Palin and Megha McCain
- [Palin] may be crazier than an acre of snakes.
Meanwhile, the press has been making much of Republican candidates for governor in New Jersey and Virginia indicating a vigorous disinterest in having her appear on their behalf. What she buys them is far less than what she costs them in the sort of electorate those two states have. Governor Rick Perry of Texas is eager to have her; he shares her husband's secessionist inclinations.
I caught Meghan McCain on Real Time with Bill Maher last night; it was a re-run of the June 19 show. She wants it both ways: at 24, she wants to be taken seriously, and to have the weight to appear with the likes of Paul Begala, also on that night's roster. Maher pressed her several times about the way Palin lied about Letterman's recent joke about Bristol, tagging him as a rapist and child molester, versus the way her own father was lied about by Bush 43's campaign in 2000, being accused of fathering "a black child out of wedlock and crazy from the 'Nam," and she'd chirp at him that she just wants to move on, move on, MOVE ON ALREADY MISTER OLD GUY. Maher said, "Isn't that the same thing, telling lies about somebody?" In a Valley Girl whine, she responded,
- I'd love to look forward in politics, and 2009 and the Obama administration. I hate talking about 2000, it was nine years ago, I was in puberty when it happened, like I'd love to move on and talk about my career now, that's what I'd love to do.
Paul Begala finally put a smack down. Young McCain was opining that Obama, not yet six months into his administration, needs to quit "completely blaming everything on its predecessor, completely... I'm sick of hearing, 'We were handed this, we were handed this...' I know, everybody knows, but we need to move on." (The press, btw, has made note that Obama does not do this; that he rarely mentions Dubya at all, in any context). Begala said he felt Dubya had not been blamed nearly enough, and remarked that "Ronald Reagan blamed Jimmy Carter every day for eight years." McCain piped up winningly: "Well, I wasn't born yet, so I wouldn't know."
"Well, I wasn't born during the French Revolution, but I know about it," Begala snapped back. She deserved it. Despite her modest self-deprecation in her intro, she seemed to want to be treated as an expert who was literally born yester
Not all of the ignorance is pretense, however. Meghan McCain, youthful and pretty, made a big titillating splash with the weary journalists who'd been covering her septuagenarian papa when she boldly announced some months back that she's not a virgin and the Republican party needs to loosen up about sex. She tried to defend her remarks on Maher's show by explaining that the Party either considers a woman a "pius" "holy virgin" and abstinent, or at least "meant to be abstinent," (a reference to Bristol Palin's leadership of Candie's abstinence campaign after the birth of her son) or a "skank...a perverted sex addict," and that this isn't fair; "unhealthy, especially for young women."
Yes, dear, we know. Don't expect anything else from the Republican party, in which legislators keep mistresses or patronize prostitutes without any political consequences, while staunchly voting against sex ed, birth control, abortion, and gay marriage. Ms. McCain, how did you make it through college without ever hearing about the Madonna-Whore dichotomy? Or did you assume it was just another slam at the singer? How could she make it through the conversation without using the phrase "double standard"? It seems more than passing likely she's never heard either phrase, or understood them if she has. McCain acted the fluffy bunny to the extent that Maher took on a distinctly kind and avuncular role, even literally leaping up to defend her when Begala treated her like a grown-up, as well as gently telling her she'd done well before launching into his concluding monologue.
Maher had a nice line to close the show: "Over the last thirty-odd years, Democrats have moved to the right, and the Right has moved into a mental hospital." And that's a nice line to close this post with, as it circles right back 'round to Palin and the acre of snakes.