McLame Camp: Palin's Book-Banning Inquiries Were Only Hypothetical

[jefferson_dem]

GOP Downplays Palin Book-Banning Inquiry
By AP/GARANCE BURKE

(WASILLA, Alaska) — The McCain campaign is defending Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's much-criticized inquiry into banning books at her hometown library, saying her questions were only hypothetical.

Shortly after taking office in 1996 as mayor of Wasilla, a city of about 7,000 people, Palin asked the city's head librarian about banning books. Later, the librarian was notified by Palin that she was being fired, although Palin backed off under pressure.

Palin alleged attempt at book-banning has been a matter of intense interest since Republican presidential nominee John McCain named her as his running mate last month.

Taylor Griffin, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said Thursday that Palin asked the head librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, on three occasions how she would react to attempts at banning books. He said the questions, in the fall of 1996, were hypothetical and entirely appropriate. He said a patron had asked the library to remove a title the year before and the mayor wanted to understand how such disputes were handled.

<SNIP>

"She asked me if I would object to censorship, and I replied 'Yup'," Emmons told a reporter. "And I told her it would not be just me. This was a constitutional question, and the American Civil Liberties Union would get involved, too."

The Rev. Howard Bess, a liberal Christian preacher in the nearby town of Palmer, said the church Palin and her family attended until 2002, the Wasilla Assembly of God, was pushing to remove his book from local bookstores.

Emmons told him that year that several copies of Pastor I Am Gay had disappeared from the library shelves, Bess said.

"Sarah brought pressure on the library about things she didn't like," Bess said. "To believe that my book was not targeted in this is a joke."

<SNIP>

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1840740,00.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. And when she didn't get the answer she wanted she fired the librarian

Glad they're commenting on this. Charlie will have no choice but to ask about it now.

[WinkyDink]

2. THE POINT, of course, is why it would even GET TO "HYPOTHETICAL"!!

I loathe Republicans.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. EXACTLY. And since when is the small town library an important

lynchpin in a successful mayoral administration - to need their support? This is an absurdity.
I can see someone saying that to maybe a community development board, chamber of commerce,
maybe police? But to a library???

[high density]

3. That's a GREAT defense there

First they say she never talked about it period, now they've been caught in a lie and it's "hypothetical." Why would somebody even bring it up?

[jakem]

4. Hypothetical - like arresting a political protester before the event happens?

:wtf:

[tigereye]

6. aw I feel so bad for them...

:eyes:


Welcome to the wonderful world of innuendo and exaggerattion that you Reps have used to great advantage.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. K&R - This is my personal biggest thing against her !!!! However,

I can hear them spinning, "trying to protect young minds"...(like she protected her
druggie son and her pregnant daughter)

[dansolo]

8. Is that supposed to make it better?

Even hypothetical book banning should be frowned upon.

[liberal N proud]

9. Hypothetical or not, it was wrong

Banning the books would be a violation of the first amendment. It goes to intent and shows her character.

[seabeyond]

10. and her trying to fired librarian was just in "theory". oh that inexact science. n/t

[tanyev]

11. Oh, well, that's perfectly OK then.

Always handy to find out how the process of banning books would work before one actually digs in and gets things started.




:grr:

[NewJeffCT]

12. Hypothetical like...

Tony Soprano saying to somebody, "You have a lovely family, wouldn't it be a shame if something happened to them?"

That sort of hypothetical?