Palin's Handlers, Part Two

With the global financial meltdown underway, right-wing fundamentalist Christians are gleefully packing their bags for the final Rapture ride. It's quite possible that Sister Sarah will literally not be on our planet by the time November rolls around.

In the event that the great almighty doesn't decide fall 2008 is the ripe time to harvest all the good, anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-gun Christians and deliver them to their eternal sky-box before election day, let us keep the gimlet eye on Alaska's finest lipstick-smeared hockey mom.
In a previous post I wrote that Sarah Palin isn't really one of those plain-talkin', diaper-changin', moose-huntin' Erma Bombecks from "small town" America that she likes to channel in her speeches, but in fact has likely been groomed and coached by a shadowy group of sophisticated right-wing Christians who seek out normal-looking folks like her to assist in their theocracy-promoting business.

I was just a-guessin' there folks, but, lo and behold! Bless us all, amen, brothers and sisters! In the wake of the show-stopping performance by their girl in Juneau, her creepy handlers just cannot resist stepping out of the shadows to take a little bow.

Yesterday, the AP reported that Palin and her employees in Alaska government were being legally coached -- pro bono -- not to cooperate with an investigation into the firing of her brother-in-law by none other than a Texas-based organization called the Liberty Legal Institute. Liberty Legal has nothing to do with either freedom or the traditional use of the legal system. It is financed by a rabid anti-feminist called Kelly Shackelford, who, according to the website Right Wing Watch was recently heard chortling on Focus on the Family James Dobson's radio program about how he had drafted "the strongest pro-life platform ever in the history of the Republican Party."

Liberty Legal Institute is not the only national right wing Christian group on Palin's speed-dial. An Alaska attorney named Kevin G. Clarkson, affiliated with the Virginia-based Alliance Defense Fund, takes credit for coaching Palin now and previously. According to Right Wing Watch: "Back in 2006, he [Clarkson] personally assured Focus on the Family that Palin shared their views -- and he'd know since he was providing legal counsel to her on the Alaska Supreme Court's ruling regarding benefits for partners of state employees."

All these deceptively named big-time "legal" foundations beavering away in Palin's camp ... just don't sound so small-town to me. If they really gave a good god-damn about small towns they'd be in the Southern District of Manhattan right now, filing suit on behalf of working Americans getting shafted with the bill for all the private jets, Hamptons estates, skiing trips to Gstaad and freighters' worth of bling our reckless captains of Wall Street have gorged on.

Apparently that kind of legal action just isn't part of god's greater plan.

Comments

[Zanti]

I know it's fashionable to predict a right-wing theocracy every time "religion" makes the news, but does anyone give even a moment's thought to how complicated that would be to pull off? So far, the Religious Right (hardly a single, united entity) has succeeded in making abortions difficult for women to get. And they've managed, in some instances, to get a watered-down version of Creationism into some public school systems. Wow. Send out the armies of the left, folks--the country's going down.

If this is as far as the revolution has gotten, maybe we should postpone our worries regarding the Church of the Religious Right. A church which 1) doesn't exist, and 2) which isn't likely to form anytime soon, given the thousands of competing belief systems on the Christian right. Even if it does come into being at some point, its existence would not make us a theocracy. After all, a theocracy is a very specific form of government and consists of way more than a mere state church.

The separation clause forbids the formation of a state church, and none is on the horizon as we speak. Logically, then, a theocracy is an even more remote possibility.

Why don't we worry about real-world issues, of which there are almost too many to list at the moment?

[CassandraPriam]

The repugs have stolen $$ Trillions from the US treasury.
The can well afford to bribe or threaten everyone into compliance.

[julieinoz]

I think I'm beginning to connect the dots. In something I read, Todd Palin said referred to a campaign going back a while to get his wife selected as VP candidate. At the time, I imagined a home-made web-site or something like that. Now I'm thinking maybe there's more history here. If so, I'd be fascinated to know more.

I also remember the fellow she defeated for mayor saying that her campaign was very ideological, and it sounded like there were lots of election materials on subjects such as abortion. As I don't think these would have been produced locally, where did they come from? Fascinating stuff.

I am an American who has lived in Australia since the 1970s, and this is the first US election that has totally hooked me. Please make a good choice! I have made sure I'm registered, as are my adult children who are entitled to vote.

[MajorKong]

Theocracy? You're soaking in it!

[athenasword]

Thanks for putting some light on this for me. I was curious about where her legal assistance was coming from. These people are willing to put big money into her....

[iyamchazz]

For sometime now there has been talk of a September surprise from the Republicans. Some speculated that McCain would cite health problems and drop out opening the way for a new candidate. Well, the surprise was Sarah and she was, it seems, being groomed assiduously to take up the mantle.

[athenasword]

I think she'd sink like a stone. Groomed and coached or not, she is so extreme that she's to the far right of most conservatives. Those who care about the economy, security and foreign relations may not support that.

[jcorrington]

Good article Nina!

[jeanrenoir]

A liberal peace candidate seems on the verge of winning in Israel. McCain-Palin look more like toast each day. Maybe there IS a providential God, after all, and maybe He's mad as hell at the abuse his self-righteous "servants" have heaped on both Israel and America, so his patience is gone and He's looking for a real Change.

[mommadona]

Big ol' Xena cry.
Call 'em out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gorn1AQWgw