The only thing more humiliating than a public figure’s gargantuan screwup-by-retweet (see above) is an alert citizen grabbing a screen shot of it before the perp’s hapless attempt to scrub it.

When not embarrassing herself on Twitter, Karen Handel, the now famous, Palin-endorsed former gubernatorial candidate and reactionary from Georgia, has been busy making liars out of her new employers at the Komen Foundation.  The latter, inexplicably, thought it a great idea to put a right-wing pro-life zealot in charge of developing policy for women’s health care

The lavishly compensated Komen CEO may spin all she likes about how she doesn’t consider cancer screenings for lower income women “high impact,” and how cowardice constitutes “high standards,” but Handel herself would seem to not merit association with Komen by those alleged standards. Nor, one assumes, will the foundation help itself to any more cash from Bank of America—a corporation facing investigations from the feds as well as all 50 state AGs. As in real investigations of wrongdoing, not ideologically motivated fishing expeditions and harassment.

The most effective way to fight back is not via useless “petitions” that accomplish nothing and serve only to swell the spam lists of political non-profit groups. If you are able, and really want to make a difference, join me here.

As the immediate past Vice Presidential nominee, it’s hardly surprising that most people outside Alaska view Sarah Palin as a card-carrying member of the GOP establishment. Despite her husband Todd’s seven year dalliance with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, and his quiet conversion to the GOP when his wife decided to run for office, Sarah has always been a party member—technically. Many are perplexed that Palin “suddenly” has turned against the very establishment that brought her national fame, and is now throwing her support (albeit not a formal endorsement) behind Newt Gingrich and against the party’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney.

What surprised onlookers don’t realize is that going from toeing the line as the party’s VP pick to her new role as bomb thrower is, to Palin, like slipping out of those shiny red high heels and into a nice comfy old pair of running shoes. She’s back in her element. The truth is that the only political tactic that ever won Sarah Palin an election—from Mayor of Wasilla to Governor of Alaska—was proclaiming herself the outsider, and railing against the powers-that-be. As the expression goes, she’s not the one inside the tent pissing out, she’s the one outside the tent pissing in. And she likes it that way.

In 2006, Palin was facing an incumbent Republican in the Alaska gubernatorial primary. Corruption was widespread in the Alaska legislature, and oil companies were purchasing their very own lawmakers, sometimes for as little as a few thousand dollars a pop. After an FBI raid, microphoned informants, hidden cameras in hotel rooms, and cash changing hands, 10 percent of the legislature (Republicans all) ended up indicted for bribery related offenses. The Governor at the time, Frank Murkowski, was trying to rush approval of a Petroleum Profits Tax—negotiated behind closed doors and highly favorable to oil companies who were eager to take as much as they could get at the expense of Alaska citizens.

It was easy to find fault with the Republican party in 2006, and Palin did just that. She rose up from near obscurity, red-suited, fresh-faced, like Joan of Arc ready to take on an army of evil-doers who were running the show. “The machine,” “the good ol’ boys’ network,” “the establishment,” “evil-doers”—these phrases flowed from her lips like a mantra. In fact, literal comparisons to Joan of Arc, King David, and the biblical Queen Esther peppered the emails of support she got from fans. Palin welcomed the allusions. She quite literally believed that God had called her to take on the fight. He had a plan for her. However, the political pragmatist in her knew not to wear her religious zealotry on her sleeve, and those who inhabited that world with her saw the wisdom in it. Mainstream they are not.

Palin’s is not a religion where a quick crossing of oneself in the end zone, a “God bless America,” or a sticky fish on the bumper of the SUV is sufficient. She lives in a world of divine interventions, laying on of hands, secret prayer teams, Providence, Destiny, casting out witches, prayer warriors, intercession, visions and dreams from seers sent through email, or on slips of paper passed at rallies… It is a Dungeons and Dragons world of magic, treachery, and Good with a capital G vs. Evil with a capital E. The world is pregnant with secret meaning. Signs are everywhere. One can imagine a long-ago Sarah as one of those children who plays dress-up, puts on the tiara and doesn’t just pretend she’s a princess—she becomes one.

This is why it is sometimes so difficult and frustrating for politicos to predict what Palin may do next. It all depends on what God wants, and how he delivers his message. The one constant is that if God opens a door, it’s not just an invitation to plow through—it’s a mandate. Palin has thereby become a living example of some sort of divine, political Peter Principle—she has risen to and exceeded her own level of incompetence.

She is not intellectually curious because she doesn’t need to be. She doesn’t know much because it’s not necessary that she does. And she really doesn’t have an overriding political philosophy, because she will be presented with people who will act as instruments of advancement and who’ll tell her what she needs to say. “God brought us together,” she told her inner circle as governor. Everything will work out as it was meant to be. She will arrive at whatever the destination is, whenever the time is right, with a small and tightly knit circle of confidants around her. She can only function through that inner circle.

As long as she is the devoted martyr, the populist Everyman, eyes gazing upward, standing strong against the forces of evil, suffering the injustices and untruths, little else matters.

And as much as Governor Palin hated the villains (the Alaska Republican Party), they hated her right back. She ousted Gov. Frank Murkowski with more than 50% of the vote in a three-way race for the Republican nomination. She clobbered popular former two-term Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election. And then once in office, she did the unforgivable. She worked with Democrats in the legislature to revamp Alaska’s oil tax policy, stuck a stake in the heart of Murkowski’s oil-friendly Petroleum Profits Tax, and replaced it with something called ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share). She wrote every Alaskan man, woman and child an energy rebate check for $1200 to help ease the cost of high energy bills. She went toe to toe with members of her own party in leadership positions, who’d built careers kowtowing to big oil. She praised Obama’s energy plan.

Of course, her administration wasn’t all smooth sailing. Despite the political talents she possessed, her own narcissism, obsessive tendencies, cronyism, middle school drama, truth twisting, and need to settle personal scores emphasized her incompetence as a leader. But using the GOP as target practice was a delicious indulgence for Palin—and its time has come again on the national scene.

Even during the 2008 race, it was almost unbearable for Palin to play ball and do as she was told. At that time, the opportunity ahead didn’t call for working with Dems and throwing darts at Republicans, nor did it call for compromise or praise where it was due. The door was open, and this time it called for brass knuckles. Nobody was going to tell her that Michigan was out of play. Nobody was going to tell her not to talk about Obama palling around with terrorists. Nobody was going to tell her to sit down and shut up on election night. Nobody puts Sarah in the corner.

Her latest quip for the 2012 election cycle  is that the Republican party is “Stalinesque.” Other than perhaps knowing that Stalin came from that country you can see from Alaska, it’s doubtful that analogy sprang forth from her own grey matter. But Palin has surrounded herself with a fresh new “inner circle” that knows of such things, and has been delivered to her. They are the Cyrano to her Christian de Neuvillette. They whisper “Stalinesque” and other smart things from the rose bushes, and she stands in the moonlight, speaking the mavericky words of insurgency to the camera, eyes shining, and beams of righteous light emanating from her like a halo.

In a 2009 email, after being uninvited to speak at a Republican event, Palin had quite a bit to say about Newt Gingrich, the man she now defends.

…Yes, (Newt/GOP) are egotistical, narrow minded machine goons... but all the more reason God protected me from getting up on stage in front of 5000 political and media “elites” to praise him, then it be shown across the nation. At some point Newt would have shown his true colors anyway and we would have been devastated having known we’d earlier prostituted ourselves up in front of the country introducing him and acting like that good ol’ rich white guy is the savior of the party.

Plus, I had nothing to wear, and God knew that too. Party machinery sucks. I can’t tell you how much I hate it – nothing ever changes – we went through it before and after the VP campaign… I’ve gone through it all my career. We just don’t fit into it, and maybe we should thank God for that. [From Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

The blatant hypocrisy of it will not occur to her. That was then and this is now. Then, he was the establishment, the machine, the good ol’ boy, the goon—everything she despised. But now, Mitt Romney is the golden boy of the party and Newt has become the outcast—the misunderstood, the Rogue. It’s a new day of dress-up. A new fairy tale. Regardless of her costume du jour—newscaster, sex symbol, fisherman, hunter, hockey mom—she’ll be playing the same role.  And there’s a new good guy and a new bad guy. All she knows is that’s the way it worked out, and if this is where she was meant to be, then so be it.

It’s also interesting to note, that back in 2006, Palin’s other Republican rival was Fairbanks businessman John Binkley. Palin referred to him as “the machine candidate”, “Rich Man Binkley” with his “cheesy smile,” and even hesitated about using a particular local pollster because he was Binkley’s “mormon bro’” and it might affect his loyalty to her. Fair warning to Mitt Romney—Palin is no stranger to snarking at rich, smiling machine Mormons.

~John Binkley

Whether Palin will attempt to jump in the race this time, make her move at convention time, wait until 2016, or take a different path entirely will depend on factors as of yet unknown. A door will open, a cast of characters will present itself, and Palin will do whatever needs to be done. Whatever it is, rest assured it will not be with the blessing of the “machine.”

The winning gladiator, in whatever desperate shape he happens to be – steak on his eye, split lip, dragging one leg, bleeding on the carpet – has earned the right to move on to the big fight. He’ll be wildly flailing his half-functional limb at the current champion who’s had his feet up, eating grapes and watching the carnage.

During Ronald Reagan’s 1966 campaign for governor of California, he established the so-called Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

“I am, in fact, the legitimate heir to the Reagan movement, not some liberal from Massachusetts,” Gingrich proclaimed on Sunday while simultaneously giving the Gipper’s eleventh, the finger. Don’t speak ill of a fellow Republican? Screw that. Newt has tasted win. And he likes it like crack. He’ll do anything for more, man… Anything. And with his numbers falling, and now behind by double digits to Mitt Romney, that means amping up the vitriol.

Having called Romney “pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase” on Sunday, Gingrich added the title “pro-gay rights” on Monday, in an acidic interview with Fox News. He rewound his last few days of attacks, combining all of his insults and all his vitriol into a string of remarkable assaults on Romney.

And so, the Romney Gingrich mad elephant fight rages on, with Republicans frantically choosing sides in an epic struggle for the right to lose in November. And the Democrats just laugh.

In Palinesque style, Gingrich has also perfected the art of the shameless pander. What’s a trip to Florida without promising the space coast a new lunar colony (by the end of his second term), or without casually mentioning that his opponent, during his time as Massachusetts governor, vetoed funds to expand the provision of kosher food for retirees. Gingrich, the Lutheran-turned-Baptist-turned-Catholic, ablaze with smugness and unashamed by his own transparency, announced that “Romney cut off kosher food to elderly Jews on Medicare.”

NASA – check
Jews – check
Retirees – check
Homophopes, evangelicals, and gun nuts? Check, check, and check.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has countered by throwing four times as much money into his own advertising, and gazing down his nose, calling Gingrich’s desperate attacks “sad.” He has played the superiority card as only the perfectly coiffed moneyed elite can play it. (insert golf clap here)

And what would a bout of clown-on-clown violence be without a caustic screeching ring girl?

Yes, Sarah Palin has chimed in denouncing the Florida battle as “Stalinesque” and “cannibalism.” “I’m not whining about the viciousness,” she notes, but the “rewritten history.” “Enough is enough with the lies about Newt Gingrich.”

Nope, the viciousness is A-OK with Palin. Big thumbs up for that. As a matter of fact, Palin’s pseudo-endorsement of Gingrich was only, she claimed, to keep the competition going. Don’t call off the bloodbath yet! They’re both still technically standing! Palin’s rationale from the marble seat in the Coliseum where she sits is that “we need a big dog who has been sharpened and shaped through the school of hard knocks the most.”

And so they bludgeon on, with Gingrich vowing to take it all the way to the convention, and President Obama going up against the “sharpened and shaped big dog” who can stay upright and conscious the longest.

Our thoughts wander to November, and we picture the reigning champion, in gleaming Brooks Brothers gladiator-wear, fist pumping, nostrils flared, approaching the wheezing, swaying “big dog.” The champ touches his confused, sweaty opponent with an index finger to the solar plexus, and down he goes like a big oozing tree. A loser-shaped ring of dust rises around him as he lands.

But in the meantime, there is butter to melt, and salt to sprinkle, and corn to pop. We have many rounds to go before the end of this dog fight. Here’s to Florida. We don’t really care who wins, so the best we can do is hope for an entertaining night.

Airline spokesperson Bobbie Egan told msnbc.com that over the years the airline has received letters and e-mails from customers for and against the card. Last fall the company decided to stop distributing the cards because, Egan said, “We believe it’s the right thing to do in order to respect the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes of all our customers and employees.”

The decision was welcomed by many, but distressed Alaska’s ex-half-governor who seemed baffled by the company’s decision posted a lamentation on Facebook. “It feels so odd that some may be offended by a little card with an encouraging non-denominational verse from the Psalms…” mused the befuddled Palin on her Facebook page. Not respecting diversity?  The card was non-denominational! It covers all Christian denominations. I mean… who could possibly take that the wrong way?

In a letter she wrote to the airline, she mused

“The Alaska Airlines traditions should be looked upon as an all-American, encouraging, hopeful gesture.”

What, after all, is more all-American than the Bible?

Palin likely doesn’t realize that Alaska Airlines meals have been served only in the first class cabin for the past six years. The rest of us in coach class have had to make due with a wing, minus the prayer, since that time. It’s the godless $7 snack pack for the masses.

And speaking of Christianity, the enemies of good are not only busy encouraging “censorship” of airline propaganda,  they also seem to have it in for Newt Gingrich.

Palin, yesterday characterized the recent wave of conservative criticism levied against presidential contender New Gingrich as the lamestream establishment attempting to “crucify” the former Speaker. It is hard to avoid the Christ-like metaphor when discussing Newt.

“Look at Newt Gingrich, what’s going on with him via the establishment’s attacks. They’re trying to crucify this man and rewrite history and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years.”

Rewriting history, we can all agree, is unconscionable, and the tool of bloviators who cannot stand on actual history to make their points.

One of the Roman soldiers who nailed Newt to the metaphorical cross, conservative columnist Peggy Noonan, called Gingrich an “angry attack muffin.” Ouch. That one’s going to leave a mark. The blistering attack brought forth this avalanche of word salad from Palin:

“They maybe subscribe such characterizations of Newt via words like that, but they don’t subscribe those to say Mitt Romney when he or his surrogates do the same thing. That’s that typical hypocrisy stuff in the media, you know, I’ve lived with over a couple of decades in the political arena. It is hypocritical of the media to subscribe to one candidate and not another, that kind of ‘angry attack muffin’ verbiage to one and not the other.”

Oh that “typical hypocrisy stuff” that has been dogging Palin since she first ran for the Wasilla City Council, twenty years ago. I can’t wait to see how she defends President Obama against the name calling, politics of personal destruction, and the rewriting of history from the GOP.

By Elstun Lauesen

There is a culture war going on. And the epicenter of that culture war is right here in Alaska. It is outrageous in its brazenness and tragic in its effect. It is political in its tactic and economic in its objective. It is a classic tale of western frontier conquest. I am speaking, of course, of the war on the Native subsistence culture of Alaska.

The passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980 linked federal land policy in Alaska to a subsistence use priority. Congress, in Title VIII of ANILCA, made it clear that they wanted a ‘rural’ priority in the 60 percent of Alaska that is under federal management. A rural priority (which was a compromise for the original draft language that said “Native preference”) meant that the priority for harvesting wildlife should go to the people who live in the management area and for whom subsistence represents a ‘customary and traditional’ use.

The online journal Cultural Survival notes

“…ANILCA distinguishes Native subsistence as something exceptional and cultural noting that ‘the opportunity for subsistence uses by rural residents of Alaska…is essential to Native physical, economic, traditional, and cultural existence and to nonNative physical, economic, traditional, and social existence.’ Although the distinction seems minor, it betrays a deeper philosophical division between Native and non-Native conceptions of subsistence.”

One indicator of this ‘philosophical division’ may be seen in the 2006 decision by the Federal Subsistence Board to reclassify the village of Saxman near Ketchikan from a rural to non-rural community. This reclassification is in the news because the 5-year waiting period is over and the decision is scheduled to go into effect.

As KTUU’s Rebecca Palsha put it so succinctly back in 2006 for a new story on the board’s decision:

“Who should have first dibs on hunting and fishing on federal lands? A group of Anchorage residents are making that decision at a two day meeting of the Federal Subsistence Board…”

The rationale by this ‘group of Anchorage residents’ was that Saxman is connected by a road to a modern city and are effectively integrated with the Ketchikan economy.

My research on the question of the ‘integration’ of the village of Saxman with Ketchikan reveals that in 2006 the numbers do not support such a conclusion. The Division of Community and Regional Affairs utilizes the American Community Survey statistics from the Bureau of the Census that breaks data down to the community level. Here is what it tells us. Saxman is a majority Native community and Ketchikan is not. 51 percent of Saxman’s residents are Native Alaskan/American; 25 percent of Ketchikan’s population are Native Alaskan/American. Despite the road that connects the two communities, Saxman has retained it’s ethnic character. In fact the web tourism promotion by the city notes the following regarding the character of Saxman:

“Blessed with abundant resources, West Coast people survived by subsistence, living off the land and the water- still a crucial part of their cultural identity.”

The American Community Survey also tells us that while Ketchikan had an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, Saxman had an unemployment rate of 30.7 percent. Again, it would seem that a complete socioeconomic integration would reveal a smaller difference. Finally, there is poverty. According to the ACS, the percentage of folks in Ketchikan living below the poverty rate in 2006 was 10.8 percent; in Saxman that figure is 25 percent.

Again, the visitor coming to Ketchikan learns that

“…Coastal Native people have a matrilineal society; children inherit rights through their mothers. The Tlingit social system is based on two equal moieties, or halves (the Eagle or Wolf and the Raven).

Traditions are changing with the times although much remains and is as strong as ever…”

So the question remains in my mind that, if the presence of the road has not altered the economic disparities between the communities, how can the Federal Board be so certain that the road has altered the cultural dependence on the customary and traditional uses of subsistence resources?

But if the Federal Board seems arbitrary in its subsistence policies, the state of Alaska is downright hostile.

From 1990-2002, three state governors, 12 regular legislatures, five special legislative sessions on subsistence, and a host of task forces, mediators and other initiatives all failed to resolve the unwillingness of Alaska’s lawmakers to allow a rural subsistence preference. In 2002, the outgoing Knowles administration gave up after 8 years of trying to work with the legislature. Federal management then became a reality. Since 2002, through the governorships of Murkowski, Palin and Parnell subsistence management on state lands became increasingly subjugated to the very lobby that had worked so assiduously against it. Murkowski’s appointment of Ron Sommerville to the Board of Game, for example, was a direct repudiation of a serious state subsistence management regime.

The Alaska Outdoor Council, the organization that spearheaded anti-subsistence political assaults since the passage of ANILCA, championed Sommerville’s appointment. Governor Sarah Palin then continued the Murkowski assault on the Federal Subsistence Board’s ‘customary and traditional’ use finding for the harvesting of moose by the small Copper River village of Chistochina. A positive C & T finding by the Federal Board entitles residents of a specific community to the subsistence priority under Title VIII of ANILCA and such a finding was anathema to the state Board of Game (BOG). Chistochina became a test case. The Palin administration sued the federal board and promptly lost in court.

Palin’s resignation and the ascent of Parnell simply meant the continuation of the Alaska Outdoor Council influence on the BOG. It was during this time that a Parnell appointed Wildlife Chief, Corey Rossi, who, along with BOG Chair, Cliff Judkins and BOG member Bob Bell — All past or present Alaska Outdoor Council — are alleged to have committed criminal violations of subsistence regulations.

Again, from Cultural Survival:

“As Nelson Frank, a Haida from southeast Alaska put it in his testimony before the Alaska Native Review Commission (recorded in the book Village Journey by Thomas Berger):”

“Subsistence living, a marginal way of life to most, has no such connotation to the Native people of southeast Alaska. The relationship between the Native population and the resources of the land and the sea is so close that an entire culture is reflected… Traditional law … was passed from generation to generation, intact, through repetition of legends and observance of ceremonials which were largely concerned with the use of land, water, and the resources contained therein. Subsistence living was not only a way of life, but also a life-enriching process. Conservation and perpetuation of subsistence resources was part of that life and was mandated by traditional law and custom.”

This is the casualty of Alaska’s culture war against subsistence.

[Photo: Clan House at Saxman, Alaska]

By Shannyn Moore

The war on science is winning. And I’m not talking about those who confuse weather and climate.

Nope. I’m frustrated with the continual election of candidates with a faith-based bias when it comes to policy that should rely on science. In a letter this week, Ed Fogels, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, informed his colleagues that the mission of the department had changed.

The new mission: “To responsibly develop Alaska’s resources by making them available for maximum use and benefit consistent with the public interest.”

There are a few issues with DNR’s newfound mission. First, the mission they had wasn’t broken.

It read, “The Mission Statement of the Department of Natural Resources is to develop, conserve, and enhance natural resources for present and future Alaskans.”

That one was based in a little directive we call the Alaska Constitution.

“Sec. 44.37.020. Duties of department with respect to natural resources. (a) The Department of Natural Resources shall administer the state program for the conservation and development of natural resources, including forests, parks, and recreational areas, land, water, agriculture, soil conservation, and minerals including petroleum and natural gas, but excluding commercial fisheries, sport fish, game, and fur-bearing animals in their natural state.”

It’s ironic to have self-identified conservatives continually ignore conservation. Their drive to use up Alaska’s resources like we’re in some sort of race is reckless with Alaska’s economy and future development.

I realize cherry picking is common in the Parnell administration but the Alaska Constitution is not a Sunday buffet from which departments get to pick and choose what they’ll put on their mission plate. This behavior isn’t limited to one department; it’s pervasive throughout the Parnell administration.

Cronyism abounds and seems to be passed down from Republican governor to Republican governor. Sarah Palin created a position for Corey Rossi in 2009 because he was so blatantly unqualified to be commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game that even she didn’t dare do it.

In 2010, Parnell appointed Rossi as director of wildlife conservation. In addition to lacking the scientific credentials for even that job, Rossi also lacked the ethical credentials, which explains why he’s facing 12 criminal charges for illegal hunting.

This week on “Moore Up North,” Craig Medred reported that Rossi and a former head and a current head of the game board got in trouble on a little “subsistence” hunt in Nome. Apparently, unable to go on a legal trophy hunt for musk ox, the trio of Alaska game managers decided they would turn a subsistence hunt into a trophy hunt. Rossi, Bob Bell and Cliff Judkins were caught by a Fish and Game biologist in Nome with trophy horns that were supposed to have been destroyed as a condition of the subsistence permit.

Their “Don’t you know who we are?” attitude was met by a courageous state employee who did his job and enforced the law regardless of the consequences. The trio thought their positions would enable them to ignore the rules set up for everyone else. Cliff Judkins is the current chair of the Board of Game. On the game board’s 2012 agenda is a rule change that will allow Judkins, Bell and Rossi to legally bring home the horns from their next musk ox hunt. All that’s needed is a rubber stamp from the Board of Cronies.

The commissioner of Fish and Game, Cora Campbell, found out that Rossi was being questioned in a criminal investigation in early December. Her response was to do exactly nothing. She didn’t ask him a single question about what was up. Instead, she acted like nothing had happened and kept him on the job until formal charges were made. And when she accepted Rossi’s resignation, she thanked him for his years of service and explained to staff he was leaving for personal reasons.

Pathetic.

Anti-predator control public testimony at BOG meetings has dwindled. Why? Because crony appointments have turned the BOG into the Board of Predators. Alaskans can see that the game is fixed.

The abuses and blatant disregard of science and ethics are top down in Alaska. The “what can I get for my service” mentality didn’t end with Palin’s reality show and book tour. Parnell’s repeated calls for an oil tax giveaway have set the tone; ignore the constitution and get what you can for yourself and your friends.

Vic Fischer, one of the authors of the Alaska Constitution, has called for the impeachment of Parnell for repeatedly violating his oath of office.

Alaska’s executive branch has become a grown-up version of “Lord of the Flies.” I didn’t catch the name of the biologist in Nome but I’d like to thank him. I’ll take integrity and science over what’s-in-it-for-me, faith-based cronyism any and every day of the week.

Was Sarah Palin’s proclamation, “If I were in South Carolina, I’d vote for Newt” really an endorsement, or just her attempt to keep the wounded elephant that is the current presidential GOP lineup limping forward as far as possible before it collapses under the weight of its own unelectability? Correspondence from Palin seems to indicate the latter.

During Palin’s VP candidacy, her relationship with Newt Gingrich was tumultuous at best. Emails sent on Palin’s Yahoo! account while she was governor, which (despite being in the hands of the state of Alaska) have never been made available to the public, reveal that Newt had some avuncular words of wisdom for the greenhorn candidate:

She didn’t need local and state allies, not with Newt Gingrich regularly emailing advice like suggesting she not answer difficult question and instead “she should reframe it into the question she wishes they asked,” or better yet, “When your opponent has posed a question designed to put you on defense, the right strategy is to destroy the very legitimacy of the question and pose a new question of your own.” [From Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

But after the unsuccessful campaign, the relationship between the two became more strained. Things came to a boiling point in the summer of 2009, just weeks before Palin quit the governorship of Alaska.

This transformation had to do with a speaking engagement on June 8 at the Washington D.C. Convention Center. Sarah was originally invited to be the keynote speaker at an annual congressional fundraising dinner. As was her custom, she hesitated before accepting and Gingrich was invited as a fall-back. A suddenly dis-invited and miffed Sarah threatened not to attend before begrudgingly relenting.

On June 7, the day before Gingrich’s speech, Sarah wrote to her close inner-circle of administration confidants (including Frank Bailey):

From: gshp

Subject: Fw: Newt

…I don’t know why we have to protect the elites who do things like this so we don’t “ruffle feathers” by keeping it to ourselves. Newt “uninvited” me yesterday to speak at tomorrow’s NSRC (sic for NRSC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee). I was the surprise guest … I’d be sitting at his table, unannounced (though I think they were purposefully already leaking it, I know Meg (Stapleton) leaked it to Politico), then would get up to do a surprise speech and introduction of Newt. So… I went from being the invited keynote speaker back in February, to just the surprise introducer of the speaker this month, to the back-of-the-bus’er (“sit down and shut up”) the day before the event. One of the organizers told Meg last night that Newt pulled the plug, said he didn’t want me to “steal the show”.

This has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the machine, and egos, and power. Their action…tells us they’re not ready to walk the walk and reform the party…

It knocks the political wind right out of my gut – but really we shouldn’t be surprised. And when I mentioned to Mike Reagan [Ronald Reagan’s stepson and GOP commentator] the other night that I’d be referencing Newt in my introduction of him, he wasn’t overly thrilled…maybe there’s something others see in Newt… Keep this confidential until we figure out how I’m supposed to explain flying all the flippin’ way across the country – leaving my baby at home – to be at this dinner, then we get accused of dodging the substantive events like the NSRC, when in reality they kicked us to the curb. I hate politics. 

Later that day, Sarah added more insight:

…Yes, (Newt/GOP) are egotistical, narrow minded machine goons... but all the more reason God protected me from getting up on stage in front of 5000 political and media “elites” to praise him, then it be shown across the nation. At some point Newt would have shown his true colors anyway and we would have been devastated having known we’d earlier prostituted ourselves up in front of the country introducing him and acting like that good ol’ rich white guy is the savior of the party.

Plus, I had nothing to wear, and God knew that too. Party machinery sucks. I can’t tell you how much I hate it – nothing ever changes – we went through it before and after the VP campaign… I’ve gone through it all my career. We just don’t fit into it, and maybe we should thank God for that. [From Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

Despite the good fortune of being saved from a wardroble gaffe by divine intervention, words of comfort and consolation came from Palin aide Ivy Frye: “Screw Newt, and let him take the heat for himself…”

None of this previous bad blood (of which Gingrich may or may not have been aware) seemed to dampen his enthusiasm over Sarah Palin’s comments yesterday. Nor did her explanation that the reason she’d vote for him is simply to see the carnage continue seem to faze him. He said he was “thrilled” after talking to Todd Palin who had formally endorsed him last week, and went on “It’s a signal to every conservative that the one conservative vote that’s effective is to Newt Gingrich and that’s very helpful.”

Palin’s desire to watch the five-way Republican cage fight is so appealing she told South Carolinians that she’d actually vote for the man she described as an “elite” “egotistical, narrow-minded machine goon” – a “good ol’ rich white guy” whom Palin said she didn’t even want to introduce to a crowd of a few thousand lest she “prostitute herself” in front of the nation.

We’ll find out on Saturday if the Palin non-endorsement endorsement helps Gingrich carry the day, and whether Palin continues to urge voters to cast their ballots for a man she actively dislikes.

More than a million signatures (that’s 3,000 pounds worth) were gathered and delivered today to ensure that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker would face a recall election later in the year. That’s what happens when you push policies that effectively eliminate most collective bargaining rights for many public employees. Just to play it safe organizers overshot the number of required signatures by about 460,000. There’s nothing like making an unambiguous statement.

Also targeted were Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and a handful of Republican legislators, all well-exceeding the number of signatures required to generate a recall election.

Kelly Steele, a strategist for We Are Wisconsin, the group that led Wisconsin’s Senate recalls, also hailed Tuesday’s news as a victory for all Wisconsinites.

“Scott Walker lied his way into office, and has since launched unprecedented attacks on Wisconsin’s working families, dividing the state like never before,” Steele said in an email. “This historic recall is a million-strong victory for Wisconsinites united to take their government back from wealthy special interests who bought and paid for Scott Walker and are dictating the terms of his extreme agenda.”

As painful as it may be, Alaskans are going to have to seriously consider relinquishing our claim to “Worst Governor Ever.”  We proudly withstood the assault of crazy narcissism from Rod Blagojevich, but Scott Walker may just be too formidable a foe.

In the meantime, Walker may just want to think about how he can push Wisconsin’s agenda forward and advocate outside the system. Remember Scott, you don’t need a title to make a difference.

Mudflatters may remember past coverage of Corey Rossi, referred to by others as “the gopher choker.” Rossi began his ignominious political career by being friends with Chuck and Sally Heath, parents of then-Governor Sarah Palin. And really, what else do you need?  In those days, being BFFs with the Palins was like being dealt a royal flush. Palin high school pal and former real estate agent Franci Havermeister was given the position of Alaska Agriculture Director for $95,000/year, after listing as one of her qualifications for the position her childhood “love of cows.”

Well, Rossi loved to kill stuff, so his career path seemed clear.

After Palin took office in 2007, Sally [Heath] lobbied her daughter to have Rossi named commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The commissioner oversees all wildlife and fisheries management in the state. Sally Heath, in an email to Palin, noted that almost everyone would object to Rossi as unqualified, but added those “are the very same people who said the same thing about you.”

‘Nuf said.

His previous wildlife management did not include things like a college degree, or much actual experience – unless you count his job killing geese and rats at the Anchorage International Airport. Or his job killing foxes and more rats on the Pribilof Islands. So really, he could just as easily have been the goose snuffer, the fox blocker, or the rat whacker.

Whatever you call him, he’s an exterminator at heart.

After urging from her parents, the governor pushed Rossi to the front of the line. But even Palin’s advocacy couldn’t make up for Rossi’s inexperience, and unsuitability for the job. So, it went to a gent named Denby Lloyd (who later resigned after being pulled over and arrested for a DUI by Juneau police, who determined his breath alcohol level was 0.143 percent. A person is presumed intoxicated at a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent. But let’s not get sidetracked.)

Rossi’s non-appointment would not squelch the nepotistic urges of our fair governor. Oh, no. She was made of more determined stuff than that. Instead, in January of 2009, an entirely new position was created just for Rossi, with the Orwellian title “Assistant Commissioner for Abundance Management.” No more airport geese, or runway rats for Rossi – it was time to take over predator control for the state of Alaska. And by control, he meant eradication.

Rossi’s shiny new six-figure job was quick to inspire outrage from the conservation community, and anyone who knew anything about biology, or game management.

Thirty-nine Alaskan biologists and former supervisors with a cumulative 800 years of experience with Alaska wildlife issues sent a letter expressing their dismay, and lack of confidence in Rossi’s appointment.

They stated that Rossi lacks the academic and professional experience for even an entry-level biologist position with the agency, because he has no college degree. Alas, all this genuine scientific concern and universal outrage had no effect.

The only ones who could stand him were the Palin family, current Governor Sean Parnell, and the “kill ‘em and grill ‘em” crowd who thought that Rossi was right on to promote the extermination of huge numbers of predators like wolves and bears. Using snares to trap and hold bears of all kinds (with cubs or not), shooting wolves (and potentially bears soon as well) from the air, and gassing litters of wolf pups in their dens, have all become part of Alaska’s formerly science-based wildlife management. All this eradication of predators is great they say, because in turn, it creates “abundance” in the numbers of moose that end up on tables and in freezers of hunters. Killing more means you get to kill more. See how that works? Kill for Abundance! It’s a win-win situation for a narrow group that does not include the tourism industry, nature photographers,wildlife viewers, or people who just happen to prefer their majestic Alaskan carnivores alive.

But Rossi’s reign of terror has come to an abrupt end, much to the delight of many who worked with him, and his legions of detractors in the environnmental community, the public at large, and perhaps others…

With the latest revelation, he seems to have made easy work of proving his critics’ point regarding his own unfitness to serve in the role he was given.

In this charging document, Rossi, 51, is charged with one count of permit hunt report violations, three counts of making false statements on black bear sealing certificates, two counts of unsworn falsification, one count of illegal possession of an illegally taken bear, and five counts of unlawful acts by an assistant big game guide.

In Alaska, this is serious stuff for any guide, nevermind the state Wildlife Conservation Director.  And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Turns out Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell knew a month ago about Rossi’s skulduggery, but kept him on in his job, where he earned another $9250 until the documents were filed last week.

When asked about Rossi’s hunting violations, she was kind enough to explain for those who might be confused:

“These are charges and a process is going forward.”

She pointed out that these violations had happened before he took the job  (no big deal) and sweetly thanked him for his service.

“He was a staunch defender of state management rights. That was something we very much appreciated,” said Campbell. “He was a believer in abundance-based management, and he did a lot to incorporate that into the management of the department.”

Aww. He was a defender. A staunch defender. And a believer. He did a lot. And he was appreciated. Doesn’t that make you all sniffly and misty-eyed, and gripped by nausea?

Despite a month’s heads up, Campbell says she hasn’t had time yet to come up with a process to fill Rossi’s position. She said she doubts that someone from outside the state would really understand Alaska’s issues.

Folks say there’s a pretty talented termite wrangler in Ketchikan who just may be looking for work.