Sarah Palin Isn't Not Not Dis-Un-Lying About Banning Books

My grandmother Grace was a librarian in a tiny northern town. (Population 20,000. Average annual snowfall 11 feet.) She was a little old Irish lady. Flinty. You'd have liked her. She'd help you find a book. So, while I know there are lots of other, better reasons to dislike Sarah Palin, bullying the librarian is mine.

You might think that makes me sound like someone with a petty grudge, but I prefer to think of it as rising above politics and putting the family first.

If my grandmother had been a rape victim, I'd probably be more annoyed that Sarah Palin made rape victims pay for their own exams. And wants to make them deliver their rapists' babies.

If my grandmother had been a wolf, I'd probably think Palin's least attractive proclivity was hurting animals for fun.

We may never know exactly what happened between Sarah Palin and Wasilla's librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons. Alaska under Palin has replaced war as the province of uncertainty. But we can certainly agree that the mayor wanted the librarian's head.

We also know that Palin asked Emmons three times about banning books in the library, and Emmons refused and Palin tried to fire her. But does that prove Palin wanted to ban books? "It's an old wives' tale," Palin told Charlie Gibson, in a statement that only resembles a denial from a distance.

Everything gets slick in Alaska, I guess. Even the past. Palin admits that she had at least one discussion with Emmons but, according to FactCheck.Org:

Palin characterized the exchange differently, initially volunteering the episode as an example of discussions with city employees about following her administration's agenda. Palin described her questions to Emmons as "rhetorical," noting that her questions "were asked in the context of 
professionalism regarding the library policy that is in place in our city."

She wasn't asking Emmons to remove the books. She was sounding out Emmons on her feelings about an agenda. Of removing the books.

This statement, by McCain spokesman Brian Rogers, looks a lot more forceful:

"The fact is that as Mayor, Palin never asked anyone to ban a book and not one book was ever banned, period."

That's true, as far as it goes, but look at it again. Fans of Jesuitical hair-splitting might think the wiggle room here comes from the distinction between asking someone whether you can ask them to do something and asking them to do it. But that's not it.

Ignore "period." Look at the place where he might have said "dependent clause." The important words are:

"The fact is that as Mayor,"

Sarah Palin never asked anyone to ban a book as Mayor. As Mayor -- of a Wal-Mart and a snowmobile trail -- she was only interested in censorship in general.

As the New York Times reported this weekend, she only pushed to ban books by name when she was on the city council.

I hope that clears up everything.

Why was it so important for Brian Rogers to slip in the words "as Mayor" a week ago, before anyone had heard about Sarah Palin's city council campaign to protect Alaska from Daddy's Roommate?

The fact is that when silent, Brian Rogers isn't lying.

Period.

--

Brian Rogers kind of reminds me of something John McCain said during the national pig/lipstick crisis last week:

"Senator Obama chooses his words very carefully, okay? He shouldn't have said it. He shouldn't have said it. He chooses his words very carefully."

He's right. You've got to despise people who act like that.

--

Speaking of choosing words.

As FactCheck.org points out, when Sarah Palin said her questions were "rhetorical," she probably meant they were "hypothetical."

Sometimes you'd almost swear the person John McCain wants breaking ties in the Senate is a numbskull.

Comments

[riona]

Has anyone interviewed the librarian? Is she still alive? What about other city councilmen?

[Dichotomy]

We need to be very careful about how they choose to use "as mayor" and "as Governor" because it's very misleading.

John Mac 'Splain tried to say on "The View" that Paling didn't request any earmarks "as Governor" but he got it wrong, lol.

So many lies, so little time!

[chf2go]

Banning books infers that they were removed from the shelf. Asking if it was possible to ban them and then firing the Librarian who refuses to do so is NOT the same as banning them. She was not successful in her attempt to ban books. Only because she was not successful doesn't mean she wasn't trying and didn't ask, because clearly she was.

My question: If she can't get a Librarian to do what she wants, how does she expect to get Putin and Chavez to the table? How can the McCain team expect foreign leaders to respect Leaders WHO LIE?

[Soapstar]

I may be missing something here so I apologize if the answer is well known, but where is the librarian Mary Ellen Emmons in all of this? What is her account of events?

[Forestfromthetrees]

She has declined to comment.

[kellygrrrl]

her response to inquiry:

"That is a time in life I do not wish to revisit. It was the worst period of my life."

[pinellas]

Thank you - this is excellent!
& I love the dimwitted argument trying to steer this away from the core issue (strawman, anyone?); it was about the attempted firing of the librarian who seemingly failed some sort of 'test' - duh!

[Dave24]

Palin is an actor. The McCain campaign staff and inner circle write talking points, Palin memorizes them, and when interviewed, she wrangles the question to fit her answers.

Day 1 of McCain Presidency:

Sarah: I have some ideas about Iraq.
John: Excuse me, who are you?

[mandalaina]

Thanks - you've given me an AHA! moment.

[WretchedEtcher]

Palin - don't need you protecting my kids. You need to worry about your own.

[mandalaina]

Very, very true. If what she espouses as values doesn't work for her own family, how can she expect them to work for anyone else? Or expect anyone else to embrace them?

Bleck. What a maroon.

[piperflyer]

Some people will embrace anything.

[FreedomFries]

Sarah seems to be in the same spot as Henry II was with his "rhetorical" except no one dashed off when Sarah mused "Who will rid me of this meddlesome book?"

[Simplyhere]

Yes, I'm somewhat astounded myself that she's the most knowledgeable person, about energy, in the United States. Can you believe these morons? Seriously, can you really understand how an individual, any individual, someone like ceindependence up above, can actually defend people who have no more intellect that that?

All I can guess is that some people enjoy being stupid.

[cigi]

Palin is a FRAUD and I am sick of all the "double speak" by politicians when their real motives are uncovered! VOTE OBAMA!

[ceindependence]

The problem is...she did not request a ban on any books. Did you get that? Lets repeat to ourselves.­....again.­...she did not request a ban on any books. Now for the slow ones, did she request a ban on books? No, she did not request a ban on any books. Twist and turn but the fact remains, she did not request any books to be banned.

This is kinda like asking the question, "Isn't Barak Obama a Muslim?" He said he is not a Muslim. But what about his name? Isn't he a Muslim? Even though he is not a muslim, it doesn't fit the attack mode to accept. Just keep repeating that he is a Muslim. Just keep repeating that she wanted to ban those books. Lets just keep splitting those hairs.

[Stoyver]

The truth will come out, be patient.

[moodpost]

"The truth will come out, be patient."

Unfortunately, I feel like the earth is hurtling toward the sun and we have only a few weeks to correct its orbit. I don't feel like I have enough time to "be patient."

The record is actually pretty clear, as the first responder suggests. Get your fingers out of your ears and stop yelling.

[walsenberg]

how about the truth about her moral values of cheating on her husband, being an inattentive parent, do you think that if a Democrat had the same resume of work and family that the Republican's wouldn't be attacking and attacking them? What a joke, parading her 17 yo prego dtr and her shotgun 18 yo boyfriend and the right fawning all over the "way she handled it" omg this is so bizarre , the way they are able to twist the truth and their "values" ....

[blueshield]

Courts throughout America have accepted circumstantial evidence in the prosecution and conviction of criminals, when direct evidence was lacking.

The evidence we do have is that Pal.in publicly objected to certain books being in the library, and her religious community and convictions also objected to the same books being in circulation.

Wassilla's librarian has expressed her understanding of more than one inquiry from Pal.in regarding the banning of books, in which she felt sufficiently compelled to insist that she would not remove any books.

The library had no record of any public objections to, or public requests for, removal of books, except for the inquiries from Pal.in.

After the inquiries from Pal.in the Librarian received a letter firing her.

Members of the community came to her defense and had the firing reversed.

The fact that no books were banned in fact, proves only that the Librarian, and residents of Wassilla, opposed that action, which Pal.in over several years had expressed focused interest in.

[WretchedEtcher]

No...she only asked about the procedure to ban books and the librarians feelings about banning books 3 times in the first week of office. Then she tried to fire the librarian. Why? Because she wasn't getting the librarian's "full support". What support? Wouldn't raise the fine rates? What type of support does the mayor need from the librarian?

Do need her protecting my kids...she needs to keep track of her own.

[BetterDeadthanRedState]

When my boss comes in and asks me, rhetorically, if I don't think I should really be working instead of posting on here . . . oops, here he comes.

[silverball]

yeah, you are probably right....i mean, asking about the proceedure for banning or if the librarian is ok with doing it are the kinds of questions right up there on the top for mayors of any small town.....r­ight??? this was an ongoing situation for several years in wasilla with sarah involved..­..and why would she try to fire the librarian that said she would NOT ban any books....?­??...or is that too sexist...o­r are we being too tough???..­..or doesn't she have to put up with these meaningfull inquiries?­....i mean, isn't she the chosen one that is tough, no nonsense and ready to lead on day one???...a­nd it's NOT kinda like the obama question..­.one is a complete smear and lie...the other begs the question about how QUALIFIED an individual is to lead WE THE PEOPLE....­..and the answer to your question is YES.....sh­e DID want to ban a certain book....an­d we know that is a lot like potato chips....b­echa' can't have just one!!!

[LilyMaskew]

Oh, Miss Sarah didn't really want to ban any books. She just wanted to use up her valuable time asking hypothetical questions since she didn't have anything important she needed to do instead.

[DavidNOE]

It asks the question. To "beg the question" means to assume an answer in the course of asking the question.

[miatch]

I noticed they said Rhetorical when they meant Hypothetical too. But then I figured I must be the one with difficulty understanding the nuances of English. I mean hell, as McCain points out we are talking here about the Most Knowledge Person in the United States of America on Energy. She puts all our PhD's in nuclear energy to shame.

[ManOutOfTime]

But then again, Sarah Palin Isn't Not Not Dis-Un-Lying About NOT Banning Books, either. So she's got both sides covered if you think about it.
Brilliant and spot-on as always, Chris. Like Stewart and Colbert, another comedian doing better journalism than the journalists.

[elion10]

Yes. Exactly.

[Yermammy]

Agreed. Good one, again Chris.

[krissymax]

Great post ManOutOfTime. We recorded Stewart's show where it details that John McCain graduated 894 out a class of 899 at the Naval Academy. So what exactly were John McCain's grades since he graduated nearly at the very bottom of his class? - Palin attened five colleges and finally managed to get a BA in journalism from Idaho State. What were her grades? Shouldn't we be looking for the best and the brightest to lead the nation?

[sarge]

It was rhetorical. "Can you ban books in Wasilla?", is a colloquialism. Like "Does a polar bear piss in the snow?"