Andy Barr: Emails show a governor engaged, effective, attentive

Gov. Palin was right when she said all of the rocks have been turned over
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Politico reporter Andy Barr says the Great Alaskan Email Dump "not only shows how effective she is, but how attentive she is as governor." An additional benefit she will derive from media scrutiny of the emails, Barr points out, is that it reinforces the image of Gov. Palin as a very serious executive presented in the forthcoming documentary film "The Undefeated." The emails, he observes, are evidence which back up some of the claims being made about her in the movie:


Right, Andy. It's called "leadership." And Sarah Palin has been an effective leader her entire political career.

- JP

Palin aides set the record straight on Bailey's bogus book

“Mr. Bailey has an axe to grind and abandoned truth in his book.”
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Gov. Palin’s team is responding to allegations made in former aide Frank Bailey’s book Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin. Though the book will not be officially released until tomorrow, portion of it have been getting considerable exposure on left wing blogs for months. Politico's Andy Barr reports that Palin aides have commented that the purported tell-all “belongs on the fiction shelves”:

In their first comments about the book since several media outlets obtained a leaked manuscript in February, two sources close to Palin disputed several of the anecdotes in the book, including his claims of illegal coordination with the Republican Governors Association and that he has seen Palin’s deposition in the so-called “Troopergate” case, which is sealed. Palin’s camp also insists that some of the Palin emails printed in the manuscript are framed to distort events...

[...]

Palin aides also pointed to previous ethics charges against Bailey during his service to the ex-governor’s administration, as well as an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general’s office over the emails Bailey included in the book. Additionally, SarahPAC spokesman Tim Crawford highlighted Bailey’s book cover, which is a modified image. The original photo was of Palin standing next to other governors at an RGA event, not next to Bailey.

“Frank Bailey was the only member of the Palin administration to be forced to [receive ethics training after being found to] have acted unethically – twice,” Crawford said. “He is currently under investigation again by the state attorney general. Then, as the administrator of certain email accounts, he acted unethically by appropriating account information he was entrusted to protect.”

“Gov. Palin suspended Bailey and refused to hire Bailey when he sought a position on her vice presidential campaign staff and later with SarahPAC. Mr. Bailey has an axe to grind and abandoned truth in his book. The cover of the book tells this story, two completely different photos twisted and Photoshopped to create a fraudulent image. The book belongs on the fiction shelves.”

[More]

- JP

Santorum: Palin and I are 'fine'

"No problem"
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So much for Andy Barr and Politico's attempt to start a fight between Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin:

In reaction to Sarah Palin’s terming of Rick Santorum a "Neanderthal," Santorum told reporters Thursday, “I’ve had exchanges with Sarah Palin not not for public record, and there is no problem between Sarah Palin and me on this issue.”

He said these exchanges happened within the last 24 hours but refused to comment on what was said between the two of them.

“We are fine. No problem,” Santorum said. “We’ve had exchanges.”

Santorum said the private contact between he and Gov. Palin was facilitated “through an intermediary.”

h/t: Draw For Truth for the Pollutico graphic

- JP

Santorum: Politico article 'is garbage'

"All I said was- she is VERY busy, PERIOD"
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After Politico published one of its typically deceptive hit pieces, this one written by Andy Barr alleging that Rick Santorum had criticized Sarah Palin’s decision to skip CPAC, Santorum called BS via Twitter:

This article is garbage.All I said was- she is VERY busy, PERIOD. Reporter trying to create something out of nothing http://politi.co/gJ4ARo

Here's the first paragraph of Barr's article:

Rick Santorum knocked Sarah Palin’s decision to skip CPAC, saying on Tuesday that she must have “business opportunities” that are keeping her from the annual conservative conference that is a showcase for potential presidential contenders

And here's the actual exchange between Santorum and S.E. Cupp:


Pollutico never misses an opportunity to use lies and distortions to paint Gov. Palin in a negative hue. In this case, Barr and his editors took a mostly uncritical observation by Santorum and tried to make it appear that the former Senator from Pennsylvania was bashing Gov. Palin. The article also draws on one of the constant memes promoted on left wing blogs that Sarah Palin is some kind of money-crazed fiend, simply because she gets paid well for her speaking appearances. So does Bill Clinton.

We had always considered Barr to be one of the lesser evils on Politico's staff, but with his latest slanted piece, he proves that he's no better than the rest of the biased website's resident leftists. The left wing, anti-Palin agenda is there for all to see, and it's the main engine that drives the corrupt Politico.

Don't get us wrong; we're no Santorum fans. He supported liberal Arlen Specter over conservative Pat Toomey in 2004, explaining that Snarlin' Arlen is "with us on the votes that matter." That really worked out well, didn't it? And Santorum has subtly and not so subtly dissed Gov. Palin before. He got in his little sexist dig in his remarks to Cupp, but that's almost par for the course for Santorum, whose loose lips show what a loose cannon he is. But the real outrage here is the way Politico always puts a negative spin on any story it writes about Gov. Palin. And if it can brew a tempest in a teapot by pitting Republicans against each other, that's just considered bonus points at the leftist website.

Related: Sheya has a good roundup of opinion over this one here.

- JP

Andy Barr: Why Sarah snubbed CPAC

"Special interests over core beliefs"
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Politico's Andy Barr opines :

A Palin source bashed CPAC and its leader David Keene in an interview last year with POLITICO announcing that the former governor wouldn’t be attending – even though CPAC had listed her as an invited guest for the second year in a row. The source called the annual gathering an example "special interests over core beliefs" and "pocketbook over policy."

"That's not what CPAC should be about and people are tiring," the source said. "Palin is taking a stance against this just as she did in Alaska."

The criticism of CPAC was fueled by a report that David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union, had asked FedEx for between $2 million and $3 million to get the group's support in a bitter battle on Capitol Hill with rival UPS. This was not the first reported allegation of Keene selling his influence with the conservative base, and is a large part of the reason why the ACU and its annual conference have waned in influence over the years.

The previous year, Palin’s camp and CPAC feuded over them listing her as a speaker at the conference despite the fact that she had not confirmed.

Keene didn't help mend the rift between CPAC and the Palin camp two years ago when he told Newsmax that Palin was “whining” about how the media was viciously and constantly attacking her. Even though Gov. Palin's team was in negotiations with CPAC, Barr believes that her appearance at the conference "was never in the cards." The lamestream media always knows better than those who were actually involved in the process they speculate about.

- JP

Barr: PalinLand calls Milbank's 'moratorium' a sham

Politico story mentions TX4P
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The fact that the Washington Post's Dana Milbank is something less than a man of his word hasn't escaped the notice of Politico's Andy Barr, who has apparently been following Milbank's failed moratorium and the response to it in the Palin blogging community:

Milbank highlighted his lack of commentary by posting on the paper’s website a link of his interview – rife with allusions to and jokes about the former Alaska governor.

Palin’s supporters weren’t happy.

“Milbank couldn't even get through the first day of his bogus boycott,” wrote a blogger for Texas for Palin, one of a network of Palin-defending sites that dinged the columnist. “This afternoon on the Post Partisan blog, Milbank wrote: ‘I survived Day One of my February Sarah Palin moratorium...’ Sorry, Skippy, but you weren't even going to mention her name, remember?”

PalinTV – a site set up by Palin supporters to show the governor’s comments in full without the media filter – also smacked Milbank with a sarcastic tweet. “Dana Milbank on ABC today talking for 5 minutes about how he's not talking about Palin,” it read.

Conservatives4Palin, the chief Palin defending vehicle online, has so far stayed off Milbank’s so-called moratorium, but has taken repeated shots at the columnist in recent weeks.

Milbank was bashed by the site after he wrote a column in the wake of the Tucson shooting arguing that even though the shooter was not influenced by Palin or Glenn Beck, they both were deserving of finger pointing after the incident...

[More]

To his credit, Barr is the only mainstream media journalist to acknowledge that Milbank couldn't even make it through one day of his Super Sham WaPo moratorium without mentioning Gov. Palin.

- JP

Politico makes things up, blames Reno reporter

A tangled web indeed
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Politico has been making things up about Sarah Palin again:

Palin’s putting the safety catch on her references to weapons in the wake of Rep. Giffords's shooting.

Her speech last night to the Safari Club in Reno was closed press, but thanks to the Reno Gazette-Journal's David Jacobs putting his ear to a closed door, we’re hearing the former Alaska governor’s new line.

Palin dropped the "reload" phrase from her routine, telling the audience of hunters "don't retreat, stand tall" — a shift from her now infamous and well-known "don't retreat, reload" line that played on a loop on cable in the after the Tucson shooting.

In the wake of the tragedy, Palin came under attack for having put Giffords's district in crosshairs on her website.

Andy Barr wrote the brief article from which the excerpt above was taken. Notice that Politico makes the assumption, based on what another reporter wrote after trying to listen to Gov. Palin's address through a closed door, that the Mama Grizzy had somehow been forced to retreat from her often used "Don't retreat, just reload" phrase. Barr or his editors had titled his piece "Palin retreats, won't reload", and published it on Politico's website.

But SarahPAC's Rebecca Mansour wouldn't let Politico get away with making things up, and she showed just how unfounded was the website's assumption when she tweeted:

For the record, this story is inaccurate http://j.mp/h5g5xG Yesterday in Reno Gov. Palin did say her trademark line "Don't retreat, reload."

Politico quickly scrubbed Barr's article and then posted a rewrite to the original story's url:

Palin’s firing back after a Nevada newspaper reported she put a muzzle on her trademark "Don't retreat, reload!!" phrase in the wake of Rep. Giffords's shooting.

Her speech last night to the Safari Club in Reno was closed press, but the Reno Gazette-Journal's David Jacobs put his ear to a closed door.

He reported Palin dropped the "reload" phrase from her routine, telling the audience of hunters "don't retreat, stand tall" — a shift from her now infamous and well-known "don't retreat, reload" line that played on a loop on cable in the after the Tucson shooting.

But Palin aide Rebecca Mansour denied that the former governor dropped the line, suggested to her by her father.

"The governor actually did use the phrase 'Don't retreat, reload,'" Mansour told POLITICO in an email. "She also said, 'Don't retreat, stand tall.'"

"Her father, Chuck Heath, was present at the speech yesterday, and the crowd cheered when she pointed to her Dad and repeated this favorite saying of his," the aide added.

The rewritten article is titled "Palin retreat? She's reloading," and Poltico never printed a retraction or an apology. Politico's editors instead are trying to put the blame on the Reno Gazette Journal's David Jacobs. But here's what Jacobs wrote:

“Don’t retreat, stand tall,” Palin told the crowd as she emphasized the importance of “responsible conservation.”

Jacobs never mentions in his article that Gov. Palin also said, "Don't retreat, reload" in her speech, but he also never implied that she didn't say it. There was no reason for Barr's editors to make that assumption, but make it they did. Why? Because Politico is also looking for an angle on a Palin story where Gov. Palin can be portrayed as inconsistent, weak, backing down, etc. In other words, any type of negative spin the leftist website can try to associate with the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, it will pursue.

Bad enough that Politico scrubbed the original article, but pointing a finger at a local reporter is really unprofessional, not to mention low down. We couldn't find a cache of the original Politico article, so thoroughly was the scrub job, but fortunately some newspapers and associated websites republish Politico news articles. One of those sites is Philly.com, where we found the original piece intact.

To paraphrase Sir Walter Scott, "Oh what a tangled web the media left weaves, for they always practise to deceive!"

- JP

Politico: Primaries a win for Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney

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Politico has published a major piece by Andy Barr on the impact of Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney on the Tuesday primaries and the implications for both if they decide to run for president in 2012. Their endorsements and support for successful GOP candidates in the critical early primary states of Iowa and South Carolina means that each will have some powerful friends in all the right places.

Both Gov. Palin and Gov. Romney were backers of big winners former GOP Gov. Terry Branstad in Iowa and state Rep. Nikki Haley in South Carolina. The endorsements are the sort of political investments which will be paid back with interest if either or both of the former governors run for president in 2012.

Mike Huckabee's endorsements, unfortunately for the former Arkansas governor, were investments in losing campaigns in the two states -- Bob Vander Plaats in Iowa and Andre Bauer in South Carolina -- both of whom finished well back in the pack of their respective races.

Barr says that the stellar showing by Branstad and Haley -— she nearly avoided the runoff in which she will square off against U.S. Congressman Gresham Barrett June 22 -- "represent a subtle but possibly important shift in the conservative grassroots" which gave Huckabee an upset Iowa victory in 2008 and a solid runner-up finish in South Carolina. Romney, who invested considerable time and treasure in Iowa to kick off his 2008 primary campaign, finished second behind Huckabee there in 2008

Those who read the political tea leaves will find it significant that Republican voters in South Carolina have no problems whatsoever having a woman heading the statewide ticket, as Haley would be the first Palmetto State governor of her gender if elected. They will also find significance in the fact that Iowa's GOP electorate chose a more mainstream conservative over a favorite of the Christian right who headed Huckabee's state campaign in 2008.

For Palin, who is already popular with conservative activists in Iowa and South Carolina, her support for the GOP nominees -- who serve as the de facto party leaders in the two states -- means she now has important allies in exactly the right places for 2012.

“I think those endorsements help Palin more than they actually help the candidates themselves,” said GOP strategist John Feehery. “She now has friends for life and she has created the perception that she has her finger on the pulse of the Republican Party, which gives her more credibility as the party spokesperson.”

Perhaps of more consequence for a potential Palin presidential bid, the former Alaska governor now has access to a network of staffers and activists with recent winning experience in winning contested statewide races.

For Palin, who is notorious for running an extremely lean operation and has never had to assemble a ground operation in those states, the assistance in marshaling staff and a field unit would prove invaluable.

[...]

Former South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson said Romney’s early endorsement proved helpful to Haley, but it was Palin who helped push her across the finish line.

“Romney backed Nikki when she was at seven percent in the polls and gave her credibility,” Dawson said. “Palin then knocked it out the park along with a well-run and funded four-week effort to close the race.”

[...]

“Palin is still the hottest endorsement for Republicans in contested primaries,” said Frank Donatelli, the chairman of GOPAC, an organization designed to elect Republicans to state and local offices.

Republicans with ties to the Romney and Huckabee camps, meanwhile, were in the spin cycle, trying to downplay Gov. Palin's impact on the June 8 results. In doing so, they joined many on the left such as David Weigel and David Corn, who have been pursuing the same tactic in the Washington Post and other liberal outlets.

Though we've been critical of Politico in the past for some biased reporting, we have to give Barr credit for an impartial and balanced analysis here.

- JP