Self destruction in ten, nine, eight, seven, six.....
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(4/15/09) On Tuesday, Governor Sarah Palin responded to an olive branch offered by Juneau Mayor Bruce Bothelo by breaking it in two and then shaking it back at him. We have officially reached meltdown status by Alaska's diva governor.
Yesterday Bothelo attempted to break the six week old stalemate to fill Juneau's vacant State Senate seat by proposing a candidate that was highly qualified and embraced by both Democrats and Republicans.
Dennis Egan, who is a former Juneau Mayor and the son of a former Alaska governor, was forwarded to Palin for consideration to replace Democrat Kim Elton who resigned his seat to take a job with the Obama administration.
In a bizarre response, Palin submitted three names for consideration to Senate Democrats, including two who had already been rejected just last week and a third who wasn't even a registered Democrat until just recently.
Over the last two weeks, a governor who is used to always getting things her way, has been beaten back like the coastal shoreline of Kivalina.
Between her family's dirty laundry being aired on national television, her own staff and legislators disproving her cries of wolf regarding strings attached to federal stimulus monies and intense criticism that she has been absent without leadership during the legislative session, Palin has begun to act more like Ronald McDonald than Ronald Reagan.
Two weeks ago she cancelled a scheduled meeting with lawmakers to talk about the stimulus package, then proceeded to put out a press release saying they were the ones that cancelled the meeting.
Last week, the father of her grandson Levi Johnston appeared on national television revealing intimate family details. In response, the governor called the young man a liar and then said her daughter made a mistake in hooking up with him.
Ouch.
After all, this was a young man she paraded on stage as her future son in law to help with damage control regarding her family values image before she kicked him to the curb.
Throughout the week, Palin was battered in committee testimony by both her own staff and lawmakers as they discovered that the governor was playing politics about the federal stimulus package and the strings she warned of didn't exist.
Both of her selections to fill the empty Juneau Senate seat were rejected and all of her huffing and puffing about a questionable 22 year old legal opinion that she said raised issues about the confirmation process drew as much fire from Republicans as it did from Democrats.
Later in the week, she stormed into the office of the Speaker of the House and proceeded to rip a staffer to shreds because he printed out a story about her planned trip to Indiana that had been posted on the Anchorage Daily News website.
five, four, three....
This week has been just as rough. Yesterday she was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for leaving on a self serving fundraising trip to Indiana, paid for by her political action committee, all with only a few days left in the regular session.
Last night on Jay Leno, the same guy who gave Palin her national bonafides by naming her his VP running mate, all but snubbed her when asked about potential contenders for 2012.
"We have, I'm happy to say, a lot of voices out there," John McCain told host Jay Leno before listing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Utah Gov. Jim Huntsman, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
"There are a lot of governors out there who are young and dynamic," said the Arizona senator.
McCain then quickly joked, "I've left out somebody's name and I'm going to hear about it."
Today, lawmakers rejected her plan to cut $93 million from Alaska's schools and replace the money with stimulus money.
Palin has become almost schizophrenic about the entire stimulus package. She held a press conference last month to announce she would reject a 1/3 of the money due to federal strings. The next day she immediately started to backtrack.
Then Palin said the state wouldn't take the money because it would add to the national debt. Then she said the state would take the money if it could be used to replace state funds that were already budgeted.
"It seems to me that is not the point of the stimulus. The point of the stimulus is new jobs and to encourage the economy and it is not to replace monies you were going to spend anyway," said Gary Stevens, the Republican President of the Senate.
Also today, Politico.com released a poll today of 1,000 registered voters to gauge their feelings on politicians they trust to solve the problems facing the United States.
The poll showed Palin attracted the highest percentage of those who did not trust her at all to identify the right solutions, topping Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 33 percent to 32 percent.
And if all this wasn't enough to reach for the Valium, the Associated Press reported today that more Palin family dirty laundry will be aired out in public, this time by her father.
In the issue of Us Weekly magazine to be released Friday, Chuck Heath says Levi Johnston is capitalizing on national interviews but not spending money on Tripp, the nearly 4-month-old son of Johnston and Bristol Palin, the governor's 18-year-old daughter.
Heath says the 19-year-old Johnston "has not contributed anything" to Tripp's care. Heath says he wishes Johnston would "take some of this money he's making and buy some diapers with it."
two, one..we have meltdown.
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