Category: Sarah Palin

Greta Scooped Me, But That’s OK

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Greta Van Sustern’s exclusive interview with Gloria Cain is, on the one hand, great news for the Cain campaign, but on the other hand, an indication that Cain’s campaign team views TheOtherMcCain.com as less influential than Greta.

Months of Cain coverage did not earn me that scoop? I’m hurt.

But I understand: If I’m not good enough for BlogCon . . .

Never mind that now, though. The damage is done, and I have a duty to my readers, so I must overcome the humiliation of being scooped, suck it up and report the second-hand news:

Mrs. Cain strongly defends her husband against the allegations of sexual harassment.
“You hear the graphic allegations and we know that would have been something that’s totally disrespectful of her as a woman. And I know the type of person he is. He totally respects women.”
“I’m thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said,” according to Mrs. Cain.

I’d like to provide you with an advanced transcript of tonight’s interview, or photos or something, but Team Cain is probably busy supplying that kind of exclusive stuff to really important blogs.  But here’s something — a poll at Greta Wire asks, “Who in the list below is most likely to get endorsed by Governor Sarah Palin?” The results as of 10 a.m. today:

You should go vote right now.

Remember: Sarah Palin endorsed Doug Hoffman; Newt endorsed Dede. So the idea that Palin would endorse Newt — who went on Fox News again and again in October 2009 trying to counteract Palin’s influence — seems wildly improbable to me. Newt was an Active Agent of Evil in NY-23. It was not until after Dede quit and endorsed the Democrat that Newt expressed even the mildest regret for his constant shilling for that vicious backstabbing RINO crapweasel.

Top Rubio Staffer Reportedly Pushed for Early Florida Primary to Help Romney

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* * * UPDATE OCT. 14 * * *

Marco Rubio Denies His Office
Influenced Florida Primary Date

PREVIOUSLY (OCT. 13)
* * * EXCLUSIVE * * *

When Florida defied Republican National Committee rules to move the state’s 2012 presidential primary from an RNC-approved March date to Jan. 31, conservatives immediately suspected that state party insiders had orchestrated the move to help former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney thwart the momentum of Tea Party-backed candidate Herman Cain. Some Florida activists focused their suspicion on moderates in state party leadership — allies of Senate candidate George LeMieux and of former Gov. Charlie Crist — as orchestrating the change in the primary date. The move was seen as helping the centrist Romney, whose superior fund-raising resources would enable him to score an early knockout in the Sunshine State before Cain could fully leverage the boost he got from an upset victory in a Sept. 24 Florida GOP straw poll.

Yet while the moderate Republican faction in Tallahassee was immediately blamed for the primary date-switch, only insiders knew that a key factor was a push from inside the staff of the Tea Party’s own 2010 hero, Sen. Marco Rubio. GOP sources in Washington and Florida say that Rubio’s senatorial chief of staff, Cesar Conda, has been a major force in persuading Florida Republicans to move their primary to January.

“Cesar used to be with Romney’s campaign,” one informed source explained to me in an interview today, adding: “Conda used his contacts to push the primary to the 31st because they want Romney in.”

Conda’s loyalty to Romney was highlighted in a Politico story by Scott Wong last week: “At least six past and current Rubio Senate aides, including chief of staff Cesar Conda and his deputy, Terry Sullivan, worked for Romney’s 2008 presidential bid, establishing a direct link and a line of communication between the front-runner for the 2012 GOP nomination and the front-runner in the Republican veepstakes. There’s also a trail of fundraisers, donors and consultants who have overlapping relationships with Rubio and Romney.”

In a March 2010 column for National Review, Conda defended the so-called “RomneyCare” Massachusetts health insurance program. A former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, Conda was originally an ally of Crist, as the St. Petersburg Times noted when Conda was picked as Rubio’s chief of chief in January 2011:

Like many Republicans, Conda once thought Charlie Crist would be the next senator but later distanced himself from the former Florida governor, saying he lacked conservative credentials.
Conda has worked as a lobbyist and analyst for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and founded the Washington office of Navigators, a lobbying/consulting firm where another top Rubio adviser, Todd Harris, also worked.
The firm’s clients included GlaxoSmithKline, At&T, Visa and Citigroup, which got $45 billion under the bank bailout.

Some have speculated that, by delivering Florida for Romney, Conda would not only help Romney lock up the 2012 presidential nomination, but also secure the 2012 vice-presidential pick for Rubio.

It was Rubio’s underdog campaign that helped spark Tea Party activism in Florida and across the nation. Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer and National Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) conspired to “fix” the 2010 Senate primary in Florida with a May 2009 endorsement of the moderate Crist. At that point leading Rubio by more than 30 points in polls, Crist was seen as the safe bet in Florida’s Senate race. But the Greer/Cornyn endorsement backfired, as conservatives pointed out Crist’s embrace of President Obama’s deficit-spending “stimulus” agenda and denounced the effort by party insiders to determine the Republican candidate 15 months ahead of the August 2010 primary. The newly aroused Tea Party movement made Rubio their hero. Crist, overwhelmed by the conservative rally for Rubio, quit the GOP to launch a doomed third-party Senate race. Crist’s ally Greer resigned in disgrace and is now under criminal indictment for corruption charges.

Reports that Rubio — or at least Rubio’s top aides — are working behind the scenes for Romney, who is seen as representing the RINO (“Republican In Name Only”) moderate wing of the party, will be a bitter disappointment for conservatives who supported Rubio’s insurgent campaign last year. Many Tea Party activists who backed Rubio against Crist in the 2010 primary are now supporting Cain, the conservative Atlanta businessman who has surged to the front of the the Republican presidential pack in the past three weeks.

Cain’s candidacy got a boost not only from his Sept. 24 straw-poll win, but also from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s announcement last week that she would not seek the White House in 2012. In an appearance on  Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News Channel program to discuss her decision, Palin singled out Cain for praise, saying she was “intrigued” and “impressed” with Cain’s “business acumen” and “up by the bootstraps” success.

The latest Rasmussen poll shows Cain tied with Romney nationally. Recent polls by Public Policy Polling and NBC/Wall Street Journal show Cain now leading Romney, and within 3 points of the longtime GOP frontrunner in the influential Real Clear Politics poll average. Meanwhile, a new poll of likely Florida Republican primary voters shows Cain now at 34% to Romney’s 28%, with former frontrunner Texas Gov. Rick Perry falling to a distant fourth at 5%, behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was third with 11%.

— Robert Stacy McCain




 

UPDATE: Linked at Fire Andrea Mitchell — thanks!

UPDATE II: Michelle Malkin on Twitter:

UPDATE III: Headline from The Washington Post:

Mitt Romney attracts new support as donors
and elected officials coalesce behind him

Hmmm. Kinda like how the Establishment lined up behind Dede Scozzafava, isn’t it? And Herman Cain is Doug Hoffman in that analogy.

UPDATE IV: “Say it ain’t so, Marco.”

UPDATE V: “Rubio, Rubio! Wherefore art thou Rubio?”

UPDATE VI: Linked by Finrod at Red State — thanks! — and Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints, who wonders if Rubio is “crossing over to the Dark Side?”

UPDATE VII: Linked by Maggie’s Notebook — thanks! — and Da Tech Guy sees Team Romney replicating the errors of Team Coakley. Meanwhile, getting linked by Allahpundit at Hot Air inspired me to leave this comment:

If this, indeed, an effort to secure Rubio’s slot as running-mate for Romney, has anybody else noticed that (a) Herman Cain’s top campaign staffers are from Wisconsin and (b) Paul Ryan praised the 9-9-9 plan today?
IYKWIMAITYD.

PREVIOUSLY:


What Cynthia Said

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by Smitty

OK, I don’t necessarily agree with the presumption that BHO attains re-election:

With regard to Gov. Palin, I do hope she sets her sights on running for president in 2016 to succeed Obama. When Gov. Palin spoke on Sept. 3 to a Tea Party audience in Indianola, Iowa, she laid out the most positive and practical path for restoring America to prosperity of any of the candidates. She has the ability to make people believe in themselves and their ability to overcome their greatest challenges, which is not only required for a nation to prosper but also is the most powerful cure for the pathological desire to depend on the government to solve every problem. If she does what she has to do to overcome the objections that establishment Republicans had to her candidacy this time around, she is exactly the person most capable of cleaning up the mess that Obama will leave.

However, the potential for BHO to retain power should be used freely to nudge the slackers into participation.

BLAME ME!

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Rejection is painful, and I’m sure that Sarah Palin’s supporters blame themselves for her decision not to run. But don’t blame yourself and don’t blame Sarah — it was all my fault.

Mea culpa. Mea magna culpa.

Don’t ask why or how I was personally responsible for Sarah Palin not running for president. Don’t torture me into confessing my myriad personal failures and my sins — both of commission and omission — which caused her to reject your pleas that she run for president.

It doesn’t matter. I wanted her to run for president and she didn’t. If I had been good enough to deserve it, she would have said “yes.”

The failure is mine alone. Make me your scapegoat, and absolve yourself of any worry that you did anything wrong. All I ask in return is that you do me one favor, and read my column in The American Spectator:

Michelle McCormick was “working on a hellacious bar tab” in Clive, Iowa, when I called her Wednesday evening to get her reaction to the announcement that Sarah Palin will not run for president. McCormick has spent months in Iowa as a volunteer leader of the grassroots group Organize4Palin, and had every right to be bitter about the long waiting game that led up to Palin’s  final “no.” Yet the 28-year-old Texan was cheerfully drinking away her disappointment and still full of praise for the former Alaska governor who inspired her.
“I keep telling people, no regrets,” said McCormick, who left her job and moved to Iowa to work without pay on Palin’s behalf. “I’ve had so much fun doing this — the people that I’ve met and good friendships I’ve made — I would not trade that for anything. Shoot — I got to meet Sarah Palin a couple of times. Man, that was awesome…. We still respect Governor Palin and respect her decision.… I will always respect Sarah Palin. Next to my mom, she’s one of my  biggest role models. I’ve had a wonderful journey doing this.”
If McCormick did not fault Palin for the drawn-out “will she or won’t she” drama that continued all summer and into October, why should anyone else? Yet Palin’s announcement was an occasion for some to mock diehard supporters  like McCormick. . . .

Read the whole thing, please.

But if you don’t, I’ll blame myself for that, too.

It’s all my fault. Because I suck.

SARAH PALIN WILL NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT, SHE TELLS MARK LEVIN

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Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin broke the news that she will not be a candidate in 2012 on Mark Levin’s nationally syndicated radio show, Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator reports:

Palin acknowledged the disappointment of her supporters (Matt Drudge  e-mailed to say it was a “sad day”) but said the decision had been reached “prayerfully.”

UPDATE: Her e-mail at Mark Levin’s Web site:

October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.
My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.
I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.
Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.
In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.
Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!
God bless America.
– Sarah Palin

UPDATE II: Memeorandum thread.

UPDATE III: Allahpundit’s happy. But you expected that, right?

Just got off the phone with Michelle McCormick of Organize4Palin, who is in a bar in Clive, Iowa, working up a big bar tab. McCormick says she has “no regrets” about spending months trying to build a grassroots campaign for Palin, and says she will “always have respect for Governor Palin.”

Meanwhile, I just got deadline assignment . . .

UPDATE IV: Lonely Con: “Nicolle Wallace must be so disappointed.” Yeah, and now there’s nothing to stop Palin from suing Joe McGinniss.

UPDATE V (Smitty) 20:09: Here I go,

Veering in the direction of Allahpundit, we can all start working on concession speech suggestions for this year’s Dole/McCain stand-in.

Less snarkily, remember people: it’s the platform, not the candidate. Let’s not go all reverse-Alinsky and overly personalize things. Even His Newtness would be an improvement over the current POTUS, were Gingrich to secure the nomination. Enthusiasm is a fine luxury, but if you’re into politics merely for the hormonal rush, your attention is drawn to a Lady GaGa concert.

UPDATE VI (Smitty) 20:18: Bob Belvedere has a reasonable take:

Needless to say, I’m very disappointed…and very worried because none of the other announced candidates fully understands what bad shape we are in.

Well, maybe, but then the task falls to the Tea Parties to inform them.

UPDATE VII (Smitty) 20:53: A Point of View lists 67 pundits who are not, like me, eating crow.

Prediction Update: Your Next Six Weeks

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by Smitty

Back in July, before Solyndra, I ‘boldly’ predicted that BHO wouldn’t complete the term, or run for re-election, for that matter. Now, watch the near-term future unfold. As the USS Obama capsizes and works on its submarine impression, the Left, casting about for someone, anyone, who is both

  • reliable, in the sense that they can be counted upon to maintain the Progressive status quo, and
  • has enough name recognition to run for President, and
  • is a big enough megalomaniac for the task.

I know, you think I’m going to say ‘Dennis Kucinich’, but really: we mean Hillary here, don’t we? The question is when?

Peering into my crystal bollocks, I don’t see how the administration survives the mounting tsunami of crap past the end of this month. So, I’m saying that, by 01 November, Silent Hillary shall have been identified as the Great White Democrat Hope. Literary allusion hyperlink provided in advance to deflect accusations of raaaaacism and anti-fat chick bias with that might come from a snarky sharky reference.

At that point, Sarah Palin’s hesitation to declare a run comes into focus. Once BHO is out of the picture, she cannot be used as an Alinsky focus to distract from BHO’s implosion. In 2008, the “If you do not vote for X, you are Y” argument featured X=BHO, and Y=raaaaacist. For 2012, X=Hillary, Y=misogynist. The Democrat party, itself, threw Hillary under the bus in 2008, knows that crowds never remember. Alas, the internet never forgets. The old Democrat playbook, never founded upon liberty, looks to be given about one last try next year.

Once Hillary and surprise running mate Morgan Freeman deploy to combat the Tea Party insurgency, Sarah becomes the obvious response. On 13 November, 32 years to the day after Ronald Reagan’s announcement, Sarah announces her candidacy, and let the various election laws fall where they may. Thus, American politics achieves the perverse result of whoever having the lesser negatives winning the election.

Let the Palinistas not take the previous sentence as some subtle swipe. I admire Sarah fully; she has weathered an unrelenting hail of ugliness from the Left. So, too, has Hillary for that matter. One cannot fail to give credit where due: Hillary is a sharp, determined lady who also endured a lot of cheap shots (including mine), and has successfully avoided punching Bill’s ticket for a saintly length of time.

The point I’m getting at is that our entire system of self-governance is in jeopardy if any election can be reduced to “If you do not vote for X, you are Y” arguments. Self-governance is a tax on your time. You have to invest a ‘reasonable’ amount of time, not so much in fretting every detail, but in ensuring that the leaders to whom you’re delegating your political power are supporting liberty. Otherwise, the EPA is going to take your breath away, like the KKK took your baby. Aside: the Presidential Seal behind the drummer is not ironic. The Ramones were conservatives!

And, if neither lady actually steps up to the plate, I can’t say I blame them. While proudly a pro-Constitutional American, I am so thoroughly anti-Progressive that dealing with the pile of hooey our government has become seems an exercise in futility. Many in politics may be driven by megalomania; I myself would need a mile-wide martyr complex even to try. Better still to stand in the peanut gallery and offer full-spectrum support to somebody else more suitable to task.

That is my prediction. Should it come to pass, I will extract the price of a cup of coffee from Stacy McCain. If it does not, I’ll post a picture of some edible crow. Stacy McCain is a serious journalist frequently masquerading as kibitzer here on the blog. As a serious journalist, he despises prediction pieces like this one. Something about a lack of facts, I suppose. I, on the other hand, am a kibitzer with few pretensions of serious journalism. I’d say ‘no pretensions’, but I’m anxious not to mislead.

At any rate, off to church to thank the Almighty for a safe return, a healthy son, and the certainty that we shall recover the country from this sad pack of jackwagons.

Update: linked by both Don Surber and Daily Pundit.

Update II: picked up by Fishersville Mike.

Update III: follow on thoughts at Common Sense Political Thought, who takes an internal view of BHO vis-a-vis LBJ and figures that BHO will not go gently into that political night.

The thesis of this post is that this administration has crossed the red line, between Solyndra and Operation Gunrunner. BHO’s monumental ego will be of academic interest as the sane remainder of the Democrat party tries to figure out how to preserve something past next years’ election.

No, Sarah Palin Did Not Call Herman Cain ‘Herb’ and Did Not Put Him Down
UPDATE: Why Doesn’t the Fox News Transcript Match the Politico Video?

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Somebody told me that Herman Cain was asked about this on CBS News and said Governor Palin was “wrong,” evidently based on media reports. But let’s go to the transcript, shall we?

VAN SUSTEREN: How does, though, a politician, though, connect with the people and get it across so it doesn’t just sound like more like, Blah, blah, blah? When the politician gets up on the air, probably many of us can sort of mouth the answers for the politician because we know these people for better, for worse, so well, and that they’re going to say. It’s quite predictable.
But how does a politician actually connect with someone in the heartland, for instance?
PALIN: That’s a great question. I think what helps is for that politician is to have a foundation of having come from the real people of America, the working class, those who make up the majority of Americans who are so extremely concerned about the direction of our country.
Take Herman Cain. Look at why he’s doing so well right now. He’s, I guess you could say, with all due respect, the flavor of the week because Herman Cain is the one up there who doesn’t look like he’s part of that permanent political class. Herman Cain — he came from a working class family. He’s had to make it on his own all these years. We respect that.
That has an automatic connection with the electorate, where we say, We can relate to him, he knows the issues, the problems that we face every day, and he’s determined to do something about it. He’s not elite. He doesn’t seem to allow us to be disenchanted with what it is that he’s proposing because what he proposes in terms of solutions, Greta, for our economy, are based on time-tested truths and common sense and true economic principles that will work.
So Herman Cain is a good example of a connection with the voters and why his message, good messenger, he’s resonating with the people.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it’s sort of interesting about — you know, in watching the straw poll votes in Florida that you were talking about, Herman Cain winning by — he trounced, basically, Governor Perry and Governor Romney, the two supposed front-runners — is that the media was so shocked, that they seemed so surprised. And I’m sort of curious as to what extent, you know, the media doesn’t really go out and talk to the American people. And you know, I wonder if people — if the people watching it from the heartland, if they were surprised that he won in Florida.
PALIN: We are not surprised that he, as a messenger of common-sense conservative pro-U.S. Constitution principles, is doing well. Many of the elites in the media were shocked.
And you know, I think it’s kind of humorous to see the way that the media is covering these candidates. Let me give you an example of this. Earlier today, Greta, on Fox News, you had a host who said Sarah Palin in the polls, she’s way, way down there in the polls. And I’m kind of scratching my head, going, Wait a minute. On another network, on CNN just the other day, they showed a poll where I was, like, within 5 points of President Obama. I was doing well, much better than many of the other candidates.
And I’m thinking all this misinformation and contradictory information, contradicting information from even hosts here on this network itself, it adds to, I guess, the disconnect even — not just the permanent political class, but many in the media also because sometimes, they don’t do their homework. And many times, a host or a reporter, they have their own agenda and they interject their agenda in the information they’re providing their viewers and readers.
So didn’t surprise me or many of us that Herman Cain was doing well, but certainly surprised many in the media because sometimes they don’t do their homework and they do perpetuate misinformation.

Well, Politico tried to “perpetuate misinformation” and between Slate’s Dave Weigel and Hot Air’s Tina Korbe, this gets turned into a kerfuffle. Read the freakin’ transcript: While Palin did say Cain was “flavor of the week” — that is to say, from the media perspective he’s the Next New Thing — she followed that with effusive praise for him as representing “the real people of America,” with whom he has an “automatic connection.” 

Sarah Palin has always been a Herman Cain fan, and is still a Herman Cain fan. I’d have to look it up, but earlier this year, she re-Tweeted one of Cain’s columns. The media are trying to gin up a phony controversy — “Let’s you and him fight,” as they say down home — and the last thing Cain should do is to believe what the media say about Sarah Palin. They’re “makin’ up stuff” again!

See also: “Politics as Show Biz.”

UPDATE: Wait a minute — there is a discrepancy between the transcript and this video:

Something’s screwy: Is the Fox transcription wrong? Did Politico edit the video? What?

‘Discovery Is a Bitch,’ as They Say, and Doug Mataconis Is …

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. . . well, he’s badly mistaken, in my opinion, because if I called him an “obnoxious a–hole,” he might sic his lawyers on me. Truth is the ultimate defense in such cases, of course, but his apparent prejudice against Sarah Palin seems to be clouding his judgment.

Now, let’s count the weasel words: “in my opinion” Mataconis is sadly mistaken, and calling him an “obnoxious a–hole” is merely suggested as a hypothetical. I say he “might sic his lawyers on me,” but the “might” relieves me of having to prove that Mataconis is a litigious pest who files nuisance suits at the drop of a hat. (An assertion I have not made.) His “prejudice,” I describe as merely “apparent” — he certainly gives the appearance of being prejudiced against Palin — and it only “seems” that his judgment is clouded by this.

You see? Long years of practice at avoiding libel come in handy at a time like this, so that if Mataconis accuses me of calling him an “obnoxious a–hole,” it would be him who has defamed me.

OK, so I spent about two hours working on a long item at The American Spectator about Sarah Palin’s potential defamation case against Random House. And then Mataconis pops up on Twitter derogating my work, as if he were indeed an obnoxious a–hole.

It is not my habit to engage in arguments 140 characters at a time, when I might as well get a blog post of it. My American Spectator item was written in response to a column today by David Magee:

But here’s the problem with suing [Joe] McGinnis and the publisher: Palin would have to prove that the allegations in the book are all lies if she proceeded with a lawsuit.
She’s a public figure — considerably so — and it’s hard to prove libel when you are in the public eye in the first place. . . .
She would have to clear her name completely.

And here’s what I wrote at The American Spectator:

This is absurd. If the Palins do sue, their suit will specify defamatory statements in McGinniss’s book that they believe they can prove false. They do not have to prove every allegation false, nor would Sarah “have to clear her name completely.” Only evidence and testimony relevant to those disputed allegations will be admissible, and so there is no basis for Magee’s assertion that Palin would have to address every lurid claim in the McGinniss book.

What Magee (and Mataconis) are thinking about is the old legal axiom, “Discovery is a bitch.” Before you sue someone for defamation, you have to think about what evidence the defense might be able to demand you, as the plaintiff, produce in the discovery phase of the suit. But they can only demand evidence that might be relevant to the truth of a statement that you have claimed is false and defamatory.

So if Palin’s suit doesn’t dispute, for example, McGinniss’s cocaine-and-adultery tales, then Random House can’t go on a fishing expedition in that area. Assuming that her suit would be very specific about which statements she disputed — cherry-picking those most easily proven false — then the “discovery is a bitch” factor would be no deterrent to suing.

Certainly her lawyers would advise her very carefully in such a matter, and they might even advise her against suing. But if she does sue, she need not “clear her name completely” or prove herself a virtuous Saint Sarah in order to prevail. If she exposes McGinniss as having published multiple lies, she destroys his credibility even as to the truth of accusations that she does not specifically dispute. McGinniss’s e-mail to Jesse Griffin appears very damaging to Random House, and the letter Palin’s lawyer sent to Random House suggests a suspicion that there may be other e-mails equally damaging.

And as I have repeatedly said, McGinniss’s known association with Griffin is damaging. In my item at The American Spectator, I call Griffin a “lying pervert” — without fear of libel. It is an objective fact that Griffin lied about his “exclusive” that Palins were divorcing. (More than two years later, they’re still married.) So there’s your “lying” and as for the “pervert,” permit me to remind you:

“You know the reason that many people enjoy adult movies is that it is sexy to watch people making love. . . . I think that this trend toward real people having real sex is definitely the way to go. I always had a little guilt watching an adult movie and wondering if the female performer was a drug addict, or victim of molestation, just prostituting herself to make a buck. I am not Jewish, so guilt and sex don’t really go together for me. But when you see a video of an amateur couple having sex you can tell that they are simply doing it for the sheer excitement of sharing their passion with a bunch of middle aged pervs who are going to wank off to their sexual exploits. Well great here comes that guilt again.”
— “Gryphen,” a/k/a Jesse Griffin, June 3, 2007

“Yes I DO work in a Kindergarten class during the school year. My main job affords me some time during the day and I have chosen to use it teaching children to read, and helping them to become more independent.”
— “Gryphen,” a/k/a Jesse Griffin, Aug. 2, 2009

“Having somebody reveal your “secret identity” can be a little unsettling . . .”
— “Gryphen,” A/K/A, Jesse Griffin, Aug. 4, 2009

“All of the fun of sex is drained by making all of these rules and labels. If sex is not naughty then it is almost not worth doing. I love kids, but in my opinion they are just a side effect of a healthy sex life.”
— Gryphen,” a/k/a Jesse Griffin, June 14, 2007

“And your penis will respond more readily if you take it out and put it through its paces more often. Duh! So the next time your girlfriend/wife/mother bust you for watching porn on your computer, simply tell her that you are exercising and you would appreciate some privacy.”
— “Gryphen,” a/k/a Jesse Griffin, July 7, 2008

“That’s right I am promoting self pleasure. Does that really surprise anybody?”
— Gryphen,” a/k/a Jesse Griffin, Oct. 17, 2007

“I do it because it brings me joy to work with these children and I believe, and have been told, that I am very good at it . . .
“[Y]ou now know my dirty little secret. I am an assistant teacher in a room full of five year old children. . . .”
— Gryphen,” a/k/a Jesse Griffin, Aug. 2, 2009

“I am teaching my boys to wear dresses and swish when they walk because being ignorant or drug addicted is no longer a guarantee of being passed over. If your not willing to suck cock then pack up your going to Iraq.”
— “Gryphen,” a/k/a Jesse Griffin, June 10, 2005

It seems Griffin has attempted to scrub his archives, but Dan Riehl still has all the cache files of the “Gryphen” blog he downloaded back when Jesse was forced out of his kindergarten job. The fact that McGinniss turned to Griffin for help in vetting his “tawdry gossip” is just about all you need to know about what kind of journalism McGinniss was doing.

If I were a Random House executive, I’d be very worried right now.

And if I were an oxnoxious a–hole . . . well, let’s don’t talk about Doug Mataconis. He might sic his lawyers on us.