Sarah Palin's Modus Operandi in Action

By Ennealogic

Love thy neighbor? Turn the other cheek? Forgiveness? These New Testament concepts were not part of Sarah's Old Testament temperament. Both eyes for an eye was the rule, and vanquishing enemies became a goal. Nothing was more important, to any of us working alongside Sarah, than preserving her image or achieving retribution. Not our families, not our friends, not our financial well-being, not the state's business. Nothing.
[-- from Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin, Kindle edition]

It's happened plenty of times before: someone writes about his personal journey toward a more enlightened state, or at least, a state where shades of gray begin to separate black from white. Along the way they disappoint or even anger those whose commitment has not wavered yet. One example is Frank Shaeffer, founding member of the religious right who penned Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Help Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back, a memoir about his misgivings after having furthered Christian evangelicalism.

Another example is Paul Haggis, former high level Scientologist, who ultimately repudiated the "church" and resigned when the hierarchy would not disavow California's Proposition 8, a piece of anti-gay legislation. Haggis wrote, in his resignation letter, "Our public association with that hate-filled legislation shames us."

Sarah Palin waves as she comes on stage before McCain's concession speech

And now we have Frank Bailey's tell-all, Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years, in which he renounces the former Governor and cements the conviction that Sarah Palin is truly and undeniably a woman with deep psychoses and the personality traits that go along with them. In Bailey's book, assuming it remains much the same as the leaked manuscript, we'll get a glimpse of the real Sarah Palin in her own words, the persona she lets out only in front of her closest aides and advisors (and probably her spouse and children). We'll see how she drives her inner circle to cheat and lie in order to keep her from imploding. We'll learn the lengths to which she'll go to destroy the lives of those she perceives as "the enemy." No one wants to be the object of her wrath and so her team did what had to be done in the name of the greater good, that is, massaging Sarah's mood so that she was happy.

Bailey essentially predicted the kind of pushback his book is now receiving. He made it plain, in the pages of his mea culpa memoir, what happens to those who cross Sarah. We are witnessing the sort of excuses, prevarications, distractions, slanders and deceptions that he chronicled—and he should know the methods well since he participated in them himself, many times, during his years as a close Palin aide. Sarah Palin's modus operandi is in full view, evident in the statements and attitudes of her aides and followers, and this goes to prove Bailey's book is not a lie.

For example, instead of addressing any of the content (which is well-supported by thousands of e-mails), current chief aide and SarahPac spokesman Tim Crawford misleads us with, “Gov. Palin suspended Bailey and refused to hire Bailey when he sought a position on her vice presidential campaign staff … (he)has an axe to grind and abandoned truth in his book.” Of course, the suspension was a critical CYA maneuver for Palin. When it was revealed that Bailey had been caught on tape trying to get Mike Wooten fired (see Troopergate), Sarah had no choice but to send Bailey away temporarily (albeit on a paid leave of absence).

In a Politico article titled "Sarah Palin's team pushes back against new book," Tim Crawford elevates his rhetoric to smear Bailey,

Frank Bailey was the only member of the Palin administration to be found to have acted unethically – twice. He is currently under investigation again by the state attorney general. Then, as the administrator of certain email accounts, he acted unethically by appropriating account information he was entrusted to protect.

What Crawford neglects to mention here is that Bailey was dinged for ethics when he was acting on Sarah's behalf, and he conveniently forgets the occasions when Sarah was, indeed, found to have acted unethically or illegally—more than two times, in fact. (Troopergate, Travelgate, AFT-gate...)

Stacy Drake at C4P opined, as she descended into the depths of ad hominem-ness,

After reading this manuscript, my only conclusion is that Frank Bailey is a horrible person... Frank Bailey’s motives, in my view, were greed and vengeance. This man of little skill decided to try to cash-in on the job he no longer had, and at which he was incompetent when he did have it."

Palinbots are out in force elsewhere too. A commenter at TheBlaze.com (Glenn Beck's site) wrote that the book was "Ghost-written by Bill Ayers LOL," inferring, I suppose, that Bailey is a terrorist with a connection to President Obama. Another commenter there, Missionarydad, attempts to discredit Bailey and prevent others from reading his book:

Who would ever want to read any trash like this. Anyone who will betray their relationship and trust with someone they are being paid for their time spent with them is of such low integrity that anything they have to say isn’t worth reading. It would be one thing if they were the one who was betrayed and they are just sharing their side of the story but this is sounds more like one who was treated well but because of the opportunity to cash in big they are willing to sell their soul and burn their bridges just for some filthy lucre.

If Missionarydad would take the time to read Blind Allegiance, he'd discover that Bailey was not paid for most of his time and effort, nor was he treated very well by his boss, throughout his service to her ambitions. This commenter may not realize he is following right in Sarah Palin's footsteps by speaking ill about the author without having read the book. He also doesn't realize that there is overwhelming evidence in Blind Allegiance that it is Sarah Palin, herself, who seeks 'filthy lucre' with every step she takes.

Bailey bemoans, after asking himself how spending hundreds of hours trying to destroy Mike Wooten's life and reputation had anything at all to do with governing Alaska,

This tale, unfortunately, includes the worst of Sarah's dysfunctional psyche and administration, including the compulsion to attack enemies, deny truth, play victim, and employ outright deception.

There seems to be no dearth of revelatory books about Sarah Palin this year. Geoffrey Dunn's The Lies of Sarah Palin has been out for a little more than a week, and it is a thorough, comprehensive, well-researched biography of Sarah Palin's political life that details her penchant and ability to manipulate others. Bailey's Blind Allegiance is out today, May 24, and I hope it does not vary much from the damning content in the leaked manuscript. Joe McGinniss' The Rogue - Searching for the Real Sarah Palin is being completed now and will be released in September. Add to that, we've heard a fairly strong rumor that yet another reporter is penning an expose about 'Babygate' this year.

Covers of Dunn's, Bailey's and McGinniss' latest books about Sarah Palin

There will also be no dearth of trashing, defaming and discounting the authors of these books. It's the Sarah Palin way - pay no attention to the substance, just destroy the messenger and rain retribution upon their heads in any way you can and seriously consider mailing them all a dead fish, while you're at it.

Review of Geoffrey Dunn's The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power.

Cross Posted from Amazon with the Kind Permission of a Politicalgates Reader

Sure to become a classic of political history

+++ Also: Read our interview with Geoffrey Dunn +++

Geoffrey Dunn has written the best book yet on the controversial phenomenon known as Sarah Palin. What he terms the "pathology of deceit" appears to inform every aspect of Palin's life. People who have known Palin since early childhood chose to speak to Dunn in great detail, and with genuine concern. Some of them volunteered answers to questions that Dunn had yet to ask ("FACT!" declared one correspondent, about an intimate family detail). Palin has become well known for "throwing under the bus" the co-workers, supporters, and even friends who no longer serve her purposes, a great many of whom spoke to Dunn. Mentors who helped Palin win early elections watched with dismay as Palin embarked upon what Dunn calls a "dysfunctional" stint as mayor of Wasilla, which left the small town deeply in debt.

A slipshod, inadequate vetting process put the then-Alaska governor on the ticket as John McCain's running mate in 2008, and the cracks in the not-always-vivacious candidate's sparkly exterior began to yawn in impenetrable chasms almost immediately. (McCain advisor A.B. Culvahouse summed up Palin as "High risk, high reward": Correct on the former.) "She knows nothing," snapped McCain advisor Steve Schmidt, a methodical and disciplined man whom Palin clearly drove to distraction with her erratic behavior. Schmidt called Palin's ghostwritten memoir Going Rogue "one hundred percent fiction." It is impossible to know who feels more burned about the disastrous arranged "marriage"--McCain? Or Palin?--but Dunn provides myriad examples of just what went wrong on the ticket in the fall of 2008, including a plethora of insider e-mails seen here for the first time. It's a mesmerizing education on just how daily life functions (or doesn't) on the biggest campaign trail of all.

After losing the election, "[Palin] just never made it home. She just never came back," noted Beth Kertulla, Alaska House minority leader. In 2009, one of the coldest winters and worst fish harvests on record further strained then-Governor Palin's already poor relationship with the Alaska Native population, who were forced to choose between heating their homes or feeding their children. Tribal elder Nicholas Tucker of Emmonak's pleas for assistance went unheeded by the governor--and rudely cut off in mid-sentence by Palin when the two finally met--until an SOS broadcast widely by Internet brought assistance to those in need. Dunn's first-hand knowledge of Alaska and first-rate research takes the reader where few of us, in truth, have ventured.

Dunn really shines when it comes to interweaving and acknowledging previously reported segments of the Palin story with the vast body of his own investigative work. For a reader who has not paid much attention to Palin, who quit halfway through her first term as governor in 2009, you'll find the whole story right here. And if you have followed the divisive and irresponsible trajectory of Palin's career, there's a ton of new information that shoots off in every direction, just like the "fireworks" her once-giddy pals in the press described.

Five stars is probably five too few.

++++++

Thanks to the kind generosity of a Politicalgates reader we have FIVE copies of Geoffrey Dunn's book, The Lies of Sarah Palin, to give away to five Politicalgates readers who cannot afford to buy their own copy.

If you would like the chance to own a copy of the book please email me, kathleenpoliticalgates@gmail.com, explaining why you would love to own a copy. If you are one of the lucky five I will get back to you.

All books will be sent directly from Amazon to your home address.

Good luck.

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UPDATE:

There were updates to this post but blogger seems to have lost them. :-(

All free books have now be allocated. In the end we gave away ten books. P and I donated 3 and 2 readers donated another seven.