Politics

The Sarah Palin Feud Watch

By Tina Dupuy
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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.

  1. David Letterman
  2. Wall Street Journal/Sudeep Reddy
  3. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R)
  4. Levi Johnston
  5. Shannyn Moore
  6. Katie Couric
  7. Nicolle Wallace
  8. Steve Schmidt
  9. Kate Gosselin
  10. The Fed/Ben Bernanke
  11. Pete Rouse
  12. Joe McGinniss
  13. Peggy Noonan
  14. Ashley Judd
  15. Congressman Spencer Bachus (R)
  16. Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten
  17. Joe Miller
  18. Politico
  19. Karl Rove
  20. State Department (Ahmadinejad's birthday)
  21. Rahm Emanuel
  22. Family Guy/Seth MacFarlane
  23. Michelle Obama
  24. President Barack Obama
  25. Kathleen Gustafson
  26. Brian Williams
  27. Emily's List
  28. Ed Gillespie
  29. Mayor Michael Bloomberg
  30. Environmentalists
  31. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
  32. Michael J. Gross
  33. Vice President Al Gore
  34. Charlie Gibson
  35. Maureen Dowd
  36. Bloggers
  37. Rachel Maddow
  38. 60 Minutes
  39. Mark Halperin
  40. John Heilemann
  41. Nick Denton/Gawker
  42. Barbara Bush
  43. U.S. Export Import Bank
  44. Blogger Jesse Griffin
  45. Blogger Dennis Zaki
  46. Andrew Sullivan
  47. Keith Olbermann
  48. CSU students AKA "Dumpster Divers" Ashley Briggs and Alicia Lewis
  49. Blogger Jeanne Devon
  50. Palingates
  51. Linda Kellen Biegel AKA Celtic Diva
  52. Oliver Stone
  53. John Bitney
  54. Senator Scott Brown (R)
  55. Alaska State Senate President Lyda Green
  56. Andree McLeod
  57. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
  58. PolitiFact
  59. Bill Ayers
  60. Secretary Madeleine Albright
  61. Sen. John Kerry (D)
  62. Jonathan Martin
  63. NPR
  64. Rep. Alan Grayson (D)
  65. Stephen Colbert
  66. Helen Thomas
  67. PETA
  68. Anchorage Daily News
  69. Tina Fey
  70. Andrew Halcro
  71. Kim Chatman
  72. Julian Assange
  73. Frank Gwartney
  74. Aaron Sorkin
  75. Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan
  76. Charles Krauthammer
  77. Rick Santorum
  78. TIME Magazine
  79. Westboro Baptist Church
  80. Michael Moore
  81. Blogger Taegan Goddard
  82. Kathy Griffin
  83. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
  84. David Kernell
  85. Daily Caller/Chris Moody
  86. 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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