Politics -- An Extreme Choice

September 3, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

ELECTION '08

An Extreme Choice

Last Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his vice presidential running mate, "catching almost everyone but his inner circle by surprise." Of the very little that is known about Palin is her extreme right-wing policies on a wide range of issues. For example, she supports teaching creationism in school, favors privatization of health insurance, boasts of being a "lifetime member of the NRA," opposes stem-cell research, and declared that "she would support a ballot question that would deny benefits to homosexual couples." On some of the most important issues of this election -- Iraq, energy, abortion -- Palin represents the extreme right wing.

EXTREME ON ABORTION: One of the only policy stances widely known about Palin when her name was first announced is her extreme opposition to abortion. She once said that she would not support an abortion for her then-14 year old daughter, even if she had been raped. Palin has also declared that "explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," favoring abstinence-only programs instead. The right wing has lauded both Palin for choosing to carry her most recent child, who has Down Syndrome, to term, and her 17-year-old daughter for deciding to complete her pregnancy. Yet as the American Prospect's Ann Friedman points out, "John McCain and Sarah Palin don't believe women have a right to choose. It's absolutely absurd for the campaign to emphasize the fact that [Palin's daughter] Bristol 'made this decision,' and then push for policies that take away that choice."

EXTREME CLUELESSNESS ON IRAQ: Like George Bush before he became president, Palin has barely traveled outside the United States. She has never been to Iraq or Afghanistan and admitted last year, "I haven't really focused much on the Iraq war." In an interview with Time magazine last month, she seemed completely unaware of McCain's Iraq plan. She said she did not know "what the plan is to ever end the war." She later said it's "tough" to "talk about the plan for the war" because her son will be deployed to Iraq. "Let's make sure we have a plan here," she said. Palin then added, "respecting McCain's position on that too though." Eschewing any substantitve analysis of the war, she asserted simply that U.S. soldiers are "out on a task that is from God." She also seems to believe the Iraq war was about oil, saying that "in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources." In another interview, she argued, "we better have a real clear plan for the war," adding, "And it better not have to do with oil."

EXTREME DENIAL OF GLOBAL WARMING: Though McCain points to his position on global warming as a chief difference between himself and President Bush, Palin shares more of the current president's perspective than McCain's. Though she admits that climate change "will affect Alaska more than any other state," she said, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." "During last fall's political campaign, Gov. Sarah Palin said she remained unconvinced about how much human emissions contribute to current global warming trends." She has also opposed listing polar bears as endangered due to climate change. In the New York Times today, Tom Friedman writes, "With his choice of Sarah Palin -- the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change -- for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil."

EXTREME PAWN OF BIG OIL: "No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governor Palin," the Sierra Club's Carl Pope said. Palin told Roll Call last week, "When I look every day, the big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry." As a champion for Big Oil, Palin is a vociferous proponent of domestic drilling. "I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she said. She also dismisses alternative energy solutions as "are far from imminent" focusing instead on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. During her race for lieutenant governor, she received a full 10 percent of her campaign donations from executives and their families at the disgraced oil services company Veco. In her 2006 race for governor, another 10 percent of her donations came from the oil and natural gas industry. Though she supported a windfall tax on oil profits -- an idea McCain has blasted -- she also signed a bill just last week "suspending Alaska's gasoline, marine fuel and aviation fuel taxes until Aug. 31, 2009," which will only add to Big Oil's coffers.

MEDIA -- INFURIATED ABOUT TOUGH CNN INTERVIEW, MCCAIN CANCELS LARRY KING APPEARANCE: On Monday, Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), appeared on CNN for a tough interview with Campbell Brown. Brown repeatedly asked Bounds to name a foreign policy decision made by McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). Citing the Bounds interview as "over the line," McCain canceled an appearance on CNN's Larry King Live yesterday. According to the Washington Post, the McCain campaign believes that the media is "on a mission to destroy" Palin and feels "under siege." The Post writes, "The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin." McCain even considered pulling out of a presidential debate set to be moderated by NBC anchor Tom Brokaw because of what campaign manager Steve Schmidt called NBC's "irresponsible journalism." CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer reported that CNN is standing by Brown. "CNN does not believe that Campbell's interview was over the line," he said. "We are committed to fair coverage of both sides of this historic election."

JUSTICE -- DOJ INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT SHOWS EVIDENCE OF GONZALES PERJURY: There is also "strong evidence" in a new Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) report released yesterday that former attorney general Alberto Gonzales "lied to federal investigators probing his careless handling of highly classified documents." According to the IG's report, "Gonzales said that he was unaware of the classification level and compartmented nature" of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program he referenced in notes on the document. Yet the report also says "the envelope containing documents related to the NSA surveillance program bore the handwritten markings, 'TOP SECRET - EYES ONLY - ARG' [the attorney general's initials] followed by an abbreviation for the SCI codeword for the program." CQ's Jeff Stein notes, "Poor Scooter Libby...who suffered million-dollar legal bills and lifetime disbarment for a perjury...only to be snatched from the jaws of prison by a pardon from President Bush. Today, the Justice Department revealed that it had saved everybody the bother in the case of Alberto Gonzales."

ENERGY -- BUSH EXPLOITS HURRICANE GUSTAV TO DEMAND MORE OFFSHORE DRILLING: Early yesterday, President Bush exploited his press briefing on the "follow-up efforts" to Hurricane Gustav to attack Congress about lifting the offshore drilling moratorium. Stating that "what happens after the storm passes is as important as what happens prior to the storm arriving," he declared that "our discussion here today is about energy." Bush was not referring to the 1.4 million Louisianans who have lost power due to the storm's destructive force. Rather, he was referring to his misguided campaign to end the ban on offshore drilling in the outer continental shelf. "This storm...ought to cause the Congress to step up their need to address our dependence on foreign oil. And one place to do so is to give us a chance to explore in environmentally friendly ways on the outer continental shelf," he said. MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were both floored by Bush's decision "to use another hurricane in Louisiana to promote offshore drilling at this point," after his administration "performed so poorly during Hurricane Katrina." Scarborough exclaimed, "Just stop!"

California lawmakers passed a bill aimed at cutting CO2 emissions by "rewarding cities and counties that prevent urban sprawl and improve public transportation." Supporters and transportation experts say it is "the first measure in the nation to link government transportation funding with urban planning and CO2-reduction goals."

Vice President Cheney "traveled to Azerbaijan Wednesday, part of a tour of three ex-Soviet republics wary of Russia's intentions following last month's war between Russia and neighboring Georgia." Azerbaijan is "home to some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union."

"The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that construction spending declined 0.6 percent in July, double the 0.3 percent decrease analysts had been expecting." Construction activity is down 4.7 percent from last year, "representing one of the major drags on the current economy."

And finally: The Huffington Post claims to have caught former president George H.W. Bush checking his watch last night during First Lady Laura Bush's speech at the Republican National Convention. The site has posted the "nostalgia-inducing video" here.

The New York Supreme Court in Bronx County has upheld dismissed challenges brought by conservatives to a directive by Gov. David Paterson (D) that all state agencies recognize same-sex marriages performed outside the state.

THINK PROGRESS: Drudge still rules the traditional media's world.

YGLESIAS: President Bush equates "the angry left" with Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) North Vietnamese torturers.

WONKROOM: Iraq war supporters Stephen Biddle, Michael O'Hanlon, and Kenneth Pollack fail the Powell Doctrine Test.

RAW STORY: Fox host: Republican National Convention protesters should just be left in jail.

LOUISIANA: State prepares for evacuees to return to New Orleans tomorrow.

OHIO: Tax on to-go food is rejected.

CALIFORNIA: Investigators find San Diego utility company partly responsible for "three major wildfires."

"I think that is her choice [to run for Vice President]. That's a personal matter that's in her own family."
-- Focus on the Family's James Dobson on Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), 9/02/08

VERSUS

"It has been my observation, however, that this dual responsibility [for working mothers] is a formula for exhaustion and frustration."
-- Dobson, 8/07/98

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An Extreme Choice

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