma to lead a 3rd party? I’m not sure about that. I think Palin is ridiculously thin-skinned and the criticism from the Republican elite must be bothering her.
I don’t know who Tammy Bruce is but based on her comments she must be the second stupidest person on Earth (after Protack).
When the history of the modern GOP is written I want it to include this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Bruce
Tammy Bruce is some wingnut talkshow host, they’re a dime a dozen. She came to many people’s attention early this year when she called the Obamas “trash in the White House.”
Lesbian, feminist, pro-choice — sure sounds like your typical “wingnut” to me.
Nope, but what spews from her mouth is typical wingnut bullshit.
Republicans rely too much on window dressing. They really do believe that minorities and women are interchangeable. Grandmaster Steele and Palin spring to mind, and now we can add Tammy Bruce. It’s like they say, “Look! Look! We have a woman, a black guy and a lesbian! Pay no attention to what they’re saying, just… look!
When liberals point to such things, it is “diversity” — and a virtue.
When conservatives point to such things, it is “window-dressing” — and a bad thing.
Interesting contradiction.
Stop being deliberately dense. The R’s bench couldn’t be more shallow – and that’s the problem. Geez, you guys have driven every independently thinking Republican from the party.
It’s like you guys keep offering up Britney Spears instead of Aretha Franklin and thinking no one will notice.