It's rough when you're an attention addict, especially when you've gotten your first rush of media spotlight and it's left you craving for more. It can lead you to a round of on-camera celebrity mud wrestling: http://www.nbc.com/... , or the chance to eat a cockroach in front of an audience of millions:
The need for your next fame fix can drive you to place a fradulent 911 call and needle your child into lying to cover up your crime until he pukes in the middle of one of your interviews.
Or, you could quit your day job, post screeds equating giving people health care to "death panels" and write a tell-all score settling book so devoid from reality that people must speak out even when asked by their former boss not to do so.
One such person is former John McCain campaign staffer Nicolle Wallace. After McCain had to personally issue a statement shooting down Palin's claims that somehow the campaign billed her for the legal cost of her own vetting, Wallace gave this statement to The Rachel Maddow Show last night on the rest of Palin's book:
"I think she has probably a legitimate complaint that things could have been better conceived and executed. A book about that would have been painful but not entirely unfair. What she gets wrong is this personalization that [Steve] Schmidt and I were these lone villains -- and that took place entirely in her imagination. Just like the Obama and Clinton campaigns, we were consensus driven.... I think she fixated on me from very early on. She hated me from the beginning. I try not to take it personally, the fact is that she wrote a book based on fabrications. She gave a brilliant convention speech -- other interviews that inspired support. But this book is a bizarre fixation on things that everyone else has moved on from."
link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Bizarre fixation indeed. As Daily Kos blogger King One Eye points out, she's even denied her "pals around with terrorist" theme song and the McCain campaign's attack on ACORN. From her book:
"On the campaign trail many had been hesitant to talk about legitimate fears that Obama's past comments and associations with anti-capitalist radicals would influence his economic policy," Palin wrote. "The press gave the impression it was the wrong thing to do. I was 'going rogue" when I answered reporters' questions about candidate Obama's associations and pals. I wish we had talked more about them, and about Obama's close relationship with ACORN, the voter-fraud specialists. But we did not elaborate on any of that during the campaign."
link to King One Eye's diary - including the McCain campaign's ACORN attack ad - here: http://www.dailykos.com/...
But in the midst of all of the defensiveness, and finger pointing, and outright lying, there's one thing that's missing from Palin's book: any genuine policy ideas on how to fix the many problems the country is facing right now.
And that is what separates serious politicians wanting to participate in public service from the Richard Heene, reality-show-seeking crowd. So far Palin's made it pretty obvious which category she fits in.
Let's see how long it takes for the rest of the Republican base to catch on.
Update: From AnnetteK in the comments - yes, Palin actually lifted her "there's room for all of Alaska's creatures next to the mashed potatos" line from a billboard.
Link to pic here: http://breepalin.blogspot.com/...
Wow.
Update (2): Yes, the billboard appears to be an ad for Saskatoon, Canada...you know, the country that has the nazi socialist death panel big government health care: http://www.saynotocrack.com/...
Update (3): I blogged too soon. The billboard is actually for this restaurant: http://www.saskatoonrestaurant.com/ whose name and decor is inspired by the country of nazi socialist death panel big government health care.