Random Political News

[RottingCorpse]

I'm hoping for a Playboy spread.

Me too. MILFY . . .

[Cassander]

actually i read a whole article about how the only thing she could hope to accomplish as governor through the rest of her term was not be lynched.  the entire legislature hates her, she hasn't enacted any sort of comprehensive top-down policy, and is generally a limelight-seeking whore who has no time for alaska.  she's facing legislative overrides of several of her vetoes, including the one where she's denying federal unemployment assistance (which, for some reason, is Red State bait), and that nagging Troopergate investigation is still ongoing.  so basically she's way more popular in the contiguous 48 than back home, so it was time to cut her losses. 

i mean, whatever she does is fine with me.  she won't be the nominee in 2012, right?  I mean, that would be just crazy, right?  RIGHT? 

of course, a battle royale between Palin and my own super-square governor, Bobby Jindal would be hilarious to watch for 4 months.

[nacho]

It would be like the special olympics presidential race.

[Reginald McGraw]

Among my liberal friends, Palin elicits a similar ferocity of hatred to Hillary, among my conservative friends.

I'm wondering if there is some kind of woman-in-power trigger thing going on that only comes out when the woman in power is on the other team.  Because then it's acceptable to say whatever you like?  Dunno...I just thought of this.

[Tatertots]

It comes out when the woman in power on the other team is a FLAMING IDIOT.

I hated Hillary but at least respected the fact that she had an IQ above room temperature. Palin, on the other hand…

[RottingCorpse]

I've had long debates about this. Palin is setting back women in politics twenty years at least.

[nacho]

I sometimes wonder if that's her job.  In that Illuminati sort of way.

[RottingCorpse]

Me too.

[Tatertots]

"Department of Law"? HA HA HA! Oh my god.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8016906&page=1

After her bombshell announcement Friday that she was resigning as governor of Alaska 18 months before the end of her first term, and questions about her political future ricocheting from Alaska to Washington D.C., Sarah Palin packed it up, traveled more than 300 miles from her family home in Wasila and went fishing.

It was there in Dillingham, Alaska, on the shores of Kanakanak Beach, that ABC News joined the former Republican presidential running mate on a salmon fishing trip. Dressed in a white T-shirt and overall waders, Alaska's governor was philosophical about politics and life, all the while plucking salmon from the family fishing nets aboard a boat her husband, Todd, and a buddy built 20 years ago.

Palin said she was surprised by the media storm that followed her announcement to leave office, saying she thought it would not have been "such a darn big deal." But she struck a determined, if vague, note about her future.

"I said before I stood in front of the mic the other day, you know, politically speaking -- if I die, I die. So be it," Palin said.

"Don't know what the future holds. I'm not gonna shut any door. That -- who knows what doors open. I can't predict what the next fish run's gonna look like down on the Nushagak [River]. So I certainly can't predict what's gonna happen in the next couple of years," Palin told ABC News.

Palin hinted that whether she holds elected office again, she does not intend to live a quiet life made up entirely of family fishing trips. "I don't need a title to be the one to usher in what it is that needs to be done in our state or our country."

Palin conceded many people are still confused about why she made the decision to leave office.

"You know why they're confused? I guess they cannot take something nowadays at face value," Palin said.

But she said a major factor in the decision was the mounting legal bills she and the state have had to incur to fight ethics charges from her political adversaries. None of the accusations has been proven but, she said, the costs of fighting them have been enormous.

"You know conditions have really changed in Alaska in the political arena since Aug. 29, since I was tapped to run for VP. When that opposition research -- those researchers really bombarded Alaska -- started digging for dirt and have not let up. They're not gonna find any dirt," she said. "We keep proving that every time we win an ethics violation lawsuit and we've won every one of them. But it has been costing our state millions of dollars. It's cost Todd and me. You know the adversaries would love to see us put on the path of personal bankruptcy so that we can't afford to run."

But as for whether another pursuit of national office, as she did less than a year ago when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

There is no "Department of Law" at the White House.

Palin's Dim View of Politicians

Another major reason that Palin said she is walking away from her first term as Alaska's governor is because after she made the decision not to seek a second term as governor, she would be a lame duck and she refuses to "milk" that status. She said most politicians "say it's a paycheck, it's a paycheck and I get to travel around. No, that's politics as usual."

Palin spoke openly about her ideas for the country, national security and energy, and she took a dim view of politicians. "No, I don't really like a whole lot of politicians," she said.

Salmon fishing is a family affair for the Palins. Their fourth child, daughter Piper, age 8, was on hand to help. And 1-year-old baby Trig, who Palin said is getting ready to walk, stayed back on shore.

Palin said the family hasn't discussed any plans to move away from Alaska. But when the family discussed whether she ought to leave office, it was her eldest child, son Track, who is serving in Iraq, who voted "hell, yeah."

Husband Todd Palin said, "It's been a topic of discussion quietly for a while. It's never come to an, 'I can't take it anymore'. Let's vote. It's been a few months and it just seemed that the resistance, the wasted time and the wasted money she had to go through every day."

He said he doubts that his wife's resignation will be a weight off her shoulders. "She's gonna continue to be busy," he said.

Sarah Palin said, "Every mom that we know multi-tasks. I'm gonna keep working extremely hard but I am looking forward to having my kids by my side more, without getting criticized for having the kids by my side.

"I'm extremely happy," she said. "I know that I know that I know that this is the right thing for Alaska."

[Reginald McGraw]

It comes out when the woman in power on the other team is a FLAMING IDIOT.

I hated Hillary but at least respected the fact that she had an IQ above room temperature. Palin, on the other hand…

Okay, but she's on the other team, so who cares, right?  Why get mad about it?

[RottingCorpse]

It comes out when the woman in power on the other team is a FLAMING IDIOT.

I hated Hillary but at least respected the fact that she had an IQ above room temperature. Palin, on the other hand…

Okay, but she's on the other team, so who cares, right?  Why get mad about it?

I'm not sure exacty what you're driving at, Reggie, but let me ask you: As a conservative do you feel Palin is good for the GOP and by extension the country?

[Tatertots]

Because A) she's fucking it up for other female politicians and, B) she lowers the level of political discussion in this country to tawdry, soap opera levels. With Palin, it's never, "here's cool shit we're going to accomplish!" It's always, "oh my god you writer people are so mean to me and the defense of Alaska from the pipeline that is not a bulldog which is to say that my daughters are not up for discussion although I drag them along to every lame political engagement I do, by which I mean this is how I'm going to make our country safer. Also, negro."

[nacho]

Come on, Reggie!  Polarization is so Bush Era!

[Reginald McGraw]

I'm not really driving at anything.  I think Sarah Palin is a moron, and it's incredible to me that she could have been our vice president.  My only point here is that I notice people getting angry about the very existence of her in the same way that people get angry about Hillary.  Both of them rub me the wrong way.

I feel Palin is as good for the country as Bush or Obama;  that is to say, not good at all.  It's a big nothing to me.  I kind of hope that the GOP does something stupid like picks Palin for '12...it would be hilarious to watch...and if it led to the destruction of our political system...so be it!  That's what I want anyway.

[nacho]

and if it led to the destruction of our political system...so be it!  That's what I want anyway.

Resistenza!  Down with Mussolini!