Foiled eBay Bidder Challenges Palin to $100,000 Dinner for Veterans’ Charities
22 09 2009[cross-posted at The Huffington Post]
Think of it as a second chance. Or a second course in the “Dinner with Sarah Palin” eBay auction that you thought was already history.
Here’s a quick recap for those of you who haven’t been playing along at home.
Sarah Palin decides to auction off dinner with herself with proceeds going to benefit the veterans’ charity Ride2Recovery. Nice.
Bidding ensues. The end of the auction nears, and one of the bidders is revealed as former Wall Street Executive Ken Morris (more on that later), and another is outed as author Joe McGinniss who is currently working on a book about Sarah Palin. As soon as his identity is revealed, he is no longer allowed to bid. He is cut off at $60,101.01, although he wanted to bid higher. No more bids allowed from him. Not so nice.
The winner of the auction is one Ms. Cathy Maples, an Alabaman, owner of a defense contracting company, self-described conservative, and big Sarah Palin fan.
Despite Ms. Maples claim on FOX & Friends that she was willing to raise her bid so that Palin “wouldn’t have to go through that” (meaning dinner with McGinniss), it’s likely that neither he, nor Morris would have passed the final test on the way to the dinner table, even if they had been the winning bidder.
The auction rules state in no uncertain terms that:
Governor Palin reserves the right to refuse dinner with a winning bidder if, in her sole discretion, the winning bidder is not a suitable bidder based on her subjective standards of suitability, professionalism, background and other factors. In the event the high bidder is rejected for this reason, the high bidder’s bid will be refunded, if paid, and the next highest bidder shall be notified, and thereafter, until a suitable match is determined.
Palin had no intention of sitting down and breaking bread with anyone who disagreed with her on anything. The whole idea of this rankled Morris who had hoped to engage in genuine substantive conversation with the ex-governor. There are those who would say he was already being optimistic in that regard. But be that as it may, Morris is prepared to make an offer; an offer he hopes the governor can’t refuse. Here’s his proposal.
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Dinner Part Two?
The “Dinner With Sarah Palin” eBay auction came and went with Ms. Cathy Maples, a grandmother who happens to be a military contractor, winning with a bid of $63,500. Good for her. That I participated is a good thing, even though I didn’t win. As there were only seven bidders, each of us played a role in advancing the final tally for the benefit of Ride2Recovery.
However, I remain concerned over issues I raised when earlier explaining my participation:
There exists an emotional divide in this country that I’ve not experienced since I attended the University of California near the end of the Vietnam War. While leaving scars that thickened the hearts of many from that era, the ending of the war allowed for a healing to begin. Painful, but now mostly a distant memory.
Today’s rancor, however, troubles me more profoundly. Why? Maybe it’s because I don’t see a catalyst—like the end to a tragic war—that will magically lead us to end this political divide. This period has more the odor of the Civil Rights debate that ripped apart the South during the administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson; a rift that has never been bridged.
How, I’ll ask Ms. Palin, can we work together (“we” meaning not just her and me, but all people on both sides of the political fence) to begin to fix this? I’ll ask her a few questions that might seem harsh, but aren’t intended to offend—after all, we must be honest, no? Do you regret saying several hundred times that our president “palled around with terrorists?” Do you really believe that providing health insurance to all Americans is socialism or fascism or Naziism, or that there are truly ‘death panels’ in these proposals? I’ll likely feel compelled to suggest that she doesn’t, in her heart of hearts, actually believe any of these things (if she does, then this will give her a chance to educate and win me over). In any event, doesn’t she think we should all tone down the rhetoric? Angry mobs and gun-toting advocates can’t be in anyone’s best interests.
As the auction never was designed to provide intellectual meat as its main course, I’d have either been turned down under the rules of engagement or disappointed in the discourse. However, ‘what-if’ notions continue to nag me. What if it were possible to have meaningful dialogue with this woman who leads her party? What if intelligent minds that happen to disagree could meet over dinner and explore political ideology?
In the great American spirit of never say die, here’s my challenge: I will donate $100,000 to veterans’ charities for a second dinner with Sarah Palin and four guests, this one on-the-record and taped so as to minimize misrepresentations. In the name of fair play, my list of invitees will include a subset of Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Thom Hartmann, Oprah Winfrey, James Carville, Randi Rhodes, Arianna Huffington, Frank Rich, Mudflats’ Jeanne Devon, Jane Hamsher and Shannyn Moore. On her side, Sarah Palin may invite guests as well (how about Bill Kristol and Glenn Beck?). The only additional conditions are that the dinner/event last the entire four hours and questions asked are answered and discussed civilly. No filibustering, no third party prompts, just face-to-face honesty. Hostility by any invitee will be cause for removal. No discussion of children, Vogue, Katie Couric, The Enquirer, or Levi Johnston permitted.
This could become a win/win for everyone: Sarah Palin gains political chops and has a launching pad for her ideas while dispelling suggestions that she fixed the first auction to avoid debate; progressives and conservatives finally gain an in-depth understanding of her intellect; and veterans’ charities benefit from some much-needed support..
As for me, I get to be an observer to one of the greatest meetings of the minds the twenty-first century has yet to assemble. Tres cool.
~Ken Morris
Ken Morris, a former Wall Street Executive turned novelist (financial thrillers Man in the Middle and The Deadly Trade), founded Morgan Stanley’s International Equity Department in the mid-1980’s. As a senior capital markets executive, he traveled the world and managed operations in New York, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney. His third novel, Evil Shall Break, is currently being shopped to New York publishers. Ken’s offer goes out to Ms. Palin sincerely and in the hopesdialogue might begin to replace rancor and name-calling.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:59 AM
“Just why did she pick China anyway?”
It’s all about secrecy and keeping real people from hearing what she has to say. Either that, or she’s got a witch-outing ceremony planned.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:02 AM
#46
BBHounds Says:
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Do you think she’ll still show up once she finds out about China’s view on late term abortions (just cuz you’ve already got one kid), and other human rights violations?
Just why did she pick China anyway?
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She’s bypassing Socialism and going straight to Communism for 400 in hopes of hitting the Daily Double.
Too bad she thinks she’s playing Jeopardy and winning.
She’s really just another contestant on Wheel-of-Fortune.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Dead silence from the *other* side on this one.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:29 AM
she didn’t pick China, murdoch picked, and she listens. This way, she’ll get her international experience so when she runs for potus, she’ll be able to tell the world she’s been to Hong Kong.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 AM
hehe…international experience!
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Really very simple about the Hong Kong visit and no media. She will use the same speech and the same material for each of her appearances for the big bucks.That is why media is verboten.
Still, you know there must be some techie out there that will smuggle in a microphone or micro camera.
She need only use one speech for her 1000 offers of speaking engagements, as she did for rabble raising in Florida and elsewhere.
Why waste an effort learning by rote more than one talk.
As far as the $100,000 offer. Even if accepted she could back out at any time. A million excuses out there for defaulting.
Perhaps she could come down with a convenient case of swine flu, then relapse into pneumonia, and respiratory problems, which means she won’t be able to speak at all.
Sorry, but….cough, cough I’m one of the 2nd wave of deadly swine flu victims.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Ken Morris, former high-flying Wall Street executive of Morgan Stanley.
Right. I trust him only slightly more than I trust Palin.
Mr. Morris, here’s my challenge to you: Take your $100,000 and give it quietly to the veteran’s charity. It probably belonged to them anyway (and the rest of us) considering how your fortune was probably made in the first place.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:02 PM
LEE323!!!! lol. ahahhahh, gurgle gurgle, sniff sniff. yep,yep.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 PM
dear ken, to hell with palin. give me $100,000 and i will prepare the dinner, entertain your guests and share the moolah with some deserving mudpups
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 PM
She doesn’t have the nerve to do that dinner.
Odds on — Never happen (even if it is for charity )
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams. WB Yeats
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:32 PM
That is my favorite poem and line of poetry. When things get too mad with Palin. Maybe we should all pull back, and think of something beautiful instead.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Good for you, Ken! I doubt SP will ever consider it though, but…miracles sometimes DO happen!
Here’s something to consider if SP does agree, make sure she has NO WIRES in her ears. SP needs to be ‘herself’, if she even knows who she is anymore.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Ohh, I really hope someone manages to get the whole thing recorded.
Maybe we haven’t seen her because she’s been studying trying to get ready for the big show.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Off topic a bit;
Just read,SCMP [South China Morning Post].
Palin will address CLSA about US Foreign Policyand the mainland.
Also a teaser. Palins brand of humour tends to travel well.
Hope you enjoy that one LOL.
Couldn’t find out more because you had to subscribe to the paper.
Unlike that sour looking woman from AL I wouldn’t spend a dime on her .
[Snark]
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Judging from Mr. Morris’s bio, (author, Morgan Stanley Executive, world travelor) Sarah Palin wouldn’t understand a word he said.
Palin knows as much about writing, economics, and the world as my cat does!
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:24 PM
Irishgirl @ #62: Yes, Yeats! And along those lines (pun intended), here’s an image to take you from your mind’s eye to a mind-boggling eyeful. Talk about perspective and importance in the grander scheme of things….
http://www.thelightisgreen.com/Hubble-eagle-nebula-wide-field-04086y.jpg
To Ken Morris: You are good…and diabolically good! Checkmate! I usually don’t read thrillers, but if you’re that skilled at plotlines, perhaps I’ll take a look
Evil Shall Break indeed! Or so we hope….
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:26 PM
AKM, Glenn Beck and Sarah will never face anyone for an intellectual civil debate.
I think she should be asked to bring with her, Rush Limbaugh, Mitchell Bauchman, Joe you lie Wilson, Hannity, Bill O, and all the ladies on fox news. Face to face.
May be she will take the offer. Otherwise, It is never going to happen.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Thanks Photonflower, I also think that Morris is diabolically good.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 PM
The fact that she will refuse says enough!
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:08 PM
I posted a diary at Daily Kos re the Morris challenge. The diary had a poll asking readers to choose (Yes or No) if she would accept the challenge and give an additional $100,000 for the troops she often speaks of also. Right now the vote is running 10-1 to her declining.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:11 PM
This sounds like the game of “If you could invite 5 people for dinner, living or dead, who would they be and why”. LOL
I think I’d add Teddie, Ike and RFK for experience and intellect and Bela Logosie (sp?) for the fun factor.
I love his guest list. Would that I were a mouse on the couch.
Alas it will never come to pass.
Love the poetry Irishgirl
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:31 PM
Night all.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 PM
You are right boodog@42. I guess Murdick is going to have to find a way to get her out of this jam. I hope Ken sticks it to them good. Need to quit trying to throw her in with the big boys. They bite and sometimes they don’t let go.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:59 PM
Will it be called The Ken and Barbie Dinner?
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:15 PM
good one zyggy!!
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:41 PM
OK – so what if Mudflatters added to the $100,000 offer for additional donations to sweeten the pot – but SP has to show. Is this idea already in the forum??
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:13 PM
Unfortunately, Mr. Morris, this divide is here to stay. And things will probably get much worse. The conservative movement only exists to ensure that government serves the wealthy and the needs of corporations, with the needs of the vast majority of everyone else as a secondary concern. 30 years of Reagan Republicanism have got us to this point. That is 30 years of quacking about a misconstrued understanding of free markets, 30 years of rolling back regulation after regulation to the benefit of business, 30 years of labor policies that shipped jobs overseas on a moments notice without providing a meaningful opportunity for those thrown out of work except the public dole. 30 years of selling the environment and the future quality of our children’s lives to the highest bidder.
But, what is worse is that the modern state of “journalism” is feeding the conservative beast. The right has it’s talking points which are at best based on facts manufactured in it’s own echo chamber of Fox news and limited other conservative sources. What is scary is that no thinking person in the main stream media challenges them, backs them down, makes them support in detail what they say. You know, like Cronkite and Brinkley used to do. Journalism is failing the masses because it’s nature is being changed from trusted news and fact, to an angry diatribe that at best is a weak form of entertainment. It is truly frightening that the opinion makers for a large swath of the populace are men in the middle of their lives with no education other than high school, whose biggest accomplishment in life prior to finding fame were careers as disc jockeys. To make matters worse, media outlets can now own more than one station in a given geography, which provided Rupert Murdoch, one of the wealthiest men in the world, to spread his conservative gospel. And he found the right marketing mix in people like Glenn Beck to make that happen.
But, the foregoing is only two-thirds of the conservative strategy. The conservative movement needs boots on the ground, people who will without question vote for it’s goals. And they found willing participants in the evangelical movement. Millions of people who’ve willfully replaced individual rational thought with a simple road map for life based singularly on a literal translation of the bible. They don’t seem to question that the bible is an ancient text, that it has been translated across many different languages, and that any original meaning of the stories has changed due to the political leanings of the translator. Does not matter. And in their minds I am a heretic who will burn in hell for just now pointing that out. I don’t see these people changing their political stripes. Moreover, I see many more joining their ranks out of the desperation caused by the economic hardship of these times.
So, I fear our world of the future will consist of an Ayn Rand nightmare of have’s and have nots, ruled by domionist leaders hell bent on bringing on the rapture. The haves will enjoy life and get wealthier off the backs of the have nots, who will willingly become cannon fodder for whatever culture the domionist leaders deem un-biblical. After all, Jesus must not love the have nots, or he’d of made em wealthy, right? The conservative media will squelch dissent. Within a generation our children’s education will be so watered down and full of biblical content they will be incapable of giving protest a thought.
No, the divide that exists in this country will get worse unless thinking people take on the source of conservative power- the radical evangelicals and the conservative media baron Rupert Murdoch. It is good to see our Latino neighbors organizing to push CNN into doing something drastic about Lou Dobbs. We Americans who have been here for a few generations could learn something from these newer citizens. I say Muy Bien to them for what they are doing!
Reduce the influence of Murdoch, and you render Palin a comical footnote in U.S. political history. Fail to do that, and within 10 years this country will become an intolerant dominionist theocracy that will consume the weak in order to make the wealthy, wealthier.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 PM
@BigSlick: I’m guessing QP is carefully not hearing about female infanticide (aka fourth trimester abortion). But also, too, also, this meeting is almost entirely expat financial services “blokes”, eh?
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:47 PM
78 strangelet Says:
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 PM
@BigSlick: I’m guessing QP is carefully not hearing about female infanticide (aka fourth trimester abortion). But also, too, also, this meeting is almost entirely expat financial services “blokes”, eh?
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Remember, China doesn’t count as part of God’s Kingdom since they are all godless atheists so to Queen Esther its the same as visiting a petting zoo.
Or a turkey farm.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:47 PM
I can’t help but wonder why bother? Why ask Sarah as if she has any answers? I agree this country is divided and it makes me sad too. I wonder if we are headed for a war with Blue vs Red instead of Blue vs Gray like last time. Frankly, I don’t think anything SP has to say on the subject would be of any worth.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:07 AM
I wonder if Sarah has figured out that by black balling people like Morris and Olbermann, both of whom were willing to bid much higher, that the bid she finally got – that by cooking the results and announcing openly – she just cost the vets group almost 50K.
Yes, Sarah we are laughing at you once again. For among other reasons your lack of logic, and foresight/thoughtyness has made you look foolish. Again.
But also in your desperate quest for attention you actually put youself on the 50% off table.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 AM
If I had 100K I would be overjoyed to have dinner with Morris and his guests.
Wow. For get the four hours limit. Just Wow.
September 23rd, 2009 at 3:28 AM
@BigSlick # 79
…so to Queen Esther its the same as visiting a petting zoo.
Or a turkey farm.
LMAO
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:26 PM
Basically, you can put a monkey in a dress and charge 100g to dine with her, but, when all is said and done, she’s STILL a monkey!
Sending love to the mudflatters from So.Cal.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:33 AM
[...] I will donate $100,000 to veterans’ charities for a second dinner with Sarah Palin and four guests, this one on-the-record and taped so as to minimize misrepresentations. In the name of fair play, my list of invitees will include a subset of Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Thom Hartmann, Oprah Winfrey, James Carville, Randi Rhodes, Arianna Huffington, Frank Rich, Mudflats’ Jeanne Devon, Jane Hamsher and Shannyn Moore. On her side, Sarah Palin may invite guests as well (how about Bill Kristol and Glenn Beck?). The only additional conditions are that the dinner/event last the entire four hours and questions asked are answered and discussed civilly. No filibustering, no third party prompts, just face-to-face honesty. Hostility by any invitee will be cause for removal. No discussion of children, Vogue, Katie Couric, The Enquirer, or Levi Johnston permitted. My reasons for such an offer are honorable and important. With the Supreme Court positioned to overturn campaign finance laws in the Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission case now before it, corporate contributions to federal elections will be unfettered. In other words, Sarah Palin with the help of an unlimited dose of corporate funds might one day be president. Already she has what appears to be a heady stable of influential supporters: Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, Bill Kristol, Lawrence Kudlow, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. In other words, I take her prospects seriously. And, as she has chosen to be a spokesperson for, as she says, ” American Main Street ,” it is vital that she come out from behind her handlers and speak on the record in unscripted fashion. We deserve to be enlightened by honest insights not merely prepared comments and pre-screened questions. [...]
September 25th, 2009 at 5:31 AM
[...] of never say die,” I proposed a more substantial offer for an on the record discussion. I will donate $100,000 to veterans’ charities for a second dinner with Sarah Palin and four guests, this one on-the-record and taped so as to [...]