In the clearest sign yet of Sarah Palin's national ambitions, the Gov. tells the Washington Times she'll crisscross the nation, campaigning for both Republicans and Democrats.
"I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation. People are so tired of the partisan stuff — even my own son is not a Republican."
And as for the rest of her possibilities , Palin reprises her famous plow through the door line.
"I'm not ruling out anything — it is the way I have lived my life from the youngest age. Let me peek out there and see if there's an open door somewhere and if there's even a little crack of light, I'll hope to plow through it."
But if there's one thing Palin's emphatic about, it's her decision to resign in her first term, again complaining that attacks left her powerless to do her job.
She said constant attacks in the press and the barrage of frivolous ethics violation claims against her — all dismissed — have cost state taxpayers dearly and also made it nearly impossible for her to move forward with her agenda.
UPDATE: A tweet from Palin yesterday, showing she's going all-in with the "I resigned for the good of Alaska" line (Here's a Rich Lowry piece on the odd claim).
Palin's tweet.
More precious time, public & private resources wasted today w yet another frivolous false ethics charge, I'll send presser. So sorry, Alaska
On July 18th, a "Real Housewife of New York" and her husband (Jill Zarin and Bobby Zarin) will play host to a swanky fundraiser for Charlie Crist.
Zarin is close with Crist's wife, and looks to be even closer after the $1,000 per person fundraiser is over. The Host Committee Members and Private Dinner is $4,800 per person.
The Host Committee includes Donald Trump and Yankee Johnny Damon, who's enjoying a pretty good year at that new stadium.
The Dallas Morning News dissects Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison's respective fundraising letters with the help of a Democratic consultant and GOP adviser.
This swath from Perry's fundraising letter stands out.
From Perry's letter: When the colonists rebelled against the British Crown, they fought a distant regime that sought to impose its will on the lives of citizens through onerous regulations and taxes. Sound familiar?
[Consultant Jason] Stanford: "The really key paragraph is comparing his campaign to the American Revolution and subtly depicting Kay Bailey Hutchison as some foreign monarch. Just stunning."
For more parsing, click here, but Stanford does it all in one sentence below.
"It's obvious that Kay Bailey Hutchison is running against the leadership in Austin, and Rick Perry is running against the leadership in Washington."
Mike Huckabee is the third prospective Presidential contender to accept an invitation to speak at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in September.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have already confirmed their appearance. Eric Cantor will speak, as well.
Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin, and Mitt Romney have all been invited, but none have confirmed.
For a list of speakers and conference information, click here.
Right now, there are 5.1 million reasons SD Sen. John Thune doesn't have an opponent in his race for reelection.
Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota has announced that his campaign committee has $5.1 million on hand for his re-election bid.
Thune says a report he is filing with the Federal Election Commission shows his campaign raised more than $1.1 million in April, May and June. He says more than 3,200 South Dakotans have contributed to his campaign.
Forbes Magazine interviews Sarah Palin-nemesis, Shannyn Moore, and asks the Alaskan blogger what she thought after getting that warning letter from Sarah Palin's lawyer.
A reporter friend of mine e-mailed me the news--I thought it was a hoax. When I found out it was true, I felt like Bridget Jones after she went down the fire pole with her panties showing, and said to myself, "Ooh, this is awkward." Palin's warning is just an intimidation tactic. I was like, "You want to shut me down on the Fourth of July?" It made me so angry.
She also says death threats and marriage proposals are running about 50/50.
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Newt Gingrich showed up on Greta Van Susteren last night, and rallied to Barack Obama's defense.
VAN SUSTEREN: Didn't they -- didn't they truly believe back in February when they passed that and sold it to the American people that this was the end-all? You don't -- you don't think they believed it?
GINGRICH: To be fair of [sic] the president, you had a brand-new president who had come from the state senate to the U.S. Senate to winning the Democratic nomination to becoming president in four years. That's an amazing achievement. He's all of a sudden in office for the very first time. He's never been an executive before. And he thinks, Let's get it all done.
Sarah Palin absorbed some water from Peggy Noonan today, but The Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti arrives, ready to patch up some of the holes.
Continetti's the author of the upcoming book, The Persecution of Sarah Palin, and while that might sound like something John Fox and John Ziegler could have co-authored, going on his piece today, it sounds like he's only about 70%/30%, pro-Palin.
Here's some of the 70% (ea).
Throughout her career, Palin has seemed most "appropriate" at moments when she senses that the populace is diverging from the political class that rules over it. Palin exploits the split and wins office as the tribune of the people.
That is what happened when she saw that Wasillans were tired of the nonideological, nonpartisan, unexciting mayoralty of John Stein; when she saw self-dealing among Republican insiders in Anchorage and Juneau; when she saw that Alaskans were tired of Frank Murkowski and the lobbyist culture he nursed and protected.
That is what she and John McCain tried to do last year, when Americans had grown tired of George W. Bush and Republican misrule (things didn't work out the way they'd hoped). The next time Palin sees a gap separating the people and their government, she may try to jump in and fill it.
Here's some of the 30% (ea).
A rare and necessary talent for a great politician is the capacity to ignore or laugh off the critics' most vicious assaults. FDR had it. So did Reagan. When Palin spoke at the 2008 Republican convention, it seemed as though she had it, too. Her commanding performance gave the impression that the previous week's falsehoods, exaggerations, myths, insults, and smears did not matter to her. Not one bit.
This doesn't seem to be the case anymore, however. Over time, the attacks on Palin--on her character, intellect, appearance, femininity, and family--clearly got to her. One associate told me that, after the election, Palin made a habit of listening to talk radio, attempting to track what pundits were saying about her.
.... She could hardly give a speech in which she did not mention elite condescension and her ill-treatment at the hands of Katie Couric and leftwing bloggers. Her public performances became personal testimonials to the damage the media can inflict on a person's reputation and career. Palin was right, of course. But these were arguments for polemicists to make, not statesmen.
I talked to Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, yesterday. Ford told me that Sanford had called him for a third time since news of his affair broke last month. Ford, like Parr, said the state needs to forgive the governor and move on.
"Let's practice the religion we say we believe in," Ford said. He is running for governor in 2010.
House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham, R-Cayce, shared a letter Sanford sent him earlier this week.
The governor apologized again in the letter and pledged to work together with legislators with a more humbled spirit.
UPDATE: (ea) Notice that Ford's running for governor. That might explain the magnanimity. No pesky, pseudo-incumbent Bauer to contend with.
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The Cato Institute's Brink Lindsey tries to one-up Peggy Noonan by comparing Sarah Palin's ability to stir sympathetic support with Marion Barry's.
"I see her as kind of epitomizes everything that's gone wrong with conservatism, the red state Marion Barry.
.... A complete clown, who knows nothing about public policy, manifestly unqualified to be Vice-President. I think it was a disqualifying move by John McCain to have chosen this person so whimsically and impulsively.... and yet because liberal elites disdain her, she's got the right enemies, and so people rally around her.
[They think] just because those people hate her, she must be good. Well, just because your enemies hate someone doesn't mean that person's good -- just because they despise you, it may be that you're despicable.... doesn't mean that an incompetent, congenital liar is good for the country.... the conservative base has gotten suckered into a self-defeating love affair with a pied piper."
Without commenting on the content, these kind of internet video calls between two people always seem a bit pretentious.
Al Jazeera's Avi Lewis probably thinks he has a "gotcha" moment here, but there actually is -- as Newt says -- a fundamental difference.
Another way to create a gasoline-led crisis (and one that the Senate rejected earlier this year) is putting pressure on those suppliers Iran's come to rely on for turning its crude oil into gas.
I wrote about all this in March, so now's a good time to plagiarize myself.
--
During the general election, Arizona Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain agreed with Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, on something besides the importance of winning Arizona.
Iran.
Click here to see how the US can impose heavy economic pressure and political consequence w/out spiking an increase in the cost of oil.
Or you can continue reading our user-friendly version.
Iran hasn't developed the capacity to turn its crude oil into gasoline, and is heavily dependent on foreign sources.
4 of those 5 sources are European, and if those companies agreed to stop sending gasoline Iran's way, the little country that could might not be able to.
Iran's buddies, Russia and China, can't help them out, b/c both countries are also heavy dependents on imported gas.
A European-led ban could provoke considerable political chaos in Iran. Last year, the government tried rationing for a bit; then realized the political consequences were too great.
In other words, they'd be losing more than their government jobs.
Now here's where it gets ugly for the GOP (don't worry, Democrats come later). President Bush never even asked the Euros to consider such a ban.
And that's despite the fact that, according to Orde Kittrie, the United States has considerable leverage over the European companies that could cause such mayhem.
Barack Obama, running for President; sounding very clear at least twice about the options:
"Iran right now imports gasoline . . . if we can prevent them from importing the gasoline that they need . . . that starts changing their cost-benefit analysis. That starts putting the squeeze on them."
"We should work with Europe, Japan and the Gulf states to find every avenue outside the U.N. to isolate the Iranian regime -- from cutting off loan guarantees and expanding financial sanctions, to banning the export of refined petroleum to Iran."
Fast forward to the Senate floor, circa Wednesday, and a passionate appeal from Jon Kyl to support an amendment to the omnibus bill that would ban any $ in the omnibus from supporting a company that has a business presence in Iran's energy sector.
It says very simply: That none of the funds made available in this appropriations legislation, can go to companies helping Iran either import or export energy or energy-related goods.... Why would American legislators and policy makers provide American taxpayer dollars to assist them?
(ea) Well, apparently American legislators and policy makers don't mind it all that much.
Jon Kyl's amendment was defeated just minutes ago, 53-41.
Notes: Only four Democrats crossed party lines to support the amendment: Evan Bayh of Indiana; Russ Feingold of Wisconsin; Bill Nelson of Florida; Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
Democrats called this amendment a political move to stall action on the Omnibus. Some, including Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), supported the general theme of this amendment but wanted to wait until a policy review is completed by the Obama Administration.
Why wait? This is Iran. This isn't an amendment on hand guns in D.C.
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It doesn’t bode well for Tim Pawlenty’s prospects nationally when he has such an uphill battle in his own state.
Other items:
a. T-Paw's approval rating's at 44%/48%.
b. Sarah Palin's at 39%/53%
c. Barack Obama's at 54%/39%
d. In the hypothetical matchup with Pawlenty, Obama takes 14% of the conservative vote; T-Paw, only 6% of liberals. Against Palin, the numbers are similar.
Notes: T-Paw's showing is bad news, but a national strategy shouldn't depend on Minnesota, anyway.
Who: Only 50 protesters out of over 6,000 members in the associated Facebook group.
Why: It's a lot easier to point and click than shout and heckle. It was stormy, too.
Quote: From the rally's leader, Marilyn Hemingway:
We've heard from a lot of people through emails and phone calls who said "Sorry we can't be here but we are behind you 100 percent." I did not know what to expect. I'm happy with the turnout.
In her new obit of Sarah Palin, Peggy Noon works to strip conservatives of some "Palin myths".
The myths: that Palin's working class, that she represents the only hope of the non-Ivies, that elites hate her, that she makes the GOP look inclusive, that she'll use the next few years to do her homework.
A few of those are questionable. Relative to her political class, Palin is working class. And elites do hate her. But that's just because most elites are liberal. Conservative elites (who are every bit as elitist as liberals) adore her. Sean Hannity is just as much an elite as David Brooks. Same with Coulter vs. Noonan. Again, elitism is not ideology.
But beyond the political opportunism Noonan sees, there's a much larger concern.
And that is that Sarah H. Palin is the second coming of George W. Bush, and we're only a half year from his disastrous Presidency (And it was disastrous. The statute of limitations for conservatives admitting it was disastrous is officially gone).
Noonan (ea):
She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.
.... Really, she is the most careless sower of discord since George W. Bush, who fractured the party and the movement that made him. Why wouldn't the media want to keep that going?
The reaction from Palin fans is already predictable: they'll call Noonan an odd-toed ungulate (and this about the woman who wrote many of Reagan's great speeches, incidentally), and they'll say she has it out for Palin. And they're right. Noonan does have it out for Palin.
But if Palin's really the second coming of Ronald Reagan, why would Noonan criticize her so sharply? Noonan knew Reagan much better than nearly all of us, and knows Palin probably as well as all of us, if only because even Sarah Palin's toe glitter gets attention.
So why the great apprehension?
If Palin were to concede even an inch of ignorance, that might mean a mile. But it would be a mile in the right direction.
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In his op-ed for the Washington Examiner today, Newt Gingrich says Leon Panetta's recent comments during a June 24th closed briefing (click here for more) don't vindicate Nancy Pelosi; in fact, they do quite the opposite.
Now, her defenders are trying to make the argument that Panetta's recent testimony vindicates her outrageous claim that the CIA lies to Congress "all the time."
However, even if we are to take these seven Democrat's claims about the content of his [Panetta's] testimony at face value, this news does not vindicate Pelosi words, it vindicates Panetta's - exactly those words which he is now being asked to retract.
After all, it was Panetta himself who informed Congress of these past infractions.
By making it a point to correct the record with Congress, his testimony is a demonstration indeed that "It is not [the CIA's] policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our laws and values."
While introducing a segment with former Massachusetts Governor, Jane Swift, Greta Van Susteren complains about a Sarah Palin joke based around the gov's sex appeal.
VAN SUSTEREN: Governor Palin gets trashed.... And David Letterman -- he also can't stay away from the governor, either.
She then runs the following clip, and concludes:
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, perhaps Letterman should just already apologize. He did once before.
Now you can't acknowledge a former beauty pageant contestant was a beauty pageant contestant.
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SD Sen. John Thune tells conservatives to remain vigilant and united on card check, claiming Democrats might signal a willingness to compromise on the legislation in order to pass a cloture vote.
But taking them at their word is risky business, and after cloture, all bets are off.
"[The bill] is going to move further to the left as you get into conference with the house…. with pretty much most of the elements of the original bill when it comes out of conference.”
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In the clearest sign yet of Sarah Palin's national ambitions, the Gov. tells the Washington Times she'll crisscross the nation, campaigning for both Republicans and Democrats.
