Skip Navigation

The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Palin Wanted To Sue The Dish

By The Daily Dish
Nov 13 2009, 8:24 AM ET

I've heard it before from a source very close to her - a source who also told me that Palin was obsessed with this blog for much of the campaign. But today a Wall Street Journal reporter also came across that story, asked me for comment and is publishing it tomorrow. Apparently, the idea was quashed because it was thought a libel suit wouldn't work (duh) and it would only give me and the Dish more publicity (double duh). Much better to ignore me completely, and to smear me as a loon, and get Palin lapdog Howie Kurtz to do your dirty work, as the campaign wisely did.

But two thoughts: has she ever heard of discovery?



Since the only point of my asking factually verifiable questions about her deeply strange accounts of her fifth pregnancy was to get at the truth of the matter and resolve it for good and all, a libel suit would only have enabled me to really answer the salient questions - questions the McCain itself never asked her and were too mortified to look into after it was too late. 

Secondly, it's obvious such a libel suit would have failed. It is not libel to ask a politician to verify a public claim relevant to her campaign that seems weird on inspection, especially when the verification would have been easy. But to Palin, such questions were outrageous!

Palin believes that asking questions of a public figure that she doesn't like is a form of lese-majeste, or insufficient deference. Now imagine what that kind of paranoid attitude would mean if she had ever parachuted into the Oval Office thanks to a temper-tantrum by John McCain.

Presented by

More at The Atlantic

A Brief History of the to-do List and the Psychology of Its Success A Brief History of the To-Do List and the Psychology of Its Success
Here's What Humbert Humbert Looks Like (as a Police Composite Sketch) Is This What Humbert Humbert Really Looks Like?
Reckoning With a Genocide in Guatemala Reckoning With Genocide in Guatemala
Using the Internet as Matchmaker: The Drawbacks to Online Dating Internet as Matchmaker: The Drawbacks to Online Dating
French Moms: We're Not as 'Superior' at Parenting as You Americans Think French Moms Aren't 'Superior'
Special Report
Election 2012 Reuters Election 2012
The destination for full politics coverage, from the primaries to the White House. Read more ›
View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

The Civil War, Part 3: The Stereographs

Feb 10, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)