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Sarah Palin, self-styled "Mama Grizzly" (which apparently sounds more Alaska folksy than "lipstick wearing pit-bull") endorsed US Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte this week. Ms. Ayotte is one of the seven Republicans in the field of 14 candidates running to replace retiring Senator Judd Gregg. Apparently Ms. Ayotte is thrilled to be chosen as a "Mama Grizzly" since Palin's endorsement is the very second thing one sees on her website. The first thing one sees is a face shot of Sarah Palin. The third thing one notices is a rather odd profile shot of Ms. Ayotte, taken from the back. Apparently the endorsement of the linguistically, geographically, and factually challenged Palin is quite a coup. Mrs. Palin has also endorsed Sharonn Angle, who is running for US Senate against Harry Reid, in Nevada. Angle proposed returning to the health care system where folks paid for medical care with chickens. Palin also endorsed Rand Paul of Kentucky, who hasn't been able to take his foot out of his mouth since he won the primary. Maybe she likes his shoes. The most amusing bit of fallout from the grizzly endorsement of Ayotte was a front page comment in the Union Leader from Joe McQuaid, who seems quite unimpressed with Mrs. Palin.
Sarah Palin and Kelly Ayotte do have some things in common. Both are considered politically conservative. Palin is trying to recreate herself as a "conservative feminist," which Ayotte, so far, has (wisely) steered clear of, despite the fact that both of them are against a woman's right to bodily autonomy and reproductive choice. Palin praised Ayotte, claiming she "battled all the way to the US Supreme Court to protect the rights of NH parents - and won!" It's true that as NH Attorney General, in 2005, Ayotte defended an NH parental notification bill before the Supreme Court. It's also true that SCOTUS sent the case back to the federal court that declared it unconstitutional, because it made no exception for the possibility of a medical emergency that could threaten the health or even life of a minor child. The law was later repealed. This is hardly the victory that Palin is claiming it was - but - she and Ayotte are both counting on the fact the media is little more than a stenographer for the GOP, especially in NH. The obedient media does not question or counter misinformation or even outright lies.
There are the occasional exceptions. NHPR's Josh Rogers took Kelly Ayotte to task last week for one of her favorite outright lies. Ayotte has repeatedly stated that Arizona has the second highest rate of kidnapping in the world. This isn't true. She's been made aware that it isn't true, yet she continues to say it. According to a May 2010 story by Dennis Wagner in the Arizona Republic, the crime rate along the Arizona border has remained flat for the last decade. Statewide, rates of violent crime are down. The sheriff of Pima County calls all of the rhetoric, "a media created event." Arizona Senator John McCain has generated plenty of that rhetoric himself, and now he's being assisted by Kelly Ayotte. Take some time to ponder the recent revival of the immigration issue, and how "urgent" it has become. Think about when immigration started to become a hot topic again. Then think about what's coming up in November.
What are most working folks concerned with right now? Either keeping their jobs or finding one. What are they getting from the politicians on the right? A lot of distraction about immigration, abortion, and marriage equality. This is all meant to divert attention from the sad reality that the GOP hasn't any kind of plans to offer - just the usual cut taxes and cut spending baloney, served up with a side of dishonesty. Oh, how they wail that we are being taxed too much - yet in 2009, we paid lower federal taxes than we have since 1950. The Bush tax cuts, once touted as the fastest way to create jobs, are still in place, yet the jobs never materialized. The Republicans have been trying since the Reagan years to convince us that tax cuts for the wealthy are the way to create employment. It hasn't worked. If it did work, over 5 million jobs would not have been lost during the Bush administration. It doesn't work - but that won't deter our doughty friends on the right from doing their best to help the rich get even richer.
Foster's Daily Democrat published an opinion piece by Kelly Ayotte this week, where she promises that cutting taxes will jump start the economy. She also promises she will end the "death tax" which is what the defenders of the wealthy like to call the estate tax. They used to wail about how the death tax would kill family farms, before it was proven that hardly any family farms would be affected. NH abolished the estate tax some years back. Naturally, the one thing Ms. Ayotte doesn't propose cutting is the defense budget. The GOP is only too happy to keep on borrowing and spending to perpetuate the war machine.
There is one more thing that Palin and Ayotte have in common. They're both quitters. Sarah Palin quit her job as governor of Alaska, before finishing her first term. Kelly Ayotte quit her job only months after promising Governor Lynch that she would serve a full second term as NH AG. Ms. Ayotte was appointed to her first term by the GOP Governor-of-Whom-We-Don't-Speak: Craig Benson.
"I like being here, because it seems like here and in our last rally too -- other parts around this great Northwest -- here in New Hampshire you just get it." Sarah Palin in Laconia, 2008
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