Updated 4/5/11 4:00 p.m. --
When has Gawker's Nick Denton ever had anything in common with former first lady Barbara Bush? Or director Oliver Stone with Senator Lisa Murkowski?
The answer: When Sarah Palin has feuded with them.
Palin has monetized micro-blog bomb-throwing. She attacks people via her one-way Internet communication -- the "lamestream" media reports it and she stays topical. It's catnip. It's a Real Housewives level of guilty pleasure voyeurism. She's tapped into our love of shamelessness. The more we reward her with attention, the more she keeps giving ... and giving.
To quantify this point, I've assembled a list of her media feuds since she was tapped to be veep. Call it a supplemental: A hyperlink to her hyper-sensitivity.
The list is made up of people and groups she has personally, by name, gone after in the press. Left out are people who criticize her and she ignores, like Meghan McCain. Those are rare. Also excluded are people who've only been harassed on her behalf, but not actually by her, like California State Senator Leland Yee. Plus, no dead people who can't defend themselves. Sorry, Shakespeare. What's left are people who have participated in a back and forth with Sarah Palin.
Some have observed the flames died down in the wake of Gabriele Giffords's attempted assassination; the national tragedy Palin strangely made about herself.
According to the (crowd sourced and obviously unscientific) list, even with a slow January her overall numbers are steady.
When I first compiled this list last November, Palin had been on the national scene for less than 30 months. There were over 60 entries. Palin's average? Two new tiffs a month. Every month.
In the last 90 days, by my count, she has waged seven new feuds (Julian Assange, Aaron Sorkin, Charles Krauthammer, Rick Santorum, TIME Magazine, Westboro Baptist Church and Michael Moore). That's still a solid two brawls each month, not counting any repeats, as with the president of the United States and his wife.
So, yes, for being a mavericky rogue, she's actually stalwartly consistent. Which is just what we look for in a president.
- David Letterman
- Wall Street Journal/Sudeep Reddy
- Senator Lisa Murkowski (R)
- Levi Johnston
- Shannyn Moore
- Katie Couric
- Nicolle Wallace
- Steve Schmidt
- Kate Gosselin
- The Fed/Ben Bernanke
- Pete Rouse
- Joe McGinniss
- Peggy Noonan
- Ashley Judd
- Congressman Spencer Bachus (R)
- Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten
- Joe Miller
- Politico
- Karl Rove
- State Department (Ahmadinejad's birthday)
- Rahm Emanuel
- Family Guy/Seth MacFarlane
- Michelle Obama
- President Barack Obama
- Kathleen Gustafson
- Brian Williams
- Emily's List
- Ed Gillespie
- Mayor Michael Bloomberg
- Environmentalists
- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
- Michael J. Gross
- Vice President Al Gore
- Charlie Gibson
- Maureen Dowd
- Bloggers
- Rachel Maddow
- 60 Minutes
- Mark Halperin
- John Heilemann
- Nick Denton/Gawker
- Barbara Bush
- U.S. Export Import Bank
- Blogger Jesse Griffin
- Blogger Dennis Zaki
- Andrew Sullivan
- Keith Olbermann
- CSU students AKA "Dumpster Divers" Ashley Briggs and Alicia Lewis
- Blogger Jeanne Devon
- Palingates
- Linda Kellen Biegel AKA Celtic Diva
- Oliver Stone
- John Bitney
- Senator Scott Brown (R)
- Alaska State Senate President Lyda Green
- Andree McLeod
- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
- PolitiFact
- Bill Ayers
- Secretary Madeleine Albright
- Sen. John Kerry (D)
- Jonathan Martin
- NPR
- Rep. Alan Grayson (D)
- Stephen Colbert
- Helen Thomas
- PETA
- Anchorage Daily News
- Tina Fey
- Andrew Halcro
- Kim Chatman
- Julian Assange
- Frank Gwartney
- Aaron Sorkin
- Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan
- Charles Krauthammer
- Rick Santorum
- TIME Magazine
- Westboro Baptist Church
- Michael Moore
- Blogger Taegan Goddard
- Kathy Griffin
- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
- David Kernell
- Daily Caller/Chris Moody
- AOL
This list started as an overflow of names that couldn't fit into my fall column: America's Full-Time Professional Duelist. It was first published at The Atlantic on March 7, and will be updated as needed.
Know of a feud I missed? Send me an e-mail.
Image credit: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton.REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton.
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