Establishment Republican Slams McGinness Book

"You are only making your enemy even stronger and richer."
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There has been a surprising litany of criticism from the left of Joe McGinness' book of smears against Sarah Palin. Many liberals have apparently realized how damaging the 315-page hate-filled rant is to the "progressive brand" and are making a real effort to do damage control. Establishment Republican Matt Latimer (he wrote speeches for George W. Bush) has added his voice to the chorus, for an entirely different reason. Latimer, you see, is horrified that deranged Palin-haters such as McGinness are "the only people who are really keeping Palin relevant—and rich," and if the PDS-afflicted would only shut up about the former GOP vice presidential candidate for a while, she would fade into obscurity -- at least according to the beltway GOP's way of wishful thinking:

Well, the former governor surely has enough money now, and you’ve had enough fun. Palin haters, it’s finally time for some tough love. You need to stop encouraging this. It’s really time to move on. If The Rogue proves anything, it is that this advice is sadly overdue.

A word about the author of this masterpiece of meanness, Joe McGinniss. This is not some low-rent gossip columnist or celebrity stalker. He is a veteran journalist and critically acclaimed author whose various writings have appeared in practically every highbrow magazine there is. Clearly a man who values his reputation and follows his every mention in the media, he has many friends within the Boston–New York literary establishment. That only makes his latest enterprise that much more depressing. This is the kind of book McGinniss thinks his tony Manhattan audience wants to read. Even more alarming, perhaps it is.

What more really needs to be said about a screed so lazily sourced and innuendo-filled that even The New York Times felt the need to step away from it? A book whose author made the creepy and in retrospect, incredibly foolish, decision to move into the house right next door to the Palins and then had the nerve to feign surprise when the Palins were more than a little teed off. (If you think the Palins were rough on you, Mr. McGinniss, then I suggest you try pulling that move on Tom Cruise some time. By the time his lawyers are through with you, your great-great-grandchildren will owe him damages.)

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Is anything in this book true? Who knows? And in this book’s view, who cares? It is so lazy that it doesn’t even bother with an index. But it will fit well on the bookshelves of those unthinking idiots who buy tomes saying that Barack Obama is a closet Muslim who invites terrorist attacks or that Dick Cheney is the root of all evil in the modern world.

I’m sure this book will be fodder for late-night comedians and anti-Palin pundits on MSNBC, but I hope maybe a few of them might for a moment stop and wonder if even someone as horrible as Palin might deserve a little bit of temperance and discretion. That maybe when we talk about changing the tone of our politics, we could start by changing the way we talk about our opponents. And even if you don’t buy that, you might at least consider that you are only making your enemy even stronger and richer.

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Latimer is shocked -- shocked! -- not so much that McGinness' book aims to tear down Gov. Palin, but that "a literary endeavor can go so terribly wrong." The Bushie Republican laments the fact that the McGinness effort lacks "meritorious revelations" and only offers a "litany of revulsions (sic)." In other words, if you're going to try to destroy Sarah Palin, he wants you to do a better job of it while not sounding as unhinged in the process as McGinness. Latimer would no doubt find much more to like in such a book of personal destruction if only it had been written by Kathleen Parker or David Frum, just to name two cocktail party Republicans who know how to eviscerate Reagan conservatives while not seeming quite as deranged as those on the left who share their Palin-hatred.

- JP

Matt Latimer: 5 Reasons Palin Will Run

"Do Palinistas believe they have a case to make? You betcha."
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Matt Latimer, who wrote speeches for George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, details 5 reasons why Gov. Palin will run, and why that would be a positive for the GOP:

Sarah Palin remains a rank-and-file favorite. Her second book is yet another hit. She has nearly two million more Facebook fans than establishment favorite Mitt Romney, two million more than even former President George W. Bush, and incidentally nearly 300 times as many as Bush's mother. Supporters have made the reform-minded unknown from the Deep North into an instant millionaire many times over—and they just might make her the GOP nominee. Do Palinistas believe they have a case to make? You betcha. Here are their five top reasons why her nomination might turn out to be a good thing for the Republican Party:

1. Goodbye Karl Rove. No place rewards failure more than Washington D.C.

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The very same people who lost the House and Senate to the Democrats in 2006, who helped President Bush stagger out of office in 2008 less popular than Nixon, and who brought the GOP to historic lows in popular approval—lows that exist to this day—are still trying to call the shots.... If it does anything, a Palin nomination would likely shake loose their grip on the party apparatus, allowing new people to emerge in 2012 and beyond. A little fresh air could be a good thing for the grand old party, even an Arctic blast from Alaska.

2. She's Earned It. Palin... inspired and energized millions of voters... Since 2008, Palin has campaigned across the country for the party, raising money and campaigning for dozens of candidates... The party has a history of rewarding many of its top candidates from the prior election; why, supporters ask, is Palin any different?

3. She's More Astute than People Think... Critics take note: This same political novice unseated a sitting Alaska governor in a crowded GOP primary and then defeated another former governor in the general election. That aint nothin'. Despite a notable lack of familiarity with issues in the 2008 campaign, by 2012 she will have had four years to study up, and is putting together a formidable policy team to do just that... The fact is that none of Palin's many critics have the money, support, and microphone that she has, all of which she has used to become a media phenomenon. She even has used critics' low expectations to her advantage. Nearly everyone expected Palin to crawl off the debate stage after her encounter with Joe Biden in 2008, yet by the end of the forum even some in the media thought she had won. Palin haters: This so-called "dummy" is underestimated at your peril.

4... Palin benefits from the yawning frustration with a GOP hierarchy that Tea Partiers and party conservatives believe has lost its principles, commitment to fiscal and personal responsibility, and sense of direction. "Robbing" their favorite of the 2012 nomination, at least without seeming to have given her a fair chance, may be something the party deeply regrets, especially if her millions of alienated, and fed up, followers stay home. Besides, Palin followers argue, would the party really be that much better off with a field of helplessly bland, middle-aged white males with the excitement of a ShamWOW! infomercial.

5... Many supporters of the Tea Party—some 71 percent of the GOP, according to polls—are not the lunatics, birthers, or racists who gain most of the media's attention. A good number are simply political novices wanting to advance ideas and make a difference. A group like that could use the Palin candidacy to learn how the political nominating process works, to better understand how to craft a coherent message that can be embraced by more people, and to become more seasoned political operatives.

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- JP

Matt Latimer on Sarah Palin's enduring appeal

In a Daily Beast op-ed the former Bush speech writer says Sarah Palin is still the class of the 2012 field, and she's not going away anytime soon. Why? Because the rank and file are fed up with the establishment Republicans who have almost drained all of the "Grand" out of the Grand Old party, and they see Palin as the cure for the disease they carry.

A few excerpts:

The latest news in Washington is that the conservative Minnesota governor (and potential 2012 presidential contender) has caught the eye of the city’s top Republican gurus. You remember them. The same guys who last year treated voters to the John McCain experience and whose keen advice left President Bush with a 22 percent approval rating as a parting gift for his eight years in office.

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Not long ago, McCain's campaign honcho, Steve Schmidt, a veteran of Bush-Rove world, publicly labeled a possible Palin presidential candidacy "catastrophic." The smooth-pated Schmidt looked like an angry pit boss asking security to remove a patron who was winning too many chips against the house.

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After all, does anyone truly think Sarah Palin can be the 2012 GOP nominee? To borrow a phrase from everyone's favorite Alaskan, you betcha!

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The rank-and-file are tired of the bland phonies running the GOP. They are tired of Republican compromises that bloated spending and expanded the federal government. And they feel helpless against a team of buddies running each campaign more cynically than the last.

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If the grand poo-bahs of the GOP think they can find someone to push her aside, their pickings seem drearily slim.

Latimer's op-ed is a refreshing change for the Daily Beast,  a website which has attacked Sarah Palin relentlessly, and in the nastiest manner. We're saving the best quote from the piece for Friday's QOTD, but it's not hard to spot if you read the entire article.

- JP

Dana Perino: Lattimer's Palin claims are "rubbish"

Matt Latimer, a minor former speech writer for George W. Bush, is out with a diss-and-tell book, and Byron York's previews in the Examiner are causing quite a stir in political circles both left and right.

It seems there's something for everyone in Lattimer's Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor. Conservatives who never felt like Dubya was one of their own will point to certain segments and say, "See, I told you so." A prime example is when Latimer supposedly got tasked with preparing a speech for Bush's appearance before the 2008 CPAC conference:

"What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Latimer.

Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement -- the movement that gave rise to groups like CPAC.

Bush seemed perplexed. Latimer elaborated a bit more. Then Bush leaned forward, with a point to make.

"Let me tell you something," the president said. "I whupped Gary Bauer's ass in 2000. So take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement."

The impression is that not only is GWB no conservative, he didn't even know what conservatism is.

Liberals, always on the lookout for any stone to cast at Sarah Palin, have seized upon the following passage from Latimer's book, allegedly when the former president was informed that John McCain had selected Palin to be his running mate:

"I'm trying to remember if I've met her before. I'm sure I must have." His eyes twinkled, then he asked, "What is she, the governor of Guam?"

Everyone in the room seemed to look at him in horror, their mouths agape. When Ed told him that conservatives were greeting the choice enthusiastically, he replied, "Look, I'm a team player, I'm on board." He thought about it for a minute. "She's interesting," he said again. "You know, just wait a few days until the bloom is off the rose." Then he made a very smart assessment.

"This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for," he said. "She hasn't spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let's wait and see how she looks five days out."

But let's give the horses a rest and have a reality check, shall we? 

Two other former Bush aides, both of whom had more frequent access to the 43rd president than Latimer, dispute the account. One of those former aides worked closely with both Bush and Palin:

Jason Recher, who served as special assistant to President Bush and as a traveling aide to Palin during the campaign, said the former President was well aware of Palin — especially since the two met in person in Alaska just three weeks before Palin was added to the Republican ticket.

During a stopover in Fairbanks on the way to the Beijing Olympics last August, Recher said Bush met with Palin and even made a knowing reference to her rising reputation in the Republican Party.

"The president was fully aware of who Sarah Palin was," Recher told CNN. "Even so much that when he greeted the governor and Todd in Fairbanks during a re-fueling stop on the way to the Beijing Olympics, he threw open his arms and said "Madam Vice President!'"

"He was very aware of her rising-star status and who she was and everything about her, even down to the fact that she recently had given birth to Trig," Recher said.

After Palin became the vice presidential nominee, Recher said the White House loaned out both he and Laura Bush's photographer Shealah Craighead to the McCain campaign to help staff Palin and her family.

Recher says Latimer didn't exactly have a lofty perch on the White House totem pole:

"Nobody knows who he is. When people heard he was writing a book the most common reaction has been, 'Who?'"

Dana Perino, who was the White House Press Secretary for Bush43 from September of 2007 until January of 2009, also doubts Latimer's credibility, telling Reuters:

"He wasn't around the president much."

[...]

"I was there outside the Oval when Sarah Palin was announced as the VP candidate and the president said to me, 'so, the Governor of Alaska was the pick? I just saw her a few weeks ago when we were on our way to China'."

Perino also posted on NRO's The Corner blog:

"Seems that every administration goes through this — yes, even the Obamas will have someone take advantage of the career opportunity of a lifetime to try to feather their own nest at someone else's expense — no matter how far-fetched their story may be."

"For example, he writes that President Bush didn't know who Sarah Palin was. That's rubbish."

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So much of what Latimer claims the president said doesn't ring true to me. I was with the president for whole days at a time, through thick and thin, and I never heard him say things like that about others."

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"I'm pretty sure that almost everyone who worked in the White House could not pick Matt out of a lineup, and I doubt that'll change much after this book. Speechless should have been called 'Shameless.'"

Looks like Matt Latimer was a fairly insignificant lower-level staffer, and he's been busted by people who spent a lot of time with Bush and actually mattered in his White House.

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Jamie Jeffords:

"So do progressives, who are certain Bush is an idiot even though many also think he masterminded 9/11 as a power grab, have to either consider him prescient for predicting the 2008 election or go on thinking he is an idiot for agreeing with them. They cannot have it both ways."

But Jamie, they can and do get to have it both ways. That is the problem. Their drooling, lapdog media guarantees that they will continue to have it both ways. That is why Sarah Palin is taking the fight right to the Democrat-Media Complex. That's why Rush suggested that the next round of citizen demonstrations take place on the front steps of each and every state-controlled media outlet. The Fourth Estate became a fifth column long ago. We can't afford to wait for it to self-destruct. We have to finish it off ourselves.

- JP