So as a member of the law and order party, she was for cooperation before she was against it? That's not change we can believe in. That's the same old Republican party, saying one thing and doing another!

Josh Marshall is Losing His Filter [Stephen Spruiell]

He really doesn't know how to handle Palin's popularity, and it's affecting him. Yesterday on the Corner, Byron noted one example of how Marshall has lost his composure. I myself noticed that Marshall called Palin "laughably ignorant" the other day, all because she pointed out that Fannie and Freddie aren't wearing any clothes, and never have been. Now Marshall is stopping just short of calling Palin a child-abuser:

Now it comes out that before she even became governor — and was in a position to abuse her power of office — Palin had to be warned by the judge in the divorce case that her harassment of Wooten amounted to "a form of child abuse."

The quote, in context, from the Newsweek story:

Court documents show that Judge Suddock was disturbed by the alleged attacks by Palin and her family members on Wooten's behavior and character. "Disparaging will not be tolerated—it is a form of child abuse," the judge told a settlement hearing in October 2005, according to typed notes of the proceedings. The judge added: "Relatives cannot disparage either. If occurs [sic] the parent needs to set boundaries for their relatives."

Another quote from the same judge, in the same Newsweek story:

"It is the mother's [Hackett's] responsibility to set boundaries for her relatives and insure [sic] they respect them, and the disparagement by either parent, or their surrogates is emotional child abuse," Judge Suddock wrote. He added that: "If the court finds it is necessary due to disparagement in the Mat-Su Valley [the area north of Anchorage where Palin and her extended family live], for the children's best interests, it [the court] will not hesitate to order custody to the father and a move into Anchorage."

Does Marshall accept Suddock's argument here? Does he agree that Palin's disparagement of Michael Wooten is a form of child abuse? If Wooten really did threaten Palin's family, did she commit child abuse when she registered a complaint against him with the state police?

What about those terrible situations where the worst allegations against one parent are true? If you badmouth this parent such that his kids might find out, is it child abuse? Is it contingent on your relationship to the parent? To the child? On the gravity of the parent's offense? Has Marshall given any thought to these questions, or is he just linking to any attack on Palin he can find?

Of course, it should be noted that Josh Marshall has never disparaged anyone. He has especially not called anyone with small, impressionable children "laughably ignorant" or said of them, "not a single word that comes out of her mouth... is anything but a lie."

I guess I should add to the above that, while judges vary, it would probably take some pretty extreme statements in front of the kids to warrant a term like "child abuse" and to threaten to change custody terms over it. I wonder what those statements were?

One big point in this is that Sarah used her own child in this harassment. This shows how she will use whoever she pleases to get what she wants. This was not her husband, it was her sister's marriage.
It shows she reacts emotionally and seeks emotional alliances without thinking about the devastation it may leave behind. This is not the character we need on the international stage.

I was writing while Ombudsman posted, so I did not have benefit of those thoughts when I said my piece. There is more than a grain of truth in those thoughts (not related to the attack on Marshall). However, even if you concede all or most of what Sarah Palin said about her brother in law is true, the picture of her that emerges is not simply that of a benevolent sister trying to help her sibling out of a bad marriage. She is an obssessed intervenor in the fight. The degree of that intervention will never be known.
Was she an instigator? A concerned Aunt? Who knows. But she carried her family fight into the public arena and lied about it when called on it.

All this adds to the picture painted by Palin as a public official. Firing department heads as Mayor of a village for perceived disloyalty. Making multiple false claims to embellish her accomplishments. Turning on those who helped her up the ladder (the Mayor who helped her get elected to the Council, the Governor whoo appointed her to a powerful state board, etc.)

Maybe she didn't get the nickname "BARRACUDA" just by being an aggressive athlete.
Could it be be a personality trait?

Unless Obama makes a hard hitting ad about it, nobody in the press is going to pay attention to this stuff. There's no reason not to make such an ad - force her and McCain to defend themselves.

Is this related to the same step-son who was tasered by Wooten a few years earlier? Like most screwed-up family politics, I don't doubt that there is only one bad side to this. But I have a hard time finding fault with disparaging this particular bastard.

However, the firing of the state public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, is another matter altogether.

Families are messy, as most of us can attest. But Governors are endowed with a public trust that demands they do not bring that mess into matters of governance.

I would have thought that the Pit bull is toast, but I guess this is not enough...

Is there any other precedent in terms of hiring a VP with no experience and who keeps lying in the US history?

It is hard to believe that she can get away with so much controversy after only 10 days...

Sadly the ABC interview as we all suspected is giving her a pass...

Obama 08

Hell hath no fury like a (self-righteous, holy-roller) woman scorned.....

Whats scary is how many Americans(***)what every that means now) would vote for a abused child,that's where John McCain's anger(**) comes from not the Hanoi Hilton!
That you are even thinking of giving that much power to a abuser/trained killer it is just frightening the rest of the world.

Or if he dies a fundamentalist of any religion.

after reading my little rant you might think Obama is a good choice NOT EVEN a little safer than a militarily person but still bought and paid for not his own man.

sorry for my ingles

Good luck

(** Child Advocacy Institute was prompted by results of its study showing children in jurisdictions with military bases were twice as likely to be killed by a parent or caregiver than other children)

(**torture, spying on there own citizens,no habeas corpus they just accuse you of some kind of terrorism-then arrest you,accuse drug dealing and confiscate your property without a trial,attacking any country that you view as a threat to your beliefs, ect....)

That is exactly what I assumed, the abuse being that Palin or others in the family were saying terrible things about Wooten in front of his kids.

That is abuse, for sure. Not severe but it's still abuse.

Molly Hacket is such a fitting name.

This should be the Palin/McCain theme song:

Flirtin With Disaster

Im travelin down the road,
Im flirtin with disaster.
Ive got the pedal to the floor,
My life is running faster.
Im out of money, Im out of hope,
It looks like self destruction.
Well how much more can we take,
With all of this corruption.

Been flirtin with disaster,
Yall know what I mean.
And the way we run our lives,
It makes no sense to me.
I dont know about yourself or,
What you want to be - yeah.
When we gamble with our time,
We choose our destiny.