Palin Quits, Three Down

Most politicians run on their records, and if that remains true in this upside down world, then Sarah Palin has nothing to run on as she announced her resignation as governor of Alaska. Her record: She was mayor of Wasilla, then a town of 6300 residents, for three two-year terms. She was the first woman and the youngest governor of the state of Alaska, but only held office for just over three years, having announced yesterday that she wouldn't run for a second term, and to avoid being a lame-duck, she would resign within two weeks, handing over power to the lieutenant governor.

Her resignation speech seemed to have been written by the same folks who wrote South Carolina governor Mark Sanford's endless sexual confessions. (If you haven't seen Stewart's piece on Sanford, watch it and prepare to laugh out loud like a maniac. ) Palin's speech was rambling, long, and nonsensical.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are on vacation this week and must be regretting their timing, missing this opportunity to make fun of Sarah. Although Sarah suggests in one part of her speech and in a comment to a reporter that her demise is the result of another liberal media offensive.

Today's talkingpointsmemo.com lists all of the columnists who insist that Sarah is really launching a national campaign for the 2012 nomination. However, Vanity Fair just published a nasty piece by Todd Purdum based on leaks from the McCain campaign and others who have worked with Sarah and who now hate her. I suspect that her resignation has more to do with another scandal about to break than with her aspirations to become commander-in-chief. She seems delusional, uninformed, and erratic in her behaviors, but then again, that might be the list of qualities needed to lead the Republican Party in its current state of shambles.

talkingpointsmemo.com has its favorite 10 Palin videos up to remind us all of just how nuts she appears to be.

Friend Judith thinks that Palin is on her way to the Fox Network to become its "Rachel Maddow"! Going for the money and the celebrity!

One thing we know for sure: although the hypocritical right wing of the Republican Party continues to have sex outside their marriages, there remains a strong and fairly frightening theocratic thread that is keeping the party together. Read this interview with Jeff Sharlet from NPR this week, about the house on C Street. Sharlet's new book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, leaves those of us who believe in separation of church and state breathless. Some of this information was included in American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips' 2004 book that skewers the GOP, having been a former Republican strategist, but there is a lot of new information in The Family. And let's remember that Sarah Palin comes from that lunatic fringe of the party.

Are Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe the only sane Republicans left? And they come from Maine!