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You can fire 10 Martin Bashirs and it won't start to repair damage done to NBC News Martin Bashir, the embattled MSNBC show host who on Nov. 15 urged a crude and graphic form of punishment for Sarah Palin, resigned from the channel Wednesday. MSNBC could afford to do nothing less than force Bashir out in the wake of his hateful speech. Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, tried stonewalling the mounting criticism even after Bashir delivered an on-air apology, but the words and actions were too gross and hateful to allow Bashir to return. SNIP Under Griffin's leadership, MNSBC...

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank appeared on Fox News' MediaBuzz and called Martin Bashir's statement of using Sarah Palin as a toilet, "legitimate." During the "Spin Cycle" segment, Milbank callously supported Bashir: The Martin Bashir thing…he was making a very legitimate point about Sarah Palin. Host Howard Kurtz jumped in with much needed context to remind the panel that Palin did compare the national debt to slavery and agrees that it is "fair game" to criticize Palin over that. What he says can't be disputed is that the network, MSNBC, approved the script containing the vile comments.   No matter...

Sarah Palin responded publicly for the first time Sunday on the nasty comments thrown her way by MSNBC host Martin Bashir, who later apologized for saying she deserved degrading punishment. "Everybody in life takes shots," the former Alaska governor said on "Fox News Sunday." "You have a decision to make when you take a shot. Are you going to become bitter or better? In a case like this, you know, I don't have to accept his words - his vile, evil comments. So they don't have to affect me. I move on and I charge forth." ---snip--- Palin said if...

You would think given all the heat MSNBC’s Martin Bashir is taking for his vile comments about Sarah Palin earlier this month, comedians might want to lay low for a while in attacking the former Alaska governor. Not HBO’s Bill Maher who on Real Time Friday said, “When Reagan was elected, Sarah Palin was barely 16, probably pregnant, but still in third grade” (video follows with transcript and commentary): (video at link) BILL MAHER: Just last week, Sarah Palin said, "There is no Ronald Reagan on the scene today. If he was, that's who I would put my faith in."...

A simple request: Please stop calling Sarah Palin names. If you find her politics repellant and her intellectual gifts lacking, fine. Just say so. But stop with the verbal abuse and the debased revenge fantasies. Palin has always had a gift for making her critics crazy. But it's been five years since she was sprung from Alaskan obscurity as kind of “Hail Mary pass” for John McCain’s faltering presidential dreams. Liberals: She can't hurt you anymore. It's time to get over her. Her career is about self-enrichment now, not politics. She's found a formula for financial success and continuing celebrity....

Sarah is selling Sarah. The former vice presidential candidate and half-term governor of Alaska is a commodity of one and a marketing machine. She has created a new politics of profit. Palin's reanimation on the tea party stage probably means no more than the other intentions she has floated but never executed. She spent almost a year of the last presidential election cycle teasing the far right that she was going to run for president. She never did, but lots of network TV interviews and speculative articles drove up her name recognition and brand identification. And she's not running again....

You’ve seen this movie before, Iowa. Stoking another round of what-if and what-could-be, Sarah Palin is planning a return to the state where presidential dreams are fevered even this far out from the next contest. The Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative and evangelical group, announced that the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee will speak at its 13thannual banquet on Nov. 9. The announcement of the planned Des Moines speech comes at a time Palin has again raised her political profile. Over the weekend, she campaigned in New Jersey for long-shot Republican Senate candidate Steve Lonegan,...

Even most Republicans, in their candid moments, admit that the Affordable Care Act won't be defunded. But for former Vice Presidential Nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, that's not good enough. "We’d like to believe that the GOP establishment would applaud the way [Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee] have rallied the grassroots to their cause," Palin writes, in an op-ed penned for the conservative website Breitbart. "But, no, such praise would require a commensurate level of guts and leadership, and the permanent political class in D.C. is nothing if not gutless and rudderless." "But the permanent political class is...

"Let Allah sort it out." That is Sarah Palin's succinct argument against U.S. intervention into Syria. And I have to be honest: I'm impressed with Palin on this one. Not with her horribly callous recommendation, made via Facebook late last week, but because she appears to speak some Arabic. I'm not saying Palin is fluent in the language, but she did use the Arabic word "Allah." She could've simply used the word "God" instead of Allah since it has the identical meaning. (Christian Arabs use the word Allah when speaking of God in Arabic.) I think deep down she wanted...

There was a time, not long ago, when former semi-Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) could cause a stir just by Facebooking her own bad dystopian Obamacare fanfic, but hard times have fallen on the giving a rat’s winking ass about Sarah Palin industry. How bad has it gotten? Barely a month into her serious consideration of a bid to replace Senator Mark Begich (D-AK), Palin announced that she is “not planning to run for the U.S. Senate,” and not only did nobody care, they actually cared more about Palin’s thoughts on Ashton Kutcher than her senatorial ambitions, or lack thereof. In...

The mainstream media refuses to give it up. ABC News is trying to fool people into believing that Sarah Palin will be a presidential candidate. Check out this graphic and see it for yourself. Before RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was interviewed on This Week, ABC aired a pre-recorded video package with the announcer saying at the end, “There’s no shortage of prospective Republican candidates, and that makes it even more challenging for the party to resolve its ideological divide.” So let’s take a look at who ABC News thinks is a potential Republican presidential candidate: Ted Cruz? Check. Donald Trump?...

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t cross a grizzly. Sen. Mark Begich just learned that the hard way. Sarah Palin—former Alaska governor, failed vice presidential candidate, and America’s most famous Mama Grizzly—launched a bit of cyberwarfare against Begich, the Democratic senator from her home state, in a series of vitriolic Facebook posts on Thursday. The wrath of Palin was likely incurred Wednesday when Begich told Politico that the former governor had “quit on Alaska” when she resigned before completing her term. He also questioned whether she was still a resident of the state. Palin said Tuesday that she was...

Since Palin put the GOP on notice yesterday and followed up with a tweet to Marco Rubio about the congratulatory call he received from Barack Obama on his ability to ram an amnesty bill, the usual suspects are jumping on her. Many tweeted a Hot Air article from 2008 that stated she supported a "path to citizenship." On whether or not to deport the millions already here, she said: There is no way that in the US we would roundup every illegal immigrant -there are about 12 million of the illegal immigrants- not only economically is that just an impossibility...

John Oliver began his second week guest-hosting The Daily Show welcoming Sarah Palin back to Fox News. Okay, maybe “welcoming” is a strong word. In fact, Oliver realized that rather than spending the whole show piling on every single folksy thing Palin says, he might as well just ignore her instead. Oliver first noted that Palin only left Fox News five months ago, and now she’s back, so “she has now effectively quit quitting!” He played clip after clip of Palin saying what she’s been up to, and he was ready to mock every single word that came out of...

Ms. Palin became a national celebrity after her unsuccessful 2008 vice presidential turned into a media career as a paid Fox News contributor from January 2010 to January of this year. The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Ms. Palin wouldn't be renewing her contract with the cable news networking, citing a person familiar with the matter. "I've had several conversations with Governor Palin in the past few weeks about her rejoining Fox News as a contributor," Mr. Ailes said Thursday. "I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to...

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren says she is “delighted” Sarah Palin is back as a Fox News contributor and that the former Republican vice presidential candidate will be “part of the national debate.” “I am delighted to have her back at Fox,” Van Susteren told POLITICO in an email. “She has a big impact (check out the number of Facebook followers! 3.5 million!) and should be part of the national debate.” And, Van Susteren noted, “It is free promo for Fox since it will drive her TV critics crazy! They are obsessed with her!”(continued)

Michele Bachmann's taking a bow. Sarah Palin's star has faded. With the brassy, blow-dried bombasts of the GOP moving to the sidelines, there's no elected heir apparent to inherit the mantle and carry the conservative crusade forward on the national stage. What does that mean for a Republican Party struggling to woo the women voters it needs to win national elections? It may be for the best, say some of the GOP operatives who have been pushing the party to rebrand itself after its 2012 losses. "They and their style gives short shrift to other women in the GOP," said...

A very persistent Republic High School senior with an odd fascination for Sarah Palin managed to convince the sassy caribou-skinning gal from Wasilla to bring her show – or what little is left of it – to the tiny Eastern Washington town of Republic. If you haven’t heard, Palin, whose boundless anti-intellectualism can still leave one breathless, will deliver the commencement address to the school’s graduating class of 26 on Saturday afternoon. Each graduate has been given 20 tickets to distribute, which should guarantee that the 700-person capacity gym will be pleasantly stuffed. Still, to a large extent, Palin’s visit...

Christopher “Kid” Reid of the old hip-hop duo Kid ‘n Play wasn’t the only one who noticed Sarah (and Todd) Palin at the Pacers-Heat basketball game Sunday night. After attending the Indy 500, the Palins sat courtside for game three of the Eastern Conference Finals in Indianapolis.

It is one thing to raise millions from grassroots activists or appear on record numbers of TV talk shows or give rhetorically charged speeches before adoring crowds – it is quite another to do the hard work of governing. Both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin were political lightweights who were full of sound and fury and accomplished very little. Both quit their posts like spoiled children, after meteoric rises that had precious little to do with actually getting anything done. Both were bad examples of what public service should be all about and both exhibited a certain pathology steeped more...

The streams emerging from beneath an Arctic glacier are several degrees warmer than the icy water Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has tossed on a Tea Party group’s effort to draft former Gov. Sarah Palin as a U.S. Senate candidate in 2014. Reviving one of Alaska’s great political feuds, Murkowski told The Hill newspaper in Washington, D.C.: “I think there are a lot of outside interests that would like to see Sarah Palin in some form of elected office. Most in Alaska recognize our former governor is rally not involved in or engaged in the state anymore, that she’s moved...

It is hard to admit that one of the most cartoonish and self-aggrandizing figures in recent political memory actually could have been a contender at one time, but I am now willing to cede that point. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin actually could have been, at the very least, a respected political figure over the course of the last decade, but she has squandered any capital or potential she may have had by being a rudderless buffoon. The only reason this comes to light again is because Palin is polling ahead of two other candidates for a potential open Senate...

It’s disturbing that Ann Coulter is so desperate for attention that she would stoop this low on the day Margaret Thatcher died. Just like Politco (as Steve pointed out in another post) Coulter used Thatcher’s passing as an opportunity to take part in some trashy PDS. During an interview with Geraldo Rivera, Coulter starting punching up and didn’t stop until she made a complete fool of herself.Transcript, courtesy of Real Clear Politics: COULTER: One thing that I know, because I know people who know her, is when Sarah Palin first burst on the scene, the political scene, she wanted to...

Last year, Sarah Palin made Marc Lamont Hill’s list of “15 Most Overrated White People.” And then he ran into her at an airport. Palin was very nice to me and kind to my daughter. Although we disagree on everything politically, I still appreciate that. After she walked away, I thought about all the things I've said about Palin over the past four years. Wondered if I would've been that nice.

Prominent among the clueless douchebags who thought Rudy Giuliani could be elected president, John Avlon by 2009 was faced with a problem: How could a pro-Obama liberal Republican hireling find work in a political environment where the Tea Party uprising demonstrated that the Charlie Crist collaborationist Vichy wing of the GOP had no natural grassroots constituency? So in 2010, Avlon co-founded the “No Labels” movement, funded by liberal donors and assigned the mission of helping Democrats destroy the Tea Party. And if Avlon’s constant smearing of conservatives as “winguts” damaged the Republican Party, so what? Nobody involved in “No Labels”...

She’s baaaack. Sarah Palin attempted to relaunch her political career and her political action committee, SarahPAC, on Thursday with a Web video called “Loaded for Bear,” which presented the former Alaska governor as the new kingmaker for conservative populists in the GOP. The video riffed off her speech at CPAC, in which Palin railed against “the big consultants, the big money men, and the big bad media.” But there’s an irony alert ahead: the current stated purpose of SarahPAC is to raise money ahead of the 2014 election—most of which will be spent on conservative consultants. Don't believe me? Well,...

You know, it’s curious that the more journalists and wise political pundits tell us how irrelevant Governor Sarah Palin is, the more attention she receives from these same bottom feeders in the form of shoddy and lazy drive-by hit pieces in the press and on television. The reason so many of these journalistic pursuits ring hollow in the face of, oh I don’t know, facts, is because the author/speaker isn’t adequately afflicted with Palin Derangement Syndrome, or PDS. As a public service, and believe me, this is a public service, as I’m expending time and energy for which I could...

Sarah Palin rocked a packed ballroom here at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday afternoon. The applause was roaring. The hollers many. The atmosphere crackling. In other words: Dog bites man. Palin's speech, if you can call it that, was Palin at her most Palinesque: heavy on one-liners and folksy charm; light on, you know, anything resembling substance and solutions. Here, a sampling of Palin's many zingers: "They talk about rebuilding the party. How about rebuilding the middle class?" "They talk about rebuilding the GOP? How about restoring the trust of the people?" "Let's be clear about...

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, the former campaign adviser to 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, has repeatedly argued that the Republican Party should be more inclusive — of almost everyone, it seems, except Sarah Palin. On Friday night’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” during its online “Overtime” segment, Schmidt tersely responded to a viewer question about McCain’s selection of Palin to be his running mate: MAHER: Steve Schmidt, ‘Is it possible you picked Sarah Palin the wrong year?’ Oh, my. ‘Could she have swung the women vote in 2012 enough to have put Romney in the White...

The writing-off of Sarah Palin began not long after her departure from Fox News hit the newswaves last Friday. The Post’s Chris Cillizza wrote on Monday that Palin is now “officially gone,” at least from the national spotlight. And MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell bid the failed 2008 vice presidential candidate a self-satisfied adieu, saying that Palin had now lost the “slightest connection to political relevance.” Vincent Harris, a social-media consultant who helps Republican campaigns, wonders about O’Donnell’s conflict of interest in issuing those words: “He’s a … cable-news host! I mean, what else is he going to say? He’s speaking for...

Former Republican star and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and FOX news ended their partnership on Friday after three years, a source close to Palin told the Real Clear Politics Web site, the Morning Joe panel discussed Palin’s exit on Monday morning. “Sarah Palin represented a time and place in American politics and not 2008 so much as 2010. And that time is passing us very quickly. Party leaders are finally understanding that,” Joe Scarborough told the panel. Palin last appeared on Fox on December 19, 2012 when she spoke with the channel’s Greta Van Susteren about Benghazi and the two...

While the departure of Sarah Palin from Fox News as a paid contributor has caused endless speculation (as well as endless jubilation among her enemies) there are just a few known facts, according to the story in RealClearPolitics. After some negotiations for a renewal of her contract, Palin was made an offer which was refused. The parting of the ways is said to be amicable. That doesn't mean that some informed speculation is not warranted.

Just before the Christmas break the Boston Globe published a lengthy postmortem on Mitt Romney’s massive failure as a presidential candidate. Between this, and the constant hand-wringing by Geniuses of the GOP™, I think we have beaten this dead horse to a pulp, but there was one thing that came out of this article that has me as angry as I have ever been over a politician. Before we get to that, let’s step back in time to 2008. Like 2012, the Republican Party didn’t exactly put forth an all-star field of candidates for voters to choose from. In the...

Should Sarah Palin run for president in 2016? Conservative columnist Charlotte Allen thinks so, arguing that the former Alaskan governor is just what the GOP needs to revitalize its campaign chances in 2016. Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/404803/sarah-palin-in-2016-conservative-columnist-says-yes-please/#WsxLVCVOOZTMQYGW.99

One good thing about President Obama’s re-election: It seems to have prompted some sober thinking by Republican Party leaders and allies. Oh sure, there’s been some loose talk of secession, but mostly what you’ve found is top GOP leaders trying to figure out how to broaden the GOP’s appeal and shed its reputation for anti-intellectualism while staying true to their conservative values. This is a good thing. One sure way for Republicans to blow it: If Sarah Palin runs for president. You might’ve thought Palin’s political career pretty much ended when she decided not to run for president against a...

Governor Sarah Palin posed the question “Who is running our country?” in her latest Facebook note: Who is running our country? We’ve got a CIA Director sharing security info with his mistress using an unsecure gmail account. We’ve got the delusional Susan Rice blaming the death of an ambassador on a Youtube video. We’ve got Iran firing on one of our drones a week before the election. We’ve got the White House either ignorant of or covering up all of this. Who is minding the store? Everywhere we look we see the rank incompetence or corruption of the people who...

To all US Republicans – here is your statistics assignment for today 2008 Obama/Biden 69,456,897 McCain/Palin 59,934,814 20012 Obama/Biden 58,702,702 Romney/Ryan 56,455,982

Governor Palin posts another Facebook note today laying out a list of questions that the media in this country SHOULD be asking the Obama administration.Via Facebook: There are many questions about the Benghazi attack that Americans deserve answers to. It’s been too long an “investigation” and too tragic for the families of lost loved ones for the White House and its friends in the media to ignore these questions:- When and why did the YouTube trailer of the anti-Muhammad movie surface as any kind of credible reason for the attack?- Where is the proof that that video was linked...

These are some new photos of former governor Sarah Palin and her daughter Willow in Studio City, California on Sunday. I looked through the photos yesterday, but I couldn’t work up the courage to really write anything about them. My first reaction was actually “Did Sarah Palin get a really bad makeover?” Despite my disagreements with her politics (and I’m studiously attempting to only discuss the superficial here, so play along), I consider Palin an attractive woman, but whatever is going on in these photos is not good. Those highlights look awful. Her clothes look… cheap. And dear God, she’s...

I owe everyone here an an apology for falsely believing and then promoting the idea that Romney had the ability to unify the country and create a grander GOP coalition. He did not. I am fully behind him (only GOP candidate on ballot), but can only see a narrow GOP win (if we all pull the lever). Having said that, I am also certain that this was never a moment for a polarizing figure (like Palin). To defeat Obama by a big margin, we needed an inspirational/charismatic conservative (Paul Ryan type). We did not have that choice. Oh well....lest vote...

So, how was the public convinced that MacDonald was guilty despite all of these “reasonable doubts”? Enter my old neighbor Joe McGinniss. MacDonald signed a contract giving McGinniss exclusive rights to his life story, and so McGinniss was given unprecedented access to the defense team – living with them, working with them, eating with them. But when the guilty verdict came down, McGinniss did a one-eighty on them. Apparently, falsely convicted men don’t make for good books. McGinniss decided it was a better story to agree with the jury. MacDonald wasn’t a sympathetic figure. He did himself no favors with...

True, Mitt Romney’s new nominee for vice president possesses certain attributes that Sarah Palin lacked, namely a wonky intellect and speaking voice that does not sound like nails on chalkboard. But Paul Ryan may actually turn out to be a worse veep choice than Ms. Palin for several reasons. 1. Ryan further delays, and perhaps permanently scraps, Romney’s move to the center. Eric Fehrnstrom, a top Romney aide, signaled that the candidate intended to reinvent himself as a moderate after winning the primary season. But we never got that promised Etch-a-Sketch moment and now, likely, never will. How is Romney...

I’m getting sick of the rewriting of 2008 presidential campaign history as K Street Republicans continue to assault Sarah Palin in the fear that a similarly conservative Republican will rise to the top of the VP sweepstakes. It has been so fashionable in D.C. Republican circles to bash the Palin nomination as a mistake, ill-conceived or even disastrous, that even Dick Cheney has gotten into the act. These self-serving attempts to change history are nothing more than a smear campaign designed to influence the Romney VP pick by obscuring the truth that the choice of Sarah Palin to be the...

Sounds like fun already ... the Tampa Bay Times released the names of some of the speakers slated for the RNC convention in Tampa later this month, and it looks to be a promising lineup. The Times reported that, as of now, it's unclear where these speakers are slotted, and the rest of the lineup--including the keynote speaker--remains unknown. Names so far include conservative powerhouses New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Florida Gov. Rick Scott is also speaking. Here's a portion of the Times report: Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. John McCain and former Secretary...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, last Sunday on this week, Jonathan Karl interviewed Dick Cheney, and this is the sound bite where Cheney says that picking Sarah Palin was a mistake. And this was a toughie. It's not a defensible comment. I wouldn't even try. The thing to note about this is that shortly after this, Liz Cheney sent out the following tweet. "Rarely do I disagree with the best VP ever, but Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama and Biden combined. I have huge respect for all she's done for the GOP." So Liz Cheney tweeted that. That didn't...

As if former Vice President Dick Cheney is ever anything but candid. That’s just the media’s way of now swooning over Dick Cheney, a man members of the media demonized for years. Their unhinged hatred of Sarah Palin over-rides all that, you see. [SNIP] When the media swoons over Dick Cheney, you know there is an ulterior motive. You know, like a distraction from Obama’s abysmal record. They are water-carriers to the end!

Dick Cheney has some advice for Mitt Romney on choosing a running mate: Don't pick another Sarah Palin. In his first interview since receiving a heart transplant in March, Cheney told ABC News, that John McCain's decision to pick Palin as his running mate in 2008 was "a mistake" - one that it is important from Romney not to repeat. It's subject on which Cheney has some unique experience. He helped Presidents Gerald Ford and George W. Bush lead their vice presidential searches and, of course, served as vice president for eight years. He's also privately offered some advice to...

Winning the presidency has a lot more to do with the charisma of the leader than it does with the policies that are brought to the American dinner table. Just look at the last sorrowful example the country was saddled with in 2008 with the current president. There is reportedly, current intrigue moving about in the backrooms of GOP political leadership within Romney’s campaign concerning Sarah Palin. It is suggested that Romney is sitting pat on the idea of not issuing Sarah Palin VIP credentials to the August RNC Convention in Tampa, let alone giving her any real speaking role....

10 Questions to ponder to why there has not been more discussion about these topics in this election cycle: 1) Have you ever wondered why there is little talk or discussion of the results of the 2010 midterm election in respect to the 2012 election, especially the fact that conservatives represented 42% of the electorate in 2010, 8 points higher than 2008 and that increase in self-identified conservatives should be exploited by Team Romney? 2) Have you ever wondered why there is little talk or discussion of Mitt Romney in most national polls not passing McCain's popular vote in 2008...

Republican Senator John McCain says he chose Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney as his running mate in 2008 because she was a “better candidate,” not because of Romney’s much-discussed tax records. The McCain presidential campaign received 20 years of Romney’s tax records, much more than what the 2012 Republican presidential nominee has revealed to date. Democrats have suggested the McCain campaign passed over Romney because they found something politically damaging. “Of course not,” McCain told Politico when asked if the tax records hurt Romney...