Now, only an ex-Governor, with lipstick

By J. Thomas Duffy

So much for a quiet, pre-holiday day.

Who woulda' thunk it?

Something actually knocked the MichaelJacksonPalooza off the air, it was was none other than Mommy Moose, The Wasilla Wiz Kid, that Hockey-Mom-with-Lipstick, Stumblin-Bumblin' John McCain's former scene-stealer, Sarah Palin.

She's not quitting, she's just ... Well ... Quitting ....

Ms. Ya'Bet'cha's is bailing out of the Alaskan Governorship, mid-way through, to go on and fight for something vague and unnamed, but with all her heart

If life is 33RPM, Mommy Moose was pitched at 78RPM, and, it must be in the new 2009 PartyofNoican's Playbook, after Governor Gaucho displayed it last week, that you must be almost frantically rambling when giving a press conference ... Cool-and-Calm is out, coked-up speed freak is in.

And, check out the way The Wasilla Whiz Kid was gulping air through out the speech;

Sarah Palin Announces Resignation as Governor, Part 1



Sarah Palin Announces Resignation as Governor, Part 2



(You can read a transcript HERE)

I half expected to see the, now-unemployed team of the Unconvicted Child Molester's docs come running on the scene, offering their services, or someone, slapping an oxygen mask on her.

And, at the end of Part 2, notice, when the camera pans, there's like, a dozen people there, perhaps only close friends and family, not a sea of torch-carrying Alaskans, ready to march into that vague, unnamed fight, with the former Hockey Mom.

Geez, ya think Mommy Moose, or someone on her staff, would have tied in a product placement with Verizon, so they could CGI in the throngs of people standing by the geeky guy, always affirming "you're covered", to avoid looking like the "before Dead Zone"

If you want, there's a zillion posts out on Memeorandum that you can click through, while we highlight a few here.

It's only Act I, of a multiple act play, so no telling what this is all about today, the sudden, abrupt ditching of the Governor digs.

The Right Wing Freak Show is beginning to rally around that this is the cannon shot for 2012.



Here, we go with the smaller number of hands raised, betting on ....

New Scandal!

On Firedoglake, bmaz was the first to hint at it, followed closely by Brad Friedman;

EXCLUSIVE: PALIN RESIGNS AS 'DAMAGE CONTROL' DUE TO 'ICEBERG SCANDAL', SAYS ALASKAN SOURCE ... UPDATE: Shannyn Moore offers The BRAD BLOG hints about reasons for Alaska Gov's resignation...

UPDATE: Alaskan Sarah Palin authority (and occasional BRAD BLOG guest blogger) Shannyn Moore, who broke the news at HuffPo today, tells me she believes, with good reason, that there is an "iceberg scandal that's about to break. She's doing damage control."

She says Palin is "resigning as part of damage control" due to a scandal this is "not of a family nature."

"The governor would not be able to continue her job when it comes out," she told me on the phone just now, before adding: "Why would Mark Sanford not resign, but Sarah Palin did? Her family didn't even know about the resignation until they were standing with her by the lake" when she made her announcement.

Yes. It seems another shoe, apparently a big one, will indeed be dropping, likely within the next week or so. Perhaps earlier now that everyone will be poking around up there.

Max Blumenthal goes into a bit of detail in his "Did a Scandal Sink the U.S.S. Palin?"

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.

SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin's snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice's Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few "buddies," according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

And we have to give Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo points, for his headline "if the jimmy choo fits, the other one's about to drop"

With the summer here, Congress out-of-session, beaches brimming with vacationers, Mommy Moose has put down her marker, almost guaranteeing her ownership of the media (save for the on-going Jackson Family dragging things out to pump the record and video sales; H/T to Barry Crimmins).

And it's Jonathan Turley that rings up that feeling quite well;

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has announced that she will resign from office on July 26th. The news has led bloggers and comedians to breath into paper bags and use emergency dial-ins for their analysts across the country. Palin has been God’s gift to bloggers, including this blog. But fear not, this announcement may actually promise more not less Palin!

Yes, just what this country needs - More of Sarah Palin.

Hmmm ....

We do have a Poet Laureate, so, perhaps, Mommy Moose is carving out the "Jester Laureate" for herself.

Hell, by her news conference today, your guess is as good as mine ...




(Cross Posted at The Garlic)

Debate Results ... The Flintstones vs. The Jetsons Part II

By J. Thomas Duffy

Just a quick riff while the iron is hot.

Well, the worry at the VP Debate was the Wasilla Whiz Kid getting off the stage alive - figuratively

Tonight, there were clenched teeth, and fingernails dug into armchairs, just watching Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain walk around the stage and getting off it alive - literally.

I gotta think the odds boards in Vegas saw frantic action and heavy betting, on whether or not McCain would still be standing - and breathing - at the end.

And he wanted 10 of these things?

Jesus, by the third, he'd have a four-post walker, and, I'd say, by the fifth or sixth, it would be something from The Scooter Store.

And, this was a townhall, allegedly McCain's strength, his groove, his touchstone?

He wandered around the stage, like the befuddled Uncle that comes for Holiday dinner, that nobody really wants there, and spends most of the day not giving him much attention, yet he keeps injecting himself into the conversation, bad jokes and all.

For the record, the Dead Campaign Express Commander chucked up (by our count);

• 19 "My Friends"
• 2 "With a steady hand at the tiller
• 1 That shout-out to the DC Comic base, the League of Democracies

And, while Obama offered up Warren Buffet as a potential Treasury Secretary in his administration, Fly Boy suggested one of his advisors, Meg Whitman, founder of eBay, who announced today they will be laying off 1,000+ persons.

You want news?

Mommy Moose's mentor offered up a startling new policy agenda item.

He wants to do his version of Phil Rizutto and "The Money Store", saying he, as President, will buy up all the bad mortgages, and renegotiate the mortgages.

Say What?

This isn't, or wouldn't be, part of the already concluded $700 Billion heist by Hank Paulson and the Bush Grindhouse

This new "The McCain Money Store" would be on top of it.

Yet, he smears Obama, blaming him for Fannie and Freddy, and continues his Old-Man-Shaking-Fist-at-Clouds shrieking about Earmarks.

And there was the harsh, heavy-handed, dripping with contempt "THAT ONE", pointing (but not looking ) at Obama, telling an Obama vote on a bill, loaded with ... You guessed it - EARMARKS!

It probably (but not definitively) had less to do with something racial and a lot more to do with that befuddled Uncle reference above becoming very animated for a fleeting moment.

Early post-debate chatter has been that the snap and dial polls show Obama winning, by sizable margins.

The Talking Heads are all but saying he was the befuddled Uncle out there tonight, and questioning the strategy, after four-days of the Dead Campaign Express calling Obama a terrorist and a liar about supporting and befriending terrorists, Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnnie never raised it or attacked Obama on character.

The loud, collective sigh you may have heard at the end of the debate was the Rove Rats, resigning themselves, they're going to have to go and purchase a whole lot more kitchen sinks to toss at Obama.

And they'll be cutting Fly Boy loose, putting Mommy Moose's signature and logo on them.

More tomorrow, after the transcripts come out



(Cross Posted at The Garlic)