Frank Bailey's Manuscript, 'Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin', Leaked

NOTE: Some of the articles at the Alaska Dispatch links have disappeared. This morning, the links were changed, so I updated them. A short while later, a login was required. Later, hitting the links brought up an "Access Denied" page. I'll check, later, to see whether the Alaska Dispatch posts have been moved or restored. The links to articles at other news outlets still appear to be working (1400 PST of February 21, 2011). 1615 PST: The Alaska Dispatch story about the leak is available again; however, it is not the original story.

NOTE: We have another post about the leaked manuscript, here.


Frank Bailey was a key aide to former governor Sarah Palin. He has written a book -- unpublished -- about his time with Palin while she was governor. The book's manuscript was leaked to Alaska Dispatch, which posted "'Tell-all' book by ex-Palin aide leaked to media:"

[We have removed the excerpt of Alaska Dispatch's original story about the leak after reviewing Alaska Dispatch's response to the legal firm that represents the manuscript's co-authors.]

There may be more at the Alaska Dispatch website; see the link, above. They consider this to be a developing story, so they may be updating it.


Updates: Alaska Dispatch has updated with information about how the manuscript came into their hands.

Today: Book News, at NBC, has a story, via Anchorage's KTUU; they have indicated that there will be updates.

The Anchorage NBC affiliate's website is KTUU.com. KTUU's current story is here.

The Anchorage Daily News has a politics blog, which has several posts, here.

Alaska's Andrew Halcro, who ran against Palin in 2006, writes in his blog that Bailey's book validates everything he has written about Palin.

Gryphen has posted "The Leak of Frank Bailey's Book."

The AP has posted a story, "Aide planning tell-all about time with Palin."

Mudflats has a post by one of the authors collaborating on Bailey's book: "Frank Bailey's Memoir Leaked to Press (and a surprise)."

Alaska Dispatch has posted "Frank Bailey: Sarah Palin knowingly broke election law."

Alaska Dispatch has posted "Why did Palin name a pro-choice judge to the Alaska Supreme Court?"


Update of Saturday morning, February 19, 2011:

Sean Cockerham and Kyle Hopkins of The Anchorage Daily News write:

A leaked manuscript by one of Sarah Palin's closest aides from her time as governor charges that Palin broke state election law in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned.

The unpublished book by Frank Bailey was leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday.

The manuscript opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying "I hate this damn job" shortly before she resigned as Alaska's governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four-year term. The manuscript goes on for nearly 500 pages, a mixture of analysis, gossip and allegation.

Copies of the manuscript were forwarded around Alaska political circles on Friday. The Daily News received copies from multiple sources, the first from author Joe McGinniss, who is working on his own Palin book. McGinniss didn't respond to a message asking where he obtained the manuscript and the reason he circulated it. ...

There is much more at the Daily News' article by Cockerham and Hopkins.

The Daily News' political blog, here, continues to be updated. It includes Becky Bohrer's AP article, along with posts about an "obsession" with punishing Mike Wooten (Sarah Palin's former brother-in-law), about the making of an "illegal" campaign ad (with video), and about Frank Bailey becoming "Todd's go-to guy."


Update of Monday morning, February 21, 2011:

At Mudflats, one of the manuscript's co-authors has posted a letter from the co-authors to Joe McGinniss. The letter claims that McGinniss has violated copyright law and impaired the authors' ability to market the manuscript: "Say it Ain’t So, Joe! Co-Author of Leaked Palin Book Speaks Out." Joe McGinniss is the author of Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, which, after several delays, is now scheduled to be published on September 20, 2011.

The NY Daily News has "Sarah Palin tell-all written by ex-aide Frank Bailey promises 'revelations and insights' into ex-gov."

The Washington Post has "Ex-aide slams Palin in leaked manuscript."

ABC News has "Sarah Palin Bashed in Former Aide's Leaked Manuscript."

CNN has "Report: Ex-aide slams Palin in leaked book."

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan has "More Scoop On Palin: Her Reliable Media Mouthpieces. Sullivan writes: "[...] Bailey was as close to the Palins as anyone from Palin's first race for governor to the bitter end, is a rock-ribbed Fox News Republican, has vast amounts of firsthand data (the emails he has published alone reveal a lot), has contempt for Trig skeptics like yours truly, and comes to a simple conclusion in retrospect: Palin is a dangerous, vindictive, incompetent, congenital liar who has no business in any public office. Any publisher interested in the truth about Palin (Harper Collins therefore need not apply) should fight to publish it." Yes, it is a simple conclusion -- long overdue -- and it's good to see that Sullivan realizes that "Trig skepticism" misses the mark: there were and are real, verfiable issues about Palin's fitness for office. "Trig skepticism" is a Palin-circus sideshow that helps Palin more than it hurts her.

Tom Kavanagh of Politics Daily has served up: "As Governor, Palin Allegedly Told Aide: 'I Hate This Job'." Kavanagh states, concerning "Troopergate:" "The Alaska State Personnel Board investigated the matter and ruled that Palin did not violate state ethics laws;" however, a bi-partisan panel of the Alaska legislature found differently (re: Branchflower).

The Unreality of 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' -- UPDATED!

Nick Jans, an Alaskan writer and outdoorsman, has written an intereresting article, "What Palin's show says about us," which states, in part:

... Those of us who've actually lived off the land are less than impressed by Palin's televised exploits and, more important, by what they tell us about her. Tentative, physically inept, and betraying an even more awkward unfamiliarity with the land and lifestyle that's supposedly her birthright, Palin deconstructs her own myth before our eyes. ...

... From the opening credits, Palin's not actually leading, as the show's stirring theme song (Follow Me There) suggests. Instead, she's tucked far under the wings of professional guides, friends, or family members — in a curious subtext, almost all males.

They instruct and coddle her along, at one point literally hauling Palin uphill on the end of a rope. ...

And The Anchorage Daily News' "Always on the hunt, Palin shown what to do," by Paul Jenkins, elaborates on the idea of Sarah Palin as frontierswoman front woman:

... But the story is in the story. All but Dowd seemed to miss the boatload of delicious allegory about Palin's life and politics wrapped up in the [hunting] episode. It was Palin on the hunt; on the hunt always. First, it was small-town politicos in Wasilla who befriended her, then GOP Chief Randy Ruedrich, then Frank Murkowski, who appointed her to a cushy job, and finally, a shot at Barack Obama. Older white men carrying her guns, loading them and handing them to her, advising her, telling her when to shoot, showing her how to do the job. Letting them do the work. Out of her element. Indoor girl in an outdoor world. Missed shot after missed shot after missed shot. Blaming someone or something else when it all goes south. Killing a scrawny little caribou to sell the image. Jumping the ship of state after only two disinterested, unengaged years, going for something bigger. Out of her element. Peddling the lie. The mama grizzly. Sarah the Sniper.

Jenkins' article uses the words disinterested and unengaged to describe Palin while she was governor. Was she governor in name only? Who made the decisions while she was governor?

Jenkins' article appeared about the time that Alaska Dispatch's "Palin's record vs. Palin's Facebook" appeared, which is concerned with the discrepancies between Palin's record and what she has since claimed she did as governor. An explanation of those discrepancies could simply be that she doesn't know what she did, because someone else acted as behind-the-scenes governor.


Maureen Dowd's column, mentioned by Jenkins, is here.


Update: Andrew Sullivan wrote (more than) a few words about the USA Today article and noticed that where it appeared (USA Today) is important. Sullivan's title is "Levi's Vindication: The Self-Exposure Of Sarah Palin."

My co-blogger, snowbilly, wrote "It Was Fact-checked," which surmised that because one critical part of Levi Johnston's Vanity Fair story, "Me and Mrs. Palin," was clearly fact-checked all of it must have been fact-checked.

Sullivan's point is different than mine -- that Sarah Palin may have been Governor of Alaska in name only -- but is a valid point, nonetheless. Jans' article (and Jenkins' (and Dowd's)) are a rich source of insights into who Sarah Palin was (or wasn't).

By the way, Jans' point, although he deconstructed Sarah Palin's myth, is that many politicians strive to create a narrative, or myth. Remember George Bush? Clearing brush in Crawford, TX? Well, as soon as he left the White House, George got out of Dodge Crawford and moved to Dallas. He was really a city-slicker at heart. And didn't the Reagans (Remember the wood chopper? At the ranch?) really live in Pacific Palisades, CA? Sarah Palin's myth is, in some respects, easy pickins, but someone like Jans, who has articulated something we "know," so that we really do know it, is worthy of our praise. When a politician's myth gets busted, he or she will soon exit the stage.

The delicious irony of it all is, as Jans wrote, "Palin deconstructs her own myth before our eyes." She's done herself in.

The Story is in The Story

Paul Jenkins of The Anchorage Daily News has written "Always on the hunt, Palin shown what to do," which ends:

... But the story is in the story. All but [Maureen] Dowd seemed to miss the boatload of delicious allegory about Palin's life and politics wrapped up in the episode. It was Palin on the hunt; on the hunt always. First, it was small-town politicos in Wasilla who befriended her, then GOP Chief Randy Ruedrich, then Frank Murkowski, who appointed her to a cushy job, and finally, a shot at Barack Obama. Older white men carrying her guns, loading them and handing them to her, advising her, telling her when to shoot, showing her how to do the job. Letting them do the work. Out of her element. Indoor girl in an outdoor world. Missed shot after missed shot after missed shot. Blaming someone or something else when it all goes south. Killing a scrawny little caribou to sell the image. Jumping the ship of state after only two disinterested, unengaged years, going for something bigger. Out of her element. Peddling the lie. The mama grizzly. Sarah the Sniper. ...

"Disinterested, unengaged." Perhaps that explains why Craig Medred wrote recently in "Palin's Record vs. Palin's Facebook," which is concerned with the discrepancies between Sarah Palin's record as Governor of Alaska and what she says she did as governor, "Sometimes it's pretty easy to get the impression that what Palin says and what Palin does, or what she believes she's done, are two distinctly different things."

Isn't it possible that Sarah Palin doesn't know what was done by the state's executive branch while she was governor? Wouldn't that explain why "her record" is at variance with what she says she did?

Will the real Governor of Alaska, while Sarah Palin warmed the chair, please stand up.

Maureen Dowd's "Pass the Caribou stew," which was mentioned by Jenkins, is here.

Sarah Palin Misunderstands the First Amendment

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent wrote:

During the 2008 Election, Sarah Palin adopted a tragically common interpretation of the First Amendment, that her critics were violating her right to freedom of speech by criticizing her. The basic idea is that freedom of speech applies to her, but not her critics.

The American Prospect article, linked by Sargent, points out that Rush Limbaugh shares Palin's view on the First Amendment. Sarah Palin's attorney has also expressed the view that criticism of Palin violates her rights: "Going Rogue is Sarah Palin's book to set the record straight. It is her right to speak about the events that occurred in her administration and neither Mr. Bitney nor anyone else has the right to stifle that speech, ..."

Palin Family Circus News - Monday, September 13, 2010

An Irish bookmaker, Paddy Power, gives 8-1 odds that President Obama will beat either Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney in 2012:

The odds seem to favor one of two former governors — Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin — being the next Republican nominee for president, according to the Irish bookmaking agency Paddy Power.

But either would lose to President Obama, the odds-on favorite at 8-1 to win a second term in the White House, according to the betting so far at Paddy Power, which has, at various times, been spot-on and awful as a predictor of American presidential elections. ...

"Bristol Palin Going Against the Odds on 'Dancing With the Stars,'" covers another bet:

When Bristol Palin premieres on "Dancing With the Stars" next Monday, she'll be fighting the odds, costume criticism and rumors of troubled practice sessions.

Sports bookies (really? really!) have put Bristol above "Brady Bunch" mom Florence Henderson, who's picked to finish last. But that's not saying much. The teen mom, who was thrust into the spotlight two years ago when her own mom (you know, Sarah Palin) became John McCain's running mate, is predicted to finish 11th out of the 12 celebrity contestants by two different bookmakers. Her odds of winning: 20-1. ("Dirty Dancing" star Jennifer Grey is the early fave.)

Meanwhile, there are reports that Bristol and professional partner Mark Ballas missed several practice sessions last week because of a variety of conflicts. ...


"Mark Ballas Fears Bristol Palin Will Be "Embarrassing" on Dancing With the Stars," includes a practice session photo.


PETA is confirming that Bristol won't be wearing any real fur on DWTS. (I don't think that writer likes her, at all.)


Shades of the Cold War: Sarah Palin says moles are sneaking into her speeches! But -- wait a minute! -- a Missoula Editor article describes how its reporter and photographer got into yesterday's event in Missoula, Montana.

High-Def Hucksters and Rodeo Clowns, Palin & Beck, to Appear in Anchorage on 9/11

From the Associated Press:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are teaming up again, this time in Alaska on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

But unlike their free August rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Saturday's event at an Anchorage convention center will come with a pricetag.

Tickets range from $73.75 to $225, with the priciest tickets including a "meet and greet." Organizers say most of the 4,500 tickets have been sold.

Event promoter Christopher Cox says the 9/11 date is a coincidence. Cox originally eyed Sept. 4, but didn't want to compete with the Alaska State Fair.

Cox says Beck will be introduced by Palin, a potential 2012 White House contender who hasn't announced her political intentions. Palin spokesman Doug McMarlin didn't immediately return requests for comment.

So, it's a moneymaking event! Surprise, surprise. Will Bunch, author of The Backlash and a senior writer for philly.com may know more about Glenn Beck (and Sarah Palin) than a lot of us. They do it for the money. Their fans are walking ATM machines:

September 11 is a very important day for Glenn Beck. For one thing, the king of all right-wing media talks about it all the time -- more on that in a second. What's more, the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, as pretty much the event that made the Fox News Channel host into the national lightning rod that he is today -- the vehicle that caused him to complete his journey from a Morning Zoo "rodeo clown" to a political guy who suddenly was replacing the so-9/10 Laura Schlessinger on radio outlets coast to coast and then leading a series of transparently self-serving honoring the troops rallies for Clear Channel.

But Beck has talked a lot about 9/11 over nine years -- and the highly notable exception of his bizarre September 2005 attack on the family members of victims of the terrorist attack -- the emphasis has been on extreme reverence for that day in American history. When he was getting off the ground on FNC, he used the images of 9/11 to launch project he claimed would bring Americans back together.

As recounted in my new book The Backlash, he said on his now imfamous March 13, 2009 "We Surround Them" program of the attacks that...

“[t]he skies were filled with black clouds and our hearts were full of terror and fear. We realized -- for the first time -- how fragile we really were.” As Beck addressed his coast-to-coast audience, viewers saw images of anguished, tearful women, head in hands, mouths agape, staring at the hellish fires of the World Trade Center, then a mother racing down a Manhattan byway pushing two children in a stroller, away from the deadly dust.

The 9/12 Project, which devolved in a matter of days into an anti-Barack Obama backlash movement, was described by Beck as aimed:

"to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001. The day after America was attacked we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the values and the principles of the greatest nation ever created."

In fact, Beck even told his much ballyhooed Restoring Honor rally in D.C. last month that 9/11 was a sign from the Almighty, presumably to turn Americans away from things like greed and back to the things that really matter:

He has been sending us wake-up calls, and you can send two kinds of wake-up calls. One through fear, like 9/11. Nine-eleven woke us up, and we stood shoulder-to-shoulder for a very short period of time. Politics didn't matter. Color didn't matter. It didn't matter if you were poor or if you were rich. We were Americans together. Beyond that, we were God's human creation standing together.

So, with that all as a backdrop, what matters the most to Glenn Beck on September 11, 2010, the ninth anniversary of the day that terrorists slaughtered nearly 3,000 innocent Americans and ripped apart the lives of their families and friends?

Truth be told, outrageous as Beck's latest scheme is, it's almost hard to work up the outrage at this point because to those of us who aren't drinking the David Barton-fueled Kool-Aid, this is simply who Beck is: One of the most shameless business people in America, who happens to be in the business of entertainment and warping some minds politically in the process. Beck has millions of fans -- and to him they are all walking ATM machines. He thinks nothing of selling the people who admire him overpriced gold coins or surivial seed banks and "Food Insurance" kits, none of which they need, and almost every Beck event not named "Restoring Honor" is designed around maximizing ticket prices.

Will Bunch's column is here. David Barton's Wikipedia entry is here.


Update: The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart has written about these grifters' appearance. Christopher Balfe, President of Beck's media company, is claiming, today, that Palin will only introduce Beck and will not receive a fee, and that Beck intends to donate his fee. More.

Sarah Palin puts her ignorance on parade each time she spouts her peculiar view of the First Amendment

Sarah Palin has expressed the notion that criticism of what she says violates her First Amendment rights. She has done so at least once each year since 2008.

It began in the 2008 campaign, when she was criticized for speaking about then-Senator Obama's association with Reverend Wright. In "Sarah Palin speaks on the First Amendment," Glenn Greenwald wrote in Salon:

Somehow, in Sarah Palin's brain, it's a threat to the First Amendment when newspapers criticize her negative attacks on Barack Obama. This is actually so dumb that it hurts:

In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

... The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the Government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said.

If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.

This isn't only about profound ignorance regarding our basic liberties, though it is obviously that. Palin here is also giving voice to the standard right-wing grievance instinct: that it's inherently unfair when they're criticized. And now, apparently, it's even unconstitutional.

According to Palin, what the Founders intended with the First Amendment was that political candidates for the most powerful offices in the country and Governors of states would be free to say whatever they want without being criticized in the newspapers. In the Palin worldview, the First Amendment was meant to ensure that powerful political officials such as herself would not be "attacked" in the papers. Is it even possible to imagine more breathtaking ignorance from someone holding high office and running for even higher office?

In 2009, Palin published her fictional memoir, Going Rogue. When the book was criticized by John Bitney, who disagreed with how Palin had characterized him in the book, saying, "I'm just pilloried right and left and turned into the big bad wolf here for stuff I didn't do. It's like I'm this fictional character that she's decided to make me out to be this sort of incompetent slob," Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein said, "Going Rogue is Sarah Palin's book to set the record straight. It is her right to speak about the events that occurred in her administration and neither Mr. Bitney nor anyone else has the right to stifle that speech, ..." -- Anchorage Daily News.

Now, in 2010, we have Dr. Laura Schlessinger who decided to quit her radio program in order to "regain [her] first amendment rights." Sarah Palin then thought -- does she think? -- she could capitalize on Dr. Laura's predicament and began Twittering her ignorance:

"Dr.Laura:don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"isn't American,not fair")."

Later she added,

"Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice,America!"

There is something about this story that hasn't been widely reported:

After the N-word broadcast aired, Dr. Laura apologized for using the racial epithet. "I articulated the N-word all the way out -- more than one time," Schlessinger said. "And that was wrong. I'll say it again -- that was wrong." She said she "realized I had made a horrible mistake, and was so upset, I could not finish the show."

Is it possible? Could it be that Sarah Palin and others who claim that their First Amendment rights are being violated when their speech is criticized are remorseful? Or realize what a mistake they've made? Or what a fool they've made of themselves? But instead of admitting their mistake, they've got to throw up a "my rights are being violated" smokescreen in an attempt to divert attention from what they said. They really aren't so proud of what they said, are they?

Sarah, when you are criticized for something you have said, you can say it again! That's proof that your rights are intact. You can even say something more disgraceful, shameful and hateful if you'd like. You could even man-up -- grow some cojones? -- and apologize.

Sarah Palin Makes No Distinction Between Church and State

Last night, Keith Olbermann mentioned Politico's poll of April 15, which found that tea partiers are divided into two camps: Libertarian and Conservative. Politico's write-up of the poll said,

The [poll] results [...] suggest a distinct fault line that runs through the tea party activist base, characterized by two wings led by the politicians who ranked highest when respondents were asked who “best exemplifies the goals of the tea party movement” — former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a former GOP presidential candidate.

Palin, who topped the list with 15 percent, speaks for the 43 percent of those polled expressing the distinctly conservative view that government does too much, while also saying that it needs to promote traditional values.

Paul’s thinking is reflected by an almost identical 42 percent who said government does too much but should not try to promote any particular set of values — the hallmarks of libertarians. He came in second to Palin with 12 percent.

The opinion of Sarah Palin and her supporters, that government does too much, but should promote "traditional values" is contradictory.

The "traditional values" that Sarah Palin and her supporters want government to promote are extreme, fundamentalist Christian values. Palin recently attacked separation of church and state when she spoke at an evangelical Christian conference (the Women of Joy conference in Louisville, Ky.), where she claimed that the founders were "true believers" and that the country is a Christian nation. Watch the "Countdown" video, below, to get an inkling of how mixed-up Sarah Palin is about the founders' beliefs.

While she was governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin went out of her way to blur the line between church and state. From an article in Anchorage's Daily News: [emphasis added]

Gov. Sarah Palin used state funds in June when she traveled from Juneau to Wasilla to speak to graduating evangelical students and urge them to fan out through Alaska "to make sure God's will be done here."

State records show that Palin submitted a travel authorization for a quick round-trip visit to attend the June 8 graduation of the Master's Commission program at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the church where she was baptized at age 12. ...

The records show Palin flew from Juneau on Saturday, June 7. She returned to Juneau that Monday afternoon. The plane tickets cost the state $519.50, and she claimed an additional $120 for meals and other expenses. ...

... In her eight-minute remarks, delivered without notes except when she read a brief passage from the New Testament Book of Ephesians, she melded the issues of governance with a call to bringing Alaskans to God.

"What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys as you go out throughout Alaska -- I can do my part in doing things like working really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline." Palin said. "Pray about that also. I think God's will has to be done, in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that. But I can do my job there, in developing our natural resources, and doing things like getting the roads paved, making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded.

"But really, all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's hearts isn't right with God. And that's going to be your job," she said. "As I'm doing my job, let's strike this deal. Your job is going to be: to be out there, reaching the people, (the) hurting people throughout Alaska, and we can work together to make sure God's will be done here."

It's clear from her remarks that Sarah Palin presumes to know what the will of God is with respect to the pipeline. Sarah Palin believed that her work as governor was of no avail unless the hearts of Alaskans were right with God.

It's clear that Sarah Palin makes no distinction between church and state.

CBS News wrote a lengthier article about her appearance in Wasilla: "Palin's Record On Church-State Separation." An article very similar to the ADN article was distributed by McClatchy.

ABC News has an article, "Sarah Palin's 'Christian Nation' Remarks Spark Debate."


Here is the "Countdown" video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A write-up of the recent CBS/New York Times poll on tea partier beliefs stated that 18% of the country's population are tea partiers.