The whole kerfuffle about Sarah Palin’s family has obscured a more important problem: that Gov. Palin is an unrepentant liar. She lied to America in her very first speech to us, when she declared, “I told Congress, ‘thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere.'” Of course, she’d told Congress no such thing; she’d supported the Bridge to Nowhere, early and often. For example:
Now, I frankly would be willing to give Palin a pass on this particular issue, at least on the merits of the issue. She’s Alaska’s governor; she’s supposed to try to wheedle federal money for her state, at least until they secede. That’s part of the job. And if she’d been quiet about her support of the Gravina Island Bridge, I wouldn’t see it as a particularly surprising or negative development when the story came out.
But lying about that support — especially when you’re on record supporting it — well, I seem to remember the GOP being really upset about lying politicians. I guess it really is okay if you’re a Republican.
Palin, of course, hasn’t just lied about the bridge. She’s lied about Troopergate. She’s lied about her stance as a pork-buster. She lied about visiting Ireland. Hell, she lied about being voted Miss Congeniality in the Miss Wasilla pageant — and who lies about something like that?
Palin has taken on the mantle of moral crusader, fighting against legal abortion, espousing conservative Christianity, and even going so far as to look into banning books during her tenure as mayor. But a moral crusader, one would hope, would at least be familiar with the foundational morality of their own faith tradition. It seems to me the Ten Commandments have something to say about bearing false witness — and if I recall correctly, they’re against it. Of course, what do I know? I’m just a Unitarian blogger. Maybe Christianity allows you to lie repeatedly, on issues of great import and issues of tangiential value, as long as it’s convenient. I don’t think it does, though, and moreover, I don’t think America wants a liar as its vice president. Then again, we’ve elected Cheney twice; maybe I’m wrong.
Palin went back and forth on the bridge. I’ll give you that one; she ought not to have made it an accent mark in her first appearance with McCain.
She did not lie about visiting Ireland. A McCain spokesman was asked what countries she’s been to; he mentioned Ireland. And she’s been there, just not for any substantial period. (A stopover on another flight, I believe.) She never claimed it as a major foreign policy accomplishment; a spokesman was asked where she’d been, and gave an accurate answer.
Your “she lied about troopergate” link doesn’t go to a story about troopergate, so I don’t know what you’re alleging.
Your “she lied about being miss congeniality” link goes to a blog claiming that she lied, and links as evidence a story about a woman she went to high school with who doesn’t support her (because she’s an Obama democrat). There’s no mention of Miss Congeniality anywhere, although there IS a comment on your original link noting that the story is mistaken, and that Palin’s claim is correct.
You, on the other hand, have made claims about Palin that have been demonstrated to be untrue, and you haven’t withdrawn them. You haven’t even acknowledged them.
I don’t know who’s lying, but I do know who’s practicing extremely shoddy journalism. You managed to avoid your fellow leftists’ “omg its really her daughter’s babeez!!!” disgrace; half a point for effort, there.
Although It’s possible that this has been a story going around the lefty blogs, literally every single lefty blog I have bookmarked has treated the Bristol Palin situation with nothing but kid gloves and calls for her privacy.
This includes Kevin Drum, The Washington Monthly, Philosoraptor, Feministe, Pandagon, Obsidian Wings, and Alas.
Like I said, it’s possible that there are huge masses of lefty blogs just ripping into Bristol, but I doubt I would somehow magically ‘just happen’ to bookmark the ones that aren’t.
—Myca
in Robert’s defense the Daily Kos has been pretty awful about the whole thing.
I was referring to the Daily Kos and DU (you know, the blogs that those you cited almost add up to in terms of traffic) and their despicable bandying of the theory that Palin’s last child was actually her daughter’s.
Ahh, gotcha. Like I said, I don’t read them, so I didn’t know.
It seems a little like pulling out comments from The Free Republic, though … I mean, duh they’re awful, that’s why they exist.
—Myca
As they are on all women’s issues. Ever. The Great Orange Satan is many things, but it is not feminist.
As for the “untrue claims,” Palin was wearing a Buchanan for President button in 1999, when he was running as a Reformist. And her husband was registered as an AIP member until 2002, which covers the period she was supposed to be active in the party. The latter is in the “unclear” phase right now, I stand by the former.
If the United Meatpackers hold a convention in a mayor’s town, the mayor will wear their button. That doesn’t make her a meatpacker. As has been definitively established, Palin worked for Steve Forbes in the election in question.
Her husband’s registration is irrelevant. (Pssst! This is a feminist blog! It’s objectionable to imply that a woman is an extension of a man.)
You are a dishonest and bad reporter.
Well Jeff, I just had to check out the “She lied about being Miss Congeniality” link. Perhaps you should re-read it yourself. According to the last posting:
I’d change “will make” to “has made”, myself. You ought to be a little more critical about the rumors you spread.
Not to mention that the party itself has been claiming her membership for a while, and it doesn’t seem like she’s been interested in denying that until just lately.
AIP vice chair George Clark:
She may be able to weasel out of it, god knows, but if she actually wasn’t a member, you’d think she would want to make that clear a little earlier.
—Myca
The story circulating on lefty blogs, most notably on Daily Kos, was that Trig Palin was actually Bristol’s child, not Sarah’s. That was what led the McCain/Palin campaign to make Bristol’s current pregnancy public. TPM mentioned the rumor but didn’t give it credence initially; today TPM Election Central has a “recommended reader post” asserting that the circumstances of Trig’s birth and the McCain campaign’s response to it still raise questions. So it’s fair to say that the story has been going around and, at least on TPM, is still going around. In my view anyone claiming the mantle of legitimate journalism should have backed off it as soon as Bristol’s pregnancy was announced.
I looked at that St. Louis story yesterday and today, and it seems that the whole Miss Congeniality angle has been scrubbed. And the commenter on the linked post is correct: that kind of thing is petty and silly. Let the GOP play that game if they want. (Not meaning you, Robert. There’s been a lot of silly going on all over the place.)
The questions about Troopergate and, even more, the questions about Palin as corruption-buster, are legit. (Btw, Amp [ETA: Dang, I mean Jeff! sorry, Jeff], you forgot Stevens’s 527, although she may not have explicitly lied about that.)
I once had a couple of hours’ layover in Denver, during which my brother, who lived nearby at the time, met me for coffee at the airport, where I remained until my connecting flight took off. If asked for a list of states I’d visited, I wouldn’t include Colorado. Yes, technically Palin has “been to Ireland,” but speaking of silly. Come on now.
This is getting pretty amazing! So far almost every story about this woman is getting shot down. Her opposition’s credibility is getting shredded. How long is it going to be before any more claims about her are going to end up as being discounted as “just another rumor” and they won’t be able to make anything that’s actually substantial stick?
As far as the Daily Kos goes, spreading deliberate lies about the paternity of Gov. Palin’s most recent child complete with altered pictures and then leveraging her 17-year old daughter has nothing to do about being feminist or not. To borrow a phrase I used earlier, it’s taking 1984 and using it as an instruction manual.
Well, there’s the fact that she denied her office pressured Monegan until she was confronted with a recording of her office pressuring Monegan. There’s the fact that the AG called Monegan on behalf of the Palins. That’s a teensy bit of lying.
What do you mean “almost every story about this woman is getting shot down?” Troopergate and the bridge to nowhere make up at least 50% (I think 66.6%) of the allegations against her. I can’t count the absurd baby conspiracy as a story, nor can I count the “lied about Miss Congeniality” story as neither came from a remotely credible source. Troopergate, lies about pork & AIP are, thus far, the only stories I’ve seen reported by credible sources. So far one has been shown not to be entirely true (and most likely not true).
Here’s my question about her alleged abuse of power: If she has nothing to hide why is she doing everything that she can to delay the completion of the investigation until after election day?
But keep the absurd claims of debunking coming.
Maybe she’s got better things to do than to deny false rumors, such as write a speech for tonight. Letting these things fester for a while before they get shot down discredits the people spreading them and may well serve her ends better. Letting yourself be forced into playing defense all the time is a great way to lose an election.
Jake Squid:
RonF:
That’s true, Ron. Why deny false rumors when you can spend time denying true ones?
Seriously, Ron. You’re embarrassing yourself.
—Myca
Letting yourself be forced into playing defense all the time is a great way to lose an election.
But she says that she has nothing to hide. Why not testify and let the investigation release its report stating that she did nothing improper? That way she doesn’t need to play defense. She just needs to testify that she never placed pressure on Monegan and never asked anybody else to place pressure on Monegan. If it was me, that’s what I’d want. In fact, I’d be seeing what could be done to get the investigation completed as soon as possible.
Unless, of course, the Attorney General has stated that he called Monegan to ask why Wooten hadn’t been fired at the behest of the Palin family. That might be a teensy bit of a problem for her. In which case her best strategy would be to delay the outcome of the investigation until after the election.
So far the issues of the trooper are leading to a guy who SHOULD be fired, although I haven’t looked into the issues of who pressured who when yet, I confess, which is why I said “almost”.
She favored getting Federal money when she was a Mayor but as Governor she cut the State’s requests from the previous year’s requests of $550 million to $198 million this year – that’s a lot of money no matter what it’s spent on. So far it seems that she flip-flopped on the bridge, but I haven’t gotten down to source documents yet. She ended up on the right side, though.
The absurd baby conspiracy certainly does count as a story given the large amount of electrons burned up on it on high volume blogs and the fact that it ended up leading to the revelation of her daughter’s pregnancy.
While claims have been made no one has offered any documentation or other evidence that she actually was a member of AIP and actually did anything to support Alaskan secession.
And how can you say that you don’t count the “Miss Congeniality” as a story when you yourself offered it as support to your allegation that she’s a liar?
And how can you say that you don’t count the “Miss Congeniality” as a story when you yourself offered it as support to your allegation that she’s a liar?
I never, ever – not even once – offered it as support that Palin’s a liar.
So far the issues of the trooper are leading to a guy who SHOULD be fired…
Not true. At least not according to the rules and regulations of the Alaska State Troopers. There was an inquiry. He was disciplined and warned that any further offenses would lead to his dismissal. There have been no further offenses.
But even if he should have been fired, there are legitimate, legal methods of achieving that goal. Palin used illegitimate, illegal methods. That is important.
The absurd baby conspiracy theory was not reported as true by any credible source of which I am aware, therefore I don’t count it as a story any more than I count bizarre conspiracy theories that she is a replicant.
She favored getting Federal money when she was a Mayor but as Governor…
So you admit that there’s factual inconsistency there. That’s a good first step for you.
Ah, Jake, please accept my apology – that was Jeff’s assertion about Miss Congeniality, not yours. I reacted faster than I read and having criticized enough people for doing that I’m angry and chagrined for having done so myself. Sorry about that.
Credible sources? What makes a story a story from my viewpoint is how many eyes and ears it’s going through. The idea that many of these sources are not credible is something you and I agree on, but regrettably there are many other people whose opinions differ. In any case, it’s a story because it got a lot of publicity and reaction. It’s a false story, but it’s a story.
As far as this business about the Trooper goes, I think we need more time to sort it out – too many conflicting claims going around. With all the other rushing to judgement and jumping to conclusions going on there’s a regular Sophistry Olympics going on.
Thanks for apologizing.
Look, when Art Bell reports on the secret tunnels from the Pacific Ocean to Lake Mead, a lot of ears hear it. It still isn’t a story because the guy isn’t credible. I don’t think that DailyKos influences and/or even reaches as many people as you fear.
The abuse of power scandal, OTOH, has actual problematic hard facts. Go read the AG’s statement on his investigation of calls to Monegan from her office – including his own. If I was vetting a VP candidate and I found that person in a similar situation, there is no way that person would be nominated for VP. This, in turn, leads to major questions on John McCain’s ability to run an organization. Never mind one as important as the executive branch of the US government.
It really doesn’t matter which side you’re on, I think it’s readily apparent that McCain is running a historically bad campaign. Kerry & Gore both also ran horrible campaigns. As did Nader in 2004 and Ford in 1976.
I question McCain’s ability to be an effective president more than ever because of his lack of vetting his VP nom. In fact, McCain’s atrocious leadership & organizational abilities have done more to convince me to vote for Obama than anything else. Before Palin’s nomination, I was only going to vote for Obama if it was close here in Oregon. But McCain is so bad that I’m beginning to feel the need to vote Dem just to make a statement about how bad things have become with the other major party. So, yeah, the nomination has been effective in convincing this independent which way to vote. This may not be the result that the Republican party (please note asshats what keep writing “Democrat Party” what a minimum of respect is) really wants.
Yeah, I disagree with Palin on virtually every imaginable issue, but I’d be jumping all over Biden if he had comparable problems.
Especially since the ‘book banning’ story seems to indicate that Sarah Palin’s abuse of power in firing people may be a pattern.
—Myca
Just to defend DailyKos, there was no mention that I am aware of anything relating to Trig’s parentage on any front page post on DailyKos (oh wait, Kos comments that he doesn’t believe the Trig rumor when he mentions that the Bristol rumor is true). There was one major “Palin wasn’t really pregnant” diary, which got a huge number of comments, mostly of the “shut up and go away” variety, although there were lots of interested comments, and lots of crass misogynist comments as well. That diary did make it on to the recommended list, which was certainly appalling, but the design of sites like DailyKos means that even a medium sized minority can push something that interests them onto the recommended list (there is no vote down option, only a vote up option). There were also plenty of follow up diaries on Trig, but I don’t believe any except the first made the recommended list.
Sullivan, on the other hand, made an absolute ass of himself, but then nobody claims him as a liberal or a progressive or a feminist.
I don’t know if this counts as a lie, but in light of recent news, it’s an interesting contradiction: The Washington Post reported a couple days ago that Palin made a line item veto eliminating funding for a program to help pregnant teens.
Elsewhere on this blog I have argued that her daughter’s pregnancy is not a valid argument for or against abstinence (of safe sex ed), because it is one instance, a personal level anecdote with too many subjective variables.
But here is a matter of policy that has a direct impact on young women in a situation similar to her own daughter’s – save for a lack of access to the same services and assistance as her daughter. Pretty disgusting.
Pingback: Liars « D is for Delightful
Mcbush and pilan (pit bull) or PIG—The GOP (grand old polluters) will continue to lie about everything and have no shame–They make Nixon look like an alter boy
..
Palin, McCain’s Bridge to Distraction
Palin said she was in Iraq; she lied; she never went past the Kuwait-Iraq border.
Palin said she opposed the bridge to nowhere; she lied, she supported it early and often.
Palin said she didn’t seek earmarks; she lied, she hired a lobbyist to get millions…
Palin said she was against corrupt politicians; she lied, she’s one herself with ongoing investigations today.
Palin inferred that she sold the airplane on ebay: she lied, it was later sold at a loss through an ordinary aircraft broker only after a long wait and a hugh loss.
Palin says she’s ready for the presidency; she lies, she has no clue.
Palin is a liar, in addition to being a corrupt politician. She and McCain soulmates.
Her ONLY accomplishment has been to divert the nation’s attention from McCain’s lack of anything other than same old corrupt politics.
Implied, not inferred.
A lie repeated is still a lie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNFwNijD0Qo
Forget about the fact that the past 8 years have been the most shameful in our nation’s history;
Forget about the fact that 4 years of McCain/Palin is no different than 4 more years of Bush/Cheney and their blatant criminal activities (including their policy of illegally invading countries and slaughtering and torturing their civilians; policies which McCain and Palin are clearly eager to continue);
Forget about the rape of our civil liberties during the past 8 years;
Forget about the fact that Sarah Palin is a proven habitual liar thoroughly unqualified to lead, wants to repeal Roe V. Wade, and revels in banning books;
Then again, regardless whether like me you simply CAN’T forget these things, two (highly oxymoronic) words should prevent ANYONE from voting Republican next month given McCain’s now well into his Golden Years with a couple of heart attacks under his belt:
President Palin (almost as oxymoronic — and moronic — as President Bush)
(Shudder)
Whether you’re religious or not, may God help us all if the mindless sheep win this time. PLEASE do all you can to help anyone and everyone understand the dire consequences if we don’t reclaim our country from the criminals who’ve held it hostage for the past 8 years.
GET OUT THE VOTE!!!!
Off soapbox (for now).
for us in the uk we cant believe that anyone like ‘sarah appauling’ could get so far in her career,forget being VP,how the hell did she become a big shot in Alaska?..didnt the moose turn up to run against her???
It’s interesting to note that all of the letters needed to spell “Sarah Palin is a Liar” are found within “Sarah Palin”