You have eight years of President Palin to look forward to, Joe, and you can take comfort in knowing that the attacks of mad dogs like you helped put her there.
Posted on 09/29/2011 5:07:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON - Author Joe McGinniss says some of the people quoted by name in his controversial book on Sarah Palin have been threatened since its release last week.
"A couple of them have already gotten some blowback," McGinniss said Thursday in a telephone interview from Toronto, where he was in town promoting "The Rogue: Searching For The Real Sarah Palin."
"One guy was even told he'd better watch his back because it's going to be a long winter; he might not see the end of it because he has such a big mouth."
After months spent fending off similar threats when he moved next door to the former Alaska governor last year while researching the book in Wasilla, Alaska, McGinniss suspects Todd Palin and his pals.
"Todd really is a bully," he alleges with a sigh.
Indeed, allegations about the vindictive, strong-arm tactics of Palin and her coterie of protectors, husband Todd in particular, are a central theme of "The Rogue," a tawdry, gossipy and sometimes side-splittingly funny book delving into the "Jerry Springer" nature of Alaska's most notorious political family.
For his part Todd Palin has said the book is full of "disgusting lies, innuendo and smears.''
Sarah Palin is threatening to sue over McGinniss's accusations that she's a negligent mother in a miserable marriage overseeing a dysfunctional clan of five children.
Portraying the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee as a machiavellian, controlling politician far more consumed with fame and fortune than either governing or mothering, the book also questions whether it's possible the Palin did not, in fact, give birth to her fifth child but adopted Trig for nefarious political reasons.
"The Rogue" also suggests she once slept with Glen Rice, an African-American NBA star, and contains allegations that the Palins used to snort cocaine in the 1980s.
Although Palin has dismissed the book as defamatory and warns she will sue, Crown Publishers says it stands by the book and its author, while McGinniss says he's not worried.
"Anybody can have a lawyer write a letter threatening to sue," he said. "To actually sue is a very different business and you open yourself to a discovery process."
Not surprisingly, the book has also infuriated Palin's passionate following of right-wing supporters, just as it has from its very inception.
McGinniss was called a stalker and a pervert for renting the house next door when it was offered to him by a Wasilla realtor. There were so many threats of violence against him, in fact, that he was given around-the-clock police protection, with the mayor of Wasilla even asking him: "Do you want a gun?"
The fury has been kicked back into overdrive this week.
In the comment sections of blogs and websites, the Palin warriors have been out in full force. McGinniss threw dog feces over the Palins' fence while living next door, one asserted. Another insisted he went through the Palins' garbage.
Neither allegation is true, McGinniss says with a laugh. He was the model neighbour during his months living next door to the Palins, he insists.
"As I said to Todd: 'I know you're upset, but the one thing you don't have to worry about as long as I'm here is your privacy; I'm not going to invade your privacy,'" McGinniss recalled.
"I even told him: 'If I should ever happen to hear or see anything just by the accident of my living next door, I guarantee you and I promise you that I will never mention that in the book.' And I didn't."
But the criticisms of "The Rogue" haven't just been restricted to right-wingers. McGinniss has been criticized for his use of anonymous sources in "The Rogue," something relatively customary in political exposes. Even Keith Olbermann, the left-wing pundit who's no fan of Palin's, has snubbed and assailed him.
McGinniss says there are about 70 people quoted by name in "The Rogue," including Gary Wheeler, the onetime state trooper whose recollections of Palin's years as governor are among the most compelling in the book.
Wheeler remembered how Palin quickly got rid of an official driver, preferring to chauffeur herself around the state.
"She didn't want us around," he told McGinniss.
"She didn't want anybody to follow her to Nordstrom's when she went shopping every day.... she didn't want anybody to know that she wasn't coming in until 10 a.m. and then leaving by 3 to go home."
McGinniss is unapologetic in the face of criticisms that he approached his subject matter with a bias.
"She's basically a clown," he said.
"To write a ponderous book about her political philosophy _ that would have been not only unconvincing, but it would have been dishonest because the phenomenon is all about image. It's all about what's projected, not what's really there behind it .... She doesn't have any weight in the world of policies or ideas."
McGinniss admits he'll be glad to stop talking about Palin and her brood, adding he hopes his next book will be a biography of someone he actually admires.
"I have had it with Sarah Palin," McGinniss said with a chuckle. "Oh man, am I fed up."
You have eight years of President Palin to look forward to, Joe, and you can take comfort in knowing that the attacks of mad dogs like you helped put her there.
ML/NJ
Poor little Joey MaGgot. Selling garbage to make money can be really hard on a person.
Its projection. Joe is a bona fide dick!
Somebody actually threatened McGinniss?
Palin’s represenatatives contacting the people quoted in his book to find out what they really said is simple due diligence prior to filing a lawsuit.
They may also be feeling heat because they don’t want to have to hire a lawyer, especially if they defamed her to McGinnis.
If McGinnis was smart - big assumption - he’d keep his mouth shut.
They always resort to being the victim.
If Todd wanted him gone he never would have gotten out of Alaska. The guy is just desperately seeking attention. Don’t give him any.
>> “I have had it with Sarah Palin,” McGinniss said with a chuckle. “Oh man, am I fed up.”
The predator is weary.
I have NO reason to believe anything McGinniss says.
Lying To Promote Book Sales Ping
Well, the hunter has become the hunted. Sometimes kinda cool when that happens.
Perhaps this should have been titled, “McGinniss says unnamed sources have been threatened by Sarah Palin”. The guy is looney-another Michael Moore.
I doubt that's true, Joe, but I'd pay good money to see him beat the everlovin' crap out of you.
ah trying to sell a book which has no facts and no faces to comments.
what a horrible little turd he is
McGinnis has nothing to worry about because
Soros probably funded this little “project”.
My question is... who is going to buy this
book?
Not many people...
The liberals I know are too cheap to buy it.
How about those Red Sox, Joe?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.