ANOTHER update to the "McCampaign staffers can't seem to stop talking" story. From Gawker:
Republican and former Bush executive secretary of the National Security Council Steve Biegun has gotten in touch with National Review editor/wonderboy Rich Lowry to redeem the former vice presidential candidate by repudiating recent claims she has no idea who's in NAFTA and thinks Africa's a country. He calls the allegations "absurd," while managing to note that she had a "steep learning curve on foreign issues," as Lowry formulates it. It's nice someone is stepping out on Sarah's behalf, but is this half-hearted defense simply part of the larger scheme to discredit her for 2012?
I really am fascinated by this whole thing. The word I keep coming back to is childish. Someone bashes her, someone else defends her, the woman herself uses the words "jerks" and "stinkers." Now the person responsible for preparing the former VP candidate for her interviews says, "there's no way she didn't know Africa was a continent, and whoever is saying she didn't must be distorting 'a fumble of words.'" What does that even mean? Steve Biegun offers a theory about the charge that Palin didn't know beans about NAFTA:
He was briefing Palin before a Univision interview, and
talking to her about trade issues. He rolled through NAFTA, CAFTA, and
the Colombia FTA. As he talked, people were coming in and out of the
room, handing Palin things, etc. She was distracted from what Biegun
was saying, and said, roughly, "Ok, who's in NAFTA, what's the deal
with CAFTA, what's up the FTA?"—her way, Biegun says, of saying "rack
them and stack them," begin again from the start. "Somebody is taking a
conversation and twisting it maliciously," he says.
Gawker says that, "this can only be the work of a Republican faction that wants Palin never to speak on behalf of their party again." I guess this could be Karl Rove sneaking his way back into the hearts and minds of the GOP. But after everything we saw this campaign season, I think there is a distinct possibility that the people speaking out about what went on behind the scenes at the McCampaign are NOT the best our country has to offer. At the very least, they're behaving very badly. Is it just me or do they sound like children, and not terribly well-behaved children at that?
Original post and updates are below. This is like "The Neverending Story." (Which, by the way, is only $4.99 on DVD. Not a bad deal.)
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UPDATE: Palin Says Critics Are Jerks, Some Media People are Stinkers
Updating the earlier news regarding the comments made by one of Sarah Palin's aides, the New York Times is reporting that Governor Palin has made the bold move of referring to the "unnamed McCain campaign aides who have been maligning her in recent days" as "jerks." Also, some members of the media are "stinkers." No word on whether either group is made of greasy grimy gopher guts and mutilated monkey feet. It is also possible that the unnamed sources are, in fact, poopyheads infected with massive amounts of cooties. We'll stay with this story all night if we have to.
OK, OK, we're being silly, but so is everyone else. And we weren't involved in a Presidential election campaign.
Here's the direct quote from the Times:
Referring to the McCampaign staff members who have criticized her: "that’s cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s
unprofessional, and those guys are jerks, if they came away with it
taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on
national news. It is not fair and not right."
As for the media: “For the most part, absolutely, media persons, reporters, have been
absolutely right on and there has been fairness and objectivity...There have been some stinkers, though, who have kind of made the
whole basket full of apples, once in a while, smell kind of bad.”
And there you have it. The original post continues below:
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An aide to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has fired back at sources in the McCampaign who claim that Palin was, well, something other than a good VP candidate.
"This is so unfortunate and, quite honestly, sickening," Palin aide Meghan Stapleton said Thursday in a written statement. "The accusations we are hearing and reading are not true, and since we deny all these anonymous allegations, there is nothing specific to which we will respond.
"We have the highest regards for Sen. John McCain. Gov. Palin was honored to be chosen as McCain's running mate. And as governor of Alaska, Gov. Palin looks forward to working with President-elect Obama on securing energy independence for America."
Palin herself says she will not respond to "individual accusations."
"I won't comment on anyone's gossip or allegations that are based on anonymous sources," she said. "That's kind of a small, evidently bitter type of person, who would anonymously charge something foolish like that -- that I perhaps didn't know an answer to a question. So until I know who was talking about it, I won't have a comment on false allegations."
Others in the McCampaign are bummed out that things fell apart so fast. "Despite the acrimony, many McCain aides say they are sad the campaign team dissolved so quickly." No kidding.
I'm a little surprised as well. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Sarah Palin, she was chosen by the McCampaign. So if they had problems with her, wouldn't before the election have been a good time to figure that out?
Not to get too silly about this, but don't we tell our children to be good sports when they lose? And isn't this type of behavior the exact opposite of that? Frankly, the Presidential election is a hell of a lot more important than a soccer game. Sometimes talking about it doesn't help.
Source: CNN
Image: HuffPo
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