Even though I was and still am a strong supporter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, I decided almost immediately after the election that I was not going to allow this blog to degenerate into a support site for Sarah Palin or any other politician.
In fact, I don't, unlike Lemuel Calhoun from Hillbilly White Trash even advocate that Palin run for President until 2016 unless things get so rotten over the course of the next two or three years almost any Republican could win in 2012, which at this stage would seem by no means improbable.
Still, I have to weight in every now and then, and recent events seem to scream out that this should be one of those times. Many Democratic activists and other such types would probably be inclined to snatch Sarah Palin up, along with her entire family, and toss them unceremoniously into the open, smoldering caldera of Mount Redoubt, while many Republicans might well be of a mind to view the recent eruptions of the volcano as some kind of heavenly sign that Sarah is indeed the annointed one. I have an attraction to that sort of symbolism, especially since Redoubt began its eruptions just two days following Oestra and coincided with the retrograde movements of Venus as it finally entered its conjunction phase with the Sun. As tempting as it is to view that as some kind of potential omen, I will try to keep things a bit more down to earth here.
Then again, this is a pagan owned and operated blog, so don't hold me to that too strongly, especially since the rumblings from Palin's opponents seem almost integrally tied to the hot, smoldering ash that has spewed fifty thousand miles into the sky, threatening the immediate environs and even the relatively nearby city of Anchorage.
Nor would I be the first to draw significance from this event. Note the following comment on the Huffington Post from Mojoman-
Governor Palin has issued an emergency order: All residents of Wasilla are required to mark the doorposts of their homes with Turkey blood. The Lord will then pass over their houses, Wasilla will be saved and Palin will be on teevee nonstop between now and the Rapture.
Of course, some of Palin's moves are questionable and worthy of criticism, and as such I would be the first to admit that I don't agree with her on every issue, such as her probable stance on embryonic stem cells, something I am going to go out on a limb and assume she is opposed to, or at least is opposed to federal funding of such research projects.
There is also something to be said for the concerns of the Inuit population of Alaska over her recent Attorney General appointment, who questions the constitutionality of federal laws giving priority to "native American" fishing and hunting rights. It doesn't really help his cause-or Palin's-that he recently referred to gays as "degenerates".
Somewhat more trivial is the recent ethics complaint against her, revolving around her appearance at a recent event during which she wore a shirt that featured the logo of husband Todd's snowmobile team, which according to blogger Celtic Diva amounts to a conflict of interest. Palin responded to this and a slew of similarly ludicrous ethics complaints.
The Alaska governor said last week she's accumulated more than half a million dollars for her defense against various complaints and may be forced to create a legal defense fund
"Yes, I wore Arctic Cat snow gear at an outdoor event, because it was cold outside, and by the way, today, I am wearing clothes bearing the names of Alaska artists, and a Glennallen Panthers basketball hoodie," Palin said in Tuesday's release. "I am a walking billboard for the team's fundraiser! Should I expect to see an ethics charge for wearing these, or the Carhartts I wear to many public events?"
Evidently, according to Celtic Diva, she should, regardless of whether there was or was not a quid pro quo involved in Palin's actions, because the Palin family benefits financially from the company.
Yet, it is not only Democrats who are giving Palin grief, but in fact the Republican Party, both the national party and those within her own state's legislatures, the latter of which are up in arms over Palin's stated intent to refuse as much as one-third of the promised federal stimulus package. From the Miami Herald article-
The scrap comes as the governor and legislative leaders are increasingly at odds over the federal stimulus funds. Palin announced last week that she was not accepting nearly a third of the money. But leading legislators seem to want nearly all of it, with Anchorage Republican Rep. Mike Hawker saying they are finding very few strings attached to the money.
Yeah, I'm sure they do. Evidently, the problem here is one of missed communications, at least on the surface. The real problem is, they just want the money, she would prefer to pass on some parts of it. Whatever the reasons, for good or bad, it is threatening a split in the state party between the legislative Republicans and the Governor, but then again that's nothing new. I've always told anybody who would listen that Palin is not an in-the-tank Republican apparatchik. It was mainly her own party she had to fight in reforming the Alaska state government. She certainly raised more than a few eyebrows when she took on the oil companies that had for years been so used to having the Alaska state legislature in its deep pockets. Kind of makes a logo on a shirt and a loudmouthed AG seem kind of trivial to me, however undeniably problematic they might be on a political level.
Yet, Palin would be well-advised to not fall into the trap of listening to the national Republican Party, when they accuse her of surrounding herself with a "Junior Varsity" team. In fact, if McCain had listened to Palin's team instead of other way around, the eelction might have turned out considerably different. The Christian Science Monitor probably put it best-
Right. Why would she surround herself with people who helped her topple an incumbent governor during the Republican primary two and a half years ago, then best a popular former two-time governor in the general election to become the youngest governor in the history of the state, not to mention the first female to have the job.
The best thing Sarah Palin could do, in my opinion, is resist whatever pressure she might face to fall in line with Republican strategists and national party leaders, who almost seem determined to insure a permanent minority status for their party. Well, why wouldn't they? There are perks that go with minority status, along with very limited responsibility.
Sarah Palin doesn't need to fall in line behind the expectations and manipulations of the National Republican Party. The National Republican Party needs to fall in line behind her. I'm afraid that its just too unrealistic to expect that is possible in a mere four years. By the time eight years comes and goes, however, it might well be the only chance the conservative movement has of resurrecting itself from the ashes as a relevant political entity.
