Fox News considering Palin suspension

In his "Afternoon Fix: Sarah Palin goes to Fox News," The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza wrote:

Sarah Palin met with executives at Fox News in New York today, a not-exactly-historic stop on her tour of historic American sites. (The former Alaska governor was at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty earlier in the day.) Palin is a paid contributor for the network; she called them “my bosses.” There’s been speculation about whether Palin’s contract with the network will be suspended as she contemplates a presidential campaign. “Right now there is no change in her status with FOX News," said executive vice president of programming Bill Shine in a statement after the meeting.

And Politico's Ben Smith wrote:

After a long meeting at Fox today -- where execs may not have been pleased by the interview she gave CNN -- Sarah Palin emerges with her contract intact.

“Right now there is no change in her status with FOX News," said executive vice president of programming Bill Shine in a statement. The "right now" didn't appear in earlier statements.

If Palin is honest with her "bosses," we should know whether she's going to run before she announces. That will be when Fox News suspends her, like it suspended Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. Apparently, the network has Palin under surveillance, 24/7, and her status as a paid contributor is being constantly evaluated.

Sarah Palin Quits CPAC a Fourth Time

ABC's The Note is reporting that Sarah Palin has declined an invitation to give the keynote address at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference. From Sarah Palin Turns Down Coveted Keynote Speaking Slot At CPAC Conference:

After skipping the popular Conservative Political Action Conference for the past three years, Sarah Palin has once again turned down the invitation of CPAC officials to address the conference this year.

CPAC organizers invited Palin to deliver the closing-night keynote speech on Saturday Feb. 12, immediately following the announcement of the results of CPAC’s annual presidential straw poll, but after several days of negotiations, she declined. ...

Officially, a "scheduling issue" prevents Palin from attending this year's conference.

2011 will mark the fourth year that Palin hasn't appeared. Last year, Palin stayed away from the conference, citing what she considered inappropriate business dealings between the American Conservative Union (ACU) and David Keene. (CPAC is a project of the ACU's foundation (the American Conservative Union Foundation) and is its largest annual conference. David Keene is Chairman of the ACU.) In 2009, Palin accepted an invitation to speak, but dropped out. In 2008, Palin dropped out at "the last minute."

This year, the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation are boycotting the conference, because GOProud, a gay conservative organization, is participating.

Why won't Sarah Palin go to CPAC? Perhaps there isn't a speaking fee. Or, perhaps she's not ready to face the fact that she's like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh in some respects; Beck delievered CPAC's keynote last year; Limbaugh delivered 2009's. Perhaps Palin's failure to appear is an expression of solidarity with the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation. Whatever the reason, she's missing the party: Michele Bachmann, Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and John Thune, all of whom are being talked about as the Republican nominee in 2012, will be there.


Update: Politico's Ben Smith noted that SarahPAC will have a presence at the conference, so, he thinks, Palin isn't aligning herself with those boycotting because GOProud is participating; rather, Smith cites Palin's past feuding with David Keene.

Politico's Andy Barr wrote a story last year, about last year's CPAC, "Palin rebuffs CPAC, Keene," which may provide some more insight about the feud between Palin and Keene:

... Keene has criticized Palin in the conservative press, telling Newsmax in July that she was "whining" about her press coverage and was not yet ready for primetime.

"Conservatives like her, but you've got to have more than that," Keene told the outlet. "You've got to be more than a rock star. If in fact she's interested in the presidency, she has got to establish herself as someone you can envision in the Oval Office. And it's become more difficult to envision than it was at the time of the election." ...

Update: CNN's Political Ticker noted: "Palin declined similar invitations from the group in 2010 and 2009. But the decision to skip the event this year will be treated with fresh scrutiny in light of the fact she has expressed interest in running for president and nearly every other likely 2012 candidate will be there ... ."


Update: NY Times' The Caucus blog has a post, here.


Update: In "Why Palin snubbed CPAC," Politico's Andy Barr adds the boycott to Palin's feud with Keene to explain why Palin is a no-show.


Update: The Washington Post's Right Turn column is becoming skeptical about Palin.

Sarah Palin admits Republicans' responsibility for the economy's problems

In an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show this morning, Sarah Palin prattled on about a number of things. The host set the tone of the conversation when she stated at the outset that Republicans were out to "knee-cap" Palin and were "afraid" of her. Ingraham played a number of clips of Republicans laughing at Palin and telling her where to stay. Barbara Bush, former First Lady, told Larry King that Palin ought to "stay in Alaska."

At one point, Palin laid the blame for the economy's problems on the Bushs, who, she said, had played a role in "the economic policies that were in place that got us into these economic woeful times." Even if she was only speaking of the first President Bush, he continued the policies of his predecessor, Ronald Reagan. Of course, the second George Bush continued those policies, too -- on steroids. Handed a budget surplus by his predecessor, Bill Clinton, the adminstration of the second Bush racked-up trillions of dollars in debt and was responsible for the near collapse of the economy in 2008.

Palin talked a lot. At one point, she complained that Republicans criticizing her are trying to thwart the will of the people. That's akin to her fallacious belief that anyone criticizing her is restricting her First Amendment rights. She complained that the First Lady's interest in nutrition amounts to telling the people what to eat. It is as though Palin is completely unaware that one of the hallmarks of leadership is setting an example and encouraging people to do the right thing.

If Ingraham is a Palin supporter, she may well regret this interview.

Politico's Ben Smith has a partial transcript and audio, here. CBS has a story, too, with audio.

Here is the interview:



After listening to Sarah Palin, it isn't difficult to understand why Republicans have told her to "sit down and shut up," and now we have the matriarch of the clan telling her to "stay in Alaska."

Diva Palin's Secrets Exposed

Sarah Palin's political dreams are fading fast: Politico's Ben Smith, who has been cited by this blog for carrying water for Palin, praised Jonathan Martin's review of Palin's performance on the campaign trail. Martin wrote, in part:

The election is two weeks away, but the campaign trail reviews of Sarah Palin are already in, and they aren’t pretty:

According to multiple Republican campaign sources, the former Alaska governor wreaks havoc on campaign logistics and planning. She offers little notice about her availability, refuses to do certain events, is obsessive about press coverage and sometimes backs out with as little lead time as she gave in the first place.

In short, her seat-of-the-pants operation can be a nightmare to deal with, which, in part, explains why Palin doesn’t often do individual events for GOP hopefuls. ...

... [T]he high-maintenance aspects of dealing with the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee have angered and frustrated some conservative candidates and aides who once thought highly of Palin and, for more skeptical Republicans, simply reconfirmed their view that she’s self-centered and unhelpful to the cause.

Take that! Sarah Palin.

The Atlantic's blogger Andrew Sullivan also weighed in Martin's article -- with another iconic Palin image -- in his "Her Whole World Is Chaos" post.


And Vanity Fair's Juli Weiner weighed in, too -- we have weighty news here, folks -- with "Politico Calls Sarah Palin a Flake in Dishy New Takedown." Her article includes a video and Palin's feeble my-boyz-r-gonna-git-u, mean-girl tweet in response to Martin's article: "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny...ya just made big mistake lying about Levin, Beck, Rush...U can lie about me, but taking on the Big Guns? Not smart"


And -- bonus, grand finale! -- Gryphen wrote, "Sarah Palin is all about Sarah Palin. I keep waiting for the Republicans, and the Teabaggers, to figure out that very obvious fact, but so far they are still so smitten with her star power they cannot see that she is using them and then discarding them like a snotty tissue."

Vanity Fair Strikes Back

Michael Joseph Gross wrote, this morning:

It has been only a few days since the appearance of my Vanity Fair article “Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury,” and the response, to put it mildly, has been considerable. I won’t address simple differences of opinion about Sarah Palin (or my take on her) in this short dispatch—Palin is a subject on which people have strong views, and often complicated reactions, and I’ll respond to some of the more thoughtful commentary at another time. But meanwhile there has also been a considerable amount of misinformation put about concerning the article and my work. It’s important to address this now.

After expressing his regret about mistaking Gina Loudon's son for Trig Palin, Gross addresses the misinformation being spread by Sarah Palin's water carriers in a vain attempt to discredit the article:

• Ben Smith's first blog post on Politico

• Smith's second blog post on Politico

• Gina Loudon's comments

• The use of anonymous sources

Excellent! No?