John Hayward: Why Palin is NOT the Al Sharpton of Alaska.

"Palin had to speak out against the attempts to slander her"
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The latest hit piece on Sarah Palin, spawned by sweet nothings whispered inb the ears of the tag team of Jonathan Martin and John Harris at Politico by The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash seem to awakened some conservative pundits, many of whom have been snoring right through some of the vilest attacks on Sarah Palin that have been leveled at her since "progressives" on both the left and the right started bashing her before the 2008 RNC convention was even gavelled to a close. Good to see them waking up, smelling the coffee, and once again defending the woman who has never failed to defend conservative principles.

Here are some experts from John Hayward's response at Human Events to the latest anti-Palin smears:

Politico published an article filled with establishment conservatives attacking Sarah Palin, using a juicy pull quote from Matt Labash of the Weekly Standard for their title: “She’s Becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska Edition.” Supposedly her transformation into the maestro of the Tawana Brawley hoax has been prompted by her “frequent appeals to victimhood and group grievance.”

The central piece of evidence for this claim is Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” to describe the sickening attempt to pin the Tucson massacre on her. Speaking as one who used that term several days before Palin did, I can testify that I received no group grievance discount. It was the first time that came to mind when I saw what the media was trying to do to her, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

If the standards applied to Palin in this Politico roundup were to be accepted, no female or minority conservative would be able to defend themselves against any attack, because all such defenses would become “appeals to victimhood.” Try Googling any black or female conservative, and take a look at the vicious racist and sexist assaults they have to put up with on a regular basis. It would be very convenient for the Left if we agreed to make them suffer these assaults in silence, because responding only makes things worse.

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Palin had to speak out against the attempts to slander her, not only because conservatives cannot allow liberal slander to stick and harden into conventional wisdom, but because she wasn’t the only target. Ultimately, all conservatives were. The same Left that flushed John Edwards down the memory hole as soon as he became an embarrassment would force us to wear “Sarah Palin, Voodoo Murder Priestess” around our necks forever.

It’s hard to understand how Sarah Palin could be simultaneously criticized for wallowing in victimhood and fighting back too vigorously. It sounds more like another doomed attempt to win peace from the Left, and media approval, by letting them rule the person they hate most out of bounds – as if politics were a trial of ideas by jury, and they get to strike down a few jurors of their choice before the contest begins. Of course, they will never grant the same courtesy to conservatives, or arrive at any given moment without a fresh “person they hate most” on tap.

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- JP