Good grief. We're still talking about Palin's clothes? You'd think that with the latest Democratic scandals - like Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's racist comments and new revelations about Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' affair - they'd be too busy beating out their own fires to revisit old fodder against Republicans. But apparently U.S. News & World Report's Bonnie Erbe has nothing better to do.
On Jan. 11, Erbe crowed on her blog, "So today Sarah Palin delivers some great news: She's becoming the TV star she's apparently always wanted to be and sparing us (for the moment, at least) the worry that she might run for national office."
She laughed at the idea that Palin will be hosting a recurring series that profiles "everyday Americans."
"Profiles of ‘everyday Americans?'" she wrote. "Like the ones that shop at Henri Bendel and Neiman Marcus and who are able to lavish more than $150,000 outfits that will last a few months?"
Wow. Talk about being behind the times. Perhaps Erbe should crack open a book or even flip through a few television channels. Maybe then she'd realize that that accusation failed inspection a long time ago.
Back in November of last year, Sushannah Walsh, co-author of the liberal-slanting book "Sarah from Alaska," conceded on CBS' "The Early Show" that Palin got a "raw deal" with the "clothes controversy" during her vice presidential campaign. Palin, Walsh said, was "one of the only people in the room" that said her wardrobe was too expensive. Her staff even had to go so far as to remove the tags from her clothes so that Palin couldn't look at the price and refuse to wear them.
And as a liberal, Erbe is living in a glass house. She conveniently forgot, for example, that the First Lady - who's apparently "just like us" - wore $540 Lanvin sneakers to a Feed the Homeless event last year. And then there's the time that she took her girls on a shopping splurge in Paris and perused through $200 sundresses. And what about Madame Speaker's wardrobe - the Democrat Nancy Pelosi? She apparently wore an Armani dress to the state dinner and she's well-known for her fashionable, everyday suits.
But what's a little hypocrisy when the hated Palin is in the cross hairs? Palin's "much better suited" for TV anyway since it only requires glamour and "intellect is of little consequence."
Once again Erbe has publicly aired her ignorance. While no one knows exactly Palin's game plan, becoming a television commentator in no way cancels out a run for national office. In fact, it could be quite the opposite. As Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez pointed out today on CBS' "The Early Show," it appears that Palin has "taken a page out of the Ronald Reagan playbook."
"It's something he did in 1976 to 1980," Sanchez said. "He had a radio show. She'll have tremendous support, a lot of primary Republican voters watch Fox News. And she's going to be able to hopefully put together some cogent ideas on domestic policy issues, foreign policy. It's a between platform and could lead her down the road to 2012."
And we know how well Reagan's game plan went. He won the next presidential election.
So, Bonnie, maybe you should jump off your soapbox, grab a potato sack, and help out with those fires.
