NBC may have lowered itself to an "exclusive" interview with author Joe McGinniss today -- something they did NOT do in 1993 when McGinniss drew universal condemnation for a sleazy Ted Kennedy biography titled The Last Brother. But Garry Trudeau has devoted almost a week now to spreading McGinniss gossip in his Doonesbury comic strips, with all the worst charges: she slept with NBA star Glen Rice, she fired all her "dark-skinned" employees, she wore push-up bras to get what she wanted, and she was an airhead who wanted to shop all day.
This tabloid sleaze is not new for Trudeau: twenty years ago, he devoted his strip to recounting allegations made by a prisoner named Brett Kimberlin (also known as "The Speedway Bomber") who claimed he sold Vice President Dan Quayle marijuana in the 1970s. Trudeau didn't care that Kimberlin was convicted of perjury in 1974 for lying about -- drugs. Notice how Trudeau's strips again have a misogynist anti-Palin flavor:
Thursday:
Roland Hedley: Hey, Matt, did you know Palin once had a romantic encounter with Glen Rice?
Matt: Glen Rice, the basketball star? No way. Who’s going to believe that?
Hedley: Glen Rice, apparently.
Hedley, a long-time Doonesbury character is currently working for Fox News in Trudeau's world, so he's interested in trying to discount and disparage McGinniss's "reporting."
Wednesday:
“She didn’t really give a s— about her job,” says someone who knew her well. She’d say “I have to go to a f----- meeting tonight.” And she’d be like, “I got on my biggest push-up bra. I’m gonna get what I want.”
Hedley's lame spin for Fox: “As mayor, Palin used every tool in kit.”
Tuesday:
“About 20 minority (state) employees...worked as campaign volunteers for Sarah...almost as soon as she was elected, she ordered them all fired.”
“Her chief of staff, Mike Tibbles, came in one day and said “They’re all fired. That’s what she wants.”...”Sarah just isn’t comfortable in the presence of dark-skinned people.”
Hedley's lame spin: “Palin shaped staff to look more like Alaska.”
Monday:
“Gary Wheeler...served as head of Governor Palin’s personal security detail. ‘What it came down to is she didn’t want us around...’
“She didn’t want anyone to follow her to Nordstrom’s when she went shopping every day...She didn’t want anybody to know she wasn’t coming in until 10 am and then leaving by three...”
“You know what she was? A housewife who happened to be governor. I’d fly cross-country with her many times and she’d spend the whole trip reading People magazine...”
Hedley's lame spin: "New book explodes myth of Sarah not reading."
Saturday:
“She freaked out afterward. Hysterical, crying, totally flipped out. The thing that people remember is her freak-out.”
“She was just horrified. She can’t believe she’d done it.”
Hedley's lame spin: “Book boring. Going for coffee.”
Notice that Trudeau enjoys painting Palin as an air-headed push-up-bra-manipulating sex kitten who's hyper-emotional. If Palin were a liberal, the feminists would all see sexism in this series. It's also odd that Trudeau would mock Palin "flip-outs" if they occurred, since his own wife, former NBC star, Jane Pauley, has been well-known for talking about her diagnosis with bipolar disorder. Does that mean she could never function at the highest levels of NBC News?
Unsurprisingly, Trudeau wants to persuade Palin to avoid another national campaign:
Trudeau says he has no interest in seeing Palin stick around the national scene as a potential candidate.
“I’d say her strategy flows from an unusually deep need to get the most attention for the longest period of time,” the comic political commentator says. “For 2011, that means stringing out her decision whether to run. For 2012, it’ll mean stringing out her endorsement of [Texas Governor Rick] Perry. . . .”
“Professional interests aside, I would not like to see her enter the race.”
