BOOK REVIEW: Government Girl, by Stacy Parker Aab
The Washington memoir, in which leading members of the political establishment dish on their experiences in political campaigns or presidential administrations past, is a staple of the D.C. scene. Former presidents, cabinet members, and senior administration members, architects of controversial policies, and highly public survivors of political scandals, are almost expected to write books about their adventures, and publishers eagerly compete to sign them to six-figure contracts, knowing they are all but guaranteed to be instant bestsellers. Think Condi Rice, Sarah Palin, Scott McClellan, Henry Paulson, Alan Greenspan — not to mention Elizabeth Edwards and Jenny Sanford.
Sarah Palin, Fauxpulism, and Right-Wing Identity Politics
(Image: Tacoma Urbanist, Flickr)
Sarah Palin is back — and, seemingly, everywhere, as she launches a book tour (and, perhaps, a run at the White House in 2012).
In a Republican Party hoping to rebound in 2010 on the strength of a newly energized and ideologically aroused conservative grassroots, Palin’s influence is now unparalleled. Through her Facebook page, she was the one who pushed the rumor of “death panels” into the national healthcare debate, prompting the White House to issue a series of defensive responses. Unfazed by its absurdity, she repeated the charge in her recent speech in Wisconsin. In a special congressional election in New York’s 23rd congressional district, Palin’s endorsement of Doug Hoffman, an unknown far-right third-party candidate, helped force a popular moderate Republican politician, Dede Scozzafava, from the race. In the end, Palin’s ideological purge in upstate New York led to an improbable Democratic victory, the first in that GOP-heavy district in more than 100 years.
Though the ideological purge may have backfired, Palin’s participation in it magnified her influence in the party. In a telling sign of this, Congressman Mark Kirk, a pro-choice Republican from the posh suburban North Shore of Chicago, running for the Senate in Illinois, issued an anxious call for Palin’s support while she campaigned for Hoffman. According to a Kirk campaign memo, the candidate was terrified that Palin would be asked about his candidacy during her scheduled appearance on the Chicago-based Oprah Winfrey Show later this month — the kick-off for her book tour — and would not react enthusiastically. With $2.3 million in campaign cash and no viable primary challengers, Kirk was still desperate to avoid Palin-backed attacks from his right flank, however hypothetical they might be.
“She’s gangbusters!” a leading conservative radio host exclaimed to me. “There is nobody in the Republican Party who can raise money like her or top her name recognition.”
In contemporary politics, money + brand recognition = power –period. For a Republican party scrambling to maintain its ever-shrinking base, that makes Sarah Palin its most influential personality. And with the Democratic Party and the White House being seen, rightly or wrongly, as the party of Goldman Sachs, an avowed fauxpulist like Palin (she’s ‘one of us!’) driving the tone and tenor of conservative politics in an age of economic instability is not something to airily discount.
Another Judge Dismisses Birther Case; Slams Orly Taitz Hard
David Weigel has the story:
Peace and Nationalism in the Middle East
Matthew Yglesias has some interesting thoughts on conflicting values for progressives in the Israel-Palestinian conflict:
The Surge a Success? Ask an Iraqi.
Chris Floyd links to an opinion piece by Sami Ramadani, an Iraqi exile who opposed the U.S. invasion. Ramadani writes about post-surge Iraq in the context of Sunday’s suicide bombing, which at most recent count has killed over 150 people — including an unknown number of children — and injured at least 500:
White House Is Discouraging Senate Dems From Pursuing Opt-Out Public Option
This really is bizarre. I don’t know what to make of it:
Peggy Noonan: Obama “Own’s” Bush’s Failure
Steve’s right — the tangled web of Peggy Noonan’s neural pathways are particularly difficult to navigate this week (italic is Steve’s, quoting Noonan):
A Wicked Man Continues to Spout His Wickedness
Emptywheel (aka Marcy Wheeler) examines Dick Cheney’s latest rantings — on missile defense, on Iraq and Afghanistan, on America’s success in keeping its moral bearings while torturing confessions out of prisoners, on how his administration’s policies kept us safe (except for 9/11 itself, of course, and except for the London bombings, and the Madrid bombings, and the murder of UN ambassador Sergio Vieria de Mello in Iraq….. oh, never mind).
A Guide for the Perplexed
Or at least for Jake Tapper. Here, Jake: here is what makes Fox so different from any other news organization:
Democrats Want Obama to Get Tough on Public Option
Sam Stein at The Huffington Post:
There is a growing sense on Capitol Hill that the White House’s refusal to weigh in more forcefully in the health care debate could come at the cost of a public option for insurance coverage.
Democratic aides said that a “handful” of senators who are skeptical of a public plan likely could be persuaded if not to support it then at least to oppose a Republican filibuster, if the administration were to apply a bit more pressure — or even guidance.
“There is a clear sense that it would be helpful,” said one senior Democratic aide. “Throughout this entire debate the White House line has been ‘We will weigh in when it is necessary’…. Well now we need 60 votes. So if it’s not necessary now, then when will it be?”
“I think folks in general in Congress were looking to the president to clearly define his feeling on the issue,” another aide said. “And I don’t think he has done that on the public option from the get-go… With a lot of senators nervous because of elections or other political dynamics, it would be helpful for the president to send a strong signal that this is what he wants in the final bill.”
Hilarious Quote of the Day
When do you fight for something? When you think it’s the worst possible option?
Obama ”will obviously weigh in when it’s important to weigh in” on the possibility of a public option, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said. Added Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett: ”He’s not demanding that it’s in there. He think it’s the best possible choice.”
Lookin’ good, guys; keep it up:
I just don’t think these folks get how, hmmm, how can I put this, how nonsensical it sounds to say, Obama really thinks the public option is “the best possible choice,” but he won’t fight for it. Maybe they think that messaging works. It doesn’t. Sounds weak. If he’s not going to fight for the “best possible choice,” what will he fight for?
“We Are All Batshit Insane”
I know that batshit insane has become the default setting in certain quarters of the right, but the response at RedState to Rush Limbaugh’s failed attempt to buy the St. Louis Rams is so far gonethat I seriously considered the possibility it was meant as satire. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is:
The Cheney Family Business
Maureen Dowd gets only one detail wrong in her lacerating take-down of the newest Cheney Family venture — the probable name:
It’s hard to believe that the Bush dynasty, which limped away in disgrace after smashing our economy and the globe, has spawned another political dynasty.
But Jason Horowitz reported in The Washington Post that Mary Cheney, the younger daughter of the former vice president, is starting a consulting firm modeled on Kissinger Associates.
Since it involves the Cheneys, it’s shrouded in unnecessary secrecy. But Mary’s friends say her plan is to make it Cheney cubed, bringing in her dad and big sister, Liz, when those two finish cleaning out the Augean stables of Dick Cheney’s legacy for his memoir.
Horowitz wrote that Mary, who is expecting her second child with her partner, Heather Poe, next month, may be hanging the shingle for the “gruff clan who speak in dour unison when bashing the current president, second-guessing the previous commander in chief and chiding wayward G.O.P. leaders.”
The influence-peddling firm will be wildly successful, no doubt, because if anyone has shown a golden touch, it’s Dick Cheney. And there are bound to be oodles of clients who want coaching on how to make things look totally the opposite of what they are.
Saudis, right-wing dictators and Bernie Madoff calling for image makeovers? Scooter Libby calling to see how to get his career back after taking the fall for his scheming boss? Rush Limbaugh calling to strategize about how to buy an N.F.L. team with black players as he says offensive things about blacks? Rupert Murdoch seeking tips on how to merge Fox and NBC into Brian O’Hannity?
You can hear a receptionist chirping: “Cheney, Cheney & Cheney. Who would you like to target today?”
Never. Never, never, never. No Cheney worthy of the name would ever leave their fingerprints all over their handiwork that way. No, Liz and Mary are much likelier to pick a name like “Solutions for a Safe America” or something like that.
When Will Republicans Learn They Are NOT Hip?
If there is anything funnier than Michael Steele’s trying to convince everyone that he’s down with the hip-hop nation, it’s airhead Dan Riehl completely missing the boat — actually, not just missing the boat, but falling into the water thinking the boat is still there:
Whose Missed Opportunity?
Health care reform, nuclear war, global climate change, hunger and poverty…. and the huge mistake Pres. Obama made in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, really. This is what Ross Douthat wants to write about in his New York Times column:
Thomas Friedman Is Unbearable Today
In other words, it’s a typical Friedman column. Today, he tells Pres. Obama what he should say in his Oslo acceptance speech. Long story short, he wants Obama to give a GWB speech. Of course, GWB did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. He did not win the Nobel Peace Prize because his “Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?” approach to talking up America pretty much alienated the whole planet. So now Friedman wants Obama to take the very global set of ideas and intentions that moved the Nobel Committee to award him the Peace Prize and throw it back in their faces. If eight years of George W. Bush telling Europeans that black was white, war was peace, occupation was liberation, and aggression was peacekeeping didn’t work, what makes Friedman think it’ll be a winning strategy now?
Response from U.S. and World Leaders to Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize
Sen. John McCain and Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Pawlenty, at least, chose the classy route. McCain told Greg Sargent through his press spokesperson, “I congratulate President Obama on receiving this prestigious award. I join my fellow Americans in expressing pride in our President on this occasion.” And Pawlenty used his weekly radio show to say this:
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