Free Republic

Every party in opposition goes a little crazy. For Republicans in the early Obama era, insanity took the form of the Sarah Palin spasm. Veteran politicos took the former Alaska governor seriously as a national figure. Republican primary voters nominated the likes of Todd Akin, Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle. Glenn Beck seemed important enough to hold a big rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Fortunately, serious parties eventually pull back from the fever swamps. That’s what’s happening to the Republican Party. It has re-established itself as the nation’s dominant governing party. Republicans now control 69 of 99 state legislative bodies....

The villains were the jerks who pushed Bristol Palin and the members of the media, like Carol Costello, who wear their liberal bias as a badge of honor Since she burst on the national scene in 2008, the national media has enjoyed poking fun and mischaracterizing former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and her family. The main reason for their obsession is that Palin is an unabashed conservative who is articulate and popular with millions of Americans. From the reporting about her supposed shopping spree during the 2008 race for Vice President to the continuing rumors about her marriage, the media...

Once again, the curmudgeonly Sarah Palin didn't let a holiday pass without reminding us that she has Facebook page. On Martin Luther King Day, she posted a response to President Obama's New Yorker interview where she called on him to honor MLK by not playing the race card. The president had said that his approval rating suffers because some people don't like the idea of having a black president. Now her post doesn't rival some of her other holiday harangues, such as her book "Good Tidings and Great Joys," a how-to-guide to fighting back against the War on Christmas, or...

Karl Rove mockingly dismissed the value of Sarah and Todd Palin's endorsements on a private conference call today, noting that their backing of Newt Gingrich in Alaska "demonstrated that endorsements don’t mean snot." BuzzFeed obtained the dial-in information for the conference call with Barclays Capital clients and employees, in which Rove outlined the state of the Republican race for the presidency and the path forward for the candidates. It’s no secret that Rove, who orchestrated President George W. Bush’s presidential wins, is no fan of the Palins, and has repeatedly sparred over with the former Alaska Governor since she entered...

Sarah Palin's record as governor of Alaska has largely gone unchallenged by conservatives, despite the fact that one of her signature legacies was imposing an oil profits tax -- a distinctly liberal idea. Now, Republicans in the state Legislature and Palin's own Republican replacement, Gov. Sean Parnell, have scored a victory in an attempt to reverse her tax hike. Democrats, though, stood strong with Palin in opposing any rollback on the tax hike.

I imagine you have already heard that a man in Wisconsin shot his television set when Bristol Palin beat out R&B singer Brandy to achieve the finals of "Dancing With the Stars." I know that in real life he is a troubled human being with a history of bipolar disorder, but I think in the make-believe world of celebrity media, he speaks for all of us. Except, of course, for all those wonderful supporters of Sarah Palin who keep voting Bristol despite her mediocre dancing. I'm sure she's a perfectly appealing 20-year-old, but she can't dance very well, and she...

Things went a little off-script today when former Clinton advisor Jami Floyd visited MSNBC’s Jansing and Company to talk about (what else?) Sarah Palin. She slammed the Mama Grizzly’s political credentials like so: “[Former Governor Frank Keating] said she’s an extraordinary asset to her party. I say she’s an extraordinary ass, frankly.” A surprised Chris Jansing wondered whether they could use such language on morning television. “I think we can,” Floyd answered, looking a little smitten with herself. “We’re all grownups.” Indeed. What prompted her to liken Palin to the Democratic Party’s mascot? She cites Palin’s inability to tell Glenn...

As we have talked about since the election, there has been a coordinated effort by backers of Barack Obama to harm Governor Sarah Palin. We have also talked about the efforts put forth by both candidate, and now President, Barack Obama to do everything in his power to derail Sarah Palin. We have previously talked about Barack Obama’s Alaska Mafia and how Obama and Pete Rouse, his former campaign chief-of -staff and now White House adviser, not only played an active roll in the failed "Troopergate" smear on Sarah Palin, but also actively coordinated the many attacks on Sarah post...

The anonymous trashing of Sarah Palin by blabbermouth McCain aides who are leaking to Fox News is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. Allah’s got the vid clip of a report citing unnamed McCain staffers accusing Palin of lacking, in Carl Cameron’s words, “knowledgeability.” At least all the Hollywood and Manhattan Palin-haters were willing to sign their names and put their faces on their attacks. Let’s assume the rumor-mongers are telling the truth for a moment. Who does it damn more: Sarah Palin or McCain and his vetters who green-lighted her for the vice presidential nomination? Don’t need an Ivy League degree to...

Palin stirs up vitriolic hatred among liberals because she is a conservative Christian who practices her beliefs, especially regarding abortion. If the mainstream media and other liberals are going to continue vilifying Sarah Palin, then they should at least be honest about the reason for their attacks. Their issue with Palin is not her foreign policy experience. After all, Palin’s critics love Obama, who has about the same amount of foreign policy experience as Palin. Nor do any of them really care about her folksy manner, little winks and moose hunting. Palin stirs up vitriolic hatred among liberals because she...

Well, I don't imagine many of you read the comment I received re: my last entry -- I decided to use it for a brand new post -- along with my uncharacteristically snarky response. (What can I say? She got my Irish up! Muumuu indeed!) "So what does all of this "fairy tale" lifestyle have to do with how well Sarah Palin could run the country?" It's not a fairy tale lifestyle. It's a *real* lifestyle where people are real and concerns are real -- not chasing fashion or prestige or empty thrills. (And I never said it had anything...

There's a new affliction sweeping the nation, and it's known as Palin Derangement Syndrome. The phenomenon is similar to Bush Derangement Syndrome, a term coined by political columnist Charles Krauthammer to describe the personal animosity and irrational hatred directed at President Bush by his leftist opponents. But this time, Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, is the object of wrath. The feeding frenzy began with the news of Palin's selection, but it was her electrifying speech at the Republic National Convention last month that really set it off. In one fell swoop, Palin managed to energize the...

Scroll for updates…Wired News confirms… Sometime early this morning, between approximately 3:00am - 4:00am, members of an infamous group of hackers broke into Gov. Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo e-mail account. The incriminating discussion threads included screenshots of Palin’s e-mail and private e-mail addresses of her contacts. The threads have since been deleted. Hacking e-mail is a federal crime. A TV anchor who broke into his colleague’s e-mail account recently pleaded guilty and faces a maximum five years in prison. The law will catch up to the hackers, but what about the lowlifes who are now gleefully splashing the alleged contents...

"Despite her efforts to portray herself as an average, small-town, "folksy" American, Sarah Palin's political views - ardently pro-gun, pro-censorship, antichoice and antigay.....however, (is) these beliefs are not just extreme - they are radical, and even bear a comparison with some of the most notorious "rural radicals" of our time. ......"

I’ve been in Alaska only a week, but I’m already feeling ever so much smarter about Russia. I can’t quite see it from my hotel window, but, hey, I know it’s out there somewhere, beyond all the stuffed bears and cruise ships and glaciers and oil derricks. The proximity of the country from which William Seward bartered to buy Alaska for $7 million — Seward’s icebox — is so illuminating that I suddenly realize that we would commit a grave error by overestimating Russia’s economic strength. After all, it represents only 2.8 percent of the world’s G.D.P., even though its...

I assume John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential partner in a fit of pique because the Republican money men refused to let him have the stuffed male shirt he really wanted. She added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right. So why do it? It's possible that Republican men, sexual inadequates that they are, really believe that women will vote for a woman just because she's a woman. They're...

WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors. Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.... This year, Palin, who has been governor for nearly 22 months, defended...