The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 350

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The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 350

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 350

September 1, 2008
Soul Mates Edition

Before we start this week, I'd like to say a special "thanks" to Elad, Hissyspit, and TygrBright for reporting for DU from the Democratic National Convention last week, along with Ava, DFW, and HawkeyeX. If you haven't seen the Denver Journal, you can read it http://journals.democraticunderground.com/DNC+Denver+2008">here.

And now, on with the show. (I would have done more this week but by the time I'd finished these two, my eyeballs were bleeding.)

John McCain

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Introducing...

Yes, John McCain has selected... has selected... hold on a minute... let me just go through my notes here... let's see... er... aha, Sarah Palin to be his vice president. Great choice, Senator! Just one question. Who the hell is Sarah Palin?

Before we get an answer to that question, let's backtrack for a moment and take a look at McCain's previous statements on the all-important running mate selection process.

On April 1 he said, "I think about whether that person who I select would be most prepared to take my place. And that would be the key criteria."

On April 6 he said, "The first and really major and overwhelming priority is a person who shares my principles, my values, my priorities -- as you know, priorities are very important in presidents -- and could be -- immediately take my place. That's, I think, the overriding criteria ... It is who can best take my place and carry on the agenda and the vision that I have outlined and will continue to outline during this campaign."

And on July 8 he said his vice president would be, "Someone who shares my priorities and my principles. And also obviously who is ready to take my place at a moment's -- you know, immediately."

The message is clear: McCain's key criteria, his overriding criteria when selecting a running mate, was to choose someone who can take his place if the worst should happen - which makes sense, because at 72 years old McCain is no spring chicken. In fact, he's the oldest person to ever seek the presidency. Let's face it, he could snuff it at any moment.

Enter Sarah Palin. Here's her resume, per Wikipedia.

1982: Captain of the Wasilla High School basketball team.

1984: Won the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant; finished second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant.

1987: Graduated from the University of Idaho with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism.

circa 1987-1992: Sports reporter for local TV news.

1992-1996: Served two terms on the Wasilla city council.

1996-2002: Served as mayor of Wasilla.

2002: Lost Republican primary race for Lieutenant Governor of Alaska.

2003-2004: Served as Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

2006: Elected governor of Alaska.

So there you have it. Tested. Ready. Sarah Palin. A woman who is clearly more than able to step into McCain's shoes at a moment's notice and serve as President of the United States of America, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, leader of the free world.

Sarah Palin.

But don't laugh - you see, it turns out that Sarah Palin is actually the only person on either ticket who has actual executive experience. Sure, she was inaugurated in December 2006, and McCain announced his presidential exploratory committee in November 2006, which technically means that he's been running for president longer than she's been governor of Alaska - but don't let that put you off. She was, after all, mayor of Wasilla, AK. Population 5,469.

Don't take my word for it. Here's Karl Rove explaining why Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president:

ROVE: With all due respect, again, to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years. He's been able, but undistinguished. I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th-largest city in America. And, again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it's smaller than Chula Vista, California, Aurora, Colorado, Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona, North Las Vegas, or Henderson, Nevada. It's not a big town. If (Obama) were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice, where he's said, "You know what? I'm really not first and foremost concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States? What I'm concerned about is, can he bring me the electoral votes of the state of Virginia, the 13 electoral votes in Virginia?"

Ahem. But Karl is backed up by some of the foremost presidential scholars of the day. According to Politico:

So unconventional was McCain's choice that it left students of the presidency literally "stunned," in the words of Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor and scholar of the vice presidency. "Being governor of a small state for less than two years is not consistent with the normal criteria for determining who's of presidential caliber," said Goldstein.

"I think she is the most inexperienced person on a major party ticket in modern history," said presidential historian Matthew Dallek.

(snip)

"The first thing that hits me," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution," is that it suggests that John McCain is a gambler. This is a high roller decision."

"The next thing you have to ask yourself: Is it worrisome to have a gambler in the Oval Office? That's an important question," he said, "perhaps more important than anything else today."

Indeed. So it's a good job McCain isn't addicted to high-stakes gambling.

But I know what you're thinking: surely the McCain campaign must have vetted Palin thoroughly before making this crucial choice, the first big test of his presidential decision-making skills and judgment? Er, not quite...

Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican political leader who has clashed with Palin in the past, was shocked when she heard the news Friday morning with her husband, Walt.

"I said to Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.

Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate.

Well... he must have at least had someone http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/31/mccain-camp-didnt-search_n_122823.html">check out some old news stories about her, right?

The McCain campaign has gone to great lengths to present the selection of Sarah Palin as one made after a careful, meticulous vetting process. But evidence continues to suggest that the Arizona Republican made his VP choice with surprising haste.

On Saturday, a Democrat tasked with opposition research contacted the Huffington Post with this piece of information: as of this weekend, the McCain campaign had not gone through old newspaper articles from the Valley Frontiersman, Palin's hometown newspaper.

How does he know? The paper's (massive) archives are not online. And when he went to research past content, he was told he was the first to inquire.

Okay, well, maybe McCain has a close personal relationship with Palin and therefore doesn't need to vet her.

John McCain and his new running mate, Sarah Palin, are spending some quality time together today. After this morning's rally in Dayton, Ohio, they boarded McCain's bus for the six-hour ride to Pittsburgh.

That's a good thing. Because McCain and Palin are practically strangers.

At least that's what she told a reporter two weeks ago. In an interview with the Washington, D.C., newspaper Roll Call, Palin said she had met McCain only once or twice.

She said she was introduced to McCain at the 2006 Republican Governors Assn. meeting.

The pair met again this week, according to McCain campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker.

But just because they've only met once, it doesn't mean they can't get along. In fact, just last week McCain http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0808/McCain_Palin_a_soulmate.html">referred to Palin as "a partner and a soul mate." I hope Cindy wasn't listening.

So, given that this is perhaps the most bizarre running mate choice in U.S. history, what's the upside for McCain? Well, apparently the fundies are very excited about this pick, thanks to the fact that Mrs. Palin happens to be a religious extremist (more on that later). And he's going to need their support, because things don't look too rosy on Planet Republican right now.

Though it was high in shock value, the Palin pick left bruised feelings among the short-list contenders who were not picked -- and infuriated some Republican officials who privately said McCain had gone out on a limb, unnecessarily, without laying the groundwork for such an unknown. Two senior Republican officials close to Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty said they had both been rudely strung along and now "feel manipulated."

"They now know that they were used as decoys, well after McCain had decided not to pick them," one Republican involved in the process said.

Ha ha.

But enough about the Republicans and their fractured party. What do Alaskans think of McCain's pick? Let's go to the reviews...

"McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation's when he created the possibility that she might fill it. It's clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance." -- The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" -- Alaska State Senate President Lyda Green (R)

"At the national level Palin will have to be much more than a fresh and pretty face. Even in the next 24 hours she'll need a boatload of schooling on a shipload of issues, and the savvy to convince others she really does know what she's talking about. That's a tall order for a self-described hockey mom, former small-town mayor and first-term governor who critics claim has minuscule knowledge of national affairs and even less knowledge of world affairs." -- The Juneau Empire

Hmm, not too good. How about the established conservative punditocracy?

"To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins. And it's not just foreign policy. Palin has no experience dealing with national domestic issues, either." -- Ramesh Ponnuru

"The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead.... To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful 'Is he ready to lead' line of attack seems near suicidal." -- Charles Krauthammer

"The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing." -- David Frum

"On the face of it, McCain has failed the ultimate test that any presidential candidate must face in picking a running mate: selecting someone who is unambiguously qualified to be president." -- Mark Halperin

So there you have it. Meet the new team, McCain/Palin '08. They're fresh, they're new, they're ready to lead - oh, and by the way, they most certainly are not celebrities.

What, no Bridget?

Sarah Palin

So, we know that John McCain is an impulsive, reactionary, high-stakes gambler - just the qualities we need in a president during these difficult times - but what about Sarah Palin? What do we really know about the woman who could soon be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Here's what the right-wing would like you to believe: she's a maverick. A reformer.

Right... and George W. Bush is a compassionate conservative with a humble foreign policy.

ETHICS SCHMETHICS

Surely nothing says "reformer" like being under investigation for abuse of power - not bad for someone who's only been a governor for 20 months. Here's the scandal in a nutshell: Palin pressured Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, because Wooten was engaged in a bitter custody battle with Palin's younger sister. The Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, refused to fire Wooten, so Palin fired Monegan.

After Monegan complained, Palin denied everything and told Alaska's KTVA that "No pressure was ever put on anybody to fire anybody." Whoops! Alaska's Attorney General investigated, and according to Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo...

The Attorney General's investigation quickly turned up evidence that Palin's initial denials were false. Multiple members of her staff had raised Wooten's employment with Monegan. Indeed, the state police had a recording of one of her deputies pushing Monegan to fire Wooten. That evidence forced Palin to change her story. Palin said that this was the first she'd heard of it and insisted the deputy wasn't acting at her behest, even though the trascript of the recorded call clearly suggested that he was. (Hear the audio here.)

Just yesterday, Monegan gave an interview to the Washington Post in which he said that not only Palin's aides, but Palin's husband and Palin herself had repeatedly raised the Wooten issue with him and pressured him to fire him. And now he says he has emails that Palin sent him about the matter. (In an interesting sidelight, that may end up telling us a lot, Monegan says no one from the McCain campaign ever contacted him in the vetting process.)

Josh concludes:

We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. It's called an abuse of power. There is ample evidence that Palin used her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. When his boss refused to fire him, she fired his boss. She first denied Monegan's claims of pressure to fire Wooten and then had to amend her story when evidence proved otherwise. The available evidence now suggests that she 1) tried to have an ex-relative fired from his job for personal reasons, something that was clearly inappropriate, and perhaps illegal, though possibly understandable in human terms, 2) fired a state official for not himself acting inappropriately by firing the relative, 3) lied to the public about what happened and 4) continues to lie about what happened.

These are, to put it mildly, not the traits or temperament you want in someone who could hold the executive power of the federal government.

Yes folks, if you liked the Alberto Gonzales Justice Department, Sarah Palin could be the veep for you. She's a reformer with results!

But again, don't take my word for it. According to CNN:

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens gave a glowing endorsement of the McCain-Palin ticket Friday, calling it "a great day for the nation and Alaskans."

The endorsement may not be welcome news by the McCain campaign given the Alaska senator was indicted last month on seven counts of ethics violations for failing to report more than $250,000 in home renovations and gifts from executives at VECO Corp, an Alaska-based Oil company. Stevens has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Stevens also strongly endorsed Palin for Governor in 2006, which is probably why shortly after the senator was indicted, the Anchorage Daily News reported that:

Gov. Sarah Palin today said indicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens "has dedicated his life to the betterment of the state" and said she couldn't say yet whether he should resign.

READY TO LEAD ON DAY ONE

From John McCain's website:

America confronts a range of serious security challenges: Protecting our homeland in an age of global terrorism and Islamist extremism; working with friends and partners overseas, from Africa to Southeast Asia, to help them combat terrorism and violent insurgencies in their own countries; defending against missile and nuclear attack; maintaining the credibility of our defense commitments to our allies; and waging difficult counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

John McCain understands national security and the threats facing our nation.

Okay, fine. But given that McCain could kick the bucket any day now, what about Sarah Palin? It's true that Sarah Palin didn't even have a passport until 2007, but don't let that put you off - she is ready to lead on day one. Here's national security expert Cindy McCain giving Palin the thumbs-up on Sunday's "This Week":

STEPHANOPOULOS: But she has no national security experience.

CINDY McCAIN: You know, the experience that she comes from is what she's done in government, and remember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. It's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here.

See? Sarah Palin has national security experience because Alaska is close to Russia. Yes, there's no doubt that Sarah Palin, like George W. Bush, knows that "Russia's big and so is China."

(By the way, in case you were wondering whether it's just Cindy McCain who is this much of a moron, the "Alaska's close to Russia" talking point has also been floated in the last day or two by Steve Doocy of Fox News, along with various other wingnut talking heads.)

So that's Russia taken care of. But what about Iraq? Here's Palin talking to Business Week just a few days ago...

So when we hear, "Well, maybe there isn't enough," or "Well, it's too late to drill now anyway, we should have done this five, 10 years ago," hey, I can't argue that. I say yeah, we should have done that years ago. But better to start that drilling today than wait and continue relying on foreign sources of energy. We are a nation at war and in many (ways) the reasons for war are fights over energy sources, which is nonsensical when you consider that domestically we have the supplies ready to go.

Er... so we are in Iraq for the oil? That doesn't sound like it fits the Bush/McCain talking points. Got anything else?

"I always looked at Senator McCain just as a Joe Blow public member, looking from the outside in," she said. "He's been buttin' heads with Republicans for years, and that's a healthy place to be." Then again, on McCain's signature issue - the prosecution of the war in Iraq - she did not sound so gung-ho. Her son is a soldier, and she said, "I'm a mom, and my son is going to get deployed in September, and we better have a real clear plan for this war. And it better not have to do with oil and dependence on foreign energy."

Psst, Sarah... I think the GOP probably wants you to cool it with the "war for oil" stuff. So come on - give us your best shot. What's your opinion of the situation in Iraq?

In March 2007, John McCain's vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said: "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."

Aw jeez.

Don't worry though - according to McCain campaign advisor Charlie Black, "She's going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long."

At the foot of the master, eh? Well I guess as long as she doesn't need to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, the location of Czechoslovakia, or which part of Iraq borders Pakistan, she should be fine.

Hey wait a minute... what does he mean, "most doctors?" Does Charlie Black know something we don't?

IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

Okay, forget national security. What about the economy? Well, you'll be glad to know that Sarah Palin is a self-described proud fiscal conservative. Which is why, according to Politico:

Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla - that amounts to $3,000 per resident. She argues that the debt was needed to fund improvements.

In other words, Palin practices fiscal conservatism a la George W. Bush: borrow a shitload of money, spend yourself deep into debt, and then stick the taxpayer with the bill. What a maverick!

At least Palin has exhibited fiscal discipline in other areas. For example, according to the Anchorage Daily News:

When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center.

"I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere," Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan's Gravina Island bridge.

Yay! Well done, Sarah! You stick it to those Bridge to Nowhere fools!

But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.

The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere." They're still feeling pain today in Ketchikan, over Palin's subsequent decision to use the bridge funds for other projects -- and over the timing of her announcement, which they say came in a pre-dawn press release that seemed aimed at national news deadlines.

"I think that's when the campaign for national office began," said Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Weinstein noted, the state is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone -- because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government.

FUCK THE POLAR BEARS

Okay, we've scratched off foreign policy/national security, and the economy. Now let's learn about Sarah Palin, eco-warrior. According to a report in the Times of London back in May:

The polar bear should be removed from the endangered species list because its protected status will hamper drilling for oil and gas in Alaska, the state's Republican Governor has demanded.

Sarah Palin is suing the Bush Administration over its decision last week to place the animal under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, claiming that climate models predicting the continued loss of sea ice - the main habitat of polar bears - are unreliable.

Yes, you heard right - the Bush Administration of all people actually put the polar bear on the endangered species list, and Sarah Palin SUED THEM. According to the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund:

Senator McCain's choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies.

Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP, has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska's coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.

You're right, that does sound unbelievable. And yet, somehow it isn't. According to the Washington Post:

The American Petroleum Institute and four other business groups filed suit Thursday against Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall, joining Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's administration in trying to reverse the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species.

On Aug. 4, the state of Alaska filed a lawsuit opposing the polar bear's listing, arguing that populations as a whole are stable and that melting sea ice does not pose an imminent threat to their survival.

(snip)

Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which originally petitioned to list the polar bear as an endangered species in 2005, decried the assertion in the Alaska suit that science does not prove polar bear populations are declining. The center is also suing the federal government, seeking to change the polar bear's official status from "threatened" to "endangered."

"The amazing thing about this litigation is that the governor of Alaska is so anti-environmental that she is suing the Bush administration over a claimed overabundance of protections for the polar bear," Siegel said. "It's just amazing."

Amazing isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe it.

HILLARY SUPPORTERS REJOICE!

By putting a woman on the presidential ticket, John McCain has truly made history. Or at least, he would have if the Democrats hadn't already beaten him to it by almost a quarter of a century.

But never mind that. Apparently John McCain is under the impression that former supporters of Hillary Clinton were more concerned with Clinton's vagina than with her experience and qualifications. "Oh well," he imagines them thinking, "I guess if we can't have the Yale-educated U.S. Senator whose truly groundbreaking presidential campaign has changed the way this country thinks about female politicians, we can at least have a former TV sports reporter who was mayor of a fishing village in Alaska."

So let's take a look at what Sarah Palin has to offer Democratic and middle-of-the-road Republican women.

First up, you know she's a good choice for women when she's heartily endorsed by the Christian Coalition of America. Presumably they're especially happy because Palin's high-school-educated husband Todd - who, incidentally, works for a foreign oil company - likes to sit in during governor's meetings.

The stories started last year when Representative Ralph Samuels told me about going into a meeting, he thought would be private, with Governor Sarah Palin. Much to his surprise, Todd Palin was there and proceeded to sit through the entire meeting.

Other lawmakers have shared similar stories and were shocked at how inappropriate Todd's presence was at meetings with the governor.

I wonder if Todd will ask for an extra chair to be placed in the vice president's office?

To be fair, the Christian Coalition actually has much better reasons for applauding Sarah Palin. For example - and this news is sure to win over plenty of former Hillary supporters - she's a religious extremist who believes that creationism should be taught in science class. According to the Anchorage Daily News back in 2006:

The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor's race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms.

Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night's televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both."

Yes, what could be wrong with that? Don't be afraid of information. Let's have a healthy debate! I say tell the kids that maybe the earth is only 6,000 years old, that the first woman was created from a man's rib, and that dinosaur fossils were put there by God just to test people's faith. Then let them make up their own minds! We report, you decide.

(Curiously, Palin does not believe that sex education should be taught in schools. So much for "don't be afraid of information.")

But that's not all. Sarah Palin is also a member of Feminists For Life, which almost sounds like something Hillary Clinton might support, until you realize that...

...FFL doesn't just oppose abortion. FFL wants abortion to be illegal. All abortions, period, including those for rape, incest, health, major fetal defects and, although Foster resisted admitting this, even some abortions most doctors would say were necessary to save the woman's life. (Although FFL is not a Catholic organization, its rejection of therapeutic abortion follows Catholic doctrine.) FFL wants doctors who perform abortions to be punished, possibly with prison terms.

Meanwhile, according to the National Organization of Women:

Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women's rights, just like John McCain.

But John McCain shouldn't despair. Maybe there's still a chance for Palin to attract former Hillary supporters. After all, she's had some kind words for the Senator from New York in the past...

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin arrived backstage for our NEWSWEEK Women & Leadership Event in Los Angeles last March, John McCain had just wrapped up the GOP nomination. Palin had yet to endorse McCain - she liked Mitt Romney - and as we waited in the green room, I urged her to "feel free" to make some news on stage. She grinned broadly - looking back, I guess it was a grin of the Cheshire Cat variety - and thanked me for the offer.

Once onstage, together with Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Palin talked about what women expect from women leaders; how she took charge in Alaska during a political scandal that threatened to unseat the state's entire Republican power structure, and her feelings about Sen. Hillary Clinton. (She said she felt kind of bad she couldn't support a woman, but she didn't like Clinton's whining.)

Still not feeling the love? Maybe this will win you over...

On January 15, 2008, McCain VP nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called into a radio talk show and laughed as the host questioned Alaska Senate President Lyda Green's parenting, and then further attacked the cancer survivor calling her a "bitch" and a "cancer."

At 7:11 in the audio of the program, the host says "Governor, you can't say this, but we can. She is a cancer and she is nothing but a very jealous woman."

Then again at 10:12 in the audio obtained by Raw Story from the Bob and Mark Show, the host says to Palin, "Well, I'm going to say what I wish you could say ... Lyda Green is a bitch, and she needs to go away because she is a cancer on the progress of the state of Alaska."

Disc jockey Dan Fagan chastized the governor for what he called "conduct unbecoming a human being, never mind a governor," in an editorial for the Anchorage Daily News. Other editorial writers also demanded that Palin apologize for her behavior.

THE FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD BE SO PROUD

And finally, if you're still looking for reasons not to vote for Sarah Palin, here's one more: she's dumb as a stump. When running for governor in 2006, Palin filled out an Eagle Forum questionnaire. One of the questions was "Are you offended by the phrase 'Under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?" Here's her response:

Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

Well played, Sarah - well played. Just two small problems. First, the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, and second, the phrase "Under God" was added in 1954. Oh well.

The list will (probably) be back to normal next week. See you then!

--EarlG