Free Republic

Can this political marriage be saved? BY GARY BAUER Psychologists have discovered that the most important factor in predicting whether a marriage will succeed or fail is the existence of contempt. When one or both partners display contempt -- the intense feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior -- the union, ultimately and almost inevitably, will fail. Psychologist John Gottman has even developed a methodology that enables him to predict divorce with an astonishingly high degree of accuracy, up to 90 percent. While watching a couple interact, Mr. Gottman looks for the subtle signs -- microexpressions such...

When Sarah Palin abruptly announced that she was planning to leave office, it was clear whom she blamed for her early exit. ... Blasting her adversaries for paralyzing the Alaska governor's office with charges of "frivolous ethics violations," Palin and her representatives accused these unnamed "Outside interests" of harming her ability to govern after returning from the presidential campaign. ... There's no doubt that Alaska's state government has been paralyzed since Palin's return, with anger and frustration emanating from both the governor's office and the state legislature. All of Palin's major bills failed to pass this year's first 90-day session....

By R. A. Mansour The following letter to the editor was published in the River News Herald in Rio Vista, California: "FIRING BACK at “Taking Aim” There seems to be a national epidemic of obsessive compulsive behavior commonly known as “Palin-itis”. While most often observed in mainstream media, it was most recently manifested locally in last week’s column by Al Eaton. The symptoms are an irrational and overwhelming need to mock, demean, denigrate and ultimately destroy Sarah Palin and her family. It can be done by lies, innuendo, half-truths, and of course, the ever popular unnamed and anonymous sources. I...

I’ll give you the sample up front to save you time. Dems 33, Reps 22, Inds 41; Libs 20, Mods 39, Cons 38. That’s actually the smallest percentage of Democrats sampled in a WaPo poll in 18 months. The good news? She’ll have plenty of time and money now, thanks to SarahPAC, to turn the numbers around. The bad news: The last line, obviously, is the killer. This same poll finds the current GOP field shaking out this way: Huckabee 26, Romney 21, Palin 19, which may sound like a fluke but isn’t really. As noted the last time I...

OK sorry for the vanity, but I'm darn frustrated at what I just saw on my favorite channel - FNC. I've been a daily, loyal viewer since they came online and first begin their uphill struggle against then-dominant CNN. No fair weather viewer here. When I'm not watching FNC, usually I've got Fox Business Channel in the background. So it takes a lot for Fox to tee me off like this. But I'm plenty teed off: (Embarrasingly obvious) Republican 2012 candidate wannabe Mike Huckabee, is filling in for BOR today. So far so good. Huckabee works for Fox, fair and...

July 24, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – The Personnel Board has announced that another ethics complaint against Governor Sarah Palin has been dismissed. The complaint, the sixth filed by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod, accused the governor of violating the Ethics Act by receiving her salary while campaigning for vice president. The accusation, lodged Monday, was dismissed as legally flawed and factually devoid of merit. Governor Palin remained on duty, conducted state business, and communicated with her staff and her constituents. “Andree McLeod has failed to prevail on any of the ethics complaints she has filed against the governor,” said Mike Nizich,...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin put the global warming debate front and center last week with a plea to avoid the "personality-driven political gossip of the day" and focus more "on the gravity of . . . challenges" facing our country. We share her hopes for a substantive dialogue. But we want to put facts ahead of fiction and real debate ahead of rhetorical bomb-throwing. Palin argues that "the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive!" The truth is, clean energy legislation doesn't make energy scarcer or more expensive; it works to find alternative solutions to our costly...

Return to the Article July 24, 2009Hating Sarah Palin - and UsBy Stuart Schwartz Any way you look at it, it's us vs. them. The media elite hate Sarah Palin with a passion -- the same passion they have used for decades to rant about us. We are the "primitive strain," the "booboisie," or, as The New York Times put it, the "Philistines." We are a people, according to Times columnist Maureen Dowd, that displays a "reptilian American desire " for prosperity and an innate disrespect for culture and our betters, who are the political and media elite that...

Exposed "Ethicsgate" Obama and the democrats multiple direct links to the political effort to destroy Sarah Palin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzPXmQE0qNo Video exposes for the first time multiple communication and coordination in the filing of bogus ethics charges against Palin.

An Alaskan “ethics investigator” is taking a final shot at Gov. Sarah Palin, whose resignation as governor becomes effective at the end of this week. He claims that Palin “may have violated ethics laws by accepting private donations to pay her legal debts.” According to the Associated Press, the investigator’s report “says Palin is securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts through the Alaska Fund Trust, set up by supporters.” The AP continues: “An investigator for the state Personnel Board says in his July 14 report that there is probable cause to believe Palin used or attempted to use her...

Those afflicted with Palin Derangement Syndrome will go to any lengths to undermine the retiring Alaskan governor. The latest attack claims a leaked report from the Alaskan State Personnel Board indicates that Governor Palin will be found guilty of one of the numerous fanciful ethics complaints filed against her. The controversy stems from the Alaskan state ethics investigator’s contention that Palin’s establishment and use of a legal defense fund is unethical. It turns out the alleged leaker is one Kim Chatman, who has been looking for an axe to grind with Palin for some time now. Ms. Chatman is an...

DIRTY TOOLS As Obama operatives scour records in Alaska for dirt on Gov. Sarah Palin, they are also seeking embarrassing materials about her husband. And it isn't just the Obama campaign. Several left-wing groups with ties to MoveOn.org have used their network to offer as to $5,000 for damaging employment or personal information about him. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has asked the DNC to coordinate surrogates that appear on camera to attack Gov. Palin. "Last Friday, the Democrat women they put all looked old and tired, nothing like what folks were seeing from Palin," says an Obama media adviser. "It...

The Honorable Governor Palin had this to say about the latest media BS: inaccurate story floating around regarding ethics violation & Legal Defense Fund. The matter is still pending and new information was just requested. Their will be a final report. Amanda Carpenter, of Human Events, responds to the Associated Press’s illegal and premature leak about Governor Palin and the most resent ethics complaint. The Associated Press claims soon-to-be former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin will be found guilty of violating her state's ethics rules, citing a report leaked to their offices from the State Personnel Board on one of the...

"If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive." Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, No. 10. I've been chewing the data of the various polls that have appeared since Gov. Palin's surprise announcement on July the 3rd. Two facts stand out:

Here is video from Larry King Live last night where James Carville and Liz Cheney debating about Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation, President Obama's drive to bring Government Health Care to America, and the scandal over Gov. Mark Sanford's affair with a woman from Argentina. Carville was his usual nasty self, and Cheney was well-spoken and did a good job holding her own. On Sarah Palin, Cheney pointed out that feminists and liberal hate Sarah Palin because she balances home and professional life, and is staunchly pro-life. . . . . (Watch Video)

There are folks out there (like Examiner.com's George Copeland) suggesting that Sarah Palin may have resigned from office to set up a run for the presidency in 2012, not as a Republican, but as an independent candidate. While I tend to doubt that that will be her approach, the party mandarins have every reason to worry about what she might do to them. After all, the last time Sarah Palin resigned from a position, it was the beginning of an all-out assault on the Alaska GOP, which had betrayed the party's core principles with its corruption and cronyism. Following her...

You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. But it's not the normal kind of jealous, the kind reserved for girlfriends who can squeeze into size 2 jeans. No, it's the kind of jealous that hurts, that grabs your gut and twists, that has you howling with rage into your pillow in the middle of the night, screaming "It's not fair" like a two-year-old denied another piece of cake. It is Sarah Palin jealous...and it is consuming you.

POLL: Are Palin ethics investigations a waste of money or necessary for keeping politicians in check?

Update, 10:15 p.m.: Randy Evans, the attorney who helped Palin set up the Alaska Trust Fund, released a statement moments ago dismissing the allegation that there was any impropriety in its founding as "absolutely untrue". Added Evans: "It was specifically patterned after well recognized trusts of prior Presidential candidates as well as high profile public servants. As with other public servants, there is no impropriety in the creation or operation of such a trust and any suggestion to the contrary is candidly absurd." Evans, a partner in the firm of McKenna, Long & Aldridge, is a well known Republican attorney,...

"I find the notion that I have taken any action pertaining to the legal defense trust fund misguided and factually in error. I am informed that this fund was created by experienced attorneys in DC and was modeled after other similar funds established for senators and others. The fund itself was not created by me nor is it controlled by me. Neither I nor my lawyer has received a penny from this fund, and I am informed the Trustee was withholding any action or payment pending final resolution with the Personnel Board. This is the hallmark of legal compliance and...

You’ve got to hand it to them. The Democrats and radical lefties know how to hit below the belt. For the umpteenth time in a long string of dismissed complaints, a leaked investigative memo details that soon to be ex-Governor Palin may have traded on her influence for personal gain. The report is so laughably shoddy and lacking in common sense. It lacks two important things: One, any mention of what Palin may have traded (in kind) for contributions to the defense fund. Instead, the report states that a normal individual wouldn't be able to raise money like that and...

A preliminary report raises the possibility that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who has been dogged by ethics complaints, many of them dismissed as frivolous, may not be allowed to pay her legal bills with money from her legal defense fund. Ms. Palin has amassed legal bills of more than $500,000 and has said that those debts are part of the reason she is resigning her office. She steps down on Sunday, a year and a half before the end of her term. The preliminary report, written by Thomas M. Daniel, an investigator for the state personnel board, came in...

Associated Press writer Rachel D'Oro, who has a history of writing negative pieces on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is out with another of her trademark smear jobs. The article is going out from the AP to thousands of news outlets around the world. Let's take a look: The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin is securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts through the Alaska Fund Trust, set up by supporters. How did AP obtain the report? The copy of the report linked to (PDF) by the Anchorage Daily News has this warning stamped on it in big,...

Rachel D'Oro of the Associated Press has a story on Kim Chatman's ethics complaint about the Alaska Fund Trust with a big, splashy headline: "Palin implicated in ethics probe." The practical effect of the ruling on Palin will be more financial than anything else. The report recommends that Palin refuse to accept payment from the defense fund, and that the complaint be resolved without a formal hearing before the Alaska Personnel Board. However, it seems that the report "obtained" by the AP is not the final one from the Personnel Board's investigator. The governor just tweeted: Re inaccurate story floating...

Outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated state ethics laws by letting supporters set up a legal defense fund to help her battle ethics complaints, a preliminary report on the issue has found. Sarah Palin's attorney says the report is not final, and he is preparing more information for the investigator. An investigator hired by the state personnel board recommended Palin -- who gives up her office on Sunday -- refuse money from the defense fund and ask the state to pay legal fees for ethics complaints that have been dismissed. Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein said the report...

Governor Palin has seen a huge increase in the amount of people following her on Twitter since she announced her resignation in early July. She currently stands at nearly 106,000 followers, but I believe that we can push her to at least 110,000. So, tell all your friends to start following Governor Palin on twitter!

<p>Investigator: Palin May Have Violated Ethics Laws An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by accepting private donations to pay her legal debts.</p> <p>"All options are open in terms of legal remedies. It is a clear violation of Alaska law that Mr. Daniel explicitly reviewed with Ms. Chatman prior to her illegal actions. We will be contacting the appropriate authorities for review and action."</p>

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by trading on her position in seeking money for legal fees, in the latest legal distraction for the former vice presidential candidate as she prepares to leave office this week. The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin is securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts through the Alaska Fund Trust, set up by supporters.

This is how the left uses frivilous ethics complaints to target Palin, this clown has made 5 complaints against Palin previously...

For the second month in a row we found Sarah Palin as the most popular of the leading 2012 GOP hopefuls among moderate Republicans. 64% have a positive opinion of her compared to 57% for Newt Gingrich, 53% for Mike Huckabee, and 45% for Mitt Romney. Those numbers are pretty low across the board though. By comparison, 82% of moderate Democrats approve of Barack Obama's job performance. There aren't that many moderate Republicans left- just 27% of the party's voters and about 10% of the overall electorate- but there's no doubt their votes are going to be needed to have...

Once again, an ethics complaint has been filed and publicly released in violation of state law. This is the sixth complaint filed by Ms. McLeod. In addition, she has filed a lawsuit against the Governor's office and multiple public records act requests. All of her prior complaints that have been ruled on have been dismissed. The Ethics Act serves important state interests in ensuring ethical state government and was intended to prevent the various forms of corrupt misconduct that had plagued the Legislature in prior years and which resulted in the prosecution of legislators and others. It is unfortunate that...

Sarah Palin added to Alaska's celebration of the Fourth with what is surely a political bombshell. It was either a clever stunt or it was an error of the first magnitude, depending on the talking head to whom one is listening. My first reaction was, "Good for you, girl." I've been rooting for Sarah since she first ran in the governor's primary. She's certainly no orator in the Chruchillian stratosphere, but she always made plain good sense and did what she promised -- a refreshing combination in politics. But for some months I have increasingly felt personal and human anguish...

Anchorage NBC affiliate KTUU is trying to get one last ratings boost out of Governor Palin, running a "retrospective" series this week. The first entry was yesterday...of course it consists of pretty much nothing but criticism, but there are some interesting tidbits in there about the NBC policy toward Palin: "She knew when she came back that she came back to a different environment," Stapleton said. "I think it was -- and I hate to say it -- but I think the Thanksgiving pictures coming out of Channel 2 with a turkey getting slaughtered over her shoulder was her first...

NEW YORK A story on The Huffington Post Monday reporting that Sarah Palin's hairdresser was upset about being inaccurately cited in a New York Times piece drew a response from a Times spokeswoman today claiming the hairdresser had praised the story. The Huffington Post reported that Jessica Steele, named in a July 13 Times story on Palin, had objected to the story that said she had told the Times Palin's hair was thinning from stress. "Now, that stylist is saying it's not true," the Huffington Post story said. "In a post on her Twitter account, Jessica Steele, owner of the...

The idea of fantasy sports captures my imagination. Play the coach: build your team, manage your players, track their progress, and lay down the challenge to your friends and coworkers to do better. Were there a “fantasy politics” for politicos like me, I’d join. However, since such a thing does not exist, permit me to share with you my fantasy politics for team Palin

At this time the two leading contenders for the Republican nomination in 2012 are Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. Both possess virtues head and shoulders above all other Republican candidates, and both can easily restore the respectability of the Republican Party. So why not run both on the same ticket?

Think about it – if she were half the joke of a candidate that both Democrats and liberal establishment Republicans apocalyptically claim she'd be, both should eagerly welcome Palin running against President Obama in 2012. Democrats would theoretically have an easy win given a weak challenger and the fact that first-term incumbents generally win re-election barring a disaster. Vichy Republican bigwigs wouldn't have to sacrifice a preferred liberal candidate – such as Mitt Romney – against an unbeatable incumbent, and could save their Just-Like-the-Democrat-Only-A-Tiny-Bit-Less guy for 2016. With the loss, both would be rid of her once and for all.

To all you democrats and republican elitists who come Facebook to troll, say nasty things about Gov Palin 2 words for you, six days. To all you people who threw everything including the kitchen sink at her, trying desperatly to politically destroy her, six days.

Republican Governor Sarah Palin may be packing this week to leave the Alaska governor's mansion, but she isn't going to exit public life. Neither are her policies disappearing, any more than is the large constituency she appeals to with its jingoism, Cold War symbolism, proclivity toward economic protectionism and lack of sophistication about business, banking or regulatory reform. Palin is the Michael Jackson of politics, and my prediction is that she is likely to end up in the media on her way to another bid for the White House. Her next gig should be as a Fox Network anchor with...

Return to the Article July 20, 2009 NY Times reaches a new low Jack Kemp Back at the time of the William Kennedy Smith rape trial in Florida, in the 1990s, the NY Times had published the name of the alleged rape victim after the local New York WNBC television station aired it. Later, at the trial, the then-head of the National Enquirer was entering the court building when journalists asked him if he would be also publishing the name of the alleged rape victim. In answering in the negative, an incredible role reversal occurred. The National Enquirer publisher lifted...

Establishment GOPers and Democrats in Washington seem intent on laughing off Sarah Palin as some sort of temporary blip on the radar screen of American politics, but the nation (you know — REAL Americans) seem to think otherwise. Despite the fact that the snooty elite media look down their noses at this woman whose success came by her own hand — rather than by having the right parents or bloodline or marrying into the right clan or playing a few decades of Chicago-style insider politics — Sarah Palin seems to be surviving quite well with the American people, even though...

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the ADN is always so quick to post the pdf files of the ethics complaints, but is slow as molasses to post the Personnel Board review of these complaints when they're dismissed? The ADN also posts the governor's "string of tweets" on the latest complaint:

No matter how angry the media’s biased coverage of last year’s presidential election made you, expect to get even angrier after watching the new film from radio talk show host John Ziegler. “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Got Targeted,” now available on DVD, assembles virtually every unfair and imbalanced news report from the last year and weaves them together into one jaw-dropping narrative. The lies. The spin. The cover ups. Media outlets working in veritable lockstep to ensure the election of Sen. Barack Obama. If mainstream reporters had an ounce of shame they’d watch “Media Malpractice” and...

If voters get to choose between Republican Mitt Romney and Democratic President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, a new national poll suggests the race would be too close to call. Both Romney and Obama had the support of 45 percent of respondents to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday. The public opinion polling company asked 1,000 likely voters nationwide on July 18-19 whether they would vote for Romney or Obama if the 2012 presidential election were held today. The telephone survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. Utah's top pollster, Dan Jones, said...

This says more about the downturn in The One’s approval ratings than it does about Mitt or Sarahcuda, but you know the Hot Air policy: You can never have too many 2012 polls. Just 21% of voters nationwide say Palin should run as an independent if she loses the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Sixty-three percent (63%) say the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee should not run as an independent. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure. If Romney secured the GOP nomination and Palin chose to run as an independent candidate, Obama would win the resulting three-way race with 44%...

As for soon-to-be departing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Paul dismisses her supporters as "more establishment, conventional Country-Club type of Republicans.” "I wonder whether she's energizing the 15-20 year olds," Paul muses. "That would be a question I would have. Because she doesn't talk about the Federal Reserve and some of these issues. She doesn't talk too much about personal liberties, civil liberties, getting rid of drug laws, attacking the war on drugs, punishing people who torture."

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Another ethics complaint has been filed against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, less than a week before her resignation. The complaint filed Monday alleges Palin violated ethics law by failing to submit complete gift disclosure forms in a timely manner. The complaint is the 19th ethics grievance against Palin, most filed after she was named the GOP vice presidential candidate last year. Most of the complaints have been dismissed. The latest is the sixth filed by fellow Republican Andree McLeod, an outspoken critic of the governor. 3 of the cases have been dismissed and two others, including...

Gov. Sarah Palin shocked the political world, not for the first time, by delivering an unexpected resignation speech in Wasilla on July 3rd. As usual, there is no shortage of commentary about it. So far, opinion seems to coalescing on the fact that the speech was "rambling". A Google search on "Palin resignation rambling" turns up over 537 thousand hits. [...] Palin proceeded from topic to topic logically, without digression. I have read much analysis of her supposed "contradictions", and virtually all of these are manufactured from whole cloth. If there were any disorganization in this speech, it eludes my...

If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. The president, seeking a second four-year term, beats another potential GOP rival, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, by six points – 48% to 42%.

POLL TO BE RELEASED AT 10:30 AM ET: ... OBAMA 45 ROMNEY 45 OBAMA 48 PALIN 42 ... DEVELOPING.....