“Palin and her husband Todd spent a lot of time answering questions from reporters. When Jake Tapper of ABC News arrived in the scrum, with more cameras, Palin stopped taking ad hoc answers and started an impromptu press conference. She made some news, saying she would probably make up her mind on a 2012 bid by next month,”- JP
I called up Mat-Su Regional Hospital, where, according to contemporary media reports, Trig Palin was born. I was patched through to the family birthing center.- JP
[...]
Why'd I call the hospital? One of the original concerns Sullivan had with the Trig Palin story -- one that's based on an absent fact, and not on innuendo -- was that Mat-Su Regional did not list Trig Palin's birth on its website. There's a portion of the web site, the baby nursery, where newborns are listed. Trig, born on April 18, 2008, is not there. And that's somewhat curious. So: Is every baby born at the hospital listed on the web site?
"No, it's not automatic," said the clerk. "Truth be told, we do take security photos of all the babies, but if the parents want their babies listed on the web site, they can request it. We're really sensitive about it, though. I think the hospital took up the policy not to publish names automatically because of possible baby kidnapping issues."
The clerk, realizing that Washington, D.C. reporters don't typically cold call her hospital, asked me if this call was about "our former governor." It was. Was Trig Palin born there?
"Oh, that's not even a question," she said... "Yes. Everybody here remembers that. Yes, this is where the Palins come -- this is their family hospital."
[...]
Is anything preventing Andrew, or one of the Daily Dish's assistants, from making that call? ... The current tone of his Trig-blogging is horribly meta -- "just asking questions," without asking questions of the people who can answer all of this stuff.
[More]
Trig Palin is Sarah Palin's son and it's irresponsible to suggest otherwise.Gee, Dave, ya' think?
[...]
All of the evidence indicates that Trig Palin is Sarah's son, and none of it suggests otherwise. I paid close enough attention to this in 2008, and realized pretty quickly that the countervailing theories made no sense. Too many people watched Palin announce the pregnancy and saw her come along until she went into labor, prematurely, while attending a National Governors Association event in Texas. Here in Alaska, people tell me that Palin fans (who at one point made up 85-90% of Alaskans) held "baby showers" for her, and she'd drop in to thank them.
The other Trig theories seem to be based on vapor -- that she wasn't "showing" much in some photos, that her campaign was less than 1000% forthcoming when asked about it. I don't generally trust politicians, but I know the difference between a "dodge" and an answer given to ward off annoying tabloid stories. The answers on Trig were in that latter category.
[...]
I do think that he's made a huge mistake by indulging this. Politicians suffer when they're called out on things they've done. They thrive when they're called out for things they haven't done, for stories they can call "conspiracy theories," and for stories they can file under "politics of personal destruction." Obsessing over Trig, as much as it annoys the Palins -- and I see why it does -- is one of the best ways of propping her up. It gives her fan base proof that its hero is constantly battling unfair personal attacks that the media won't debunk. It convinces them that critics focus on this nonsense because they've got nothing else to criticize Palin about. She has taken advantage of this impression.
The Trig obsession has also, I'm sad to say, damaged Andrew Sullivan's reputation.
After losing his job over leaked e-mails that showed him trashing the conservatives he covers, former Washington Post blogger David Weigel says he has “new sympathy” for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.Conveniently left out of the Politico write-up is Weigel's description of his "defense" of Gov. Palin, saying, "She'd spoken correctly, if clumsily," on the witness stand in the trial of David Kernell. Barr also passes over Weigel's oft-repeated complain that the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate is "notoriously difficult to get a comment from unless you happen to be a Fox News host."
Palin, Weigel writes in the latest issue of Esquire, is not someone he “pretended to admire much.”
But after getting chewed up and spit out over his critical e-mails, Weigel says that he can understand Palin’s mistrust of the media.
“A political celebrity who raises money and appears on TV needs the media in a way that a reporter doesn't,” Weigel writes. “But damn if I didn't feel sorry for the way every utterance Palin ever makes is taffy-pulled and inspected for lies.”
"Unfortunately, one doesn't get the sense that Weigel genuinely learned anything at all... 'Look at that, I demonstrated my [openness] of mind and dedication to truth, and then I took a cheap shot at Palin. My, oh, my, how I do impress myself.' Get over yourself, Dave. You're no Sarah Palin; you couldn't even fill her pumps..."Like we said, Deranged Dave will fit right in at MSNBC.
Mediaite has confirmed from MSNBC that Weigel’s role will be both paid and exclusive to the network. It’s likely, then that we’ll see Weigel show up on other non-Countdown programs on MSNBC as well.
Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel resigned today after a host of offensive e-mails surfaced revealing his disdain for much of the right - the beat he was charged with covering. Fishbowl DC, which published a number of those emails yesterday, confirmed the resignation with the Post just after noon.Just one of many examples of Weigel going all deranged on Gov. Palin can be found in a May 25 post on his now former WaPo blog Right Now, In it, Weigel called Sarah Palin "unprofessional," "immature," "paranoid," and "despicable" for expressing her feelings on Facebook about having leftist hack Joe McGinness move all the way from Massachusetts to just 15 feet away from her family's house on Lake Lucille in Alaska to write a book which no one disagrees will be little more than a hit piece on her.
Yesterday I reported on leaked emails from Weigel to a listserve of liberal journalists bashing conservatives and conservatism - you know, the people Weigel is supposed to be covering. As bad as those email were, a plethora of messages from Weigel published in the Daily Caller take the conservative-bashing to a whole new level.
The new emails also demonstrated that yesterday's quasi-apology from Weigel was really not as sincere as he claimed. He said that he made some of his most offensive remarks at the end of a bad day. But these new emails show that there was really nothing unique about them, and that offensive remarks about conservatives really were nothing new or uncommon.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh famously said he hoped President Obama would “fail” in January, 2009. Almost a year later, when Limbaugh was rushed to the hospital with chest pains, Washington Post reporter David Weigel had a wish of his own. “I hope he fails,” Weigel cracked to fellow liberal reporters on the “Journolist” email list-serv.More from the resignation from NewsBuster Lachlan Markay here. This makes Weigel, whose WaPo tenure lasted only about three months, a "quitter," does it not?
"It is no surprise to me that Ben Smith is on Journolist too. I wonder if the push back by lefty oriented journalists over Sarah Palin complaining about that stalker moving in next door was coordinated on Journolist. Probably."Rick Moore at Holy Coast:
"It goes to show you the sad state of journalism when this is the best guy the Washington Post can come up with to cover conservatives. They can't even find someone who's at least somewhere in the middle who will give conservatives a fair shake. Weigel's... a typically smarmy liberal who believes he's not only smarter than conservatives, but superior in every way. The journalism community is full of them. A guy with this much antipathy for the people who are supposed to be the subjects of his unbiased reporting clearly doesn't belong on this beat."Dan Riehl:
"Weigel undermined the Right at every turn. And, unlike Jim Geraghty, I don't care what his reasons were. That was the effect of his work... But to his defenders on the Right - if you want friends, get a dog - or join a book club. If you're more interested in client mentions, or links, sorry, but I don't accept your defending Weigel, because I can't be certain of your motivations."- JP
I don’t know if Ben Smith or Dave Weigel have any kids, but I wonder how they’d put up with the sorts of things that have been said about the Palin family. I wonder how Ben Smith or Dave Weigel would like it if some jerk moved in right next door to them for the express purpose of writing a book about them. I wonder if Ben Smith or Dave Weigel would think their concern for the safety and privacy of their own children was “despicable” or a “preoccupation.”Anyone who doesn't recognize what McGinniss has done as obsessive and more than just a little scary needs professional help.
I’m guessing they wouldn’t.
*"Palin haters want to believe she perjured
herself in the hacked e-mail trial. (My
reporting confirms that... she didn't.)"
"I hate to break it to you, Palingates, but you are."
"I do wonder if David Weigel calls C4P 'Obama haters'."
"I think it's pretty clear which of us was looking for the facts and which of us is trafficking in innuendo. There is just no case for accusing Palin of perjury."That's the interesting thing about the unhinged Palin-haters. They are so far out there in moonbat land that even Palin critics like Weigel wind up having to defend her. They are their own worst enemies, which is why when we look at them, so many of us Palin supporters see the resemblance to the hapless cartoon character Wyle E. Coyote.
