I can’t decide.

Sarah Palin & Rush Limbaugh: media whore hog nonthreats, or legitimate conservative voices?

A big part of me wants to dismiss them, refuse to discuss them, will them into obscurity. This part thinks that the type of rhetoric coming out of these two mouths is backward-thinking, divisive, and sensationalist - and that discussing them at all helps legitimize this type of thinking. I’d almost rather ignore them than add to the growing pile of liberal outrage; it seems that arguing against nonsense makes nonsense appear to be a worthwhile position to take (because why bother arguing against it if it’s such nonsense?), and make neocons gleeful that they’re getting under our skins.

The other part of me acknowledges that the more voices we hear, the better, and that the marketplace of ideas works best when everyone can set up shop. I shouldn’t be so smug as to declare another opinion irrational or illegitimate. If I find something particularly repellent or simply wrong, then it’s up to me to say why in a thoughtful way.

And the cynic inside me cheers YES! when I hear ‘pundits’ ask if one of these two is going to be the new face of the GOP.  Media bashing and culturally insensitive remarks might make for entertaining (?) talk radio / interviews, but it’s hard to imagine a mainstream political following for either of their philosophies. So perhaps the more we help El Rushbo and Miss Wasilla in their endeavor to have all eyes (and ears) on them, one of two things could happen: they’ll fade quickly as people tire of their egos, or they’ll become the new faces of the Republican party and we can expect Dems in the White House for the next 16 years.

What do you think? To discuss or not to discuss?

Events took a tragic turn yesterday when the Senator and 7-time felon Sarah Palin likes to pal around with lost his re-election bid to, of all things, a Democrat. That’s right - Anchorage mayor Mark Begich has beaten Senator Ted Stevens by about 3,700 votes.

Why poor Sarah, you ask?

Because: this means that a Democrat will represent Alaska in the Senate for the first time since 1981; that the Senate no longer has to oust Stevens, its longest-serving Republican member; and that Governor Palin won’t be able to nominate herself to run against Begich in a special election after Stevens is given the boot.

Nope. Poor Sarah will have to cool her heels for a couple of years in Alaska, building that pipeline she promised to build, balancing the budget, and inviting media personalities over for some moose chili and interivews.

The 85 year-old Ted Stevens may be headed for prison, but Sarah Palin is probably the one crying about it.

And may this be the last post I have to write about her.

McCain aides, depressed over the crushing loss and probably attempting to save their own careers as political consultants, have enthusiastically blamed Governor Sarah Palin for the loss.

They’ve been leaking tidbits to Fox News. Tidbits like (I’m paraphrasing) “Palin didn’t understand that Africa is a continent and not a county…and asked whether South Africa is really just the southern part of the African country” and “Palin didn’t understand basic civics” and “Palin didn’t understand the nations involved in NAFTA” and “couldn’t name all the countries in North America”.

While I can appreciate this in a Wow I’m Glad She’s Not in Charge kind of way, I think it’s pathetic that the campaign is smearing her and attempting to blame her for the loss.

For once, Michelle Malkin and I agree on something!

If all of these things about Palin are true, whose fault is it?

Hint: It’s the fault of the damn people who chose her without vetting.

How dare the McCain aides blame her for the loss? McCain campaign staffers: you should be blaming yourselves. She was the weakest candidate I’ve ever seen for the position, and you are responsible for choosing her. YOU.

YOU are also responsible for turning this unknown quantity loose to campaign in the nastiest, most fearmongering way possible. YOU are responsible for the millions of McCain supporters who today say that, in addition to being disappointed and depressed by the election outcome, they are literally afraid of President-elect Obama.

If your job is to run campaigns, YOU need to take responsibility for them.

YOU.

If she had, instead, helped McCain to win on election day, you would have clapped each other on the back and congratulated yourselves for the brilliant choice.

Instead, in the wake of the rejection of your ticket, you’re blaming her? Leaking little snide comments in order to make yourselves look better?

No. No way. Look in the mirror. The problem was YOU.

Take responsibility for yourselves.

Is it a unique trait of Alaskan politicians to ignore reality, especially where things like “convictions” and “ethics violations” and “abuses of power” rear their ugly heads?

Alaska Governor and VP candidate Sarah Palin, after her state legislature found her guilty of breaking Alaska’s ethics law, said:

Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.

And then last night during a Senate candidates’ debate, days after he was convicted of SEVEN FELONIES, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens said:

“I have not been convicted of anything,” he maintained during a Thursday night debate in Anchorage, only days before Tuesday’s election.

The debate, sponsored by Alaska Public Television, pitted Stevens, who is seeking re-election, against his opponent, Democratic Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, in a tight race.

“I’m not going to step down. I have not been convicted. I have a case pending against me, and probably the worse case of prosecutorial … misconduct by the prosecutors that is known,” Stevens said.

“I think you will find out, I will succeed and I’ll be found innocent.”

Senator Stevens will probably refer to his room in the Big House as his “state-funded refuge from prosecutorial wolves” while he awaits his glorious vindication.

From Andrew Romano’s Stumper page:

So, what do you think explains the scarf around Palin’s neck?

A. Her stylist is playing a trick on her, knowing that Palin won’t notice.

B. Palin feels badly about the pro-America remark and is making amends.

C. Palin is secretly a Democratic plant who’s out to sabotage McCain’s presidency bid, and the scarf is a message to liberals.

D. Palin is dragging the McCain ticket down, so she’s pretending to be a Democrat in the hopes that people will associate her with Obama instead.