Palin apologist of the day
July 07, 2009 3:11 pm ET by Jamison Foser
The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb notes that Alaska, unlike the federal government, does have a "Department of Law" and asks: "Is it really that crazy that Governor Palin would suggest that the White House equivalent of her Department of Law would handle the kind of frivolous ethics complaints she's been forced to deal with on her own?"
Well, let's see: Sarah Palin was the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President just last year. She has presidential ambitions. So, yes, it seems pretty reasonable to expect her to know that there is no "department of law there in the White House."
But that's a judgment call. Goldfarb apparently doesn't require that level of knowledge from would-be presidents; that's his prerogative. But Goldfarb's defense of Palin collapses under the weight of its own illogic. Here's Goldfarb again:
"Is it really that crazy that Governor Palin would suggest that the White House equivalent of her Department of Law would handle the kind of frivolous ethics complaints she's been forced to deal with on her own?"
So, according to Goldfarb (and Palin), Alaska's Department of Law has left Palin to handle ethics complaints "on her own."
And according to Goldfarb, it makes sense for Palin to assume that the White House equivalent of Alaska's Department of law -- which has left her to handle ethics complaints on her own -- would not leave her to handle ethics complaints on her own.
Does Goldfarb know what "equivalent" means?
(By the way: Goldfarb worked for the McCain-Palin campaign.)
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Of course, "Troopergate" wasn't frivolous. And Gov. Palin didn't fully cooperate with that inquiry. And there were findings made against her. More messy facts.
Maybe the easiest solution for Gov. Palin would have been to (1.) Always tell the truth; and (2.) Always act in an ethical manner...
Since she appears constitutionally (no ref. to the US Constitution, please) unable to do either, she becomes predictable as whatever she does is the opposite of the 'right thing'.
Imagine, as she admits herself : being a lame duck, like many of my fellow politicians, I am too much of a financial burden on the state of Alaska. That is why I have to quit my job.
"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out."
Nothing about a White House 'equivalent' there, Mikey. She is saying that there is a White House Department of Law.
I get it.
She was even wrong about the role of the Alaska Department of Law. They are not the Alaska Department of Automatically Make Ethics Charges Disappear!
The Palin apologists are really sounding ridiculous at this point.
And since when is "Austrian" a language?
If you attack, attack on the fact you disagree, not on petty mistakes like folks on both sides of the aisle make.
And do you not think that someone that ran for the office of VP should know a little about the federal gov't she may have been a heartbeat away from running? Or even the office she's running for?
1. The only one of these with actual substance is the "Austrian" thing. He did say something about not knowing what something was "in Austrian". You can decide for yourself, however, if the President being somewhat ignorant about a foreign culture is the same thing as a prospective presidential candidate seemingly able to move throughout life for 45 years without having heard the phrase "Justice Department".
2. The Chirac thing is completely bogus. I could tell because the only hits I got for awhile were from right-wing blogs. Apparently, he did write a letter to Chirac, but not because he thought he was still President. Actually, he was replying to a letter Chirac had written him about potentially working with his foundation. So this is really a total lie.
3. He did refer to Putin as "President", however he immediately corrected himself and called him Prime Minister. He later went on to mistakenly refer to him as President one more time, saying it wasn't Freudian because Putin had been President. Had Sarah Palin mistakenly referred to the Department of Law and then corrected herself with Justice Department, it would have been a non-issue.
I don't think Sarah Palin calling the Justice Department by the wrong name is a very big deal at all, but to me at least, it's yet more indication that she either doesn't know or doesn't care about life outside of Alaska. Of course, it's not like I consider this to be a radical restructuring of my views on Sarah Palin, but it certainly doesn't do anything to change my mind about her.
Olbermann mentioned it tonight, just in passing, not as the focus of his conversation, but still, I'd rather not see any decent media get bogged down with minor blunders like this.
I know some of it's tlt for tat, and the rightys will continue to mention non-issues like Obama's "57 states" goof as if they mean something, but I don't see the point in building up minor stuff like this.
Especially with somebody like Palin. She's (hopefully) a political non-person, and besides, there's a big ol' bag of stupid on her resume if you need some laughs.
I think "Goldfarb" is a deliciously funny name.