From The Huffington Post:
After Sarah Palin's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week she has announced she will be stepping down in a few weeks. In a press conference call this morning, Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin has announced she will not run for re-election and is stepping down as governor.
She had a brief statement. She took no questions.
Her commissioners and Lt. Governor were with her at her home. Palin did not relinquish the reigns of the state to the Lt. Governor while running for vice president.
Lt. Governor Sean Parnell will step in as governor at the end of the month. He was defeated by Congressman Don Young in the Republican primary last year.
Rumors of an "iceberg scandal" have been circulating.
What on earth is an iceberg scandal?
Thanks to Göran for the tip.
I watched the press conference. A commentator said that a new "Vanity Fair" article may have something to do with it. Haven't looked for it, 'tho I think I saw references to it somewhere else (Huffington Post?) earlier today or yesterday. There was quite a bit about to the silk-underweared First Dude's seven year membership of the Alaska Independence party.
ReplyDeleteCertainly wasn't a well-delivered speech. Not well read. None of the fire she showed last fall. Cracking up seems to be a Republican governor thing right now.
What's STFU in Pentecostal-speak, do you think? STFU, I guess.
It's a spectacle, all right. Not since Richard Nixon has there been such a mass meltdown in a political party.
ReplyDeleteMimi, what with Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford and their daily antics, I just can't keep my jaw off the floor.
ReplyDeleteDo you suppose an 'iceberg scandal' is one in which only the tip is visible and the greater mass is submerged?
LOL, Mary Clara. I have no doubt that the greater mass is submerged.
ReplyDeleteRussia was at war with Georgia during the presidential election in 2008. Sarah Palin said that she thought that war between the USA and Russia was "inevitable." I was horrified by this comment and I never forgot it. It is the one thing I think about when I see/hear Ms. Palin mentioned in the media. Anyone who thinks that war between two countries armed with nukes is "inevitable" is very dangerous. Ms. Palin has significant opposition in the GOP. If she runs for president in 2012 I believe she will lose. I hope so...
ReplyDeleteMimi, at least the fowl were still alive at the end of her speech today. I keep thinking of that bizarre photo/video op at the turkey farm.
ReplyDeleteWhat a strange turn of events.
amyj
Mark, I think she will flame out before 2012. She should have flamed out before now.
ReplyDeleteAmy, the turkey! That was awful.
I'm reading the Vanity Fair article now, and it's juicy, but I'm not sure that the article is the cause of the resignation or if she wants to start her presidential campaign.
I'm putting my money on more dirt emerging. OCICBW, but I might be right. I hope so, not for the sake of schadenfreude but because I want her political career stopped before coming anywhere near the national level ever again.
ReplyDeleteThere was a little something about emails between McCain's campaign manager and the unbelievable Ms. Palin on Countdown last night. I just saw that this morning.
ReplyDeleteI don't want her ever to be close to national public again.
ReplyDeleteThe VF piece makes it clear that many of McCain's staff thought working with her was a nightmare.
Mitt Romney is going to be the last Republican standing. Somehow the fundygelicals will decide a Mormon is OK because he will still be there. 2012 may be the year we get political realignment as one party simply flames out. It has happened before cf. the Whigs.
ReplyDeleteFWIW
jimB
That would be "national public office" up there.
ReplyDeleteRomney by default. Or if they get really desperate Bobby Jindal?
WTF???? The speculation mill is running at full tilt here in the NE Corridor. Thank God, I say. We needed another media circus event. I, for one, can't take one more minute of tributes to Michael Jackson.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope this story won't run for weeks, although I'm sure there's more to it than we know tonight.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the Alaska Airway terminals (lots of desks) in Portland, Oregon were empty yesterday..I swear the airport, quite large, in Portland was nearly empty during prime time, not a Alaska Airlines plane in sight and it looked like their "Directors Club" was shut down...of course, it's not about Sarah how poorly Alaska Airlines seem to be doing, but it is about terrible economic times...isn't it Sarah who wants a Natural Gas Pipeline built (through Canada) down to the contingeonous states? Not to worry about the business practicalities of such a longterm/expernsive adventure.
ReplyDeleteI love being in Stateside for the 4th of July...it's so happy and it seems even more so this year.
Happy 4th of July!
Good heaven, I went to bed early last night and wonders of wonders, I read here that Sarah has resigned. Such good news Now I'll go and read the papers about this.
ReplyDeleteJust read Gail Collins'op-ed piece about Sarah Palin. Collins is not a fan and she takes apart her She says "Basically, the point was that Palin is quitting as governor because she’s not a quitter. Or a deceased salmon." Collins speculates "Perhaps there is some new and interesting scandal that Palin has yet to let us in on. (If so, I hope it involves a soul mate.)"
ReplyDeleteSorry folks, but seems it's still Michael Jackson 24/7 on the news programs.
ReplyDeleteSarah is number one on the Austrian news this morning. Don't know if it will last though.
ReplyDelete"Can't make this stuff up" time again, folks. Palin recently named high school boyfriend Joe Schmidt, who she had already appointed Alaska's Commissioner of Corrections, to succeed Sean Parnell as Lieutenant Governor of the State when Parnell takes over as governor.
ReplyDeleteCriminal Indictment “Pending,” Reports Alaska Law Enforcement Official.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a big shoe out there waiting to drop. I hope it's a sex scandal, but I think it might be a corruption scandal.
ReplyDelete"The only thing she'll be doing in 2012 is posing for Playboy to pay rent." Washington Post blogger jamalnasir_2000.
ReplyDeleteMy, my, my. It gets curiouser and curiouser as the morning light hits this story.
ReplyDeleteI hope only the best for Palin and her family, but fear the worst for Alaska.
Sarah Palin (or "Сара Пейлин" in Bulgarian) is making a splash in Bulgarian media:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.ibox.bg/news/id_429739154
Broadcast media is running clips of her at her church being prayed over by the African minister who is "casting out the spirit of witchcraft." By the way, the name "Palin" sounds like the Bulgarian word for "backwards" or "regression." So her name in Bulgarian comes out as "Kommissar Sarah Backwards." We know a Russian guy named Evgeny who does Sarah Palin as part of his drag act at a gay bar in Sofia, very funny man. He comes out on stage and croaks, "I can see Russia from my dressing room." Of course, most people know you can't see Russia from Bulgaria because of the Black Sea (and you can't see Russia from Alaska across the waters of the Beringov Strait).
Michael Jackson did some things that were bizarre during his life, but in Bulgaria, Ms. Palin actually comes across as being more bizarre. Michael Jackson's death was reported and they moved on, no carpet coverage.
Either a big shoe is waiting to drop or "Сара Пейлин" (thank you, Марко) is running for president. Whichever it is, she won't disappear from the news.
ReplyDeleteI refer to "Сара Пейлин" as "the Anna Nicole Smith of the GOP."
ReplyDeleteI remember my mom telling me "if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all."
I have modified that to: "if you can't something nice, say it in Bulgarian."
http://kaieuthus.blogspot.com/2009/07/anna-nicole-smith-of-gop-politics-has.html
As a gay man I hear something nasty about gay folks almost every day of my life coming from the GOP (via a news broadcast or Internet news). It is hard for me to not feel some sense of justice and satisfaction when these folks (Sanford, Vitter, et. al.) are discovered to be living in a manner that is totally incogruent with the moralistic heel grinding they've been doing on my face for decades.
Mark, I went to your link, but, except for a few words, it was all Greek to me.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I got the drift.
it looks like this year we get two days of fireworks in a row instead of just the usual one day
ReplyDeleteAnd Friday is supposed to be a slow news day. The "Friday news dump", especially before a holiday, in theory should go relatively unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteIt has gone relatively uncovered, Mimi. The political commentators are on vacation (for instance, no Olberman or Rachel Maddow yesterday evening) and the 24 hour news channels that are up and running (Fox I wouldn't know about) are busily reminding us constantly that Michael Jackson is still dead. Brilliant timing for someone looking for a 48 hour period free from probing analysis.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Halcro, an Anchorage blogger, former Republican Alaska legislator and Independent candidate against Palin in the 2006 gubernatorial election, posted today that "earlier this morning I received an email from a friend who wrote, that 'I just heard from some of my friends that Todd [Palin] was in Dillingham fishing and had to quickly abandon his boat and leave other people in charge of the setnet to get back to Sarah, doesn't sound like a planned resignation'."
If her husband had no prior warning it's WTF time for sure.
Lapin, I guess I need to watch the tee vee more.
ReplyDeleteI must say that I'm with Sarah that photoshopping her baby with Down's syndrome is beyond the pale, even if she herself hauls her children out for publicity purposes time and time again.
She's a headstrong woman, that's for sure. The story will unfold eventually. You can't say that I didn't do my part.
Friday before a holiday or not!
ReplyDelete"I need to watch the tee vee more." Not unless you're an M Jackson freak, you don't. The detail about Palin's husband having no advance warning, if true, suggests that something is out of whack.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't you be off celebrating Thanksgiving or whatever it is you folk do today?
I'm having a quiet day. Reason above in the comments.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is in November, luv. How many years have you lived here? Not that we don't give thanks today. I have the flag out.
I know it's November but I remembered that a year ago, when we were corresponding about the death of my old chow, I wrote "Thanksgiving" when I should have written "July 4".
ReplyDeleteLeaving you alone now.
I hear that Sarah may be suing an Alaskan blogger.
ReplyDeleteThis one, I believe. Shannyn Moore, the blogger in question, has just raised the $5500 she needed to get copies of Palin admin documents for which she had filed an FOI request. I think the threat is just one more reflex defense gesture.
ReplyDelete