Sudden Resignations Are Usually a Sign of Trouble Brewing…
…and though I don’t know the truth of the matter, of course, there are numerous stories about that Alaska’s ex-governor (you know who) might be on the verge of an embezzlement scandal. However, it should be noted that most of these stories are from very left-leaning sources, and the national media is not, to my knowledge, reporting on this angle.
Speculation is rampant, however: Matthew Cooper offers 3 possible reasons, Mark Halperin offers 10, The Daily Beast offers 11, and, never one to be outdone, Mickey Kaus offers 14…
My own personal feelings? Ambivalent…after her miraculous convention speech, it was all downhill in Palin land for me…I could never support her as a national candidate (well, never say never – I suppose she could have an opponent that was even worse), so if this hurts her politically, so much the better for the GOP, in my view…true, we have one less star at at time that we need more stars, but star power alone does not a credible candidate make…
What did you make of her … uh … resignation speech?
A rather odd performance, no?
To paraphrase Monty Python: What an eccentric performance!…
Maybe she wanted to take the heat off Mark Sanford as the Erratically Behaving Republican du jour.
My guess is that you will see her next to Barbara Walters as the next hostess of The View, or maybe a show on Fox News. She’s probably done with Wasilla and wants to go for the big bucks as a television personality.
Any and all politicians are possibly corrupt but these rumors are pretty thin.
Any serious investigation into a governor, especially one of her status, would require approval from Washington. Period.
So why is there not a hint of this in the national media? It would leak in a heartbeat if there had a referral from Alaska. It would be dynamite.
Whatever exactly is her real reason(s), I would be highly surprised if corruption was involved.
Politically, who knows.
Are her fans going to drop her? Doubtful, early reaction seems to be she is a martyr.Forced out by nastiness.
Is she even still interested in running? Unknown.
If she runs, she still has one big advantage. Absent Jeb Bush, weak primary opponents. Mitt remains a plastic flip flopping Mormon in an evangelical party. Huck still cannot win north of the Mason Dixon.
Iowa is a big right to life state on the GOP side, her single biggest fan group. South Carolina is still South Carolina.
Still, shrug. She has chosen to do something so unexpected that no one is capable of looking at this with any confidence of being right.
She is the only star. She goes to a baseball game and ignites a huge story. Nobody else can get arrested if they show up naked on the White House lawn.
The speech showed both the best and the worst of Sarah Palin. And, depending on your views about her, you have a different opinion of the best and the worst. She obviously had some prepared remarks, and then strayed from them during the middle to state more emphatically how she felt. It was, unlike most speeches, a speech from the heart. The repetition of “unconventional” and “no more politics as usual” was not an accident. And as Jim Geraghty said, no one quotes MacArthur by accident.
Mark is correct, however, that a sudden resignation from a politician with little explanation usually signals a scandal or a family problem, perhaps a scandalous family problem.
However, the embezzlement stuff at this point appears pretty thin. It’s not being mentioned by any reliable sources, and doesn’t even appear on the talk page on her Wikipedia entry.
I’m not discounting that possibility…as I said earlier, the smart money is on something bad. But the SBS stuff seems thin…for now. As far as I can tell, the rumors started with one Shannyn Moore, who is quite obviously inflicted with PDS.
I disagree with those who are saying she’s setting up for a more distant future run at higher office, not 2012. If not 2012, why resign?(barring being forced to, of course) No, it’s 2012, or bust.
For once, I’m in relative agreement with Bob.
Yes, this is obviously hyperbole, but there’s a nugget of truth in it.
I have some thoughts here and here.
This statement, on her facebook page today, does not make it appear that a scandal is driving her away. In fact, it makes the 2012 Presidential run seem all the more likely. However, time will tell.
There’s no one on the Republican side at the moment, that I have any interest in voting for in 2012. I won’t vote for another faux conservative like McCain or Bush. Yes, she has issues, but she understands conservatism. If she were to run, I would at least consider her. For her, the door is open a crack. For the rest, the door is already closed, and they’ll have to find a way to open it just to get my interest.
I’d vote for Mitch Daniels (my governor), if I thought he would have any chance of winning. But, he doesn’t have the charisma necessary for a national campaign in the 21st century. I’m not sure he would have the perseverance either. I think he’d be like Fred Thompson, only with some actual credentials and less charisma.
Statement from her legal counsel regarding the SBS rumors.
Lawyers are supposed to be vigorous for their clients, but this is some of the most direct language I’ve ever seen from a lawyer. It basically amounts to “This is ****. Everyone knows it’s ****. Everyone has known it’s **** for some time. And if you want to publish this ****, we will come after you with both barrels.”
I suppose that one could argue that the denials are the most vigorous from those with something to hide, and that this is overkill given that it has not, as I mentioned earlier, yet appeared in any reliable news source. And therefore that the overkill is itself an indictment.
But, I think that this, like the Letterman response, shows that Palin would probably like to quote Howard Beale now, if she thought she could get away with it.
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
I thought the statement from her counsel was pretty strong, till I came to the part about suing for defamation.
As a public figure, there’s no way in heck she could prevail in such a suit.
That he would threaten a defamation suit puts the rest of his statement in a different (and not very flattering) light.
(As to the substance, he says she and Todd paid for the building supplies from SBS. I hope they kept their receipts.)
Against a media outlet, no. Against Moore, possibly. Reckless disregard is not impossible, its just very hard. The smaller the suit target, the easier it gets.
Have you ever seen a public figure’s lawyer not include such a threat? It would be noticeable if he left it out.
Anyway, time will tell on this. Any politician can be corrupt and small things often bring down large figures.
In three weeks, she will no longer be a public figure, Jacques.
A reliable news source has picked up the story.
The LA Times, that well known conservative outlet, has an article saying there’s no truth to the rumors.
Well, that should take care of that. If won’t, of course. They’ll still be talking about it on HuffPo and DailyKos for days, and it will likely resurface there from time-to-time
(not that liberals have the market cornered on stupid theories about their opponents…I’m embarrassed about the obsession by so many on the right into Obama’s birth certificate)
C’mon Chris, its a special crack team from Washington, not the corrupt local FBI office.
Dreams of Fitzmas never die.
Seriously, I’m glad to hear a definite FBI response. Whatever happens, at least she was not corrupt.
Now, the left will need to stick to the “crazy” theme, i.e. Mo Dowd today. Which, paradoxically, won’t hurt, but help, her with her fans.
sarah who? and who called her to a higher calling? lol
Maybe it was Rush–after we all know who calls the shots. lol
In the sense that term is used in defamation/libel law, I suspect she will remain a “public figure” for quite some time to come. In which case, proving “actual malice” would be very hard, indeed.
Still, the LAT story does seem to put the “house-gate” rumour to bed. Which leaves her resignation as much of a ‘WTF?’ moment as ever.
I was going to write this as a comment here. Then I realized I wanted to write it as a comment on two other blogs as well. So, I just posted it to my own.
Sometimes You Have to Roll the Hard Six.