# Scum and villainy: Republicans already throwing Palin under the bus. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2008, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420 "2008-11-06T05:44:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/121 "2008-11-06T20:23:54Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > In her defense, she does seem to know where Russia is. As long as it’s light outside. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/122 "2008-11-06T20:26:43Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > That’s true. It’s really something I’m only just grasping, the almost total venality of Sarah Palin. It just keeps getting [better and better](http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYZbTxSNljYjG82pCa7QmO35faSg): > [@](#): > > One senior aide told the magazine that she was told to buy three suits for the Republican National Convention and hire a stylist, but instead, the vice-presidential nominee began amassing costly goods from stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus… > > …a Republican party lawyer is reportedly heading to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in Palin’s possession. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/123 "2008-11-06T20:31:25Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > The GOP does not need the world to see some of the racist, violent folks (that are certainly the minority of the party). I suppose that the GOP Grand High Mucketimucks (or staffers who report to them) must have seen some of the same YouTube videos we have, and started shitting bricks at the thought of what might happen if she ran at the top of the ticket, thus putting her under a more intense microscope for several times as long. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/124 "2008-11-06T20:33:43Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Sure, I can fully understand that this information would eventually leak out, but this is so incredibly cold and ruthless. One of the other faction leaders of the GOP is declaring, “Now, you die, and we all move up in rank!” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/125 "2008-11-06T20:36:49Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > One of the other faction leaders of the GOP is declaring, “Now, you die, and we all move up in rank!” That’s not how it works. Natural death does not suffice for a general round of promotions; someone must be murdered. Geez, what do they teach in these schools? ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/126 "2008-11-06T20:41:34Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > But the question wasn’t what countries are in North America. It was what countries were in NAFTA. Her first clue was in the name. **N** orth **A** merican Free Trade Agreement. That would mean she doesn’t know what the letters in NAFTA stand for, which is equally stupid (or ignorant). ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/127 "2008-11-06T20:42:13Z")
She isn’t going to run in 2012, if she does she isn’t going to win, but I’m worried she’ll become a [Senator](http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/11/05/senator-palin.aspx). She can screw with Alaska all she wants, they voted for her, but a seat in the Senate makes me think Stevens wasn’t so bad after all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/128 "2008-11-06T20:43:20Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Geez, what do they teach in these schools? Gay Marriage! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/129 "2008-11-06T20:48:53Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > I’m just strongly suspicious of Fox News changing its spots less than 24 hours after a crushing political defeat. And I would suggest that if they were truly patriotic, they would have felt obligated to reveal the scope of her brutal stupidity to the American public BEFORE they made their electoral choice. But no. Loyalty to the party trumps loyalty to country. This. Its the very first thing that Carl Cameron when the anchor gives him the go-to: “Well, I wish I could have told you back at the time, but all of it was put off the record until after the election.” WTF? What the fuck kind of journalism is that? Screw Fox News (and Newsweek, too) for making this type of deal. I want my journalists to tell me what’s happening in on-going news stories, to bring me information while it is still relevant. Can you imagine if McCain/Palin had won, and then we found out this stuff? It would have been the greatest hoodwink the country had ever seen. Fuck Fox, fuck Newsweek, and fuck any other journalistic endeavour that signs on to this kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/130 "2008-11-06T20:58:22Z")
I really think what we’re seeing here is a growing divide between the ‘bible thumping republicans’ and the ‘fiscally conservative republicans’. The first were never happy with McCain and the later blame the first for holding them back with Independents. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/131 "2008-11-06T21:03:12Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > WTF? What the fuck kind of journalism is that? > > Screw Fox News (and Newsweek, too) for making this type of deal. Actually, i believe that journalistic ethics dictate that, if you agree to hear an off-the-record comment, you are obliged to respect the wishes of he person who gives you the information. Now, someone can’t retrospectively tell you that something is off the record. They can’t (or shouldn’t be able to) call you and say, “Hey, that thing i told you on the record last week? That’s now off the record.” Sorry, too late. But if someone says to you, “I’ll tell you this, but it’s off the record until after the election,” and you choose to hear the information under those conditions, then you are required by journalistic ethics to honor the conditions. At least, i’m pretty sure that’s how it works. I’d appreciate anyone with newspaper experience who can contribute to this discussion. Paging **Jonathan Chance** to the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/132 "2008-11-06T21:31:39Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Actually, i believe that journalistic ethics dictate that, if you agree to hear an off-the-record comment, you are obliged to respect the wishes of he person who gives you the information. > > Now, someone can’t retrospectively tell you that something is off the record. They can’t (or shouldn’t be able to) call you and say, “Hey, that thing i told you on the record last week? That’s now off the record.” Sorry, too late. > > But if someone says to you, “I’ll tell you this, but it’s off the record until after the election,” and you choose to hear the information under those conditions, then you are required by journalistic ethics to honor the conditions. > > At least, i’m pretty sure that’s how it works. I’d appreciate anyone with newspaper experience who can contribute to this discussion. Paging **Jonathan Chance** to the thread. Yeah, I’m hip to what you are saying, and I agree that it would be wrong to break the agreement once it’s reached. I’m saying that this type of agreement is not something a news-gathering organization should make. I’m thinking about authors who follow a football coach for a year and then write a book; that seems ok, right? But what if the author sees the coach slap a player? Or direct his assistant coach to get someone to take a star player’s exams? Isn’t there at some point an ethical lapse in not informing people that things are happening that are wrong? I thought that was what being a journalist was all about: discovering facts, and putting them out there for the public to know. These type of secrecy agreements make for sensational stories, but they also allow situations like we have right now: seeming-complicity in trying to hoodwink the public or enabling the wrong-doing through silence. I think journalists should be asking themselves: is the interest of the fourth estate, and the public at large, best served in this manner? My answer to this is “no”. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/133 "2008-11-06T21:32:12Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I think they are scared of her. A dedicated base can’t win national elections by itself, but a dedicated base operating off the cult of personality CAN win primaries. It’s always true; a political party needs to get its ass kicked twice to learn a lesson. I theorized to someone a few weeks back that Obama would have one hell of a time getting re-elected in 2012 because things would be tough for him. But in retrospect, I was totally wrong, because the GOP is probably going to fuck up that election in the most catastrophic, flaming-school-bus-wreck, hilarious manner. Then I remmebered; a party needs to lose twice to learn their lesson. They will, stupdily, think they need to get more extreme to win. I’d give the GOP a three in four chance of nominating an evangelical nutball, running a campaign that would make McCain-Palin look like Obama’s campaign by comparison, and be absolutely annihilated on November 6, 2012. I’m talking Obama taking 400 or more electoral votes. Then, in 2016, the GOP will be ready to put up a serious candidate. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/134 "2008-11-06T21:52:16Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Gay Marriage! _looks panicked_ _faints dramatically_ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/135 "2008-11-06T21:55:32Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s always true; a political party needs to get its ass kicked twice to learn a lesson. > > I theorized to someone a few weeks back that Obama would have one hell of a time getting re-elected in 2012 because things would be tough for him. But in retrospect, I was totally wrong, because the GOP is probably going to fuck up that election in the most catastrophic, flaming-school-bus-wreck, hilarious manner. Then I remmebered; a party needs to lose twice to learn their lesson. They will, stupdily, think they need to get more extreme to win. Mightn’t that first loss be the '06 election? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/136 "2008-11-06T21:59:18Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > …a Republican party lawyer is reportedly heading to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in Palin’s possession. So, you think he’s excited he gets to dig through Palin’s drawers, or do you think he’s on the plane thinking “I went to law school for this?”. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/137 "2008-11-06T22:11:16Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > WTF? What the fuck kind of journalism is that? These are the kinds of deals that need to be made to penetrate the campaigns deeply. You’re saying they should have demanded the right to release the info sooner, but I’m thinking they wouldn’t have gotten the information at all without making this promise. I’m sure they started from the position closest to their interests (which happen to coincide with ours in this case) and negotiated inward until they found a consensus. Remember that they had to get both parties to agree to the same conditions, which is probably a hell of a lot harder than you’re giving them credit for. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/138 "2008-11-06T22:26:41Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > This one. But it will soon be dark again and she will rise from her icy coffin. Time to drive a stake through her heart. The woman is an unapologetic liar. So in 2012, she will simply say “All relevant medical records were already released”, “Everything you need to know we told you four years ago”, and “We disclosed that information in the past and see no reason to revisit it now.” And many people will have short memories and let it slide, taking her word as truth. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/139 "2008-11-06T22:29:33Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZHTJsR4Bc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZHTJsR4Bc) > > …in which the Republicans give the “inside scoop” on the problems they had with Palin, including her astonishing ignorance about basic geography, to say nothing of geopolitics. > > She didn’t know what countries make up NAFTA. > > She didn’t know that Africa is a continent. > > " " **We are told that** …\*She didn’t know what countries make up NAFTA. She didn’t know that Africa is a continent."\* Anyone got a direct quote of Palin not knowing these things? ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420/140 "2008-11-06T22:30:43Z")
No, and that’s an excellent point, **DrDeth**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scum-and-villainy-republicans-already-throwing-palin-under-the-bus/471420.md?page=8)