Walt Monegan tells more truth about Sarah Palin
May 19, 2011
In an interview with Alex De Marban of Alaska Newspapers, Inc., which publishes six regional weeklies, Walt Monegan, Alaska’s Director of Public Safety, whom Sarah fired in 2008 because he refused to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, from the Alaska State Troopers, recounts the history of his interactions with her.
His bottom line: “If she would have said, ‘Walt, I don’t like your hair. You’re outta here,’ that would have made more sense.”
Sarah Palin fired Walt Monegan in an act of petulance and vindictiveness because he would not commit a wrong she insisted on.
I write in considerable detail about the Palin family campaign–in which Todd played a leading role–to have Mike Wooten fired from his state trooper job because he and Sarah’s sister, Molly, were in the midst of a bitter divorce.
Sarah’s abuses of power in her extended campaign to have Wooten’s head served to her and Todd on a silver platter created the scandal known as “Troopergate.”
As I write in THE ROGUE,
The Troopergate imbroglio is worth examining in detail because Sarah’s actions, and those of her husband on her behalf, expose so clearly the vengeful, obsessive nature of the person who lurks behind the mask of sexiness and chirpy insouciance.
And I’m not referring to Walt Monegan.
He doesn’t wear masks.
I also write:
Sarah said she’d fired Monegan because he’d displayed a “rogue mentality.” Sarah apparently felt that “going rogue” was acceptable only when she did it herself.
I got to know Walt and his wife, Terry, last summer. There are not two finer people in Alaska.
Over coffee in Eagle River one morning, Walt told me that Sarah “just thought she should be able to do anything she wanted to, and that anybody working for her had an obligation to help…Maybe she hadn’t realized there were limits on her power. Maybe she thought being governor meant she could do anything she wanted to anyone. I loved my job and I’m sorry she took it from me, but I’ve never had a moment’s doubt about what I did.”
Walt Monegan combines intelligence, dedication and integrity to a degree that makes him very special.
Although he grew increasingly disillusioned, he remained loyal to Sarah Palin until she and Todd pressured him to betray his principles: something he would not do.
In her petulance and vengefulness, Sarah deprived the state of Alaska of the services of a remarkable man.
You can read much more about Walt Monegan in THE ROGUE.
Posted in Joe McGinniss, Mike Wooten, Sarah Palin, The Rogue, Todd Palin, Walt Monegan | 
Tags: abuse of power, alaska, alaska newspapers inc., alaska state troopers, alex de marban, divorce, going rogue, lies, mike wooten, molly heath, molly mccann, molly wooten, rogue, rogue mentality, Sarah Palin, sexiness, the rogue, Todd Palin, troopergate, vendettas, walt monegan | 
52 Comments »
New Gallup Poll Shows Romney-Palin Tossup for GOP Nomination//UPDATE//UPDATE 1.1
May 18, 2011
I place little credence in long-term polls, but this one has to be considered a warning shot across the bow of all those purveyors of conventional wisdom who have decided that Sarah Palin can be safely stored in our collective memory/nightmare bank.
Think about how she must view developments of the past few days: two people who were outpolling her have chosen not to enter the race. Absent Huckabee and Trump (always a farce, but even Slate bought into it late last month ), Sarah finds herself rising to the top by default.
To Sarah, this likely seems evidence that God is, in fact, opening the doors for her and sending her a message that she is His chosen candidate, the Christian leader best prepared to wage war on the secretly-Muslim darkie who occupies the White House.
Given her egomania and ambition, and her belief that she has been anointed by God to prepare the USA for the second coming of Jesus, why would she not run?
And let’s not ignore what Rachel Weiner reported in the Washington Post: she just sent out 400,000 solicitations seeking donations to SarahPAC. She entitled her pitch letter “2012 Can’t Come Soon Enough.”
Does this sound like someone who’s not planning to enter the race?
UPDATE:
Politico features new poll results: “Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin jump to top in new Gallup poll.”
She’ll be on FOX twice tonight: with Sean Hannity and with Eric Bolling. No doubt Hannity will ask about these poll results and whether she’s going to run. No doubt she’ll duck the question. What’s the hurry to announce when she can become a front-runner by doing nothing?
UPDATE 1.1:
Outside-the-beltway right-wingers climbing back on board the S.S. Sarah.
Posted in 2012, Donald Trump, Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Obama, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | Tags: 2012 gop candidates, christian, god, GOP primaries, huckabee, muslims, rachel weiner, war, Washington Post | 86 Comments »
Enter THE ROGUE Last Chapter Contest Here…$250 Prize for Winner!
May 17, 2011
Here’s the best chance for you commenters–and anybody else who has an idea about what the last chapter of my book about Sarah Palin should say–to make a difference.
I’m about to start writing the last chapter of THE ROGUE. It’s due for delivery to my publisher Random House/Crown on June 3.
Tell me, please, what you think I should say, why I should say it, and how I can prove it to an extent that would pass legal vetting.
Trig is not off limits–nothing is off limits–but I’m not going to devote the chapter to showing how Figure A or Figure B proves that Sarah was or was not pregnant with that child. I’ll make my own views on that question clear in THE ROGUE.
So the matter before us today is: if you had five thousand words, more or less, in which you could summarize The Rise and Fall (and Possible Rebirth) of Sarah Palin, how would you use them? What would you say?
Please remember, in THE ROGUE, I am not preaching to the converted: I can’t–nor do I want to–write a final chapter that contains only snark and invective. The first twenty chapters don’t do that, so–despite the fact that I won’t pull punches–I don’t want to leave those who read the finished book with the taste of bile in their mouths.
Let’s put it this way: imagine yourself in a dialogue with a friend who respected your opinions.
You have three or four minutes, without interruption, to explain why Sarah Palin is every bit as bad as you believe her to be, and why she continues to be a danger to the USA.
What would you say? How would you say it?
As I’m working on my last chapter, I’d love to know.
I’d love to know so much, in fact, that I’m offering a $250 prize to whoever gives me the best suggestion about what I should write in the next two weeks–whether it’s a phrase, a sentence, or whether you take five thousand words to express it.
thanks,
Joe
Posted in 2012, evangelical, Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Obama, right wing, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, The Rogue | Tags: contest, joe mcginniss, joe mcginniss writing contest, Sarah Palin, the rogue, valley refuse, writing contest | 193 Comments »
“Joe McGinniss’s Massachusetts”
May 16, 2011
I can’t confirm the details yet, but it’s like…sooo likely that I’ll sign a deal this week with the VOYEUR division of F! ENTERTAINMENT to star in a fall reality show to be called:
JOE McGINNISS’s MASSACHUSETTS
So, Bristol and Levi: watch your backs!
The show will be both patriotic and inspirational (not to mention self-aggrandizing,) as cameras follow me around the state I live in when I’m not in Alaska, and I stage a series of utterly artificial events designed to simulate “reality” for those who have not yet made the distinction between real life and televised entertainment.
The following list of episodes is tentative, preliminary and subject to change, but here’s how the show is shaping up so far:
1) “GRANDPA GRIZZLY” The premiere will show me in my natural habitat, coexisting–at the edge of the unforgiving wilderness–with my (not unforgiving) multi-generational family, even as I have to cope with the invasion of privacy posed by new neighbors who demand that I build a high fence to discourage them from peering at me while I putter in my garden (in my tank top, no less!) and frolic in my private “swimming hole”:
2) “CLAM GULCH” Did you ever wonder what goes into making great Massachusetts fried clams, besides grease? Follow along as I lead an expedition to the Clam Box in Ipswich to find the answer. Watch the grandkids take turns on the shelling line as Grandpa Grizzly bellies up to the deep fat fryer.
3) ‘HE’S A GREAT SHOT!” No better way (except for self-induced vomiting) to get over a fried clam binge than by opening up with both barrels on defenseless stuffed animals. That’s what I do in this episode, filmed on location at the Flag at Half Mast amusement park in West Persimmon. Tension runs high as the wee ones try to outshoot Grandpa Grizzly in order to win the last pink teddy bear.
4) “WHAT NEWSPAPERS DO YOU READ?”
It’s ambush time as I charge out of the high grass surrounding Harvard Square to ask the effete liberal intellectuals what newspapers and magazines they get their news and opinions from. I don’t want to spoil the suspense, but can you say Mechanix Illustrated?
5) “KNOW YOUR ENEMY” Our whole gang piles into the Subaru Forester for the road trip to Methuen, an all-too-neglected and derided community in the northeastern corner of our great state. As Grandpa Grizzly, I’ll be bringing my seven grandchildren to meet all five of the Level Three Sex Offenders currently residing in Methuen, just so the kids will be able to know how worried to be if a new neighbor moves into the house next door.
6) “FIFTEEN-TWO, FIFTEEN-FOUR” Nothing captures the competitive spirit of Bay State residents quite like the annual Knights of Columbus Fr. Edmund W. Croke Council No. 4982 cribbage tournament held each year in Wilmington. Watch me try to outpeg some of the Commonwealth’s craftiest cribbers in a no holds barred competition that makes Texas Holdem look like Old Maid.
7) “THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS: THE REAL STORY”
Not many events in American history have received worse treatment in the lamestream liberal media than this courageous attempt by residents of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to free their communities from the spell of witchcraft in 1692-93. It’s time the truth was told: there were witches afoot in Essex, Sussex and Middlesex counties, and the Salem trials broke their satanic stranglehold and paved the way for the Puritan Work Ethic that has made this country the great nation it is today.
With special guest appearance by Rev. Thomas Muthee
8) “THE MUSEUM OF BAD ART”
It’s back in the Forester for Grandpa Grizzly and the gang (“Seat belts fastened, kids: you’re not in Alaska!”) as we drive to Dedham for a visit to the Massachusetts Museum of Bad Art, located in the basement of the Dedham Community Theater. Since 1995, MOBA has been displaying some of the most horrific images ever put on canvas, such as this new acquisition, titled “Sarah and Piper”:
But watch me upset the applecart when I ask the museum’s curator, “What gives you the right to call it bad? Suppose I like it?”
9) “THANKSGIVING SPECIAL”
No more fitting way to wrap up the season than with an intimate look inside the McGinniss family as it gears up for the annual Pilgrim Pig-Out that first occurred in Plymouth in 1621.
Each year, I try to give the grandkids a glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak, at some of Thanksgiving’s unsung heroes. This year, we visit Cape Cod cranberry magnate Warren Smith, who first gained fame when he admitted to Wally Ballou in a Times Square interview 26 Wally Ballou – the Cranberry Man In Times Square that he’d never realized cranberries could be used to make juice or sauce.
Grandpa Grizzly and the gang will sample plenty of both. I’ll also interview some of the very thankful migrant workers Smith now employs in his bogs as they express gratitude for being able to work for less than half the pay Smith used to offer locals.
So that’s how Season One is shaping up so far. Naturally, I’ll keep you updated here, of course, about both the show and The Rogue.
Sarah Palin Hits Daily Double: Obama Okays New Alaskan Oil Drilling & Huckabee Says He Won’t Run
May 15, 2011
The president’s announcement, which included plans for expanded drilling in Alaska demonstrate[s] his commitment to reducing oil imports by increasing domestic production…Mr. Obama said the administration would begin to hold annual auctions for oil and gas leases in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, a 23-million-acre tract on the North Slope of Alaska. The move comes after years of demands for the auctions by industry executives and Alaska’s two senators, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat.
In crediting Murkowski and Begich for the policy change, The New York Times omitted the name of Sarah Palin, who’s been screaming about this for at least as long and even more loudly than have Alaska’s two U.S. senators.
Hours later, Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa Caucus, announced he would not be a candidate next year.
Today’s news makes it clearer than ever that Sarah will have a second chance–and her last chance–at the brass ring of national political power.
And don’cha think she’s gonna take it?
Because Sarah is not an elected official, but only a celebrity screecher from the sidelines, she can’t claim credit (except on her Twitter and Facebook pages and on Fox News) for having persuaded President Obama to change his mind about the vital economic and environmental issues posed by the prospect of reopening Alaska’s North Slope to further exploration (some would say “exploitation”) by Big Oil.
And won’t it gall her to see Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in particular, cited as one who made “demands” to which President Obama eventually caved?
Especially with Huckabee handing her, gift wrapped, the USA’s evangelical base, it seems obvious that Sarah will announce her candidacy for president later this year: if she doesn’t, a year from now people won’t even remember how she spells her name. (Is it p-a-l-i-n, or p-a-l-l-i-n, as in “pallin’ around with terrorists”?)
Even if, as many argue, the personal bottom line of http:www.Palingrifters.com is what Sarah cares about most (or only), she must recognize that as soon as she definitively takes herself out of the GOP 2012 candidate pool (aka “The Sargasso Sea”), nobody will care any more about what she says, what she wears, how she looks, Track’s latest brush with the law, Bristol’s latest plastic surgery, Willow’s latest brush with the law, or even whether she really gave birth to Trig.
Sarah’s greatest fear is irrelevance. What if she fell in a forest and nobody heard?
Bruce Springsteen might as well have been writing Fade Away for Sarah in 1980, when she was a sophomore at Wasilla High:
I don’t wanna fade away
Oh I don’t wanna fade away
Tell me what can I do what can I say
Cause darlin’ I don’t wanna fade away
Do you really think she’ll just fade away now?
Having come out of nowhere to get this far, will she go gently into that good night without even a last hurrah?
Especially after Huckabee’s Saturday night announcement that he won’t run,
His decision to forgo a run presumably leaves that space wide open for Ms. Palin, a self described “Bible-believing Christian”
Doesn’t it seem that God is working overtime this weekend to open doors for her so she can plow through?
Hope he gets at least time-and-a-half.
Posted in 2012, evangelical, Fox, Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Obama, Palin children, right wing, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, The Rogue | Tags: bruce springsteeen, doorman, evangelical, fade away, god, huckabee, lisa murkowski, mark begich, new york times, sargasso sea, the river, willow palin | 30 Comments »
Christwire.Org Warns “Mercury Poisoning” Could Derail Wasilla HS Graduation
May 14, 2011
The Christian dominionist website Christwire.org, which is dedicated to promulgating “Conservative Values for an Unsaved World,” has weighed in on the controversy that erupted this week when a few Wasilla High School graduating seniors of dubious sexuality objected to their principal’s efforts to save them from the effects of Mercury poisoning.
Christwire, which recently urged menstruating women to stay off the internet for fear that hormonal imbalance puts them at risk for engaging in un-Christian discourse–“Remember women, forgoing negativity and bad language is one of the sacrifices that God asks of us. To be an adherent Christian, you must be committed to forgoing web usage when you are menstruating”—warned that fans of the television show Glee were “creating a Gay-Sharia law in Sarah Palin’s backyard.”
Christwire bemoaned the fact that Wasilla HS principal Dwight Probasco has been “completely thrown under the homosexual agenda Glee bus.”
In addition–perhaps picking up on rumors that new-look Bristol Palin may soon marry one of the many Wasilla men believed to be not the father of her child–Christwire offers a guide to “10 Classy Christian Bridesmaids’ Gifts, including this attractive Fish Trivet:
Posted in Palin children, Sarah Palin, Wasilla | Tags: christian weddings, dwight probasco, elton john, freddy mercury, graduation, internet, menstruation, mercury poisoning, wasilla high school | 15 Comments »
Dateline, Wasilla: HS Principal Bans Song Because Gay Man Wrote It//UPDATE: Will they ban the movie in Wasilla, too?///UPDATE 1.1: Which One Is Gay?
May 12, 2011
WASILLA HS STUDENTS REHEARSING “BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY”
The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reports today that the principal of Wasilla High School told members of the school’s symphonic jazz choir that they would not be allowed to perform the 1975 Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody” because Freddy Mercury, who wrote it, was gay.
In the face of student protests, and fearing ACLU involvement, the principal backed down–to a point.
The choir will be allowed to perform the song, but only in a censored version, without lyrics the principal deems objectionable.
Three points about this:
1) Bravo to Wasilla High seniors for fighting back.
2) Wasilla High has a symphonic jazz choir? Humph. They never had that sort of thing in Sarah Palin’s day.
3) In Wasilla, in the Year of Our Lord 2011, there can be controversy about a song simply because the songwriter was gay. Sarah Palin is, in every way, a daughter of Wasilla. If this is what it’s like in 2011, imagine the ethos in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, when she grew up there.
Actually, you won’t have to imagine, because I describe the atmosphere in detail in THE ROGUE.
UPDATE:
Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat”) will portray Freddy Mercury in a new movie being written by Peter Morgan, who wrote “The Queen” and “The Last King of Scotland.” Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Productions is producing it.
I’m sure my friend Verne Rupright, current mayor of Wasilla, will take no action to prevent its showing in Wasilla theaters, but it might have been a different story back in the days of Sarah Palin’s mayoral regime.
Even so, the question remains: will Wasilla High students be permitted to attend?
Two further notes about Mercury: he was actually bisexual, not homosexual, and (here’s where it gets truly sinister) his real name was Farrokh Bulsara, and he was a Parsi Zoroastrian born in Zanzibar. That alone should be enough to ban his music from Wasilla High playlists forevermore. Can’t those kids sing songs written by Americans? I wonder if Chuck Heath will weigh in on this.
UPDATE 1.1
The estimable Alaskan blogger, composer, musician and music teacher, Phil Munger, posts this photo of Wasilla High School principal Dwight Probasco, who banned Freddie Mercury’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and another non-hetero British singer and songwriter, Elton John, and poses the question: Separated at Birth?
Phil also writes:
“My feathers are ruffled. If Wasillians are going to be consistent, they’ll need to ban the following composers and their work:
Samuel Barber – No more Adagio for Strings, Dwight
Leonard Bernstein – Don’t you dare play anything from West Side Story, my friend
Aaron Copland – Watch out for those hidden messages in Fanfare for the Common Man
Noël Coward – no more Mad Dogs & Englishmen
Charles Tomlinson Griffes – careful, Dwight, a piece for flute or piano might sneak into a solo and ensemble contest
Elton John – empty the sky, Dwight. Right now!
Dave Koz – he was a hit in Anchorage, but don’t play his version ofWhite Christmas at WHS
k.d. lang – put her in Shadowland forever, Dwight
Gian Carlo Menotti – those little operas have been done at thousands of high schools, but keep away from Dwight
Cole Porter – there go about 500 really good songs, Dwight
Stephen Sondheim – Gypsy, West Side Story, A Little Night Music orCompany. Oh – wait! West Side Story’s already banned because of Lenny
Billy Strayhorn – Can’t Take the A Train if you’re a WHS Warrior
Peter Tchaikovsky – What was the secret message in The Nutcracker, Dwight?”
Oh, and by the way, Principal Probasco, Phil Munger isn’t gay, so maybe you’ll let him attend the graduation performance of the censored version of “Bohemian Rhapsody?”
Posted in Chuck Heath, Joe McGinniss, right wing, Sarah Palin | Tags: "the last king of scotland", "the queen", alaska, bohemian rhapsody, dwight probasco, education in america, freddy mercury, gay, gay composers, gays, graduation, homophobia, parsi, phil munger, progressive alaska, queen, robert de niro, sacha baron cohen, Sarah Palin, verne rupright, wasilla, wasilla high school, zanaibar, zoroastrians | 88 Comments »
Finally! Someone from MSM Admits it: They Need Sarah
May 11, 2011
Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC tells Playboy: “She’s been good for us, and we’ve been good for her. We are doing everything we can to feed her moneymaking capacity by keeping her alive.”
Full interview here.
Posted in 2012, Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | Tags: dan quayle, lawrence o'donnell, MSNBC, palin, playboy, prostitution | 17 Comments »
How Trump Makes Sarah Seem Sane
May 11, 2011
The Hill says today that Sarah and Trump have become political kinfolk.
Guess which strange bedfellow benefits more?
Suddenly, Palin’s experience as governor of Alaska might look more impressive…Trump positions Sarah Palin closer to the establishment intelligentsia than otherwise possible….When presented against the backdrop of Trump and his orange mane, Palin might look more electable and serious.
The conservative base…could be drawn into the arms of Palin when confronted by the specter of Trump…Suddenly, mistaking “refudiate” for “repudiate” — as Palin did last year — seems far less noteworthy, and Palin herself more electable.
The Atlantic yesterday, The Hill today, whose upwardly revisionist view of Sarah’s past record and future prospects will we find ourselves blessed with tomorrow?
Posted in 2012, Donald Trump, mainstream media, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, The Rogue | Tags: 2012 gop candidates, donald trump, palin, primaries, revisionist history, the atlantic, the hill | 7 Comments »
Right Wing Rallies Round “The Tragedy of Sarah Palin”
Pen a fantasy about how Sarah Palin could have been Barack Obama if only she weren’t so:
a) selfish
b) filled with anger, resentment and hate
c) greedy
d) stupid and uneducated
e) all of the above
and you tap into a deep vein of right-wing nostalgia for the Sarah-Who-Never-Was, which will prove of immense benefit to your personal brand and career.
I’m not impugning Joshua Green’s motives for writing his “Sarah-We-Hardly-Knew-Ye” paean of praise in the June issue of The Atlantic.
I’m sure he felt he had a legitimate, counter-intuitive, against the flow argument to make. He’s proven himself to be an excellent and fair-minded reporter in the past. And nobody should knock him just because his first job in “journalism” was at The Onion.
It may be that with “The Tragedy of Sarah Palin,” Green is returning to his satirical roots. Although if you read some of the comments in response to my earlier post, “If Only Sarah Weren’t Sarah, She Coulda Been a Contender,” you’ll find some strong fact-based arguments against Green’s hypothesis.
In any case, I’m sure Green was perspicacious enough to sense the likely windfall that would result from a “St. Sarah, The Fallen Star” story.
And he’s knee-deep in peaches and apples already, as the huzzahs arrive from all the obvious right-wing shills:
—John Podhoretz in Commentary
—Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post
—Ross Douthat in The New York Times
This chorus sings in only one key: the key of sorrow, for the loss of a Sarah Palin who never existed outside the realm of their collective yearning, and who ever existed only as a figment of their collective imagination.
Andrew Sullivan wrote a bracing response yesterday and today added:
Josh’s piece will serve as balm to the right. And it will allow them to believe that their choice of veep in 2008 was not an indictment of them or the media – but just an unfortunate decision by Palin to change her colors. The only problem with this argument is that it is manifestly untrue. But we know that Palin lovers, like Palin herself, must perforce be wedded to mountains of untruth.
Amen.