Politico forced to issue correction after making up Palin quote

Back to the drawing board, Pollutico?
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The Blaze reports that Politico, after falsely attributing an entirely made-up quote directly to Sarah Palin, has been forced to print a correction. Politico has not, however, apologized to Gov. Palin:

In an article that pits Palin vs. Rep. Michele Bachmann, authors Paul Goldman and Mark J. Rozell appear to catch Palin slamming Bachmann. Here it is in context, which is the third paragraph in the article:

Palin’s bus tour had some of the hallmarks of a primal scream: “I built this constituency, not Bachmann, not anyone else.” Looking at it through her eyes, she has a point.

That’s a big deal. Considering the piece, that would appear to be the start of a word war between the two Tea Party favorites. But there’s just one problem. Palin never said it.

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As soon as they spotted the false attribution in Politico's hit piece, a number of Palin supporters -- your editor among them -- bombarded the corrupt, left-leaning publication through social media and other avenues of contact with messages demanding a retraction.

As we reported here at midnight Texas Time last night, SarahPAC staff soon became aware of the attempt by Politico to smear the governor, called them out on it, and set the record straight.

Now Politico claims an "editing error" was responsible for the false attribution, but we're not buying their foul-smelling brand of snake oil, not even for a second. Now for the Wyle E. Coyote website, it's back to the Acme catalog to look for another deceptive device to employ in his never-ending fool's errand to try to destroy Sarah Palin. But an army of faithful sheepdogs will be watching...

- JP

SarahPAC calls out Politico for fabricated false quote

A total fabrication yet deliberately written to appear as a legitimate direct quote
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Politico has been caught red-handed attributing this false quote to Sarah Palin:

“I built this constituency, not Bachmann, not anyone else,” she said.

No, she did not, and SarahPAC called them out on it:

Setting the Record Straight: About False Quotes Attributed to Gov. Palin

An absurd opinion piece in Politico includes a quote attributed to Governor Palin that is a total fabrication and yet is deliberately written to appear as if it is a legitimate direct quote. By any standard this is unacceptable even for an opinion piece. This puts us in mind of a real quote of something Governor Palin actually did once say to the media: “Quit making stuff up.”

- JP

Nolte: Politico's latest 'astonishingly childish' attack on Palin

beep beep
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You can tell how successful the first leg of Gov. Palin's One Nation Tour has been by the level of desperation Politico and its Obamaunist media fellow travelers have shown in attacking her over it. Read Big Journalism Editor John Nolte's chronicle of the lamestreamers' last attempt -- a rather cartoonish effort worthy of only Wyle E. Coyote -- to destroy the woman:

The MSM whips up nonsense-narratives like this in order to drown out Palin’s message and to forever ensure she’s never taken seriously.

Will it work?

Not so sure this time.

For starters, no one likes a crybaby who refuses to take responsibility for their own actions. Palin didn’t ask the corrupt MSM to chase after her. They chose to suck her exhaust. And if their feelings are all bruised because she’s not feeding their pathetic sense of entitlement with her itinerary – that’s something they should’ve thought of before they spent three years trying to destroy her.

The second reason this absurd narrative is likely to backfire is because no one likes a rat.

Going over the speed limit? *gasp*

Not using a turn signal? *egads*

The subtext in this astonishingly childish article is the pathetic sound of someone pouting.

Sorry MSM, but it’s a whole new world, and the people you choose to destroy with lies, nonsense, and even their own children no longer need you to get their message out.

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The Palins should get one of those "beep beep" horns like those that were standard equipment on the famous Plymouth Roadrunner muscle cars of the late 1960s and 1970s, and install it on the One Nation Tour bus. When the coyote heard that sound, he just knew that a long fall from a high cliff was in his immediate future.

- JP

Biased Politico spins Gov. Palin's Bethesda speech

"Planned Parenthood doesn't empower women"
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Politico purchased a ticket to hear Sarah Palin speak at Saturday night's "Heroes Among Us" event in Bethesda, Maryland, but the biased and incompetent publication still managed to get a key fact wrong in its story. Politico reporter Jedd Rosche described the event as a "Jews for Sarah gathering" and seemed to find it significant that "she never mentioned Israel during her remarks." The event was actually a fundraiser for Heroic Media, the shabbaton sponsored by Jews for Sarah being complimentary to her appearance at the fundraiser.

Rosche was probably too fixated on portraying Gov. Palin as boastful to bother with such mundane details as who sponsored the event and what it was about. He used the word "boasts" in his headline and "boasted" in the lede to his article, referring to the governor's remark that she could have attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday evening, but she chose instead to spend her time at the pro-life event. Leave it to Palin-bashing Politico to twist Sarah Palin's statement about the importance of the cause of life just to make her appear to be prideful.

We can only hope Politico's crack reporter managed to get the quotes in these excerpts correct:

... she stumped hard against Planned Parenthood and abortion rights advocates, encouraging her listeners to continue fighting for "positive pro-life messages" in the media.

"We're not going to be absent from that arena," she said. "I think we kind of want to infiltrate it. We want to get in there and affect that change."

Palin praised Heroic Media's advertising against abortion, on billboards, online and in social media. She also presented an award to Lila Rose, the videographer and activist who did a video sting operation against Planned Parenthood and worked with James O'Keefe on his sting against ACORN.

"Planned Parenthood doesn't empower women, or offer women who find themselves in less than ideal circumstances any kind of real choice," she said. "What they offer is not real choice or female health care."

- JP

Mark Levin: 'Pervertico' out there trashing Sarah Palin again

"Vicious, nasty, hateful attacks"
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- JP

Rush: The Left's Unprecedented Conspiratorial Hatred for Sarah Palin

"I don't recall such a coordinated effort for so long to destroy anybody."
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Rush LImbaugh weighed in on his Monday show about Kenneth Vogel's hit piece on Gov. Palin published at Politico today. Rush said he doesn't know if he's ever read such a piece of reporting "where the reporter is writing about a coordinated effort to destroy somebody's character and reputation as if it's some kind of a game":

I've always said they will tell us who they fear. But, now, folks, this has gone beyond rational. I mean, actually it went beyond rational a long time ago... How would I compare this to the hatred of Reagan? I'm racking my brain, and I want to be... I'm tempted to say, "I don't recall. I don't recall such a coordinated effort for so long to destroy anybody."

[...]

But in the case of a story like this, I don't think I've ever read a piece of reporting like this where the reporter is writing about it as fun. I mean, there is an ongoing effort to destroy this woman. Forget anything about Sarah Palin other than she's a person. The left always talks to us about compassion. She's a human being. She has kids. She's got a family. Yeah, she sought public office, but there's no sense of proportion to any of this. No sense of proportion whatsoever to any of this. I'm wracking my brain trying to think of a period of time with anybody else other than Nixon, where there has been anything like this.

[...]

That doesn't even compare to what they're doing to Sarah Palin. Ah, what they've done to me doesn't compare to what they're trying to do here to Sarah Palin. We have a vast conspiracy here to destroy a political figure. This is not the imagined fantasy from Hillary Clinton who said that the Monica Lewinsky claims were made up by "a vast right-wing conspiracy" to discredit Bill. This is a genuine, real, existing, right-in-front-of-our-eyes conspiracy. Now, Reagan was attacked by Republicans, too, and hard. People forget that he was an outsider who threatened the establishment GOP base. The Democrats on the left attacked him, too.

But Palin seems to be in a class of her own, and it just keeps ratcheting up. It just keeps becoming even more intense. The attacks on her daughters and her Down Syndrome child is beyond anything I've ever seen...

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- JP

William Teach: Politico Promotes The Unhinged Anti-Palin 'Crusaders'

The point is to push a gaggle of new anti-Palin books
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Politico's anti-Palin crusade continues unabated. The leftist website's latest stupid media trick is a blatant attempt to confer undeserved respectability on the deranged fringe bloggers whose hate for Gov. Palin is so all-consuming that they have made it their mission in life to destroy her. At Pirate's Cove, William Teach observes:

Isn’t it amazing how this supposedly stupid, moronic, lite-weight non-factor of a politician and presidential candidate garners so much press, loathing, and fear? Not just from those on the Left, but some of the wishy washy Republicans?

[...]

Notice that none of the opinions are truly about her policies, but about her personally. Promiscuous? She’s had 5 children with the same man she has been married to. Petty? These same people love President “I won.” Unintelligent? If so, why do these mostly lefties focus on her so much?

[...]

Sounds more like they are scared of her mostly Conservative policies. Also, this is a form of Clinton’s old “policy of personal destruction” at work, though one that just skips destroying a politician/pundits policy ideas. And the Politico has joined the party:

A number of forthcoming books promise to delve deeply into – and, they believe, give mainstream credibility to – some of the more salacious Palin rumors and conspiracy theories that have sprouted in the anti-Palin blogosphere and on supermarket tabloid stands, but have mostly been rejected by the mainstream media.

So, there was a point for the story, and that’s pushing all the anti-Palin books that are coming out. Interesting that there are so many, considering how this woman is supposedly done in national politics.

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It's bad enough that many of the lies these Hater-Ade drinkers crank out on their blog are routinely picked up and published by lamestream major media outlets, but now Politico has decided to act as their PR agent.

Despicable.

- JP

Quote of the Day (April 19, 2011)

Lunatics Scream Gibberish at Sarah Palin
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Van Helsing at Moonbattery:

“More obnoxious moonbat lunacy from the Tax Day Tea Party in Madison... a pair of enlightened progressives rebut Sarah Palin by bellowing meaningless gibberish...”

- JP

Quote of the Day (April 18, 2011)

Is Politico corrupt or just incompetent? Answer: Yes.
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Tammy Bruce via Twitter:

“Odd--@politico says Palin has yet to do very basic thing of starting email list of supporters--I see 2,892,130 of them on Facebook”

- JP

Mike Metroulas: Palin and the 'Conservative Intelligentsia' Backlash

The Sarah Palin who spoke at the 2008 RNC convention can win in 2012
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Mike Metroulas, libertarian contributor to Big Journalism, comments on the fallout from the recent Politico hit piece on Gov. Palin:

A recent Politico piece focusing on a “conservative intelligentsia” backlash against Sarah Palin playing identity politics gleans this nugget from George Will:

Asked if the GOP would remain the party of ideas if Palin captures the nomination, Will said: “The answer is emphatically no.”

I think self-government and individual liberty are grand ideas. Principled and limited governance is a grand idea. I’m not sure what ideas Will thinks will be lost here, but in my estimation, the federal government does not exist as some sort of symposium for over-intellectualizing or a platform for one party to promote their own agenda. Sure, that’s where we’ve been for a very, very long time (around 220 years), but wanting to scale that back is one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard. That’s what Palin brings to the table. Her current media appearances are not indicative of how she would govern, nor are they indicative of how she would conduct herself on the campaign trail.

The piece also quotes the Manhattan Institute’s Heather McDonald as saying:

“She is living up to the most skeptical assessment of her.”

I’m not so sure. The most skeptical assessment of her was that she was an absolute ignoramus whose 15 minutes of fame would be over right after Obama won the election, and we’d never hear from her again. To the chagrin of many, that didn’t happen.

The piece goes on to state:

For now, however, Palin’s appeal is largely rooted in the sympathy she’s gleaned from her loudly voiced resentments toward the left, the news media and the GOP establishment.

I don’t buy this for one second. Any wars of words she has engaged in recently have had little to do with her appeal, they have only served to galvanize her most ardent supporters, while possibly turning off other people. This is sloppy because she is not actually campaigning, nor can we say with any certainty that she is going to.

The media’s hysteria over Sarah Palin’s nomination threw her entire identity, both political and personal, into the deepest recesses of the American psyche. Painting Palin merely as a sympathetic figure, as this Politico piece does, is to deny her real appeal completely, which revolves around a genuine impulse in America that yearns for a much-needed pruning of our federal government. Much of the electorate is way beyond caring what the “conservative intelligentsia” or the GOP establishment has to say. Many Americans are more interested in what people like Sarah Palin have to say.

[More]

- JP

John Hayward: Why Palin is NOT the Al Sharpton of Alaska.

"Palin had to speak out against the attempts to slander her"
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The latest hit piece on Sarah Palin, spawned by sweet nothings whispered inb the ears of the tag team of Jonathan Martin and John Harris at Politico by The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash seem to awakened some conservative pundits, many of whom have been snoring right through some of the vilest attacks on Sarah Palin that have been leveled at her since "progressives" on both the left and the right started bashing her before the 2008 RNC convention was even gavelled to a close. Good to see them waking up, smelling the coffee, and once again defending the woman who has never failed to defend conservative principles.

Here are some experts from John Hayward's response at Human Events to the latest anti-Palin smears:

Politico published an article filled with establishment conservatives attacking Sarah Palin, using a juicy pull quote from Matt Labash of the Weekly Standard for their title: “She’s Becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska Edition.” Supposedly her transformation into the maestro of the Tawana Brawley hoax has been prompted by her “frequent appeals to victimhood and group grievance.”

The central piece of evidence for this claim is Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” to describe the sickening attempt to pin the Tucson massacre on her. Speaking as one who used that term several days before Palin did, I can testify that I received no group grievance discount. It was the first time that came to mind when I saw what the media was trying to do to her, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

If the standards applied to Palin in this Politico roundup were to be accepted, no female or minority conservative would be able to defend themselves against any attack, because all such defenses would become “appeals to victimhood.” Try Googling any black or female conservative, and take a look at the vicious racist and sexist assaults they have to put up with on a regular basis. It would be very convenient for the Left if we agreed to make them suffer these assaults in silence, because responding only makes things worse.

[...]

Palin had to speak out against the attempts to slander her, not only because conservatives cannot allow liberal slander to stick and harden into conventional wisdom, but because she wasn’t the only target. Ultimately, all conservatives were. The same Left that flushed John Edwards down the memory hole as soon as he became an embarrassment would force us to wear “Sarah Palin, Voodoo Murder Priestess” around our necks forever.

It’s hard to understand how Sarah Palin could be simultaneously criticized for wallowing in victimhood and fighting back too vigorously. It sounds more like another doomed attempt to win peace from the Left, and media approval, by letting them rule the person they hate most out of bounds – as if politics were a trial of ideas by jury, and they get to strike down a few jurors of their choice before the contest begins. Of course, they will never grant the same courtesy to conservatives, or arrive at any given moment without a fresh “person they hate most” on tap.

[More]

- JP

Hewitt, Levin, Riehl pound Politico's prejudiced anti- Palin pitching

"The evidence of a Politico agenda is overwhelming"
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Bravo Hugh Hewitt, Mark Levin, and Dan Riehl, all of whom stepped up to the plate for Sarah Palin Monday against leftist Politico's latest disingenuous and vicious attack on her. All three hit it out of the park.

First, Hugh Hewitt, via his blog hosted by Townhall.com:

Sarah Palin tweets a shout-out for my Washington Examiner column.

[...]

Sarah Palin is right. The MSM remains awestruck, and for the obvious reason: The president is one of them --glib as they define it, credentialed with that which they value, and unburdened by any set of skills they don't have and thus find threatening (for example, successful business experience.)

Having foisted the president on us in 2008, the elite media will be working overtime to keep him propped up on the theory that a second term couldn't be any worse and might even get better.

The country couldn't afford that.

[...]

Governor Palin is herself under one of the periodic attacks ginned up by her permanent opposition --nested among the MSM that isn't doing its job covering the president's whoppers. The MSM Presidential Praetorian Guard is quick to strike out at any critic of the president's --Michele Bachmann, for example, is also getting the treatment for a gaffe far less significant than the never-mentioned 57 states pratfall or similar Obama slips.

Incredibly, Politico.com did not dissect the president's press conference on Friday, but is leading this week's coverage with a relentlessly negative story on Palin.

The president is presiding like Chance the gardener over a Middle East in flames, refusing to do anything about skyrocketing deficits and a debt time bomb, is disconnected from the reality of why gas prices are soaring, all while his signature "achievement" has been declared unconstitutional, and the first news day after an eye-rolling White House presser and in the middle of a horrific disaster, the big feet of Politico are doing what? Blasting Sarah Palin?

The MSM is arrayed around the president, ready to defend him from any critics. That's the lay of the 2012 land. Get used to it.

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Next up, Mark Levin, in a Facebook Note:

The corporate hate for Sarah Palin at Politico is obvious. The latest is here.

But if you google Politico and Palin, the evidence of a Politico agenda is overwhelming. And the manner in which Politico's editors pursue their hate-Palin agenda is to cherry-pick the individuals they quote to make the point they want made.

[...]

I certainly do not begrudge, but in fact encourage, liberals becoming conservatives or Democrats becoming Republicans. Reagan was a Democrat who famously changed parties. But I do not believe that individuals [George Will and Charles Krauthammer] touted by a left-wing "news" site as two of the leading conservative intellectuals, who stunningly opposed Reagan's candidacy while both were of mature age and mind, are necessarily reliable barometers in this regard.

[...]

It is apparent that several of President George W. Bush's former senior staffers are hostile to Sarah Palin, including Karl Rove, David Frum, and Pete Wehner, to name only three. Pete is a good friend and a very smart guy. That said, Bush's record, at best, is marginally conservative, and depending on the issue, worse. In fact, the Tea Party movement is, in part, a negative reaction to Bush's profligate spending (including his expansion of a bankrupt Medicare program to include prescription drugs). And while Bush's spending comes nowhere near Barack Obama's, that is not the standard.

[...]

Most of these Politico stories are little more than excuses to attack Palin, intended to damage her early on in case she should decide to run. This has been going on for some time now. If she is as weak as some think, why the obsession? Why the contempt? Moreover, Palin has used social media and other outlets to comment substantively on a wide range of issues and policies. In fact, she has spoken on a wider array of issues than Youtube governor Chris Christie, popular among most of these folks, and her positions have, for the most part, been solidly conservative. (Christie's positions on numerous issues important to conservatives are all but ignored by some of those complaining about Palin; indeed, the same could be said of potential presidential contenders Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitch Daniels, among others.) My purpose in mentioning Christie here is to juxtapose the demands by "the intellectuals" on one politician versus another. Their inquisitiveness seems influenced by their political bias. That's not unusual, but it requires underscoring lest their opinions be viewed or promoted as objective.

As a Reaganite pre-dating Reagan's 1976 candidacy, the contempt for Palin does, in fact, remind me of the contempt some had for Reagan, especially from the media and Republican establishment, although no comparison is exact. I've not settled on a favorite would-be presidential candidate, but I also know media hit-jobs when I see them. I am hopeful more conservatives will begin to speak out about this or, before we know it, we will wonder why we are holding our noses and voting for another Republican endorsed by "the intellectuals" but opposed by a majority of the people.

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Our third batter is Dan Riehl, in this post at Riehl World View:

Matt Labash ... must make good coffee as I see he's been with the Weakly Standard for a while.

The name floats by on Twitter occasionally, if anything, causing me to wonder, who the hell is that guy, when it does. Frankly, I've never bothered to find out ... before now. So his beyond sophomoric to pitifully stupid and inaccurate shot at Sarah Palin is priceless, if insignificant. I wonder if Kristol will give him an extra fifteen minutes for lunch for a week, given that he provided the headline for Palin-obsessed Jonathan Martin's latest hit piece on her.

[...]

He obviously strained to be clever, but is it even remotely accurate - even assuming you think the worst of Palin? No, of course it isn't, not in the least if you actually know anything, or pause to think, about who Sharpton and Palin are as personalities.

You see, the substance didn't matter at all to Labash. He knows the Beltway establishment and his bosses don't approve of her and she's been treated as fair game. Rather than say anything genuinely insightful, even if critical, he simply went for what might get him the most chuckles and pats on the back at some watercooler in Washington. That's not an action representative of someone considered to be a serious conservative voice. It's a wannabe, or, more accurately, a never will be. Really, now, how weak, how pathetic is such a misguided comparison? Frankly, using it is a tactic of someone with a genuine character flaw and over-riding need for approval and acceptance within the circles he calls home.

The criticism is so over the top, it would be beneath a serious person. It really is that pathetic, as well as wrong. Palin doesn't rush in to localities. She doesn't take up individuals as causes, file lawsuits, or promote herself outrageously like Sharpton. There simply is no comparison at all. It was purely a mechanism for Labash to flatter himself and try to impress ... friends, not say anything at all relevant to Sarah Palin.

And let's please dispense with this whole "influential conservative" meme, not only for Labash, but for most of the rest of the all too often foolish, self-congratulatory and self-professed elitists at TWS and many of our other Beltway publications.

[...]

As I recently pointed out, combined, Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin reach upwards of 40 million people a week. Those people vote, a fact sometimes lost on the Beltway set - until they want the exposure each of them can offer. Then suddenly, it's all good! But no way would I characterize any of the popular talkers who actually are influential across the population as near fully in line with much of what one reads at our Beltway pubs like TWS and others

When you boil it all down, Labash and company talk to the inside the Beltway set and a relatively small number of individuals who give certain campaigns money.

[...]

The vast majority of America doesn't even know who these people are.

But they do know who Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Al Sharpton are, not to mention that even Sharpton's income probably dwarfs that of a Labash, or some other Beltway hack. Ah, but they're important ... they're influential. Yeah, right. We know that because Jonathan Martin at the Politico told us so. Now that, ... that's a joke. When was the last time any serious conservative took that Palin-obsessed lightweight at his word?

[More]

Three batters up. Three home runs against Politico's prejudiced pitching. The leftist website should just drop all pretense and change its name to Politiburo.

- 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

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

NYC Mayor Bloomberg: Don’t blame Sarah Palin

Political rhetoric not responsible for Tuscon shootings
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Even progressive Michael Bloomberg says says Sarah Palin had nothing to do with last weekend’s shooting in Tucson. The New York City mayor told Politico Thursday:

I don’t think I’d blame Sarah Palin or any other individual.

I don’t think any of that (political rhetoric) had anything to do with this, but I don’t know the facts, and who knows what will eventually come out with this man?

This would appear to be a very deranged, perhaps on-drugs individual from what I’ve read.

And I think we should focus on somebody with a gun that has killed six people. And I think the president put it very well yesterday - the rhetoric should be at a discourse on the facts, and have more civility in it.

Bloomberg, a left-leaning independent whom Politico describes as "centrist," is a founder of the "No Labels" campaign.

- JP

Politico caught in yet another lie about Gov. Palin

Gillespie to Levin: They never contacted me
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Ed Gillespie and Mark Levin refudiate lying Politico maggots Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei:


- JP

Rush Limbaugh on the Politico anti-Palin hit piece

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Rush had Politico's Allen-Van DeHei hit piece on Gov. Palin pegged before it ever hit the web or the wires. On his Friday show, the king of the talk show hosts called it:

"Now, folks, I want to tell you something here. I saw that... Where did I see this? Oh! Oh! I didn't have a chance to reply to it. I got an e-mail from Mike Allen of The Politico last night. They're working on a story; they may have already run it."

"Some Republican leader has told them that the Republican leadership is right now as we speak coalescing to find somebody to oppose Sarah Palin. They didn't identify whoever this 'Republican leader is,' so I can't tell you who it is, but they say that there's a Republican talking to them at Politico that they are trying to find somebody to beat back Palin, from the Republican establishment, because they are convinced that if Palin is the nominee, the party loses. That's, at least, what they say. It could also be they're scared to death that Palin wins it's the end of them: The Republican establishment."

"Mike Allen wanted to take my reply, and I got his e-mail in the midst of a whole bunch other stuff. I just now remembered it so I haven't had a chance to reply. But let's see. This kind of thing, I think the reason I didn't drop everything and reply is 'cause the little antenna go up. It could be a disinformation campaign before the election. Why write a story right now about Palin in 2012? What's the point of running a story like that right now if not then to sow dissension in the ranks?"

Emphasis ours.

- JP

Sarah Palin: 'Mike Allen and Jim Van DeHei are jokes'

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Gov. Palin and Greta discuss Politico's latest hit piece against her:



h/t: TheRightScoop

- JP

Politico Lying about Palin Again? (Multiple Updates)

-By Warner Todd Huston
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Radio host Mark Levin says that Politico's piece slamming Sarah Palin today is an outright lie, at least as far as his part in the story is concerned.

In a long piece by Jonathan Martin about how he thinks Sarah is wrecking havoc on GOP politics across the country, he says this…

According to a source familiar with the situation, she backed out of planned interviews with conservative talk-show hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin the morning she was scheduled to talk to them. And her multiple schedule changes so annoyed Glenn Beck that he finally decided not to have her on his radio or TV show to promote the book.

Levin says that this is flat out untrue. On his Twitter feed, Levin wrote:

This is a flat out lie. Sarah Palin never backed out of any interview with me. Period.

One wonders why Martin didn't actually practice proper journalism and check out the claims of his "source familiar with the situation" and call Hannity and Levin and see whether or not it was true from their perspective?

So much for "journalism," eh?

On her Twitter feed, Governor Palin tsked Mr. Martin:

"Johnny, Johnny, Johnny...ya just made big mistake lying about Levin, Beck, Rush...U can lie about me, but taking on the Big Guns? Not smart"

She cracks me up.

-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, and a number of other websites.

Updates...

"F. Lee" Levin talked about this on his Thursday radio program:


Via C4P, Charlie Davis, CEO of the SRLC sent this e-mail to Martin, essentially "refudiating" his so-called "sources." Elegantly done, Mr. Davis.

Also, a reminder from Erick Erickson that Politico isn't exactly the pinnacle of reliable reporting.

Our friend and Blogs 4 Palin colleague Shane Vander Hart in Iowa contacted both the Grassley and King campaigns. What they told him directly refudiates what Martin's alleged "sources" allegedly told him. To paraphrase an old Dan Akroyd character on Saturday Night Live, "Jonathan, you leftist media slut," quit making things up!

Glenn Beck says the Politico hit piece is "an out and out lie." He has demanded that Politico print a retraction and apologize, or else name the alleged "sources" of its story.

- JP

Politico Again Slaps Bad Vanity Fair Palin Attack

-By Warner Todd Huston
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As we discussed here yesterday, Vanity Fair published a badly sourced attack piece on Governor Palin. But the piece is even worse than first thought.

As Politico's Ben Smith discovered, the Vanity Fair piece contained yet another lie passed off as "journalism."

Smith highlighted the part of the VF piece that led the reader to think that the Palins used son Trig as a political prop at the rally held in Kansas City.

Smith excerpted this section of the VF piece:

Backstage in the arena, a little girl in Mary Janes pushes her brother in a baby carriage, stopping a few yards shy of a heavy, 100-foot-long black curtain. The curtain splits the arena in two, shielding the children from an audience of 4,000 people clapping their hands in time to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The music accompanies a video “Salute to Military Heroes” that plays above the stage where, in a few moments, the children’s mother will appear.

When the girl, Piper Palin, turns around, she sees her parents thronged by admirers, and the crowd rolling toward her and the baby, her brother Trig, born with Down syndrome in 2008. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, bend down and give a moment to the children; a woman, perhaps a nanny, whisks the boy away; and Todd hands Sarah her speech and walks her to the stage. He pokes the air with one finger. She mimes the gesture, whips around, strides on four-inch heels to stage center, and turns it on.

But he found out that the whole story was bunk.

The problem: Trig wasn't at the event, according to its organizer, Karladine Graves, a 61-year old Kansas City physician and who, in 2009, founded one of the wave of new local conservative groups, this one called Preserving American Liberty. The "woman, perhaps a nanny," was the boy's mother, St. Louis talk radio host Gina Loudon, according to the event's organizer, Graves.

Ah the lies of this VF piece continue to amaze, don't they?

-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, and a number of other websites.