Sarah Palin builds a bridge across the political divide

"Palin’s anti-statist anti-crony capitalism message has the power to reach across parties"
*
Look up into the night sky for a moon of an unusual hue tonight, because another New York Times op-ed writer has discovered that Sarah Palin does indeed have substance, and she may not be the far right wing idealogue the left has been claiming she is for the past three years. Such Damascus Road revelations only occur at the Gray Lady once every blue moon.

Anand Giridharadas begins his commentary by admitting that liberals are woefully unprepared to recognize "something intelligent and wise and fresh about the present American condition" when Gov. Palin says it. Consequently, they don't pay much attention to anything she has to say, nor is it likely that they read her policy statements on her Facebook Notes page. But the weekend Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa was enough of a high profile event that while most of his media colleagues were focused on the horse race, the governor's actual remarks delivered there managed to catch Giridharadas' attention:

She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a “permanent political class,” drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called “corporate crony capitalism.” Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private).

In supporting her first point, about the permanent political class, she attacked both parties’ tendency to talk of spending cuts while spending more and more; to stoke public anxiety about a credit downgrade, but take a vacation anyway; to arrive in Washington of modest means and then somehow ride the gravy train to fabulous wealth. She observed that 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the United States happen to be suburbs of the nation’s capital.

Her second point, about money in politics, helped to explain the first. The permanent class stays in power because it positions itself between two deep troughs: the money spent by the government and the money spent by big companies to secure decisions from government that help them make more money.

[...]

Because her party has agitated for the wholesale deregulation of money in politics and the unshackling of lobbyists, these will be heard in some quarters as sacrilegious words.

Ms. Palin’s third point was more striking still: in contrast to the sweeping paeans to capitalism and the free market delivered by the Republican presidential candidates whose ranks she has yet to join, she sought to make a distinction between good capitalists and bad ones. The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs.

Strangely, she was saying things that liberals might like, if not for Ms. Palin’s having said them.

Giridharadas has a wondrous Captain Obvious moment with his realization that "Ms. Palin may be hinting at a new political alignment that would pit a vigorous localism against a kind of national-global institutionalism." Imagine his complete bewilderment when Giridharadas puts two and two together and realizes that, yes, this is precisely what the TEA Party movement is about.

At Legal Insurrection, William A. Jacobson comments:

A severe injustice has been perpetrated on the American people not by the vile derangement directed at Palin by the mainstream media, left-blogosphere and establishment conservative[s], but by the closing of their collective minds.

[...]

This probably will not signal a sea change in media coverage of Palin, or among conservative pundits. Liberals and conservatives alike have been played for fools by their media and their parties.

But hopefully it is a starting point of the recognition that Palin stands alone among major political figures in the United States seeking a transformation of the country consistent with its founding principles, not against them, principles which used to appeal to liberals. Palin’s anti-statist anti-crony capitalism message has the power to reach across parties, which is why that message gets buried in Palin Derangement Syndrome.

With Palin, liberals will not get their nanny state, but that nanny state is disappearing by economic necessity anyway. But they also will not get a crushing corporatist/unionist state serving the interests of the politically well-connected, which is where we are heading rapidly, and there is no offender worse than Barack Obama.

Oddly enough, Sarah Palin may be the one liberals have been waiting for.

What strikes us is that Sarah Palin is staking out positions which will significantly broaden her appeal. No, she's not going after the liberals Professor Jacobson writes about. She would never win them over no matter how hard she tried. Rather, it is the key demographic of swing voters that Gov. Palin has her eye on, and likely the moderates in her own party are also in her field of vision. This is unusual because traditionally, Republicans swing wide to the right in the primary phases of the election cycle, then tack hard back to the center for the general election contest.

But Sarah Palin said that she would run an unconventional campaign, and nothing could be more unconventional than blazing a new trail though the wilderness of a presidential campaign. Part of this is born of necessity, as three years of attacks on Gov. Palin by the left and its compliant media have obscured her appeal to the center -- blue collar Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans. She needs these critical voting blocks. If she can convince her party that she will be more than competitive in the general election, then she can secure the GOP presidential nomination.

Stephen Bannon's documentary "The Undefeated" was only the opening salvo of what may turn out to be the most innovative presidential campaign ever conducted. The film reminds viewers why Gov. Palin was chosen for the second spot on John McCain's ticket. She is a reformer who, at least before the McCain campaign used her as their attack dog, was wildly popular with Alaskans from across the entire political spectrum. Her recent Facebook op-ed reaching out to the union rank and file is another step in the process of appealing to the political center.

Notice that Sarah Palin, who governed her state from the center right, is building new roads through that same territory, while Rick Perry has chosen the well-worn path that runs along the right edge of the GOP base. But Perry, who has the occasional tendency to be a loose cannon, may eventually find himself the victim of his own rhetorical volleys. Gov. Palin apparently sees another political figure as her real competition for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Mitt Romney, who has been playing it safe in the center, may not even realize that a bulldozer is headed his way with Sarah Palin in the driver's seat.

- JP

NY Times: Fox News Execs Dispute NY Mag's Quote About Palin

“Roger Ailes admires and respects Sarah Palin and thinks she is smart.”
*
Fox News executives are disputing a quote allegedly made by an unnamed source in a New York magazine attack piece which claims that network chairman Roger Ailes thinks Sarah Palin is “an idiot.” Here's The New York Times' Jim Ruttenberg in a Monday posting on The Caucus blog:

The article quotes “a Republican close to Ailes” who makes that assertion and adds: “He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.” Mr. Ailes did not speak for the magazine article.

In a statement to The New York Times, the Fox News Channel executive vice president of programming, Bill Shine, said:

“I know for a fact that Roger Ailes admires and respects Sarah Palin and thinks she is smart. He also believes many members of the left-wing media are extremely terrified and threatened by her. Despite a massive effort to destroy Sarah Palin, she is still on her feet and making a difference in the political world. As for the ‘Republican close to Ailes’ for which the incorrect Palin quote is attributed, when Roger figures out who that is, I guarantee you he or she will no longer be ‘close to Ailes.’ ”

- JP

NY Times invents Palin 'enthusiasm' for birtherism

The paper of lies and distortion
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NRO's Matthew Shaffer catches the New York Times grossly distorting Gov. Palin's take on birtherism:

Yesterday, the editors of the New York Times wrote:

Yes, Sarah Palin, who was an enthusiastic “birther,” has decided that the supposed issue of Mr. Obama’s citizenship is, as she put it the other day, “a distraction.”

The editors imply that Sarah Palin was backtracking from prior birther advocacy during her speech on Long Island on Thursday, in which she said, “It’s distracting. It gets annoying. Let’s stick with what really matters.”

But, as Shaffer points out, Gov. Palin's previous comment on the birther issue, in a December 3, 2009 appearance on the Rusty Humphries show, was hardly "enthusiastic" support for the birthers:

Humphries: Sarah Palin here on the Rusty Humphries Show. One of the questions Jason asks is would you make the birth certificate an issue if you ran?

Palin: I think the public rightly is still making it an issue. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bothered to make it an issue because I think there are enough members of the electorate that still want answers.

Humphries: Do you think it’s a fair question to be looking at?...

Palin: I think it’s a fair question just like I think past associations and past voting records. All of that is fair game.

The day after the Humphries interview, Sarah Palin made it clear that she's no birther in this Facebook note:

"Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States."

So where, exactly is the "enthusiasm" for the birthers' claims that the Times attributed to Gov. Palin? The New York Times has never let actual facts on the record get in the way of promoting the leftist narrative. The Times is not "the paper of record." It's the paper of lies and distortion.

- JP

YAF's Coffin: NY Times wrong about Gov. Palin's Reagan Ranch visit

Perhaps Jeff Zeleny was just disappointed that he didn’t get his hug
*
From Andrew Coffin, vice president of Young America’s Foundation and director of the Reagan Ranch, in an exclusive opinion piece for Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism website, comments on Sarah Palin's Friday visit to the ranch and her keynote address that night:

The Governor gave a powerful speech at our banquet last night, before an enthusiastic overflow audience. She eloquently and gracefully paid tribute to one of the most significant speeches in American history, Ronald Reagan’s “Time for Choosing” address—while at the same time outlining a vision for America that builds upon President Reagan’s.

The speech was universally well received by our audience of all ages. But the New York Times chose to focus on some of the logistics of the event in their account...

[...]

The Times account is simply not accurate. Here’s the amazing thing about yesterday’s events: they were as much about Gov. Palin coming to Santa Barbara to soak up the spirit of Ronald Reagan as they were about her delivering a keynote address. And on top of that, she was incredibly gracious with her time.

[...]

Everything about the Ranch reflects the great American, and, particularly, western ideals that Ronald Reagan cherished: hard work, responsibility, stewardship of the land, freedom, and opportunity.

It was clear on Friday that Governor Palin is a leader cut from the same cloth—it is these great western ideals, and the way they could be seen at the Ranch in small but telling details, that she viscerally connected with. And I have to admit, it was fun to see up close how genuine that was connection was.

Governor Palin went out of the way in her speech to not lay claim to the mantle of Ronald Reagan. “Many people today are looking for the next Reagan. But he was one of a kind, and we won’t see his like again,” she said later in her speech, but it’s his principles and values to which we must lay claim.

Filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon, director of several films on Ronald Reagan, was present throughout the Governor’s trip. “Throughout the day,” Steve told me, “whether it was Ranch hands, students, staff, or donors, it was obvious to me that Governor Palin was there not for herself but to give of herself. She epitomized the values she mentioned in her speech—those of duty and service she equated to our grandparent’s generation.”

Fast-forward to later that evening, following a speech in which Governor Palin spoke convincingly of her appreciation for the experience she had at the Ranch. The New York Times got this part right—the Governor was immediately whisked out of our main ballroom to an upper floor when she finished her remarks. But she wasn’t on her way out. Instead, the Governor had agreed to individually meet and pose for a photo with each of our 325+ guests that evening. When she walked into our Reagan Ranch Center Exhibit Galleries, a group of college students flown in from around the country for this special weekend was already waiting for her. They broke out into spontaneous applause as she entered the room, the Governor rushing right in to begin shaking hands and learning names. One young man sheepishly asked if he could have a hug from the Governor—and, of course, she willingly obliged.

The Times reporter Jeff Zeleny could have asked about any of this, but chose not to. Or perhaps he was just disappointed that he didn’t get his hug.

[More]

- JP

NY Times tries to set up Sarah Palin

Just like a bowling pin
*
The left wing media never gives up. Their latest Wyle E. Coyote tactic in the Democrat/Media Complex war on Gov. Palin is transparent in a post by Michael D. Shear on the paper's The Caucus blog. Titled "Could Palin Use Speech to End Silence on Egypt?", the gist of the piece is that Mr. Shear wants the governor to address the situation in Egypt in her speech tonight at the Reagan 100 opening banquet:

It’s possible that Ms. Palin could use the opportunity to deliver a broadly conceived foreign policy speech that uses the turmoil in Egypt to advance an understanding of her national security beliefs that goes beyond her use of Twitter messages and Facebook posts.

[...]

How would she handle Egypt? Would she have sided more quickly with the protectors demanding freedom from oppression? Or would she, as some of her conservative rivals said they would have, been wary of an Islamist regime taking over in Egypt once its president, Hosni Mubarak, departs?

So far, Ms. Palin has been mum. She has not sent out a Twitter message about Egypt. She has not posted her thoughts on her Facebook page. There have been no slickly-produced videos distributed through the Internet on the subject.

[More]

Mr. Shear is literally trying to goad Gov. Palin into talking about Egypt tonight. The more about Egypt she might say, the more he and his state controlled media comrades would like it. Why? Because if things in Egypt go downhill -- that is, even more downhill than they already are -- after tonight, guess who they will blame? Imagine Gov. Palin devoting a considerable portion of her speech to Egypt tonight, and imagine that next week the violence escalates for any reason, culminating in several hundred deaths. They will blame her for it in a New York Times minute.

Sound far fetched? Think we're just paranoid? Consider this: All she did was mark some congressional districts on a map as part of a campaign promotion in which she was supporting the Republican challengers against Democrat incumbents. The left used it to blame her for the completely unrelated deaths and injuries to some people in Tuscon Arizona months later. The moonbat leftist blogs are still blaming her. Now do you doubt, even for a minute, that they would also blame her for, God forbid, any deaths that might occur in Egypt if she had said anything in public about the situation there beforehand? You betcha they would!

But the Mama Grizzly is smarter than the average bear, and she won't fall for it. Besides, she's speaking at an event to honor Ronald Reagan, and that will be the focus of the address she will deliver in just a few hours. Nice try, Mr. Shear Coyote.

- JP

NY Times Magazine: The Palin Network (Updated)

"In truth, few are underestimating Sarah Palin anymore."
*
There's a long look at Gov. Palin and inside her inner circle in the New York Times Magazine by Robert Draper. Consider the source: more attention is paid to those candidates the governor endorsed who lost than won, for example. But it doesn't sink to the level of the sort of anti-Palin agitprop we've come to expect from the Times either. At least it isn't an overt hit piece in the sense of something that would appear in Vanity Fair or on a gutter website like Gawker. Gov. Palin apparently consented to allow Draper to interview her and also to talk to her key aides, so it's worth the read, with the usual caveats about the lamestream media's warped view of all things beyond New York City and Washington, DC. Here are a few excerpts:

“I am,” Sarah Palin told me... when I asked her if she was already weighing a run for president. “I’m engaged in the internal deliberations candidly, and having that discussion with my family, because my family is the most important consideration here.” Palin went on to say that there weren’t meaningful differences in policy among the field of G.O.P. hopefuls “but that in fact there’s more to the presidency than that” and that her decision would involve evaluating whether she could bring unique qualities to the table.

“Yes, the organization would have to change,” Palin said during an hourlong phone conversation. “I’d have to bring in more people — more people who are trustworthy,” she clarified. Palin said that her experience as John McCain’s running mate was for the most part “amazing, wonderful, do it again in a heartbeat.” But she added, “What Todd and I learned was that the view inside the bus was much better than underneath it, and we knew we got thrown under it by certain aides who weren’t principled” and that “the experience taught us, yes, to be on guard and be very discerning about who we can and can’t trust in the political arena.”

[...]

It’s a curious feature of Palin World that none of its charter members knew her before 2008. (Her two longtime Alaska aides, Kris Perry and Meghan Stapleton, left amicably but wearied by the demands involved with working for an overnight celebrity.) Van Flein met Palin in the summer of 2008, recruited by Todd Palin to give legal advice on the Troopergate controversy. He now divides his time between his Anchorage legal practice and his position as one of Palin’s four lieutenants. The others are Andrew Davis, the political director who resides in Sacramento; Tim Crawford, the group’s elder statesman at 58, whose political experience extends back to Goldwater and who in early 2009 was forced out as the R.N.C.’s interim finance director, by which time John Coale had already recruited him to be the treasurer of SarahPAC; and Palin’s 36-year-old Los Angeles-based cybermessenger, Rebecca Mansour. Palin’s broader circle also includes Jason Recher and Doug McMarlin, who handle her travel logistics from, respectively, New Orleans and Columbus, Ohio; Pam Pryor, who works with Crawford at SarahPAC as the liaison to the evangelical and Christian community; and Randy Scheunemann, a prominent neoconservative and former McCain foreign-policy adviser. Crawford, Pryor, Scheunemann and two occasional speechwriters, Chriss Winston and Lindsay Hayes, all live in or around Washington. Among the D.C. consultants, however, only Crawford interacts with Palin on a regular basis. More than once in our discussions, Van Flein referred to “those people who are of the Beltway and those who aren’t” — a binary worldview to which Palin obviously adheres. (Press reports variously name Fred Malek; Bill Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard; and Kim Daniels, a conservative lawyer, as key advisers, when in fact Daniels has not worked for Palin for several months and Malek and Kristol are seldom in contact with her. “It’s nearly every single day we learn a lesson about a person who claims to speak for us or work for us,” Palin told me. “Seems 9 times out of 10, Todd and I look at each other and say, ‘Who is this speaking for us?’ ”)

[...]

There are few spouses in politics as hard-working as 46-year-old Todd Mitchell Palin — a native of Dillingham, Alaska, who married his Wasilla High School sweetheart and dropped out of college and eventually found work in the North Slope oil fields. He handles her travel. He is at times her sole accompaniment to events. He is — with apologies to the mama grizzly — the family’s chief protector, who has been known to nix interview requests from publications that have previously, in his view, made fun of his children. It has fallen to Todd to mollify alienated aides, interview potential speechwriters and help prep his wife for an interview by Googling subject matter on his BlackBerry. Referring to the ongoing communications in Palin World, Thomas Van Flein told me, “Todd is always part of the information chain.” In the external world it is widely understood that when sending Sarah Palin an e-mail “the best idea is to copy Todd on it,” according to Malek.

[...]

Palin became testy when I asked her about the books I heard she had been reading. “I’ve been reading since I was a little girl,” she snapped. “And my mom is standing 15 feet away from me, and I should put her on the phone with you right now so she can tell you. That’s what happens when you grow up in a house full of teachers — you read; and I always have. Just because — and,” she continued, though in a less blistering tone, “I don’t want to come across sounding caustic or annoyed by this issue: because of one roll-of-the-eye answer to a question I gave, I’m still dealing with this,” she said, referring to her interview with Katie Couric. “There’s nothing different today than there was in the last 43 years of my life since I first started reading. I continue to read all that I can get my hands on — and reading biographies of, yes, Thatcher for instance, and of course Reagan and the John Adams letters, and I’m just thinking of a couple that are on my bedside, I go back to C.S. Lewis for inspiration, there’s such a variety, because books have always been important in my life.” She went on: “I’m reading [the conservative radio host] Mark Levin’s book; I’ll get ahold of Glenn Beck’s new book — and now because I’m opening up,” she finished warily, “I’m afraid I’m going to get reporters saying, Oh, she only reads books by Glenn Beck.”

[More]

Update: At TWS Blog, Matthew Continetti judges Draper's NY Times cover story to be "an excellent piece of reporting that treats Palin in a relatively sympathetic manner." The key word there is "relatively."

- JP

Palin is Nasty Because She 'Rolls Her Eyes' or Something

*
-By Warner Todd Huston

What's the Old Media's latest nit-picking Palin apostasy? They claim she rolled her eyes at a nasty, negative constituent. Mean, rotten, evil Sarah the "eye roller" should be tarred and feathered over this, I guess.

Here's how The New York Times' The Caucus Blog is reporting it:

In a video that has been widely reported, Ms. Palin asks a woman standing next to a large “Worst Governor Ever” banner what she does for a living. The woman — Kathleen Gustafson, according to news media reports – responds that she’s a teacher. That leads to a response that prompted several outlets to comment that Ms. Palin rolled her eyes — or at least looked like she was rolling them.

This supposed "eye rolling" occurs after the woman told the Governor that she was a teacher (about 1:10 into the video). Many of the left-media are claiming that Palin rolls her eyes and gives a "knowing glance" to her supporters as if to say, "oh, a teacher, now we know this constituent is a left-wing, loony."

But if you look at the video closely there is no "eye rolling." The Gov. does look at her supporters and does give a sort of shrug-like look, but one has to assume and read into what that all means because the Gov. does not actually say anything to inform anyone of what she was thinking at that moment. Nor does she make an obvious face to inform. A look and a slight grin does not adequately reveal her thinking. One has to read her mind to really know what she was thinking at that instant.

But then, the Old Media are experts at mind reading, right? They are also experts at creating the news instead of reporting on it. One has only to remember the "fake but accurate" news as reported by Dan Rather of G.W. Bush's AWOL. It never happened, of course, but Rather had all the fake documents to prove it regardless.

For that matter, we have the story of Palin's non existent book-banning in Wasilla and the thousands of Trig-truther stories that continue to be circulated by the Old Media to prove the BS that is treated like fact among these writers of fiction.

But, above all, this shows the pettiness of the Old Media. The fact that the Old Media is attacking Gov. Palin for "eye rolling" is evidence of this.

See JP's post below on Gov. Palin's reply to the Old Media on this issue.

-WTH

Warner Todd Huston is editor of Publius' Forum and a contributor to Texas for Sarah Palin as well as Big Government, Right Wing News, Red County and a number of other websites.

NY Times worries about what Sarah Palin's plans are

*
From a New York Times profile piece on Sarah Palin, here are a few excerpts:

Without leaving home, Sarah Palin will be able to reach much of her political base, courtesy of a soon-to-be-built television studio in her living room paid for by her newest media patron, Fox News. From her house in Wasilla, Alaska, Ms. Palin also sends missives to 1.3 million Facebook “fans,” writes newspaper columns, Tweets and signs copies of her book for donors.

She reads daily e-mail briefings on domestic and foreign policy from a small group of advisers who remained loyal after her tumultuous vice presidential campaign in 2008. And though she has fashioned an image as an antiestablishment conservative, she also speaks regularly to a bipartisan nobility of Washington insiders who have helped enrich her financially and position her on the national political stage.

Ms. Palin is becoming increasingly vocal and visible...

[...]

...quietly assembling the infrastructure of an expanding political operation. In addition to her longtime spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, Ms. Palin’s closest aides include members of her former running mate’s staff.

Judging by the standard of how the Times has treated Gov. Palin in the past, this article is positvely glowing. Read it in its entirety here.

- JP

Surprise! A positive NY Times review for 'Going Rogue' (Updated)

Granted it's on the Times' "Opinionator" blog,not in the print edition, but it's so rare to see anyone associated with The Times that comes to praise Sarah Palin, not bury her. The reviewer is Stanley Fish, an academic and the author of no less than eleven books of his own. Here are a few snippets from his review:

The questions to ask then are (1) Does Palin succeed in conveying to her readers the kind of person she is? and (2) Does she do it in a satisfying and artful way? In short, is the book a good autobiographical read? I would answer “yes” to both.

[...]

Do I believe any of this? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that she does, and that her readers feel they are hearing an authentic voice. I find the voice undeniably authentic (yes, I know the book was written “with the help” of Lynn Vincent, but many books, including my most recent one, are put together by an editor).

[...]

The message is clear. America can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. I’ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again. Her political opponents, especially those who dismissed Ronald Reagan before he was elected, should take note. Wherever you are, you better watch out. Sarah Palin is coming to town.

Read Professor Fish's full review of Going Rogue here.

Update: At NewsBusters.org, Lachlan Markay observes that the NY Times readership -- "such a tolerant and open-minded bunch they are" -- are none too pleased with the good professor's review.

- JP

'Going Rogue' debuts at #1 on NY Times Bestseller list

Sarah Palin's Going Rogue made its debut on the NY Times Bestseller list this week at number in hardcover nonfiction. We can almost hear the Times' elitist liberal editors and columnists, who have been lambasting the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate for fifteen straight months, gnashing their teeth.

Former Governor Palin's memoir is listed ahead of other conservative volumes such as Glenn Beck's Arguing with Idiots (#4), Bill O'Reilly's A Bold Fresh Piece Of Humanity (#14) and Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny (#22).  The highest-ranked liberal books on the list are Ted Kennedy's True Compass (#11) and Obama campaign guru David Plouffe's The Audacity To Win (#16).

- JP

Frank Rich Gets All Hysterical Over NY-23

New York Times clown columnist Frank Rich got even more hysterical than is his norm Sunday, and Reason blogger Matt Welch took him down. Welch cites Jesse Walker's observation, which is the inverse of Richard Hofstadter's theory: the projectionists who try to sound the alarm about what they perceive as threats out there on the fringe wind up adopting the same tactics and lexicon of the very people they hate. Pogo boiled it down to a much simpler concept in just three comic strip panels- "We have met the enemy and he is us":

New York Times columnist Frank Rich, whose commentary about the political right this year has been among the very stupidest in a remarkably dull-witted season, manages to go one step further: In an op-ed on New York's District 23 congressional election, Rich embodies Walker's observation at the exact same time as quoting Hofstadter's. Check it out:

[T]he electoral math is less interesting than the pathology of this movement. Its antecedent can be found in the early 1960s, when radical-right hysteria carried some of the same traits we’re seeing now: seething rage, fear of minorities, maniacal contempt for government, and a Freudian tendency to mimic the excesses of political foes. Writing in 1964 of that era's equivalent to today's tea party cells, the historian Richard Hofstadter observed that the John Birch Society's "ruthless prosecution" of its own ideological war often mimicked the tactics of its Communist enemies.

The same could be said of Beck, Palin and their acolytes. Though they constantly liken the president to various totalitarian dictators, it is they who are re-enacting Stalinism in full purge mode.

How do you even get to a place like that?

Indeed, Welch schools Rich with a history lesson. Stalin, in just one of his purges, executed about 1,000 of his fellow communists and others every day for two years for a grim total of at least 724,000 deaths. Rich's hallucinatory Beck/Palin "purge" consisted of one "moderate" Republican who suspended her campaign and lived to endorse the Democrat only a few hours later.

A Little Fright Music, maestro, if you please....

Isn't Frank Rich
full of hot air?
Are his eyes on the mirror when he
goes on a tear?
Send in the clowns.

Shaky Frank Rich,
out on a limb.
Losing all reason, his mind
is growing dim.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Don't bother - they're him.

Related: At Pajamas Media, John Hawkins weighs in, as does Darleen Click at Protein Wisdom.

- JP

Junk Status: NY Slimes Hits Greta for Palin Ties

The New York Slimes, not content with just trashing Sarah Palin, is now going after Fox News host Greta Susteren, implying that Greta and her husband are too cozy with Sarah Palin:

"Mr. Coale’s assistance to Ms. Palin, first reported by The Washington Post in March, prompted questions about the couple’s combination of journalistic and political work."

No questions in this Slimes story about MSDNC host Chris Matthews' combination of journalistic and political work, saying he sees his job as a journalist as doing everything he can to make the Obama presidency a success. The NY Slimes, from all appearances, shares Matthews' goals.

The Slimes piece also attempts to undermine Greta's job security at FNC:

"It is unclear how much longer Ms. Van Susteren will be at Fox."

It is also unclear how much longer the NY Slimes, its stock sinking even deeper into junk status, can remain afloat.

- JP

NY Times Palin hit piece?

Is this the big, bad New York Times hit piece that some on the web have been buzzing about all week?

If so, I'm underwhelmed.

Same old drive-by media taking shots at Gov. Palin. She's still standing tall.

The more they attack her, the more they expose their bias. Americans in growing numbers are growing weary of these overreaching attacks from the media as it lashes out from its deathbed.

Two words: boomerang effect.

- JP