If there is one lesson to be learned from Sarah Palin and also the workings of her so-called “inner circle,” it is that you’ll eventually be cast off into the desert a la Hagar and Abraham within the Old Testament saga.

Sarah Went Down The White Rabbit Hole (Credit To FreakingNews.com)

The list of individuals banished by Palin is a lengthy one. Some prominent names include: John Bitney, Curtis Smith, Christopher Clark, Bill McAllister and Frank Bailey — all of whom had been thrown under the proverbial bus during Palin’s failed and abbreviated governorship of Alaska. Even her most prominent critic within the Final Frontier, Andree McLeod, was as soon as a member in the Palin inner-sanctum. Palin has left a wide swath of human collateral harm in her wake.

Now add the inimitable Meg Stapleton to the list.

In what was a truly disgusting little bit of reporting today in Politico, information puppy Andy Barr, a shameless apologist for Palin these previous 16 months, confirmed the rumor that Stapleton, Palin’s longtime “spokesperson” and political assassin, was departing her $96,000-a-year situation being a consultant to SarahPAC, although Barr in no way managed to set any from the substantial facts in place.

Instead, Barr spun it exactly as Stapleton desired it woven — as a move “to invest more time with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, Isabella.”

Perhaps you’d also like to buy some land from young Andy in Florida.

Barr’s most current suck-up to Stapleton arrived earlier this month when Stapleton used Barr to distance Palin from her criticism of Rush Limbaugh for his use of the term “retard.” It had been a barefaced bit of duplicity and perfectly reflective from the Palin-Stapleton spin device.

There have been reviews of trouble brewing in Palin’s inner-circle to get a while — of near breakdowns and dramatic outbursts — since the arrival of more paid political hacks from outside Alaska has created furious infighting for Palin’s favors.

Ironically, Barr’s lone resource for his story (other than Stapleton herself) was the Palin sycophant Fred Malek who has apparently discovered new existence and some pep in his step being a source for every thing Palin. Certainly, last summer when I interviewed Malek (Richard Nixon‘s notorious Jew counter) at his retreat in Aspen, he confirmed for me that “bad blood” between Stapleton and GOP fundraiser Becki Donatelli from the Washington D.C.-based Marketing campaign Solutions was what led to Donatelli breaking away her relationship with the Palin operation. Or as Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum set it: Donatelli “couldn’t stand” Stapleton.

Stapleton was also anathema towards the McCain marketing campaign — 1 of whose senior operatives described her to me as “incompetent and a poor individual.”

As my pal and blogger supreme AKMuckraker from the Mudflats has noted, Stapleton was once some thing of the “beloved” newscaster in Alaska (she as soon as was knocked over by a reindeer while she was wearing a Santa outfit) before she swallowed the Palin Kool-Aid and went via a transformation worthy of Mr. Hyde.

“Stapleton’s legacy in Alaska will not be her many years being a trusted information anchor,” Muckraker told me today, “but instead how rapidly she sold out to turn out to be the weapon of option for eviscerating Palin’s perceived political foes within the state of Alaska. Alaska is a ‘small town’ and her popularity is forever tarnished here.”

Stapleton’s most notorious moment came during the 2008 presidential election, when serving as an assault dog for Palin’s so-called Truth Squad in Alaska, she engaged in a nasty videotaped confrontation with well-liked Alaska legislator Les Gara. If there had been an Emmy awarded for smarm and sleaze, Stapleton would have won in a landslide.

Today, Gara acquired this to express about Stapleton:

It’s not each evening you find a work that pays you gobs of money to say nasty points about great individuals — but I’m sure she’ll discover something. Maybe she could be Glenn Beck‘s PR person following.

Stapleton’s media instincts had been, at worse, infantile and at, greatest, destructive. She frequently managed to turn a Palin gaffe from what should are already a one-day blip into a 72-hour-news sensation.

Final summer, while I was in Anchorage, Palin and Stapleton became included in what seemed to become a never-ending series of controversies about regardless of whether or not Palin would be appearing at an event — this time a planned look in the Anchorage mega-church ChangePoint. Members of the church assured me that representatives from the previous governor acquired confirmed her appearance. In essence, Stapleton called the church leadership liars. 1 fellow member from the ChangePoint community was irate about Stapleton’s response.

It is tough to reconcile Sarah’s and Meg’s so-called Christian values, when they keep lying about things like this. I can only think that 1 of two points is going on. Either she [Palin] is flat-out insane. Maybe something like a breakdown. Or she has become so arrogant, so above it all, that she feels she can deal with people this way.

Stapleton fueled Palin’s furies. One other longtime Palin confidante who worked shoulder-to -shoulder with Stapleton identified her as “power hungry”:

Meghan did a lot more harm in this globe than most individuals will at any time know. She rose to her position by throwing everybody close to Sarah beneath the bus, never getting a team player, always sucking up and telling Sarah only what she wanted to hear.

Or as one other longtime Alaskan set it: Stapleton “sacrificed her integrity for her ambition.”

In her bitter and vengeful memoir Heading Rogue, Palin notes that Stapleton was with her at a rented San Diego condo functioning day-in and day-out about the composing. Afterwards, many in Alaska speculated that some from the nastier passages in Rogue were actually penned by Stapleton.

For individuals subjected to Stapleton’s bile in current months, there is little empathy in the aftermath of her departure. “Get thee to church, Meg dahling,” mentioned McLeod. “There’s significantly atonement ahead…”

Stapleton’s “explanatory” email to Barr begged for some follow-up (obviously, there was none) — and possibly there was some thing to become examine among the lines:

While I had hoped to work collectively on so numerous a lot more projects, time with my precious 2-year-old has been additional minimized with the whirlwind commitments of all points Palin. I’ve carried out my greatest to scale back again, but Isabella is now resorting to hiding my BlackBerry, and she shouldn’t grow up begging to get a mom to start acting like a mom.

If she was hoping “to perform collectively on so many more assignments,” why did she resign now? Why didn’t she go to part-time? Why didn’t she consider up special projects? What do she imply by “whirlwind commitments” and “all things Palin”? What of the tone? And at whom was she directing that comment “start acting like a mother”? (At least one person who understands both players believed that it had been a dig by Stapleton directed at Palin.)

Working for and with Palin has constantly been a get in touch with sport. The departed always have scars. One former colleague from Alaska wished Stapleton some solace: “I hope Meghan can discover some peace,” he said. “I do.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Stapleton Down (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Geoffrey Dunn: Meg Stapleton and the Lies of Sarah Palin (huffingtonpost.com)
• Another Palin Aide Leaves “To Care For Family”; Sarah Less Than Gracious About The Departure (crooksandliars.com)

Other Junk You Might Like!

• June 14, 2009 -- The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers (3)
• February 17, 2010 -- Seth MacFarlane For President! Battle Of Fox Hollywood vs Fox News! (0)
• February 20, 2010 -- The Nation: Who’s Afraid Of A Palin Presidency? (5)
• January 22, 2010 -- Bristol Palin Gets A Boob Job! Mommy Sarah Smiles With Appoval! (3)
• October 29, 2008 -- Where John McCain Found Sarah Palin! (0)

View White Rabbit's Profile      Subscribe via RSS