A Word of Warning for Mrs. Palin
With each passing day after announcing on July 3 her resignation from the office of Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has begun to open up to the world regarding the deeper motive for her resignation. This is not to say the reasons she set forth in her announcement are in any way false - in fact, they are all very good reasons and make perfect sense.
Were she resigning for those reasons alone I would applaud her decision. But I suspect she isn’t and if a sin was committed here it was one purely of omission.
Nor can I blame her: in the current political environment she has no choice but to become like the wily and shrewd Arctic fox - the intrepid little canid that inspired her nickname.
Should she decide to continue a career in politics, Mrs. Palin will spend the rest of her natural life playing her cards very close to the vest, insofar as the enemy - the liberal statist establishment, the Drive-By media and all the Kool-Aid Drinkers, Hopium Smokers, and Obamagasmic Useful Idiots - will join forces in an apocalyptic effort to destroy her.
What will make the journey an especially perilous one for her is the presence of an entire Fifth Column in the Republican Party comprised of quislings and the neo-Vichy otherwise known as RINOs.
It follows that not only her success but her very political survival will depend on her ability to navigate through treacherous political waters without grounding on media shoals or partisan reefs. It is therefore imperative that she not only choose her battles wisely but also investigate putative allies thoroughly.
In this regard, I am issuing a warning to Mrs. Palin regarding the state of New Jersey that will become clear tomorrow when I publish the results of the Chris Smith Cap and Trade protest and the disturbing news I received from a member of the New Jersey Republican State Committee.
Earlier today I was discussing the Palin issue with a friend and pointed out that a dilemma could arise if she visits the state of New Jersey to stump on behalf of the Republican candidate for Governor, Chris Christie. As faithful readers know by now, Christie is worse than a RINO - he’s a political hack and a member of a GOP establishment in New Jersey that is every bit as corrupt and bereft of core values and principles as the Democrat Party.
In the absence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary and in spite of the sneering dismissal of her bona fides by my friend Paul Mulshine (yes, he is my friend, so suck it up), there is no reason to believe that Sarah Palin is not a solid Reagan conservative - perhaps not a perfectly pure and perfectly orthodox conservative - but then again, neither was Reagan. We must not let the perfect become the enemy of the good and allow a fetish for doctrinal purity to overwhelm the necessity for compromise that inevitably accompanies every political endeavor.
There are times when every conservative strays from the True Faith and it is incumbent upon reasonable men and women to evaluate a political leader on the basis of their core values together with the good they have accomplished and resist any urge to burn them at the stake if they occasionally fail to live up to the lofty and sometimes unrealistic expectations we have of them.
The dilemma I spoke of earlier would necessarily arise if Mrs. Palin endorsed Chris Christie - in effect, making the same horrific error in judgment Sean Hannity made when he implicitly endorsed Christie over Reaganite conservative Steve Lonegan during the gubernatorial primary a couple of months ago. On his radio and cable television shows, Hannity brays incessantly and annoyingly about how he is not so much a Republican but a conservative - a schtick made egregiously hollow when he offered air time to Christie but ignored Lonegan. Given the margin by which Christie defeated Lonegan (55% to 42%) it is not unreasonable to attribute much of the blame for the loss to Hannity’s singular blunder - for which he has yet to offer an explanation, much less an apology.
This isn’t the first time Hannity has acted this way: in the gubernatorial primary in California he all but ignored Reagan conservative Tom McClintock so he could fawn over RINO Arnold Schwarzeneggar, who went on to defeat McClintock and become Governor Musclehead.
What most people don’t realize is that Hannity lost a lot listeners and viewers in the NY metro area (and likely in California). It may very well not register on the Arbitron scale and perhaps Hannity feels he can afford the loss. Nevertheless, those listeners - and I am among their number - are gone and will never return. Absent any explanation for what he did, Hannity no longer has any credibility as a conservative.
THAT is the problem Sarah Palin would have if she stumped for a RINO and I made this much clear to my friend: like Hannity she would appear either clueless or, worse, a fraud. An error of that magnitude would seriously taint her credibility among conservatives who take this battle for the nation’s soul seriously and don’t regard it as simply a vehicle for ratings as Sean Hannity appears to regard it.
Fortunately, the Christie folks made my concerns moot - at least for New Jersey:
New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie’s campaign has no interest in help from Sarah Palin after the former vice presidential candidate stepped down as governor of Alaska, in part to help Republican candidates across the country.
New Jersey Republican Chairman Jay Webber said he’d had no contact with Palin or her team about a campaign visit on behalf of Chris Christie, who polls show is leading Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in the race.
“We don’t have any plans on having her in,” Webber said. “We’re busy working to get Chris Christie elected and telling people about the failed record of Gov. Corzine.”
Last November in the national election in New Jersey, President Barack Obama trounced the McCain-Palin ticket by 15 percentage points.
Jay Webber - of whom I will have more to say tomorrow - may be considered the Faust of the Republican Party in New Jersey: ostensibly a solid conservative, he was called upon by Mephistopheles Chris Christie to head up the GOP in this state after the latter won the primary - a move that immediately alarmed NJ conservatives, as it was akin to Barack Obama asking Jim De Mint to be part of his administration. After Webber accepted, it was evident he sold his soul for a cushy seat on the establishment gravy train.
It reminds me of the heady days of Henry VIII, when the price of one’s soul included the Welsh Dragon on the chain of office:
My, how the cost of a human soul has diminished. At least Marcy Kaptur sold hers for $3.5 billion. Jay Webber sold out for less…FAR less.
The message of the New Jersey GOP is loud and clear: Sarah Palin is not welcome here. And, in many respects - hell, in ALL respects - that’s a good thing. The GOP in New Jersey is a sad, sorry, pathetic simulacrum of the party of Ronald Reagan. It is a political Potemkin Village - a fake, phony, fraudulent facade that would have injured Mrs. Palin far more than she could ever have helped us.
At best, her presence here would have boosted the morale of the conservative faction - if only temporarily. But the fact she is not coming - indeed, the fact she has not been invited - only strengthens our resolve.
The Republican Party in New Jersey must be destroyed and built up anew from the foundation. Tomorrow, you will understand why I say this.
In the meantime, I urge Mrs. Palin: Tread carefully, madam. Study the landscape in detail before you venture forth to preach your evangel, for there are snakes everywhere and the most deadly among them dwell in our own midst.
If it’s true.. I hope she listens……
Good read. I have to admit I winced a bit when I heard she was going to help Perry in Texas. Somehow I doubt Perry is as bad as Cristie. She does need to be careful. I hope she helps Rubio out!
I do not know about anyone else here, but I am really fed up with those on our side doing the following 1) not reading what she said at least twice and 2) not reading the ethics complaints along with the ethics laws. You tell people to read them, and to think about it. The response is the ethics laws do not matter, she is a quitter. It is like our side is as hardheaded as the Dems are about President Chutes&Ladders! They will not listen.
Again, I am not sold solid gold on Palin, but I at least want the criticism on our side to be based on perhaps her policies, or questions on her policies rather than not even pausing to contemplate her speech, and the impact of the ethics charges along with the laws, along with the costs of these frivolous lawsuits.
And can I just say I despise Tucker Carlson? Good! I despise Tucker Carlson.
If Palin is armed with all the facts about this Rhino, Chris Christie, I do not think she will go to NJ.
I’m a huge fan of Sarah’s, but yes, whoever she campaigns for better be clearly right of center not in words but in past behavior too.
Otherwise, her conservative creds. will hemmorage immediately and that cannot be easily built back up.
If she wants to help build up the conservative movement in America, she will need to focus on the vision and find those candidates that share at least 75% of it, without the last 25% being glaring.
She will need OUTSIDE the beltway types, but those outsiders need to be people from all over the conservative landscape. What is conservative in one state or district may not be the same as a conservative in another.
The good thing is that Reagan conservatism is for the most part bigtent over the country.
She will become more powerful if her movement gradually merges with the Tea Party Movement. Everything I’ve studied about her for the last 18 months says she overlaps more than any GOP national figure with the issues of the Tea Parties.
Suggestion for Sarah:
Don’t campaign for the following people - Charlie Crist, Chris Christie, Kay Bailey Hutchison, or any other known RINO amongst the GOP grassroots. Campaign for conservative democrats but only if they have a clear conservative track record.
Everything tells me though that Sarah is not reckless, but cautious and alert in some respects.
It is gonna be exciting from now til CPAC in Feb. I’m guessing.
If it goes well, I will relish the mauling of the Rombots by her ordinary barbarians and she’ll easily run away and crush the others in the straw poll.
I think she will, now that she has some free time, actually go talk to and research folk before cheering them on. I’m not worried about this crap.
“…What will make the journey an especially perilous one for her is the presence of an entire Fifth Column in the Republican Party comprised of quislings and the neo-Vichy otherwise known as RINOs…”
Now THIS, I’m worried about. Two of the “biggest” out there, Ace of Spades (squish), and Hot Air (super-squish), have buried her but good. It’s over, they say. This will continue and amplify with every word that comes out of her beautiful mouth.
Not everyone at Hot Air is super squishy.
Being mislead and backing the wrong people has been one of my worries for the Governor. Just one blantantly wrong move could undercut her support and effectiveness. My other worry is immigration. She has said so little about it that I don’t really know what her stand is. The wrong poicy on that one issue could cause her major harm. She has some immigration issues in Alaska but I’m not sure she understands the full scope of the problem in the lower 48, especially the border states. Being from Texas, I know about that first hand. It’s not pretty.
Perry was mentioned earlier. Gov. Good Hair is not my favorite politician but between him and Kay Bailey Hutchison, he is my choice. KBH is a squish and not overly bright. Despite being a female she is part of the Good Ole Boys Club. I don’t trust her at all, especially on immigration issues.
Dear Sarah,
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
Sincerely,
Marcus Tullius Cicero
P.S. It applies to the GOP as well - they have a lot of people that talk a good game, but are not interested in upsetting the status quo any more than changing a few D’s to R’s. Advancing conservatism is not their goal.
Yes! Well said.
We will take care of Perry.
He’s actually pretty strong on the border and immigration, now.
He has seen the handwriting on the wall with the TEA party movement.
The Obama administration has had a sobering effect on him.
The NAFTA agreements have him in somewhat of a bind regarding the freight traffic by truck and train, which in turn puts pressure on him to get the new railroad/Toll Road in (or a road).
The primary reason for the focus on a Toll Road, instead of traditional funding, is because TXDOT has misappropriated transportation funds repeatedly for pet causes.
In my private conversation with him at the TEA party, he said that regarding the main bureaucrats in TXDOT, he is up against a wall, with appointees by lawmakers. He can’t fire them or hire them, however he is willing to do a stand off in 2011, if that is what it takes (which of course comes with political risks).
There is more development on this than I can disclose, but it is suffice to say that if you have a problem with Perry, please let me know. We are going to beat the living daylights out of the entrenched political machine here in TXDOT, if I have any opening as it appears to be.
This battle has become extremely personal and this Texan is putting some steel toe boots on, just in case.
All of this happened just because I got involved and decided enough is enough!
She already endorsed Perry and rightly so, because he is a strong conservative, much more so than his old boss or Kay Bailey Hutchinson.
The rest of you can write Palin to inform her not to support Charlie Crist and Crist Christie…..
Get it done!
I would rather suck on jelly beans.
Governor Palin has already made statements supporting Governor Perry, much to KBH’s chagrin and I believe the impetus for some not so nice comments directed Alasaka’s way by KBH.
If and when Governor Palin decides to make public her support for one candidate over another, I have no doubt that she will do so having studied the John Cornyn’s playbook on how not to get Republicans elected — and promptly burning said playbook for the losing proposition that it is…
Colonel,
I too am truly disappointed with the GOP in Jersey. Christie is certainly a hack and I’m glad Sarah will not be tainted by their stench. They would be blessed to have Sarah, but they are getting out in front of this because I want to believe they reached out to her and were turned down.
In my heart of hearts I believe the following: on the same day that Rush was discussing Obama staying in office past 2016, he said he’d been up late working on something he couldn’t tell us about. I believ Rush has put together a foundation that Sarah will head. This foundation will let Sarah bring the TEA parties under one umbrella and give Sarah a salary that will pay off her legal expenses. The Conservatives don’t have one deep pocket source of funding. But after reading Rush’s latest newsletter (@ the beach yesterday), I’m convinced he put together a consortium.
Dear Manly,
I’m with you - the Republican party needs to be put out of it’s misery and completely recreated. Can you name any NJ Republican who can stand on their principles and not turn on conservatism when in office? Besides Steve Lonegan, with a proven record in Bogota, I’m not sure you can.
Also, after the RFCL meeting last week, I decided to seek out the County Committee position in my town. I spoke to a current Committee person in my town from another district and found that she supported Christie from the start of his campaign. I told her that I campaigned for Lonegan and she was very nice about it but I couldn’t help but wonder how she didn’t see the stark difference between the two. I now know that the Republican party has strayed so far from conservatism, there is no way a true conservative could even win a nomination.
I am signing this post “anonymous” because I still want to get into the Republican establishment and find out how things are done. Hopefully then I can use my allies from the Lonegan campaign to gain voting influence from within the party.
The question is, how do we rebuild this failed party? How do we remove the “cancer” called apathy in NJ which is now a big part of the Republican party?
I am asking myself that very same question anonymous, and I am afraid there is no hope for the Republican party as they will continue to become more and more like their adversaries. Sadly the Republican motto is rapidly changing to: “If you can’t beat’em, join’em”
I fear, still, that we are rapidly approaching the brink at which “in New Jersey” may be struck from this sentence.
And boy howdy are we grateful for the few of you. Heyah Doc!
*eats*
Thanks for the info, and I had forgotten about KBH. EW! Glad to hear you all are keeping him in line. I liked him on the tea party phone conference deal he did with Sanford a while back.
What to think about this?
http://twitterroom.thehill.com/2009/07/09/va-gop-gubernatiorial-candidate-distances-self-from-palin/
Dittos to not all at HotAir being squishy. I would like to point out that while I disagree with Ed over his take on Palin, it serves Palin well to at least be prepared for the points Ed and Ace bring up. IMO many on our side formed knee jerk reactions not based on what Palin said, nor the ethics laws, and impact of the constant complaints. If you form an opinion while leaving out some information, you are doomed to possibly come the the wrong conclusion.
As I think I have mentioned before, some people seem to have already selected their favorites in the primary sweepstakes of candidates. Kevin McCullough has predicted Huckabee will win the primary based on his fair tax/flat tax meme, and he seems to really like Huckaschmuck based on his statements on TEMS this past Monday. It is just odd that those on our side say Palin has plenty of time to campaign while remaining governor, but in the meantime, they are already handicapping their favorites in the mix of possible candidates. So if they have made up their minds, does she really have a lot of time to waste in beginning the winning of hearts and minds? Head scratcher. Add to this, Mitt has all the time in the world it would seem.
Don’t confuse the flat tax with fair tax, dear.
The only reason Huckleberry is for the Fair tax is because he has to coverup the inconvenient fact that the average Arkansan Saw Their Taxes Increase almost $1,000 Under his 10 year reign as a Governor.
He was simply fine with ANY tax increase:
In fact he’s got so many skeletons in his closet that the MSM would rip him apart like a paper airplane in flight.
Not to mention that the Fair Tax has no chance of passing because in converting over to this consumption tax, our current income tax would never be abolished, and Huckleberry knows that. His standard response when confronted with this fact is: “Oh yes it could if everybody got on board.”
Idiot.
Whereas the flat tax of 15% on all income levels (like Russia and China have) could be eased in over a period of years to prevent any disruption.
The Flat tax being a consumption tax, is a class warfare schtick, therefore perfectly suited for Huckleberry.
Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, distanced himself from Sarah Palin during a Twitterview today, that’s what.
Sounds like the establishment GOP is setting things up for the Barracuda to not campaign for them.
SUUUUUUUUUUU-HHHHHUUUUUUUU-WWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe that if Palin is this cautious of the media, she will also be leery of the establishment GOP.
The Arctic Fox and Barracuda all in one.
John Ziegler at his best explaining the enormous pressure Palin was under.
In short, the media failed to see the signs.
Jon Corzine wants (or wanted to) conflate Christie with Palin. He views Palin as a millstone to be tied around his opponent’s neck.
It is now clear that Chris Christie agrees completely with Corzine. They both view Palin the same way. Not a surprise, since they are both of the Statist Establishment. They both look at authentic Conservatism as something to be mocked, ignored, and shunned.
I am relieved to hear that Gov. Palin will not be campaigning for Christie—-for her sake.
Interesting proclamation by the Colonel about having to burn the NJ Republican party to the ground, to destroy it utterly, in order to reclaim it for conservatives. Has the Colonel given thought as to how one would go about doing that? Does he think that another Lonegan style campaign (on steroids) will work? Or is he thinking outside the box (e.g. outside the party)?
Excellent questions, sir. I don’t believe we need to do anything but stand aside and let the house burn to the ground. We can do that by refusing to participate in the effort to elect Christie. For my part I will be casting my ballot by writing in Steve Lonegan. If enough conservatives do this, Christie will lose and his loss will be directly attributable to us.
Will New Jersey suffer for it? Absolutely. But it’s the difference between death by slow poisoning or death by hanging. Either way, this state is in for a rough ride.
After the election we will be in a far better position to organize and begin the takeover of the Republican Party - one district at a time, if necessary.
I can only pray the results are worth you and yours taking the bullet for the rest of us.
*eats*
There is no hope for NJ without a legitimate opposition party and that means there is currently no hope. The only chance is to let NJ hit rock bottom and perhaps this will shake up NJ Republicans enough to get them to stop voting like lemmings for whatever candidate the hacks prop up as the Republican.
Alas! I fear that NJ Republicans will continue to drink the “lesser evil” Kool Aid and vote for Christie. Given the animosity for Corzine I saw while working the trenches for Lonegan, this will mean a Christie victory and no light at the end of the tunnel…just a bunch of cronies switching places.
Nonetheless, I still have some faith that the NJ Republican Party is so incompetent that they might be able to pull a defeat out of the jaws of victory on this one. For my part I’ll be joining Manly and writing in “Steve Lonegan.” If Corzine wins a squeaker, I want the NJ Republican establishment hacks to know who kept them from their sinecures.