Sarah Palin: I Endorse To 'Shake Things Up' In Washington

by JASmius

The question, of course, is not her motivation, but why her endorsement carries any weight:

Sarah Palin on Thursday endorsed Mississippi state Senator Chris McDaniel in his tea party-backed bid to block Republican Senator Thad Cochran from winning a seventh term this fall.

In an exclusive question-and-answer session with Newsmax, the former governor of Alaska says she will continue to endorse conservative candidates with "integrity and a steel spine" who are willing to stand up to the permanent political class and not just go along to get along with "the corrupt status quo."...

Palin also told Newsmax that the Republicans had "better" retake the Senate this fall and that if she had said "even one-tenth of the crazy things" Vice President Joe Biden had said during the 2008 presidential campaign, "the media would call for me to be institutionalized."

Oh, don't sell yourself so short, 'cuda; fact is, you're far less entertaining and much more annoying than Slow Joe could ever be.

Now don't take this as a swipe at SP for going after Thad Cochran; I've always said that Tea Party primary challenges in safely "red" states are perfectly fine in that the risk of throwing away a seat to the Democrats is minimal.  And....seven terms?  That's getting a wee bit excessive, term limits or no term limits.  Chris McDaniel could very well represent fresh blood that could take that baton and keep that seat right on going in the right direction.

What catches my red-hazed eye about this story is the raw egotism radiating out of that cocky phrase, "I endorse to shake things up in Washington".  I know this is going to rub some of you the wrong way even more than it does when I knock Ted Cruz upside the head when he needs it, but there are times when inconvenient truths need to be pointed out.  Such as the fact that in practical terms, Sarah Palin is politically irrelevant, and that she made herself irrelevant by her own choice.

Since it's been awhile since I discussed this topic, let's take a leisurely stroll down memory lane, shall we?

First off, never mind the media's vilification jihad; yes, they damaged Mrs. Palin as a viable national political figure, but she was still in the game from her perch as a state governor.  That's what gave her continued stature and electoral credibility.  No, you will recall that rather than stand and, yes, fight! fight! fight! the blizzard of bogus ethics complaints broadsided against her by Alaska Democrats in an effort to ruin her after she accepted the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomination and for months after the election itself, she....quit.  Surrendered.  Caved.  Ran away.

That was the day I stopped being a Sarah Palin fan.  And make no mistake, I was a huge Sarah Palin fan up to that point.  What has always baffled me is that she retained any following after pulling that el foldo.

Not that I didn't understand why she cut and ran.  She had her family and its finances to think about.  Alaska governors don't earn all that much, she didn't take any great fortune to Juneau with her, and the legal fees of defending herself from all those ethics attacks were bankrupting the Palins.  It was trademark Donk partisan scorched earth.  So 'cuda had to choose between her political ambitions and her family.  She chose her family.  I don't fault her for that.  It was the right choice - one that a lot of pols wouldn't have made in her position.

So on June 26th, 2009, not even halfway through her first term, Sarah Palin resigned as Governor of Alaska, and embarked on a new career as a well-paid media gadfly and anti-Republican back-stabber.

Sorry, folks, but that's the truth.  Again, I don't really care all that much about her antics when they are targeted at GOP incumbents in "red" states, but in swing and "blue" states - e.g. the 2010 senate races in Nevada, Colorado, and especially Delaware, all winnable seats that the Tea Party kicked away - the consequences can be disastrous for the cause that Sarah Palin claims to represent.

What I don't get is why she thinks that her endorsements will, or should, "shake up" anything anymore.  In the 2010 midterm cycle I could see her tossing off such Tony Stark-esque boasts, as she still basked in the glow from the huge splash her emergence on the national stage made in 2008; that led more or less directly to the rise of the Tea Party the following year, and that synergized in turn with Mrs. Palin's "populist" reputation.  It was almost like she'd spawned her own movement.  That was how she could "shake things up" just by opening her mouth.

But today?  It's four years later, almost five years since she fled Juneau for the easy life of celebrityhood.  She hasn't so much as sniffed in the direction of political activism, much less getting back into electoral politics.  Rather than challenge Mark Begich for the senate seat Democrats stole from Ted Stevens, she took another stab at a "reality" TV gig.  Now as I assume that that's what she preferred to do, that's fine.  And nobody, least of all I, am suggesting that she not speak out on any subject she wishes.  But given all of the above, why should her word carry any particular weight?  From whence is supposed to cometh the gravitas one would think would be necessary to "shake up Washington" just by a posted note on a Facebook page?  And where does she come off thinking not just that it will, but that it should?  I mean, hasn't the Tea Party moved on?  Haven't TPers like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and others taken that symbolic leadership baton from 'cuda?  Isn't she yesterday's news - again, by her own choices?

I'm not asking that Sarah Palin shut up; I'd just like to see her do something substantive to replenish the grounds underlying what is, at this point, a burgeoningly overinflated sense of self-regard that is bearing an uncomfortably increasing resemblance to somebody else from that 2008 race.

The irony is, it's probably too late.