Over the holiday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin officially announced — in that faux-folksy, by-the-lake, rambling tour de farce – that she would, after only 30 months in office, be stepping down this month.
Speculation, of course, will remain rife about her motivation, which includes getting well paid for some of those red-meat, GOP-base speeches, working on her book and lining up a Fox talk-show gig.
Prominent among the rationales she articulated — and notably emphasized — was the lame-duck scenario. For graphic reinforcement, she even spoke in front of cavorting mallards that provided her backdrop. Palin mentioned “how much fun other governors have as lame ducks: They maybe travel around their state, travel to other states, maybe take their overseas international trade missions.
“I’m not going to put Alaskans through that,” she explained nobly.
Let’s see if we have this right. Other governors routinely abuse their lame duck status? So, she trashes her peers – if, indeed, she has any – by collectively impugning their ethics. But Palin is, of course, above that. That being the cynically self-serving, straw man she just conjured up.
Or maybe, just maybe, that was her way of saying she too, even as a rookie, gravitas-challenged governor, would only do, alas, what they all do, and the people of Alaska deserve so much better? So she had to take one for the home team lest her self-indulgent instincts kick in.
This isn’t even credible spin. It gives disingenuous a bad name. Who orchestrated this? David Letterman?