Palin: "Little Shop of Horrors" According to McCain Aide

Vanity Fair released an August 2009 article by Mark Purdham which paints Sarah Palin in a negative light and questions her actions throughout her political career. In an era where many fear Palin could challenge Obama for the presidency in 2012, it's easy to understand the motive behind the article.

According to mypalpalin, a new anti-Palin conspiracy was uncovered March 9, 2009 (4 months after the election ended):

MEDIA EXEC ADMITS NEW ANTI-PALIN CONSPIRACY

A private source at a major New York daily newspaper has admitted on condition of anonymity that the paper is one of several working closely with an army of young bloggers and at least one TV network to ensure that the flow of negative publicity targeting Sarah Palin continues unabated for the next four years.

“The thinking is, We can’t afford to let her bounce back,” he said. “If she’s all shined up and ready to go in 2012, and if ordinary people have already started to rebel against the consequences of some of Barack’s more extreme economic and social policies, we’re in deep trouble. The decision has been made at the highest levels to keep Palin down, at any cost and by any means necessary.”

On June 30, 2009, we found out which New York newspaper the blogger was referring to when Michael Saul of the New York Daily News wrote a hit piece in advance of a Vanity Fair article that would revisit the story that "recounts how strained Palin's relationship was with the McCain advisers."

One would think Vanity Fair would name McCain campaign aide names instead of regurgitating the same old campaign story that quoted spineless anonymous sources. But the article goes on to explain that these campaign aides won't come forward because of bruised egos and their own unwillingness to accept their complicity in a situation which would expose their leader for what they fear would be seen as bad judgment:

None of McCain’s still-loyal soldiers will say negative things about Palin on the record. Even thinking such thoughts privately is painful for them, because there is ultimately no way to read McCain’s selection of Palin as reflecting anything other than an appalling egotism, heedlessness, and lack of judgment in a man whose courage, tenacity, and character they have extravagantly admired—and as reflecting, too, an unsettling willingness on their own part to aid and abet him.

If the "One longtime McCain friend and frequent companion on the trail (who) was heard to refer to Palin as 'Little Shop of Horrors,'" Saul refers to in his article is Mark Salter, than shouldn't Saul or Purdham name him or some of the other weaklings who contributed to this?

Bill Kristol provided the first name Vanity Fair should have included:

Meanwhile, on the day Purdum’s piece hit the web (today), a journalist who had expressed suspicions in the past that elements of the McCain campaign had undercut Palin suddenly got a friendly e-mail from top McCain-Palin campaign strategist Steve Schmidt. This journalist hadn’t heard from Schmidt in months. Perhaps Steve was nervous someone would finger him for the Purdum piece. One reason people might do so is this passage in Purdum’s article: “All the while, Palin was coping not only with the crazed life of any national candidate on the road but also with the young children traveling with her. Some top aides worried about her mental state: was it possible that she was experiencing postpartum depression? (Palin’s youngest son was less than six months old.)” In fact, one aide who raised this possibility in the course of trashing Palin’s mental state to others in the McCain-Palin campaign was Steve Schmidt.

(Update 04/05/09: Kristol vs Schmidt, Round 2 & McCain staffers push back on Vanity Fair's Palin profile)

There are no extra-marital affairs, misappropriation of funds or the sale of a senate seat here. There's just a woman who can take down corruption on both sides of the aisle simply by what she represents. That's a clear and pending danger to the power elites in both parties.

The Vanity Fair article is long and well written. But it is nothing more than an anti-Palin op ed piece delivered with a straight face and no verifiable sources.

Palin supporters need not be worried about losing faith in their leader. They need to be more worried about losing faith in their country, which has become a place where the media smears people for political purposes in place of delivering fair and balanced facts to an electorate that is too busy watching Michael Jackson coverage, a situation that doesn't leave much time for independent research or mundane things like Cap & Trade or healthcare reform.

Palin will take the hit and survive. Everyone should remember that something similar to this happened to Hillary Clinton. "As first lady, Hillary Clinton had a habit of raging at even senior White House aides, hurling personal insults designed to belittle and humiliate them in front of their colleagues, according to former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers," in a reprint of a story quoting from an interview for a joint production of ABC's Nightline and PBS's Frontline.

Mark Purdham is the "Sleazy" "Slimy" "Scumbag" husband of Dee Dee Myers, according to former President Bill Clinton, as reported by Mayhill Fowler of The Huffington Post.

Those who don't understand the underlying game of the politics of personal destruction and the media's complicity in it may fall for the story. And when they do, they should walk around with signs on them that say "I'm a well duped idiot." This way historians will know who to blame when America goes the way of the Roman Empire.

In Ronald Reagan's America, we disagreed cheerfully and with respect. Consensus was forged in the arena of ideas. In Barack Obama's America, we smear each other and whoever gets the most people to fall for the bullshit wins. We're living in a different America now: a grungy dirty city sliding down the side of a hill.

Once again, the media fails to look more deeply into the real issues of why we are declining as a nation. They really never wanted to cover ACORN, even after indictments and convictions were issued against some its branches. The President's firing of inspector generals? Nothing to see here, please move on. Cap & Trade? Not important enough. Michael Jackson died you know. Now they're trying to kill Sarah Palin. Exciting TV!

Our culture deteriorates as a celebrity focused nation watches.

Today's America is a lot scarier than what the media may think of Sarah Palin. But, if the media's participation in the decline of America is understood by the American people in time, Palin will come out on top. The media and government elites on both sides know that she has to be stopped "at all costs." If they are unsuccessful in doing this, the sludge that underlies the corruptocracy that is at the heart of both political parties will be expunged, and with it many of those who seek Palin's demise.

Winning the presidency after brutal attacks and articles like Vanity Fair's will hold much more weight in a historical context than her temperament or experience ever will.

Smear Merchant Mocks Alaska Governor's Son To Raise Money To Accuse Governor of Smear

Let's set it straight and set it straight early. This is hypocracy and lunacy. Alaskan blogger Linda Kellen (Celtic Diva) is looking to raise over $5,000 of other people's money to determine if Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was involved in a smear campaign conducted against ethics violation filer Andrea McLeod. How is she doing this? By smearing Palin with an abusive picture mocking her special needs son, Trig.

Kellen is going to try to accuse Governor Palin of an ethics violation by questioning the connection of information legally provided by the Governor's office to Eddie Burke (KBYR talk show host) and Sheila Toomey (Alaska Ear gossip columnist) as part of a smear campaign against McLeod on radio and in blog. In doing so, she mocks Trig Palin (see the abusive picture on Conservatives4Palin) and the Conservatives4Palin fundraising effort for the Alaska Trust Fund, Sarah Palin's legal defense fund in her own effort to raise funds to pay the costs of obtaining emails between Palin, Burke and Toomey.

It's a smear campaign designed to accuse the smeared of being a smearer.

Conservatives4Palin calls it "Disgusting." They say Celtic Diva "should be ashamed of" herself before asking the money question: "Is this the position of the Alaska Democratic party?"

Politically aware people know that Linda Kellen (Celtic Diva) by the nature of her being a Democratic political operative during the 2008 presidential campaign was heavily involved in a major smear campaign herself against vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Andy Martin says Obama is responsible for anti-Palin smears. He says "smears are an integral part of any Barack Obama/David Axelrod operation." Martin wrote "Obama controls a sophisticated network of left-wing bloggers (emphasis added) and mainstream media dupes."

As soon as the buzz hit after Sarah Palin's convention speech, Democrat operatives went to work devising ways to undermine Palin's candidacy. On September 8, 2008, FactCheck.org noticed an unusual amount of internet traffic smearing Sarah Palin. Eric Erickson at Human Events pointed his finger specifically at David Axelrod when he wrote that "When those grassroots attacks are manufactured by public relations firms, they aren’t real: they’re astroturfed -- fake attacks designed to look like a grassroots movement."

I find it hard to believe Ms. Kellen stayed home to work in her garden that day since she was the official Alaska blogger for the DNC (Sam Kinison raised voice at the end for emphasis).

Palin's poll numbers were high the day the smear campaign went full tilt, which discounts the possibility of an unhappy electorate coming out en masse to protest Palin's selection as VP candidate. When she had just pushed the McCain campaign into a tie with Obama, the Obama campaign and its surrogates manufactured a false impression that there was a popular outcry against Palin. The rumors went as far as to be picked up by the mainstream media and would eventually be used to create a false impression that Mrs. Palin "was not ready for prime time."

Celtic Diva continues to smear Sarah Palin on her blog in a coordinated effort with the likes of Shannyn Moore and AKMuckracker, left wing hacks who "reported" on Governor Palin's speech introducing Michael Reagan in Anchorage on June 6, 2009. Shannyn Moore and AKMuckraker attended the speech and also had an affiliate in New York who saw the Sean Hannity interview on June 8, 2009. Both events are described on AKMuckraker's blog The Mudflats. Moore's Palin Derangement Syndrome is evident in the large number of anti-Palin articles on her Huffington Post blog.

From Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis website:

Eddie Burke (KBYR talk show host) and Sheila Toomey (Alaska Ear gossip columnist) both seemed to be participating in a coordinated smear campaign of citizen watchdog Andree McLeod. Both received inside information from the Administration that they discussed in their respective mediums. Both made claims that they were receiving/had received documents from requesting records of the State. Knowing how it works and knowing the timing required, that seemed highly unlikely if not impossible.

So, I did my own records request(s) looking to see what kind of communication between the Palin Administration and these media figures was actually going on. The initial price tag--$65,000!

I replied to Linda Perez, Administrative Director of the Department of Administration, combining the records requests into one and limiting the scope. I also asked for an explanation of the search process that was taking 16 hours per employee.

I received a response back from Linda Perez, Palin's right-hand-woman, over at the Office of the Governor (click on the letter for a larger size of each page):

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2424/3629053429_20acb72101_o.jpg

To think that Ms. Kellen is going to craft together some far stretching story about a coordinated smear campaign being conducted from the Governor's office is preposterous. Eddie Burke and Sheila Toomey obtained the documents legally and used them to go after an ankle biter. Good for them. Isn't that the game Kellen and her cohorts have been playing against Governor Palin since day one?

Fair minded Americans of all political persuasions should have no problem with Palin supporters dragging the likes of McLeod, Celtic Diva and her cohorts through the mud because they deserve it. Those who live by the sword of smear shall die by the sword of smear.

The political reality is that the Democrat party won the 2008 election using their rules, the smear rules and the Alinsky rules. Elections have consequences. They own the board now.

Conservatives, who normally don't like to get their hands dirty, have found that there is no longer a choice in the matter. They have to play now. The deterioration in the polls for George W. Bush was due highly in part to his unwillingess to fight back. Having recognized that, conservatives are now prepared to take the Democrat smear machine head on and defeat it at its own game.

So Celtic Diva, the official Democrat smear merchant of the 2008 presidential campaign, is going to spend other people's money to determine if Governor Palin is a smear merchant. That's pretty friggin funny if you ask me.


Patrick S. Adams is a freelance blogger.

Liberal "Emo's" Still Far From Arena of Ideas

During the past week or so, Sarah Palin has articulated positions on energy, big government, missile defense, autism and misogyny. And as such, liberals started yelling and screaming and carrying on like babies and wash women in thousands of blogs whining about, smearing and defaming Palin and her family.

As I scour the internet looking for arguments from the other side, most of it is drivel. I am having a really hard time finding a blog that articulates a well thought out, logical argument with detailed and reasonable counter arguments to Palin's positions. Shannyn Moore came close when she questioned why Palin waited until now to attack the smears, but even that was just a front for her agenda: destroy Sarah Palin.

That silly thing Keith Olbermann and Margaret Carlson did on Countdown last night about the First Amendment and the military: lame.

Here's the conservative argument: Sarah Palin says she thinks government is growing too big, we need to be more energy independant, we're too in debt to China, the president is weak on missile defense and David Letterman did an injustice to young girls.

Here's the liberal response: She's an evil bitch.

As a political scientist, I tried to interpret that intellectually deep response and here's what I came up with. No, there's nothing there about how the gas pipeline could hurt the environment. No, there's nothing there about how we need big government to help us out of the economic mess. No, there's nothing there about how missile defense is too expensive. All I hear is cackling.

I can't engage in good quality dialogue with cacklers. I can't agree to disagree agreeably with cacklers.

This is how liberals (and liberal misogynists I may add) and Alan on Mother Jones respond to Sarah Palin supporters:

her ugly cunt supporters.

They smell blood in the water, vaginal blood apparently, and they're not going to shut up about it.

Talk about being out-debated. We're going to need to do more research to counter that argument.

Liberals are incapable of defeating conservatives in the arena of ideas. I'm a little late to responding to a commenter on one of my other blogs, but yes we are superior to liberals in that we have the facts on our side. We don't make any of this stuff up as we go to suit our political purposes. We know exactly what the founders meant when they wrote our founding documents and we're humble enough to know not to change any of it.

We know that if Obama scares the living hell out of us than we are going to change that by convincing people with our ideas. The Tea Party movement, the growing legions of Sarah Palin supporters, the growing popularity of people like Bob McDonnell, Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann and Bobby Jindal are all testaments to the fact that conservatives get the deal.

It's okay if you're a liberal. This is a free country. Unfortunately Camille Paglia and maybe Alan Colmes are the only liberals I know who are capable of holding an intellectually honest discussion, even I disagree with them. The rest of them all are just a bunch of nasty hate mongering fools who couldn't string together a decent argument if they hired Tom Hopkins to do it for them.

Now here's the kicker, libs. The Alinsky stuff you guys are trying to do: we're onto it. You see, liberals are so dumb that we can even beat them at that. Dart boards with Keith Olbermann's face on it and pictures of Obama eating chicken may seem offensive to you, but that's the whole idea. We're online now and we're having a blast ridiculing and marginalizing you. We know we have to do this. It's the rules now.

Liberals created the rules to the game we play now. They own the board. They won the last election.

Since we're smarter and bigger in numbers now, we are going to beat liberals at their own game. And when we win, we are going to own the board and have them play our game in the arena of ideas. They will get crushed there. At least on their board as it is now, we know we can beat them, but we also know they're going to make it close.

This is only going to help us pay more attention to our game and play it tighter.

Liberals play on the emotions. They are "emo's." They play off the more basic animal instincts of man. Conservatives are more evolved. We have our basic instincts too and we're going to use them now because we have to. But we are also using logic behind the scenes to make the impact of our Alinsky tactic reversal on liberals more effective.

We learned a lot from the left in the last election. We learned how to use the new media. We learned so much about radical politics we could probably get a better grade on the test than they would if we were taking a college course together. Sarah Palin is so dumb, isn't she? She took the left wing smear campaign that was killing her and turned it into a major political victory.

-She turned a quiet trip to fund raise for autistic children into a symposium on policy because a bunch of ankle biters from Alaska followed her every move on their blogs. Yes, she did plan on unveiling the gas pipeline in the msm, but the rest of it all was the liberal's fault. Blame yourselves, lefties. Don't blame Sarah Palin. You screwed up this time.

-She eliminated the image of her not being able to handle tough mainstream media interviews by walking into the lions den and nailing it on Lauer.

-She fired up her base by blasting David Letterman, who walked right into the trap with his stupid late night jokes.

Some might be wondering if this is just an accident that broke in her favor. I know better. Sarah Palin waits for doors to open and when they do, she plows right through them. Letterman, being the "gentleman" that he is, opened one of those doors for her and she just went through it.

Sarah Palin has been barraged by spitballs from the more immature side of the political spectrum. She just pulled out the old moose gun and blew them all away. They don't like when Sarah Palin gets her way. But I do.

Liberals taught us the ally oop pass. We're just better at doing it than they are now.

We Are Not Alone

At the same time, though, I crave, if not my voice, but other voices out there, being bold, being strong, letting Americans know that those who are concerned about the growth of government and about national security issues, they're not alone. - Sarah Palin

When confronted with the possibility that Barack Obama could become president, I was horrified. At the time, John McCain was the Republican nominee for president. No vice presidential candidate had yet been named. I could almost hear the crickets chirping at McCain campaign headquarters. We were running a moderate against a charismatic hard campaigner who had the polls breaking in his favor. The Republican party was in disarray and there was public backlash to the party because of the people's unhappiness with George W. Bush.

The dark years were about to begin.

Then John McCain named Sarah Palin to be his running mate. The pain, despair and helplessness of having to endure a horrific Obama administration had just been eased - tremendously. This blogger couldn't tell you how traumatizing it would have been to live through the Obama administration if Sarah Palin didn't exist. The idea of being without a voice during what is about to become the most horrifying period in my political life was too frightening to face.

The pain has been eased. The despair and helplessness has turned to hope and optimism. Why? Because there is this wonderful lady in Alaska who carries the torch. She possesses the spirit of Ronald Reagan in her "servant's heart." She is the true embodiment of our political philosophy. She is our voice.

Sarah Palin said "Americans have to be paying attention, and we have to have our voices heard and ultimately it needs to be our will, the American people's will, imposed on Washington instead of the other way around."

Sarah Palin's will, my will, your will. "Our will." It's all one. As she hold's liberty's lamp to guide our way, we begin our journey back to that shining city on a hill.