DougJ noted Palin’s bizarre and offensive rant against Joe McGinnis, and I think people are missing why she did what she did- she and Todd are afraid. That’s why she insinuated McGinness is a pedophile there to perv on her daughter and unleashed her cult on him.
The Palins are a primitive type, and everything they do publicly falls into the fight or flight rules. Media questions are too hard, run from the press and only issue statements via Facebook and other controlled mediums. Look bad in an interview, and attack the interviewer for bias. Your lies and nonsense start to add up, flee from your job. And on and on and on.
But now, McGinnis dares to move to Alaska after having shopped around a book on the oil industry in that state, and it is pretty clear why the Palins reacted the way they did. They’re afraid, and they are lashing out. It has worked before, and they hope it will again.
TR
Also.
cleek
sounds like real Presidential material, to me.
let’s just appoint her now, so she’ll get bored with it and quit in time for the next election.
Michael
Why does John Cole hate America? Lashing out at simple, honest patriots for their views just enables Al Quaeda in their goals to destroy all that is wonderful and homespun here in the Heartland.
Glenn Beck's Chalkboard
They’re always the victims. Always.
patrick (honest!)
I loathe Sarah Palin.
Two things:
1. That’s actually a pretty effective way to put Joe McGinnis ON NOTICE that his pervy ways won’t be tolerated by the good people of Palintown.
B) I’m beginning to think that every time Sarah Palin’s name is spoken, she gets stronger, like some kind of weird vampire.
III: I wouldn’t want to live next door to that much crazy. I’d be afraid that it’s contagious.
MattF
They’re afraid of competition– McGinnis will now be able to see Russia from his back yard, so in the future there will be two Alaskan experts on diplomacy, instead of just one.
WereBear
As I read about the big concrete structure rising there, I had a flash of the future where it is a crumbling hulk. Sure, it seems sensible; she’s a business! She’s like AT&T! We need a complex!
But geez, the overhead. She’s not a bloated multi-national; she’s in showbiz, the most fickle business there is.
Has MC Hammer taught us nothing?
Pasquinade
McGinniss ought to invite Levi Johnston over for a barbeque.
Brandon
I think I prefer the British paedophile to pedophile. But which ever you use, I think it should be incumbent on the media whores to point out the trend of how often they try to use this line of attack.
Thomas
For the love of God, how much longer are we going to have to put up with this woman’s crap. She’s like Newt Gingrich only dumber and less accomplished.
Brandon
@cleek: Oh man, I cannot wait until she’s Preznit. She’ll be issuing executive orders telling those paedophile correspondent news crews to pack up their cameras and get off their lawn, because they know they are trying to catch a glimpse of Piper.
Actually, not too sound elitist, but the idea of a Palin Presidency is quite funny for one reason, their kids would have to be home schooled. I for one cannot imagine growing up amidst that much ignorance and raising two high school dropouts, that the rest would not be anything but more of the same. And I severely doubt that they could ever possibly keep up with the academic expectations at the National Cathedral School or Sidwell Friends.
Mike Kay
Don’t forget how they tried to frame Letterman as a pedophile.
cmorenc
@Thomas
She’s a lumberjack and she’s ok.
That’s why you’ll be putting up with her for indefinitely long, cause she’s got a whole chorus clad in flannel pajamas singing backup for her, and they don’t seem to get disenchanted when they hit the lines about “I wear high heels, suspendies and bras”.
Bordo
The more I read about the Palins the more I see them as the loathesome Snopes clan created by William Faulkner.
mistersnrub
@Thomas: She is exactly like Newt and is following his playbook to a T. Keep yourself “open” to a run at the Presidency, and thus oblige the media to speculate on your future, thereby keeping you in the news. In the meantime, cash-in with books, tv deals and shady PAC activity. Then, when the time comes to actually, you know, serve your country and constituents, flake out. Rinse, repeat.
Brandon
@mistersnrub: The problem for her though is that while Next can get away with that for a decade because he actually helod an important position once upon a time, Speaker of the House. That immediately confers him respect.
Palin on the hand is a former half-term Governor. If she doesn’t run in 2012, her sell by date will have passed and she will not continue to be politically relevant. If actually decides to run in 2016, I think she’ll have all the success of Gary Bauer.
AnnaN
Isn’t Bristol going to be 20 years old this year?
So, Sarah is more outraged that a man might LOOK at her adult daughter as opposed to being outraged that an unsheathed boy-member is in her 16 year old daughter’s vajayjay and procreatin’ therein?
dude
I hope you enjoy it when someone from the other political side builds a 2 story house with a rooftop deck overlooking your backyard to write an “expose” on your family.
It’s amazing to me to think that no one on the left feels this is in the least bit sleazy, wrong or at least rude. Not really amazing because I haven’t seen many on the left who have much class anyway.
MattR
@dude:
If anyone ever did this to anyone on either side of the political spectrum, I would be horrified. Let me know when it actually happens.
Paul in KY
@patrick (honest!): If you say her name 3 times into a mirror, she & Biggie Smalls both appear & they bust a cap in yo ass.
True story. Also.
WereBear
@Bordo: Snopes North!
Which just goes to show that it’s not a state; it’s a state of mind.
Boots Day
Has there been any independent reporting on any of this? I’m curious to know just how close McGinniss is to the Palin compound. From what I’ve seen of her mansion up there, it doesn’t seem likely that there’s another house close enough to peer into the Palin bedrooms.
Noonan
@dude: I agree to a point (though your description is a bit off). I’d like to know more about why McGinnis felt compelled to rent the place next to Palin. If this was Andrew Breitbart doing the same to, say, Al Gore, I’m pretty sure the left wouldn’t like it.
With that said, the reflexive tendency to a) use one of her children as a political shield and b) imply that the writer is a pervert should be well beneath any reasonable adult. But Palin operates at the level of a hormonal, immature teenager. She’s one of the Mean Girs.
someguy
In a country that has a free press, her complaints about the legal actions of a reporter are beyond disgusting and show an utter contempt for the Constitution.
MattR
@Boots Day: Look at what she is building next to her existing (red) house (link) It is very close to her neighbor’s house. Not sure if that is the place McGinnis is renting or not, but it definitely show that the Palin’s were not very concerned with their neighbor’s privacy.
@Noonan: As part of the answer to your question, I would want to know what other housing options in Wasilla were available to McGinnis. I am guessing that they were not very numerous.
David
What weird rituals and/or sacrifices are the Palins hiding? They’re scary people.
August J. Pollak
I loathe Palin, think her Facebook mob orders by fiat are abhorrent, and clearly her complaints against McGinnis are mostly hyperbole, but McGinniss sounds like just as big an attention whore as Palin.
Moving to the source of a story you’re going to do an in-depth investigation on is responsible journalism. It’s also not that revolutionary. Journalists embed themselves in their subjects all the time. I personally know two writers who have made multiple overseas trips and lived in Central Asian regions to write about them.
Making a huge deal about “buying the house next door” is a stunt. It’s goddamn Wasilla, and unless McGinniss actually IS going to “watch her from his balcony” then yeah, there’s no practical purpose moving next door to her serves that renting a hotel anywhere else in that tiny city wouldn’t.
Does he plan to mic-ambush her when she steps out of the house like Bill O’Reilly and local wannabees on Channel Whatever? Does he plan to just camp out and make his presence known like those ever-compassionate protesters outside an abortion clinic? No? Then what’s the point? Why is it necessary, other than a headline, for McGinniss to go “ha ha I’m living next to Sarah Palin?” Has anyone- anyone- asked what the practical purpose of “living next door” to her is? As Dave Weigel pointed out, McGinniss has given no explanation of why he did this, save for a smarmy, sarcastic response to Palin’s Facebook post.
God, it’s tough enough for legitimate journalism to get into the light these days. It’s disappointing that McGinniss wants to kneecap himself before the book’s even written.
Fern
@Boots Day: I found some photos and a Google earth image that show the two properties, and since the addition, the houses are very, very close to each other.
MattR
@August J. Pollak: I may have missed something, but I did not realize that Joe McGinniss made a big deal out of moving next to Palin nor did I realize that he responded to her Facebook post. The only response I have seen was from his son.
Rod Majors
If he shows up in the Palin’s yard with his pants around his ankles or peering through windows I’ll be the first to say he’s a douchebag. But until he does anything remotely like that how does one justify insinuating he’s a sex perv? This reeks of what she tried to do to Letterman. How pathetic.
TBogg
@August J. Pollak: Because it is more criminal to rent a house next to the subject of your next book for the five months you will be in her state than it is to infer that that person is a pedophile.
If the house next door was available, why didn’t Palin just buy it to create her bubble of privacy for her children when she’s not hauling them around the country as props? It’s fucking Alaska, not Malibu, she could have paid for it with the proceeds from one speech.
She’s just pulling the same flying monkey shit Malkin does in the same passive-aggressive way. Fuck her. She’s an attention whore who wants to set the rules and now her whole summer is ruined because she and Todd can’t smoke meth in the backyard anymore. Sucks to be her.
Allison W.
What is he going to learn from living next door? Nothing. Nothing that will rock the political world anyway. So she is obviously paranoid.
master c
@Paul in KY: hilarious!
Olivia
Boy, dumping all those zoning regulations sure can have unintended consequences, can’t they Sarah?
GregB
Is it time to fall back on the old saw that the pro-wire tapping asschappers used to use all the time.
If she hasn’t done anything wrong, then she has nothing to hide.
P.S. Palin and her acolytes were probably big fans of Linda Tripp and her wire tapping of her close friend shtick too.
August J. Pollak
@TBogg:
I feel like Malkin is a really bad resource for defending someone’s right to camp outside an opponent’s house to report on its condition and the activities of the family living inside. Just sayin’.
Because she’s “neighbors” to a house next to a giant, thousand-square foot complex she’s building, and because she might actually not have expected the property close to hers to be rented by someone planning to study her and investigate her? Look, I hate Palin and I agree she’s playing the victim card here but do you really think “why not buy all the land around you” is fair? Come on.
satby
@TBogg:
TBogg, if you didn’t have the beautiful Mrs. TBogg and the L&T Casey, I would have your babies.
August J. Pollak
@MattR:
The response from the son is what I was referring to. That’s the closest response. So McGinniss himself has said absolutely nothing. That’s not better.
As far as “making a big deal” again, without a response from McGinniss we know from the Palin story that McGinniss told Todd he’s moved next door to write a book about his wife. Look, I’m really sorry but outside of the context of it being Sarah Palin that’s creepy.
PTirebiter
…for defending someone’s right to camp outside an opponent’s house to report on its condition and the activities of the family living inside.
Why would you think anyone needed to defend the guy’s right to rent the house next door? It may be provocative, it may be self-promoting, it may be a lot of things, but illegal isn’t one of them. I think you’d be hard pressed to argue to even argue it’s unethical considering who his new neighbors are. So what’s your point, are unwelcome neighbors somehow fair game for any baseless attacks on their character?
Honus
In the off topic but deserves to be noted department, Governor Confederate History Month has done it again, hiring Fred Malek to chair a government reform commission. You remember Malek, he compiled the list of jews working in the BLS for Nixon.
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/25/AR2010052505203.html
They just keep making it harder and harder for The Onion.
TBogg
@August J. Pollak: If I’m an author and I am writing a book about a particular person and I have to move to the state where they make their home to interview people who know her and were affected by her and I find out that I can rent the house next door or across the street…I’m all over that.
Because it is Palin and she can hold the Sacred Trig or future unwed mother Piper in front of her, Palin thinks she gets a free pass.
Live in the bubble…die in the bubble.
Michael D.
@August J. Pollak:
This.
You have to admit, it is provocative. Palin and her family should NOT be able to live comfortably in the political world. But I think everyone should agree that even our political enemies should be able to live without being stalked.
The ONLY reason McGinnis did this was to be a shit disturber and to get attention.
pablo
I have a fearful wingnut neighbor, bless his heart, that emails me the every latest crime incident within a mile of our house.
And we live in statistically the safest neighborhood in our city.
“Vigilance!!”
Michael D.
@PTirebiter:
Why has the opinion here changed? I remember it was TOTALLY creepy and unacceptable when Michelle Malkin was reporting on the Frost’s countertops.
So why is it different when it’s Palin? I think at the very least, we would want to hold ourselves to higher standards than Michelle Malkin.
MattR
@Michael D.: Other than Sarah Palin’s statement, what makes you think that McGinniss is going to be anywhere near that intrusive. If his book is primaryily focused on inner details of her private life, including details that he obtained from living next door to her, that is pretty disgusting. But if his book is focused on her public life* based on interviews and research he does while he happens to be living next door to her, I have no problem with that.
**I assume that his book will include some details of her private life, but I think that is necessary to paint a complete pucture of anyone and is acceptable when done with moderation and with the proper context.
Face
Imagine this. Everything in that link, every comment, is so predictable.
roshan
I have sadly resigned to hearing Palin’s BS for the next 20-25 yrs. If there is a FSM maybe I will get a quicker death.
jimBOB
Why has the opinion here changed? I remember it was TOTALLY creepy and unacceptable when Michelle Malkin was reporting on the Frost’s countertops.
A. The Frosts aren’t running for high office, or building careers as public political figures charging five figures for a speech
B. McGinniss hasn’t shown any evidence that he’s peeping into her home. All he’s done is rent a property that was available.
One other thing – sauce for the goose. If Palin wants to attack McGinniss, he’s going to be right where she can see him. If he brings home a trashy woman, or leaves beer bottles in the yard, or goes out to get the paper in his underwear, she’s right where she can secure the evidence.
Evinfuilt
@someguy:
Remember, Palin thinks the constitution gives her freedom FROM the press, not OF.
PTirebiter
@Michael D.: I didn’t comment on Malkin and I’m not all that familiar with the story- but I would guess that Frost wasn’t a national figure.
Maybe it was the whole powerful crapping on the powerless thing. I have no real idea why McGinnis did it, but I’m confident it wasn’t so he could leer into the kid’s bedroom. Palin is having a real effect on the national discourse without actually joining in the conversation. I don’t think she has a reasonable expectation of continuing to have her cake and eating too. She’s at least equally responsible for any discomfort she and her family may be experiencing as McGinnis is. She’s hardly just hanging out with her kids, minding her own business, etc…
Violet
I wonder who owns the house? And why were they willing to rent it to McGinnis? Are they not fans of the Palin? Maybe they didn’t know who McGinnis was.
Whoever they are, they’d better watch their backs. The Palins don’t forget. And they don’t pay any attention to rules and laws.
The Moar You Know
Bring it. Long past due that Bible Spice should have to live with the fear and terror that she’s inflicted on others, although how this guy moving in next door to her qualifies as “fear and terror” is beyond me. But whatever. It obviously has her freaked out and that’s just fine.
I hope it has her scared shitless and watching her back just as much as the idea of her becoming President scares me.
Fallsroad
@August J. Pollak:
I’d take anything she said that Todd heard with a truck full of salt.
PaminBB
No one seems to be addressing JC’s actual comment. I think that he is right, the Palins are afraid of something. While I believe that they are paranoid, they almost certainly have some very specific things that they are afraid will come out. So, they are trying to kill the messenger.
(edited to remove stupid apostrophe)
jrg
@Michael D.:
Your point is profoundly idiotic. Was Graeme Frost on a ticket for VP in ’08?
licensed to kill time
Sarah’s probably (among other things) afraid that her carefully constructed Real American Happy Family facade will crumble in the light of day. I imagine there are a lot of stories floating around Wasilla that people are dying to tell, and she’s afraid Joe will root them out. She has left a lot of disgruntled folks in her wake as she clawed her way up the ladder of ‘success’. And she is like a cornered badger if she feels threatened.
Nobody says nice things about Mean Girls and she’s the Queen of Mean.
also, Tbogg cracks me up ;-)
Bella Q
I’ve always thought they were afraid of … something that’s out there. That is distinct from the rather frank paranoia displayed regularly. While I’m sure the lure of the $$ to be made influenced the resignation, there was a panic in both the timing of the speech and her demeanor giving it that suggests there is a very real fear. I’m eager to learn what that something is.
Fern
I thought the book was to be about the oil industry in Alaska, not just the Palins.
Nellcote
@jimBOB:
Palin’s already posted a photo of McGinniss on his rented porch to her FB page. Now who’s invading their neighbor’s privacy?
Nellcote
Random House confirmed the book is about Palin. No surprise, Glen Beck is already calling for a boycott of Random House.
LaPalin built her house almost right up to the property line (after she removed the building codes as mayor). It sits higher than the rented house (see photo) so that her house actually looks down on the rental. The owner’s were probably pissed at the monstrosity the Palins built.
Mnemosyne
@August J. Pollak:
Actually, I can think of one potential reason that could be a deciding factor for a writer: internet access. Wasilla is a pretty dinky town, so how many of the hotels do you think have wireless or high-speed internet access? But a house in the upscale part of town could very well have DSL or cable internet access.
It’s still kinda creepy for him to be right next door. However, I deeply doubt that McGinness moved there so he could get his jollies from spying on the Palins’ preteen daughter, which is what Palin is alleging.
ETA: Not to mention that we’re probably talking about a stay of several weeks, if not several months. Most people would rent a house or apartment rather than stay in a hotel for that amount of time.
Anne Laurie
@Nellcote:
I’m beginning to think this whole fooferaaw started as an attempt by Palin to lure more of her supporters to Wasilla — girl needs a cheering section following her at all times, and word is she’s burned through (or just burned) most of the original hometown boosters. The Palinistas wouldn’t get off their frogbelly-white arses for a positive (touching the hem of their queen’s RNC-paid-for garments), but a negative (kill the
wabbitlie-bruls! kill the lamestream-media-unperson!) will draw them every time…Unfortunately for the KIA campgrounds and no-tell motels of beautiful zoning-code-free Wasilla, I’m thinking “Sarah’s Flying Monkeys” live by the rules of the standard anti-tourist canard: They show up with one teeshirt and a twenty dollar bill, and in a week’s visit they won’t change either one.
maus
Man, Palin’s starting to sound like a stone-cold Scientologist.
Lets examine the facts, shall we?
Befriend Greta vanHubbardologist. Rip people off and claim religious persecution. Get some channers arrested for investigating you a little too closely. Attack your enemies. Ask what their crimes are! Suggest they eat babies and/or fuck them!
OH MY GOD, It’s all so clear!
asiangrrlMN
I don’t know if they have something new and specific to fear, but I do know that the Palins are hyper-paranoid. I don’t think anyone other than the Palins made any fanfare about McGinnis renting the house. Again, would I be annoyed? Yes. However, I would say to myself, “I have tainted everything I’ve touched, whored my kids out in promotion of me, lied about everything under the sun, and called attention to myself ten thousand ways of Sunday. Maybe I need to dial it back a bit.”
I would also like to add, how much time do the Palins actually spend in that house any more?
Larkspur
@August J. Pollak: I made a point similar to TBogg’s in the last thread, and I stand by it, while seconding TBogg (it sounds awkward but I’m flexible). McGinnis didn’t build the house; he has apparently rented it from the owner, who obviously built the damn thing where it stands right now and where it stood last month and last year. And yes, from the one Palin-generated photo I’ve seen, the houses are too close together and poorly planned for privacy. So obviously remediation ought to have happened before now. IMO, this kinda makes McGinnis basically irrelevant.
I don’t know whose house was built first, but apparently there isn’t much in the way of zoning law or permit-getting or setbacks or variances up there. So that means that brave Alaskan pioneer families have to work these things out person to person. They didn’t. Who knows why. And I’m ever so slightly curious about the neighbor who rented the house to McGinnis. That ain’t mighty neighborly. The only thing I know for sure is that I won’t be moving to Wasilla in this or any other lifetime, even if I were offered a darn palace for free.
There have been so many ways to mitigate the situation without resorting to a Facebook WhineFest. But it’s all about the WhineFest.
giantslor
They’re the ones who decided to become the ringleader and lion tamer of their three-ring circus. I feel sorry for their kids.
Sarah Palin — The Lamest Show On Earth!
Palin knows there’s a sucker born every minute.