Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

When the zealots, under Rudy's cheerleading, chanted "Drill baby, drill" I got the feeling that oil people had been severely distanced from what has been happening in America the last eight years.  Republicans go into drag and change costumes, not to mention facts and principles, faster than Rudy or J. Edgar Hoover ever changed costumes.

Palin revealed herself to be quite a quick change artist herself as she happily delivered lines spun by McCain's fantasy writers.  Her "reform credentials" are buttressed by her opposition to fellow Alaskan Ted Stevens' "highway to nowhere" even though she previously endorsed the plan.

This lady not only kills off moose, she kills off facts every bit as quickly and with the same nonchalance.  She wore earmarks as other women wear earrings, but with a straight face passed herself off as an opponent of earmarks, despite her eager acceptance of them.

According to a New York Times editorial Palin amassed $27 million in subsidies from Washington, $15 million of which were for a railroad from her hometown of Wasilla to the ski resort hometown of her old and now forsaken fellow Republican and ally, Ted Stevens, who is now under indictment for failure to report gifts.

This is the would be mainstream soccer mom who supported Pat Buchanan against the hero of Big Oil, George W. Bush, in 2000, though this is one "reformist" position she is bashful about openly embracing.

Sarah delivered an enthusiastic speech embracing of the ideals of the Alaska Independence Party.  The goal of the organization is to secede from the United States.

Make up your mind, "pistol packing mamma", do you really want to go to Washington to serve under John McCain as his designate to Big Oil and pipeline drilling or would you like to become the first president of an Independent Alaska?  What is your call?

Yes, and on the subject of bestowing all that Republican brand freedom that Rudy Guiliani promised.  While mayor of your hometown of Wasilla you raised sales taxes and to build a hockey rink then took bows for lowering taxes on businesses while passing the costs on to citizen consumers.

Then there is this aggressive streak of yours that keeps popping up, Sarah, as in the current state investigation controversy.  You have a way of firing or threatening to fire those who stand in the way of your narrow rightist views.

On the subject of that Guiliani Republican freedom that was promised, you seemed to be imitating Bush and the Patriot Act.  As a confirmed creationist you took umbrage with certain books in the Wasilla Public Library and threatened to fire its librarian if those dangerously corrupting works were not removed.

You later dismissed that threat as a "rhetorical question" and the issue that remains to be resolved is whether the current state probe involves leaning hard and ultimately firing a public official for not getting the message that you and your husband unsubtly communicated, or whether these two were no more than "rhetorical questions."

Also, there is the issue of the Iraq War and your solid support of John McCain as you both insist that "the surge is working" while the pattern of death persists and the Iraqi government keeps asking the U.S. to leave.

Sarah, Big Oil has been dismissed as an unwanted stepchild as you, McCain, Guiliani and the Republican delegates cry on its behalf, but what about those secret meetings in Cheney Office with his Energy Task Force and then Halliburton and Bechtel fanning out and helping themselves to profits, without so much as submitting a competitive bid, following Donald Rumsfeld's mighty surge?

It must have warmed what passes for hearts from the shrilly shouting Republican fat cat delegates in St. Paul to know that there is common ground with George W. Bush, even though he was quickly dismissed after his short speech to do battle with nature's forces, while having nothing to do with his woeful poll readings.

This was the George W. Bush who stated to Bob Woodward that, when it came to Iraq policy, he did not talk to his father the former chief executive but his "other Father" meaning God.

You are in tune without missing a beat, Sarah.  In a speech last June to your former church in Wasilla, you said that the war in Iraq was "a task that is from God."