Sarah Palin: How low will Lisa go to hold on to power?

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Gov. Palin has some choice words for Sen. Lisa Murkowski via Facebook:

Lisa, are you going to shut down my Facebook page for writing this?

Yesterday, Lisa Murkowski’s hired guns threatened radio host Dan Fagan, and more importantly, the station that airs Fagan’s show, with legal action for allegedly illegal “electioneering.” The station, unlike Murkowski, who is flush with millions of dollars from vested corporate interests, does not have a budget for a legal defense. So it did what any small market station would do when threatened by Beltway lawyers charging $500 to $1000 an hour – they pulled Dan Fagan off the air.

Does all this sound heavy handed? It is. It is an interference with Dan Fagan’s constitutional right to free speech. It is also a shocking indictment against Lisa Murkowski. How low will she go to hold onto power? First, she gets the Division of Elections to change its write-in process – a process that Judge Pfiffner correctly determined had been in place without change for 50 years. She is accepting financial support from federal contractors, an act that is highly questionable and now pending before the FEC. And today, she played her last card. She made it clear that if you disagree with her and encourage others to exercise their civic rights, she’ll take you off the air.

The concept of “electioneering” involves several issues, but typically refers to campaigning at the polls, which is appropriately banned. Under federal law, it can also mean paying for advertising on broadcast media during a federal election cycle, and it requires disclosures if done by groups and corporations. Fagan used satire to mock Murkowski’s write-in efforts and encouraged Alaskans to run as write-in candidates. That is not illegal. That is free speech.

Individuals like Dan Fagan have a fundamental right to speak their minds without threats from the incumbent Senator from Alaska. It is hard to find a constitutional right Americans cherish more than the right to free speech. This was a right Joe Miller, as a decorated combat veteran – a tank commander tested in battle, was willing to die to defend. Dan Fagan has not always agreed with me, but I will gladly defend his right to speak freely on his radio show, which he has often used to criticize me. In fact, Fagan has actually used his radio show to attack and insult me, my husband, my children, and my family in just about every way possible. He was especially insulting to my son, who left for a war zone to defend Fagan’s right to attack our family. But when I was his governor, I never would have dreamed of threatening his right to free speech. I support him in this fight because this D.C. Beltway thuggery, as exemplified by Lisa Murkowski’s latest threat, is ruining our country. The powers that be want ordinary Americans to sit down and shut up and let the ruling class ride us right off the debt cliff we’re heading towards with Obama, Pelosi, and Reid steering the nation’s car. We can’t let them. Now is the time to put aside our past differences and stand up to the establishment powers.

This whole episode confirms again why we need to elect Joe Miller. Lisa, you can sue me if you want (you won’t be the first). But I will not be intimidated from speaking my mind. Your intimidation just empowered us liberty-loving Alaskans. Are you really that out of touch?

- Sarah Palin

Ed Morrissey weighs in here.

- JP

Dan Fagan: Sarah Palin Could Save The Counry

On August 3, when Dan Fagan apologized to Sarah Palin for all the nasty things he had said about her and her family, we wondered if it was for real and how long it would last. So far, it appears that Dan has mostly changed for the good, though he now runs hot and cold on the former governor who was once his obsession. To the schizophrenic Fagan, some days Sarah Palin is a demon, and others she is the savior of our great nation. Dan's journey from the dark side, it seems, takes an uneven path. Oh well, at least it's a slight improvement over the bad old days when Dan was basing Sarah palin all of the time. But yesterday he wrote that whatever her reasons for resigning as Alaska's governor, "her quitting could end up saving the country":

Sarah Palin has within her power to bring about great change in our nation. She can do this by ushering in a Republican resurgence in Congress.

I doubt the dollar can survive four full years of a Barack Obama presidency combined with Democrats controlling Congress. Eventually we’ll end up printing and borrowing too many trillions and our dollar will become worthless wiping out most of our wealth.

But if Republicans can take back the senate and house next year, it will greatly derail Mr. Obama’s runaway spending and his socialization of America.

No one is better-equipped and positioned to help Republican candidates across the nation get elected than Sarah Palin.

When Palin rides into to town to stump for you, crowds show up in droves. Supporters open their wallets and purses and your opponent won’t know what hit him.

Saying that the former governor’s Going Rogue book tour has revived her status as leader of the conservative movemen, Fagan expects that her influence and popularity with conservatives should only grow from this point on. That revival, he says, will make her a real power broker in the GOP.  

The former Palin detractor now admits that had she remained in office for two more years as governor, Sarah Palin would not have been free to travel the country, raise money and campaign for conservative candidates.

Fagan wraps it up by asking and answering a series of questions:

Did she make the right decision in quitting? Will she end up better serving her country on the road campaigning for others instead of being tied down to the Alaska governor’s job? Does the Republican Party have a better chance of taking back the house and senate with Palin on the campaign trail? Could Sarah Palin end up saving our republic because she quit as governor? You betcha!

Nice one, Dan, but you really should get some professional help for that schizo thing...

- JP

Quote of the Day (August 19, 2009)

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Headline seen recently on Dan Fagan's The Alaska Standard:

"Sarah Palin was right about the death panels."

- JP

Dan Fagan's "Come To Jesus" Moment

Dan Fagan has apologized to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for making personal attacks on her character in his tirades against her.

While the temptation is strong to brush off Fagan's mea culpa with a snarky "too little, too late" comment and just move on, we won't do that. We are all sinners in the eyes of the Lord, and He chooses His own time and place to bless us with the transforming grace of the Holy Spirit, lifting us up out of the low place into which we have fallen.

So rather than cast another "too little, too late" stone, we choose to rejoice in "better late than never" instead. If a lost sheep has indeed been found, then it is surely cause for rejoicing, as Christ teaches us. Good Christian woman that she is, Sarah Palin will, we are confident, accept Dan Fagan's apology and add her voice to the rejoicing chorus.

But should Dan Fagan slide back into his "old ways" of attacking Gov. Palin,we'll be the first to call for a "tough love" intervention. Ronald Reagan found "trust, but verify" to be a prudent policy for dealing with the soviets. Wecan see other situations in which Reagan's advice can be useful, this one included.

- JP