The first rule of what will become the new Christian Nationalist party, should the Republicans be exiled in disgrace in a few days, will be that no one ever takes responsibility:
“She’s lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,” said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to “go rogue” in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.
“I think she’d like to go more rogue,” he said.
The emergence of a Palin faction comes as Republicans gird for a battle over the future of their party: Some see her as a charismatic, hawkish conservative leader with the potential, still unrealized, to cross over to attract moderate voters. Anger among Republicans who see Palin as a star and as a potential future leader has boiled over because, they say, they see other senior McCain aides preparing to blame her in the event he is defeated.
“These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves,” a McCain insider said, referring to McCain’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin’s campaign. Palin’s partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin’s avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News’ Katie Couric, whose sometimes painful content the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week.
“A number of Gov. Palin’s staff have not had her best interests at heart, and they have not had the campaign’s best interests at heart,” the McCain insider fumed, noting that Wallace left an executive job at CBS to join the campaign.
Got it? The vapid moron made a total fool of herself, got completely humiliated by Katie Couric because she couldn’t answer even the most basic questions, and it is all the fault of… the person who scheduled the interview.
Well, it isn’t all Nicole Wallace’s fault. It is also partially the fault of the liberal gotcha media. And the viewers, who unfairly judged her a moron. They share some blame, too. But the one person who is most definitely not to blame, and, as you can see from this story, is really the big victim- that would be our mavericky maverick from Alaska, Sarah Palin.
Someone should ask her if maybe her disastrous performance was just God’s will.
The best thing about the upcoming circular firing squad is that once former true-believers like Nicole Wallace are screwed over royally by the wingnut fringe of the party, they will start to go all Scott McClellan. Take it from my experience- nothing hardens your resolve like being called a traitor after watching the Mayberry Machiavellis destroy your party. If you missed McClellan last night on Larry King, you really missed a treat. I personally don’t care much for the guy, but it is clear that he is done with the GOP for a good long while:
Now, I consider myself a centrist. When I went to work for then Governor Bush, I did so because I believed he was someone who was committed to working across the aisle to get things done, as he had done as governor of Texas. I thought we could bring that same sort of bipartisan spirit to Washington and change the tone. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.
I’m supporting Barack Obama for two primary reasons. First, I believe that he can change the way Washington works for the better.
They never should have lied to him and used him to lie. Now you can laugh at McClellan if you want- I take him at his word that he really thought he was doing the right thing going to work for Bush. I thought I was doing the right thing, too, when I voted for him. But I really understand to some extent where he is right now- he is pissed. He feels used. He feels betrayed. He feels angry. And he knows who did it, and he is not going to fall for the same bullshit again.
I don’t think McClellan will ever be a Democrat, but I do think that the narrowing of the Republican party down to the vicious, ignorant, bitter core of Palin acolytes and Rovian hacks is a good thing, and the Christian Nationalists that will take over the party will be more than willing to throw aside the McClellans, the Powells, the Buckleys, and everyone who who they deem has shown insufficient fealty to the cause.
We should support that. The more we can marginalize the rancid remains of the GOP into a discredited Palin wing, the neo-cons with their hillbilly yokel Christian right front, the better.