I guess it has been a while since we caught one of these guys in a wetsuit or in a park bathroom sting, so the moralizing blowhards are out in force again:
President of the conservative National Clergy Council and Evangelical leader, the Reverend Rob Schenck (pronounced SHANK), who met Sarah Palin when he was a VIP guest at her first appearance with John McCain in Dayton last week said today that her daughter’s pregnancy is “none of our business,” and commended Barack Obama for saying so.
“This is a private family matter. The Palins, especially their teenage daughter, are entitled to privacy on this matter. Anyone who cares about young people will back off and give this young woman the space she needs. Anyone who exploits her for political or commercial gain is disgraceful.”
I agree. I just wish Schenck would take his own damned advice:
Rev. Schenck protesting.
In response to today’s action, the Christian Defense Coalition and the National Clergy Council issued a national call to “the faith community and people of good will” to travel to Florida to pray and plead for Terri Schiavo’s life.
“A society has sunk to it lowest when it abandons the sick and helpless,” Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council. “Should this prove the end of the line for Terri and her loving family, this will be a deep shame that our country will carry for a terribly long time.”
Schenck was up to his neck in the Schaivo affair, publicly meeting with the lunatic doctor who claimed Schaivo could be rehabiliated (the one who Hannity informed us had won a “Noble Peace Prize In Medicine,”), being arrested for protesting outside the hospice, then publicly questioning the autopsy, claiming that doctors are human and often make mistakes.
Privacy, not really a concept these guys understand, but one they are always demanding when it fits their needs.
Warren Terra
In all fairness (I love fairness; don’t you?) iirc Sean Hannity claimed the guy had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize In Medicine. Of course, pretty much any member of a national legislature is entitled to nominate people for the Peace prize (Milosovec was nominated pretty much as long as he lived) and while there are Nobel Prizes in Medicine (technically, “Medicine Or Physiology”) and in Peace, there aren’t omnibus prizes, but there you are. I wouldn’t want to be unfair.
protected static
The Schenck brothers have never been big fans of privacy… Or, more specifically, pregnancy being a private matter.
Zifnab
I’m personally a big fan of this find over at Sadly, No! where they blow away Amy Alkon for reversing her policy on moralizing over other peoples’ kids.
Let’s get real. If this had been one of Barack Obama’s daughters, we’d see non-stop wall-to-wall coverage over how Obama was planning to introduce teenage promiscuity and sexual deviancy to the White House. Some wingtard blowhard would be going on about how the Obama girls would be staining the Lincoln Bedroom with their sins. And there would be endless conjecture over how many other abortions the Obama’s kids have had or were planning to have over the course of the next four years.
But IOKIYAR, and the daughter of a VP candidate with an (R) next to her name is due far more respect and privacy than her Democratic counterpart.
The Moar You Know
If it were Barack’s family, Schenk would be screaming his lungs out over how society demands answers.
The media will let him get away with it, of course, because fighting dirty is a privilege reserved only for Republicans.
jake
Thanks for that ringing denouncement of Camp McPOW.
Gus
Thank you for the reminder (as if I needed one) of what a lackwit Sean Hannity is.
smiley
Listening to the first few minutes of Rush’s show confirms that the repubs are in a panic about Palin. Not surprisingly he’s painting Palin to be THE mother in mother-and-apple-pie jingoism. He’s spouting all of the right-wing talking points we were all subjected to over the weekend. He linked attacks on Palin’s daughter to the Obama campaign — you know, the stealth Obama campaign of bloggers. Have there been attacks on Palin’s daughter that I somehow missed? Pathetic… and funny.
Tax Analyst
There really ought to be some sort of “Hypocrisy Monitor” out there, like, you know, in the “MainStream Media”, to check out jerks like Schenck and his ilk and publicize their prior posturing. It shouldn’t have to be up to blogs to call these Ass-hats out, but I guess it is.
But I guess the MSM is too busy with Flag Lapels and calling the Horse Race to bother.
jake
Bets: Rev. Schenk will continue to beat the drum for Miss Palin’s privacy.
But just to let us know how awful it is to talk about her personal business.
It’s not like he’s an attention whore or anything.
lutton
Gee, how does this compare to the media circus around John Edwards?
Nim, ham hock of liberty
There are probably a dozen ways that Sarah Palin could prove the maternity of the new baby, without bringing up her daughter in any way, let alone the fact that her daughter is pregnant.
THEY made the issue of it.
cleek
no comparison. apples and oranges.
Edwards is a Democrat. you can’t judge the coverage of him by the same standards you’d judge the coverage of a Republican.
jrg
The GOP has been shoving “family values” down everyone’s throat for years, now they want the meanies on the left to stop asking why the 17-year-old, unwed child of their abstinence-only VP pick is pregnant?
Screw them, for two reasons: first because this does matter as a campaign issue – abstinence-only “education” does not prevent teen pregnancy: Palin’s daughter is a case in point; second, if “family values” are so important, who’s family are we talking about?
Zifnab
You have to elect Governor Palin to the Vice Presidency. She needs this job real bad. The woman has five kids to feed, for Christ’s sake.
sistermoon
Speaking of morals, it seems that Caribou Barbie has her own crazy preacher problem:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html
Guess this takes Reb’n Wright off the table, huh?
SmilingPolitely
John McCain and Sarah Palin need to apologize to those commentators in the communist, fascist, satanist liberal blogosphere. We didn’t force their hand and make them come forward with Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy. They did it because the National Enquirer was about to out them!
National Enquirer
r€nato
a fundamentalist Republican is a hypocrite? That’s unpossible!
Punchy
I’m assuming this was in reference to TalkLeft, right? Wha? Seriously, Jeralyn has just instituted an absolute, no-exceptions ban on anything negative at all about Palin. Nothing deleterious is allowed. Period, full stop. Yet she and Big Dick Democrat trashed Obama daily, repeatedly, for MONTHS without a hint of remorse.
What a piece of work that woman can be. Garbage blog, IMO.
4tehlulz
This kind of hypocrisy would be surprising, if it were not totally predictable.
dewberry
@sistermoon…it’s not just her crazy preacher, it’s what SHE herself said:
link, again:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html
maxbaer (not the original)
Schenk is right. We do have to lay off the whole dysfunctional Palin family and start heaping the the dysfunctional McCain campaign that put her on the ticket in the first place.
jake
Paging Mickey Kaus. Paging Mr. Mickey Kaus.
PeterJ
I would argue that this:
isn’t a complete ban on anything negative. But I do agree about the Obama treatment though…
And I will never be a fan of banning users or removing comments.
Joshua Norton
The Repiggies “family values” are the same as their bible thumping values. They’re very important sources for telling OTHER people how to live.
The Moar You Know
Van Halen hates John McCain.
Stuck in the Fun House (nj)
Later the ENQUIRER released a presser expressing their profound disappointment that Johnston had been whisked away by a small spacecraft to “parts unknown”. An intrepid ENQUIRER reporter reportably reported that John Edwards was piloting the ship.
more to come….
The Moar You Know
John – did Tunch take over as the DBA again? We’ve told you a million times that cats make lousy computer admins.
This site has been down most of the day.
SmilingPolitely
Hey, it’s the tabloid of record, don’t mock!
Joshua Norton
Your problems are irrelevant to Technical Support Cat!
David Hunt
That argument is emotionally powerful, but logically flawed. Turn it around and you’ll see. It’s the equivalent of saying that a girl who was well educated as the consequences of sex and given free access to birth-control getting pregnant proves that those things only encourage reckless promiscuity.
The plural of “anecdote” is not “data.”
capelza
What is the Rev. Schenck doing protesting in front of Obama’s Greek temple?
jake
And the cradle, will rock…
Whoops, wrong song. McPOW shows the depths of his loserdom by picking a VH avec SH song.
Punchy
/pats self on back….
Before I clicked that link, I just KNEW exactly what song they must have used. Sho’ nuff, I wuz right.
With the poll numbers looking bad, I’m guessing they’ll move to “Jump!” next. Or with Palin, maybe “Hot for Teacher”?
Dreggas
Pretty sad that the Nat’l enquirer seems to have done a better job vetting the republican vp pick than the republicans did. If I was the MSM I would be PISSED that I keep getting scooped by a tabloid.
Josh
Right Now…Statler wishes he could have chosen Waldorf for VP.
Stuck in the Fun House (nj)
Who’s mocking!
boonagain
With McCain, it’s more likely one from David Lee Roth’s solo oeuvre: “Just a Gigolo”
Sherrell
On another note…they are now claiming the democrats have been sexist in their criticisms of Palin…
sexism + pow = they are never wrong!
jake
True. The data HHS has been able to gather shows it doesn’t work. Of course federally funded AO programs have been rather reluctant to show any data but God forbid we cut off the cash.
capelza
The GOP is accusing anyone of sexism? What are they? Feminazis?
Jill Howell
John, I agree that Bristol deserves privacy and it is wrong to put her in the limelight. Having said that I do think there is a distinction between making the story about Bristol versus Palin having an unwed, 17 year-old daughter. The question is how does a “family values” “abstinence” platform manifest itself. What is “family values” and if you are going to preach it, expecting others to adopt it, shouldn’t one be able to understand the benefit of ascribing to such a stance or understand what substantive difference I can expect in a candidate who ascribes to it versus one who doesn’t?
It is interesting because in interviews some defenders start to use the word “mistake” when referring to Bristol’s pregnancy and then quickly change it to “situation” as they go on to defend that it happens in all families and how noble Palin is for standing behind her daughter, etc. If you believe in family values shouldn’t a 17 year-old’s unwed pregancy BE a “mistake”, rather than a “situation?” And shouldn’t these people be talking about how troubling it is that it is happening in all these families rather than defending it because it is happening so frequently. I’m saying this, again, only in the context of someone standing for “family values” and “abstinence.” Why is it unfair for me to want to understand what benefit it will be to the country, how will the country be enhanced if everyone were to adopt “family values” and if “abstinence only” was our sex education curriculum?
The Moar You Know
I saw what you did there.
The Moar You Know
It must just be me; I don’t find her attractive. At all.
Delia
I drove 800 miles over the holiday to my sister’s house in Utah. Tuning in wingnut radio over some of the vast empty spaces, as I never do at home, I picked up a creature named Monica Crowley who was spending her Saturday selling the brilliance of Sarah Palin, the apotheosis of Ronald Reagan, if you didn’t know, but prettier and female. This, of course, was before the pregnant daughter story broke. But Monica thought it was SHAMEFUL, JUST SHAMEFUL the way the media had spent the whole year making sexist pig digs at Hillary. I thought it was amazing she’d never bothered to tune in FOX . . . .
Cain
btw why do the people in the picture look like midgets?
cain
SGEW
Hey hey, here’s a video of Palin’s debate performance in 2006 gubernatorial race (via Sully).
My take: pretty solid performance (on Gov. Palin’s part) for the most part. No flubs, no bomb shells, just sticks to the evangelical/conservative party line. Not a light weight . . . as far as Alaskan politics goes. With some prep work, she very well might do ok head to head with Sen. Biden (relatively speaking, considering the expectations, of course).
And speakin’ of data, here’s Pollster.com’s latest presidential tracker: link. w00t!
jrg
So instead I’ll listen to the MSM gush about how being a PTA/Hockey mom prepares someone to be a great president.
Besides, even if the argument is flawed, does that take the issue of birth control off the table? What’s it going to sound like when Palin discusses her ideas to reduce teen pregnancy?
I’d like to remind you that birth control was mentioned in Obama’s acceptance speech: (“We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”), so it was on the table before yesterday.
There’s no way that Palin can get out of the discussion on teen pregnancy without either alienating the base, or looking like a fool.
Right. I guess I’ll have to ask Focus on the Family for records regarding teen pregnancy and abortion among their membership.
Anastasius
Look at the teenage pregnancy percentages in the US for your data.
Cain
When people start injecting God in that way in a political speech, my bullshit meter goes off. If you wear your faith on your sleeve your probably trying to hoodwink someone. Only crazy religious nuts would fall for that cuz they see God everywhere.
cain
GSD
The term “politically correct” is being scrubbed from the rightwing mainframes.
Soon we will witness the Betty Friedanizing of the GOP, they will become the great defenders of career mothers and out of wedlock teen mothers.
-GSD
Zifnab
I believe its what you call “empirical evidence”. I mean, if I watch the sun rise 1000 times in the east, am I really supposed to conclude that tomorrow is going to be any different?
Likewise, if a larger percentage of teenagers undergoing abstinence educations are getting pregnant than their comprehensively educated peers, are we supposed to assume that Palin’s kid is a magical outlier who got pregnant because her contraceptive efforts defied the odds?
Seriously, what were the chances that Bristol was on birth control, much less using a condom? I’m willing to put money down that she was riding bareback without a care in the world.
zzyzx
Confirmation that the husband was an AIP member!
Could anyone imagine the outcry if Michelle Obama were a member of a black separatist party?
SGEW
[A li’l pseudo-live blog of the 2006 Palin gubernatorial debate]
Huh. That Palin sure can dodge tricky questions by filling time with buzz words with the best (worst?) of them. Life life, blessed blessed, freedom troops protect strong, progress necessary future, safety communities families. Alaska! Alaska! Alaska!
Good at short, punchy answers, along the lines of “yes” or “no” (though the questions are really, really parochial and specific to Alaska: one question involves a three mile gravel road*!). This might reflect well on her, especially when compared to Sen. Joe “Bloviator” Biden.
How her accent might play on the national stage is a tricky question. I have no idea. A plus? A negative? Above my pay grade.
Another thing: get these Alaskan reporters to moderate the Presidential debates! Miles ahead of the schmucks who’ve been handling it for the national media.
Summary? She seemed very well informed (on the issues presented, of which several I have no friggin’ idea what they’re talking about – what is the VPSO? What’s the importance of unitary management of fish and game? Beats me), sharp, snappy, self-assured, and a rather smart yet humble presence.
If the media (and, importantly, Biden (hope you watch this a couple of times before ya hit th’ stage, Joe!)) go into the V.P. debate expecting an “aw shucks” hockey mom who’ll flub and gaffe her way into a laughing-stock . . . she’ll come across as the hands-down winner. Danger! Danger! Beware.
No wonder she won the Governor race.
*whoops! That’s the access road to the “bridge to nowhere”! Which she supported, as of 2006! Busted!
Kevin
VPSO == Village Public Safety Officer ; sounds kind of like a volunteer fire department.
jibeaux
At least Bristol’s getting a class act!
Cain
I’m ready to join a separatist party that seperates me from wingnuts.
cain
NR
Just in – McCain has pulled out of an interview with Larry King because of the beating that Tucker Bounds got last night at the hands of Campbell Brown. Apparently the McCain camp said that was “over the line.”
Is McCain finally losing his base?
jibeaux
Maybe it’s kind of like what Dwight does on The Office.
Someday, that will come back on…
SamFromUtah
OT, but is anyone blogging whatever’s going on at the Republican convention? The actual event, instead of the fascist-cop scariness and the non-starter hurricane and stuff? I can’t face tuning into it myself.
What little dribbles I’ve heard about it sound a bit more coherent, or at least varied, than I was expecting. I figured there’d be nothing more than chanting “Freedom” the whole time, or something like that.
Punchy
To be fair, the correct analogy would be if Biden’s wife was a KKK member, White Panther, etc….
Stuck in the Fun House (nj)
Kinda puts a damper on those already made ads showing the Obama’s as radical revolutionary, America hating, secret Muslim terrorists. At least they don’t ascribe to leaving the union. Maybe they can release them after the election and fetch a few pennies on E-Bay.
Too many mirrors in here!
KRK
Another red flag about Todd Palin that I’ve seen mentioned only a couple of times is that he’s an awfully hands-on political spouse. As in, sitting in on meetings with state government officials who thought they were having private meetings with the governor. As in interjecting himself into troopergate as a person with political authority even when Gov. Palin isn’t present. As in creepy.
dewberry
Also about Todd Palin…there are a bunch of emails that she won’t release from her time in the Governor’s mansion citing executive privilege. The funny thing is, Todd Palin was cc’ed on a lot of them.
h/t kos, but original story here:
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8802680
The Moar You Know
McCain has not done an interview since August 17. He has already threatened to pull out of one of the three scheduled debates because it was to be moderated by Tom Brokaw, who apparently pissed him off. This is a terribly risky strategy and one that I hope he continues to pursue.
He had the media lined up with kneepads on. If he alienates them he is truly fucked.
jake
Don’t try it, your ears will bleed.
Kevin
Haha, just ran across this:
Lobbyists for McCain
DougJ
Speaking of religious nuts, I wonder if Palin’s batshit crazy pastor will get the same attention Reverend Wright did:
David Hunt
Exactly. I’d meant to follow up with the point that there were ample studies that discredited AOE. I had…trouble getting that comment onto the thread.
SGEW
Of course not!
One of them is a crazy, pathological, monstrous nutjob who shouldn’t be trusted with scissors, let alone the spiritual well being of his parishioners.
The other one is black.
Apples and oranges, my friend. Apples and oranges.
Cain
This site’s db server has started to bog down again. I suspect that there are locking problems. BJ is gaining a lot of referrals from all over the place. John’s getting famous.. :)
cain
Cassidy
Fuck’em with a sharp pointy stick. If making some sexually ignorant teenager the center of attention for the next 3 months is what it takes to get these evil little shits out of office, then I’m all for it.
Dan
…publicly meeting with the lunatic doctor…
Bill Frist? ;)
grumpy realist
Considering how the Nat’l Enquirer coyly hints in that article linked above of all sorts of other dirt they’ve dug up (i.e., had people coming up to them and dumping in their laps), I predict a Very Very *Interesting* Week for Palin and McCain–in the Chinese sense of the word, of course.
Pass the popcorn. I was following the meltdown in Japanese politics but this, this is *epic*.