Well, it has been quite week for The Sarahcuda. A month or so ago, Palin, in an attempt to build support with military voters for her presidential run in '12, put herself up for sale on Ebay as a charity date - $25K+ (that was the opening bid) to a charity for wounded veterans and the winner could enjoy a "private" dinner with the 'Cuda herself. There were just a few little provisos.
Be warned though: there are plenty of reasons why you might not be allowed to do this!
According to the lengthy disclaimer, bidders must pass a mandatory background check, like you were buying a gun or something! Palin will determine the site of the dinner -- probably a picnic table right next to her favorite Alaskan turkey-grinding machine -- and reserves the right to bring three guests of her choosing, in case you totally start boring her or asking tough questions about domestic policy. Also, the winner may only bring "one item of reasonable size" to the dinner, so...no, Sarah Palin will not be autographing your Beanie Baby collection, sorry.
Also, there's this:
Dinner shall last no more than four hours, but could be less, in the sole discretion of Sarah Palin.* Governor Palin reserves the right to refuse dinner with a winning bidder if, in her sole discretion, the winning bidder is not a suitable bidder based on her subjective standards of suitability, professionalism, background and other factors.
I don't know. Paying out all that bread just to have Sarah decide she doesn't want to do it? Remember, this woman has a reputation for early retirements.
The winner was announced on Monday, though, and son of a g, it turns out to be an old admirer of hers who has already met with Sarah twice.
The winner was one Ms. Cathy Maples, owner of a defense contracting company, Republican, and staunch Palin supporter. She's even met Sarah Palin twice before. And, it's interesting to note that the location of the auction was changed to "Alabama" before the bidding ended. Yes, Ms. Maples does happen to live in Alabama. Amazing.
(emphasis added)
Note bolded section. Sarah doesn't do people outside her tight circle of wingnuts, morans, and war profiteers. To prove it, she turned down two other bids from people she didn't know but didn't much care for just the same. One is a Wall Street ex-exec (he founded Morgan Stanley's International Equity Department in the mid-1980's) turned novelist Ken Morris, who made the mistake of mentioning what he wanted to ask Sarah during dinner.
Today's rancor, however, troubles me...profoundly. Why? Maybe it's because I don't see a catalyst -- like the end to a tragic war -- that will magically lead us to end this political divide. This period has more the odor of the Civil Rights debate that ripped apart the South during the administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson; a rift that has never been bridged.
How, I'll ask Ms. Palin, can we work together ("we" meaning not just her and me, but all people on both sides of the political fence) to begin to fix this? I'll ask her a few questions that might seem harsh, but aren't intended to offend--after all, we must be honest, no? Do you regret saying several hundred times that our president "palled around with terrorists?" Do you really believe that providing health insurance to all Americans is socialism or fascism or Nazism, or that there are truly 'death panels' in these proposals? I'll likely feel compelled to suggest that she doesn't, in her heart of hearts, actually believe any of these things (if she does, then this will give her a chance to educate and win me over). In any event, doesn't she think we should all tone down the rhetoric? Angry mobs and gun-toting advocates can't be in anyone's best interests.
Exit (almost) Mr Ken. Then there was Joe McGinniss, who happens to be writing a book called Sarah Palin's Year of Living Dangerously. The book is slted for publication a year before the next presidential election and one speculates that Sarah wouldn't have dinner with him because he might have tried to worm her election strategy out of her. Or something. Anyway, a war profiteer buddy got it and that's probably as it should be. Or was fated to be. Or something.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/foiled-ebay-bidder-challe_b_294337.hturned novelist named
Then The 'Cuda went all the way to Hong Kong to deliver a speech no one actually wanted to hear and several people walked out on, a speech that was supposed to be about US policy but turned into an incoherent critique of Obama combined with a laundry list of right-wing paranoias.
Palin spoke out against government intervention in the economy. "We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place," Palin said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom," she added.
She didn't refer to President Barack Obama by name, the paper reported, but said she called his campaign promises "nebulous, utopian-sounding ... Now 10 months later, though, a lot of Americans are asking: more government? Is that the change we want?"
Some attendees were disappointed by her focus on her home state and her attacks on President Obama.
"As fund managers we want to hear about the United States as a whole, not just about Alaska," one told AFP. "And she criticized Obama a lot but offered no solutions."
They wanted solutions, they should have known better than to hire a Republican. They don't have any and they're proud of it.
Obviously the person who hired the candidate Katie Couric accidentally proved was a grade-A bimbo by innocently asking her a reasonable question, thus flummoxing Teh 'Cuda into a sputtering stutter, was playing a practical joke. I mean, even in Hong Kong they get YouTube.
And so yet another attempt to sell Palin as an "international figure and foreign policy expert" shits the bed as Teh 'Cuda shows she understands nothing that happens outside Wasilla and precious little that happens inside it.
Which brings us back to M. Maurice...um, I mean, Morris. See, Ken was a little upset by Sarah's Hong Kong flimflam and, a little juiced about losing out on the dinner to somebody who makes bombs or whatever, so he decided to offer $200,000 to that military charity (remember them?) if Teh 'Cuda would agree to have dinner with him and a few *gasp* progressives. (*hack hack* *gag*) But then he went and opened his mouth again.
Sarah Palin--who must've said our President was "pallin' around with terrorists" a thousand times--gave a speech in a communist nation known for human rights abuses, forced late term abortions, child sweatshops (thereby making products so cheaply that U.S. manufacturing cannot compete), and poisoned dog food. She then criticized the president in this foreign land for implementing trade restrictions. Does anyone remember the Dixie Chicks?
Days ago, when I lost out on the eBay auction to have dinner with Ms. Palin, I rationalized that with the restrictions, I'd not have been approved anyway. So, as I wrote shortly thereafter, "In the great American tradition of never say die," I proposed a more substantial offer for an on the record discussion.
I will donate $100,000 to veterans' charities for a second dinner with Sarah Palin and four guests, this one on-the-record and taped so as to minimize misrepresentations. In the name of fair play, my list of invitees will include a subset of Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Thom Hartmann, Oprah Winfrey, James Carville, Randi Rhodes, Arianna Huffington, Frank Rich, Mudflats' Jeanne Devon, Jane Hamsher and Shannyn Moore. On her side, Sarah Palin may invite guests as well (how about Bill Kristol and Glenn Beck?). The only additional conditions are that the dinner/event last the entire four hours and questions asked are answered and discussed civilly. No filibustering, no third party prompts, just face-to-face honesty.
So far, there is no response from Palin (go figure) but Morris lives in hope. So do we. AKMuckraker's Jeanne Devon asks the key question:
How much will she actually be willing to deny veterans' charities so she can avoid dining with people who have opposing views?
Sarah? Over to you....
Comments