the dumbing down of america republicans

south carolina republican senator lindsey graham on sarah palin: "People on our side like Sarah. She talks in a way they can understand."

yeah, as opposed to talking like an intelligent person.

diss of the day

alaska senator lisa murkowski, announcing she will run for the senate as a write-in candidate against sarah palin-backed tea partier joe miller and democrat scott mcadams:

"Perhaps this is one time they've met a Republican woman who won't quit on Alaska."

picking a fight above her weight belt

marcia smilack neatly disassembles sarah palin:

Palin’s comments on START reveal a disturbing truth; that when she doesn’t have an expert to tell her what to think, all she can do is recite the factoids that were drilled into her during the campaign. Switch to the GOP Southern Leadership Council where Palin is seething. Without Randy Scheunemann to advise on foreign affairs, she has to wing it. She reaches in and pulls out a card from the past:

“With all the vast nuclear experience he acquired as a community organizer, a part time Senator and a full time candidate, all that experience and still no accomplishment to date with North Korea and Iran.”

She retaliates like an Israeli commando, striking back twice as hard as she is hit, and yet there is a new element that is decidedly odd. Why is she speaking in campaign slogans from two years ago? Obama has been commander in chief for over a year, a period in which he has met or spoken with the Russian President sixteen times to personally negotiate details of the treaty.

Can it be that her real beef is not about policy, but the suggestion that she knows less than he?

the $12 million woman

who says quitters never win?

like a loaf of french bread

1. family guy episode features a character with down syndrome. at one point, the character says, "my dad's an accountant, and my mom's the former governor of alaska." the episode ends with this basic message: people with down syndrome are just like everyone else.

2. sarah palin calls it "another kick in the gut," adds “this world is full of cruel, cold-hearted people who would do such a thing,” and posts a lengthy response from daughter bristol on facebook.

beat.

3. andrea fay friedman, the actress who did the voice-over for the family guy episode, not only has down syndrome, she thinks the palins need to "get a grip."

My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the "Extra Large Medium" episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine's day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in " Smudge" but I was a blonde in "Life Goes On". I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line "I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska" was very funny. I think the word is "sarcasm".

In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.

bam. andrea friedman ftw.

here's the "offending episode" in full:

old john screws up plumber's life

joe the plumber has gone rogue:

“John McCain is no public servant. I don’t owe him shit. He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it. McCain was trying to use me. I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.”

joe's no longer supporting sarah palin, and he even has some kind words to say about barack obama.

gibbs pwns palin

white house press secretary robert gibbs gives sarah palin a hand:

palin's cheat sheet: the telepalmter

andrew sullivan dishes on palin's palm scribbles.

like anyone with a fifth grade education

sarah palin, who used her tea party speech to criticize president barack obama for, among other things, using a teleprompter, was apparently reading her answers off her hand.

lie of the year: take 2

palin wins again, with an assist from betsy mccaughey:

The "pulling the plug on grandma" falsehood really took off once former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin coined the term "Death Panel," but this falsehood got its first push from former New York lieutenant governor and health care overhaul opponent Betsy McCaughey.

She misrepresented a provision (since dropped) that merely called for Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions to help seniors make end-of-life care decisions, such as designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice or writing a living will.

the democrats' best friend

sarah palin is good for democrats. really good.

you're gonna want the october vanity fair

and here's why: his name is levi johnston. and he's talking about you-know-who:

Sarah told me she had a great idea: we would keep it a secret—nobody would know that Bristol was pregnant.

She told me that once Bristol had the baby she and Todd would adopt him. That way, she said, Bristol and I didn’t have to worry about anything. Sarah kept mentioning this plan. She was nagging—she wouldn’t give up. She would say, “So, are you gonna let me adopt him?” We both kept telling her we were definitely not going to let her adopt the baby.

an interesting plan for palin to hatch, especially considering all the early speculation about her youngest son trig, at the start of the campaign. the new york times has a preview, while the paper's gail collins actually comes to – gulp – palin's defense.

why i twitter #1: you tapper...you twitter

on yesterday's this week with george stephanopolis, guest host jake tapper (abc's senior white house correspondent) began his questioning of secretary of health and human services kathleen sebelius with this:

"Critics say they're uneasy about end of life care measures being discussed within the context of cost-cutting. Can you understand that discomfort?"

tapper framed the question that way, very specifically, twice.

the issue being debated in health care reform relates to reimbursing doctors for consultations about hospice care, living wills, and more, should a patient and a patient's family want to discuss those things. this would actually involve spending, not cost-cutting.

i was watching on dvr, so i hit pause and asked tapper about it.

tony: why keep referring to "end of life issue within the context of cost-cutting"? it involves spending, no? (paying docs to do it?)

jake: that's the argument from critics.

tony: i know, you framed it that way, but it's not true. so why repeat it twice? you asked it as though it were fact.

jake: (the president) and other (democrats) have raised the issue of end of life care in the context of cost cutting.

(tapper then referred me to this new york times article.)

tony: to me, the nyt article is a wider discussion. you were asking (health secretary) sebelious about (end of life) issues in relation to specific health care reform.

jake: yes, but look at part about end of life in that nyt story. (the president) raises (the issue) in context of cost cutting. that's NOT to say he's right or wrong, just that the notion makes some people uncomfortable, (and) not just republicans.

tony: i see that, yes. but to me, jake, it seems "leading" for you to frame the question in that way.

jake: not leading - asking her to address criticisms (and) tough (questions.)

to my mind, tapper's wording the question the way did implied something that is not true: end of life + cost cutting = the whole "we're going to get rid of granny if she's not a productive member of society," sarah palin death panel fantasy.

still, in the show's opening and later the round table segment, tapper called the death panel rumors "false claims," and "not factually correct," and pressed republican ed gillespie to repudiate them (something gillespie had a fair amount of trouble doing, instead saying "we have to be thoughtful in our language.")

but i digress. my point here is this: tapper and i had this brief discussion over twitter.

people often ask, their faces twisted into worried grimaces, "you don't twitter ...do you?"

when i say yes, i'm sure they think, "oh, it's all about seeing aston kutcher have his chest waxed." and while that's, of course, vitally important, so is the ability to have a conversation with the guy who just walked off the set of a national news program. and to his credit, he responded and engaged in discussion (something he does quite often.)

now, i'm not comparing the two, but what if you could have had a little conversation like that with walter cronkite? or david brinkley?

what might you have asked?

any kind of perceived whine

from think progress:

Since announcing that she would resign as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin (R) has been blaming her decision on the “main stream media” and political operatives who accused her of “all sorts of frivolous ethics violations.” However, last year, Palin pointedly criticized Hillary Clinton during the presidential election for complaining about “excess criticism” and being put under “a sharper microscope”:

the must read

begala skewers palin.

it's about mccain

andrew sullivan, who followed the entire palin saga closer than almost anyone, on her resigning as governor of alaska:

In the end, I think, the one thing to say is that the Republican party is in such a total state of collapse and incoherence that it actually believed she could be a future president; and that John McCain was so reckless, so cynical and so cavalier that he was prepared to rest the national security of this country on her shoulders if he, in his seventies, were to become unable to fulfill his duties or die.

In some ways, this is a moment to reflect on McCain, and his irresponsibility, not Palin and her drama.

wow.

sarah palin resigns.

the must read

i know you're tired of her, and you wish she'd just go away, but you really gotta take the time to read todd purdam's vanity fair piece on sarah palin.

suddenly it matters

"Sarah Palin is going to drop the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers hockey game. Then Palin will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of her daughter's penalty box."

a joke told by conan o'brien, last october. when bristol palin was 17. palin didn't seem to object to the many, many jokes told about her family back during the campaign.

It's conceivable that Palin was aware of the late-night jokes made about her daughter during the campaign and wanted to fight back, but kept quiet as a strategic matter, says Tim Graham, the director of media analysis for the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog organization.

A more cynical view may be that Palin had more than enough media attention last fall, and that her Letterman broadside was designed to renew attention when the spotlight is dimming. Palin may even have been aware of a Gallup poll released last week showing that she attracted less than 1 percent of Republicans who were asked to name the "main person who speaks for the Republican Party today."

does sarah palin's political strategy really matter here, in the grand scheme of apologies and taking offense? nope. (and listening to last night's apology, it sounds as though letterman has had a little diversity training on the subject.)

it's ultimately about intent and impact. in the end, it doesn't matter "what you meant." it isn't for the offender to judge whether or not someone should be hurt or offended. the intent may have been innocent, but it's the impact of the words that one needs to take ownership of, responsibility for.

last night, david letterman did just that.

sarah, can you spare a dime?

greta van susteren's husband tries to convince sarah palin to help pay down hillary clinton's campaign debt. no kidding.