Gov. Sanford is really lucky.
Just when it looked like he could never recover, Michael Jackson died and Sarah Palin resigned.
And Michael Jackson is still dead (as is Generalissimo Francisco Franco) and will presumably stop making news some time soon.
But Sarah Palin will forever make headlines and late night joke lines and blogoshpere fodder. She is the Political Undead.
Sanford owes her big.
I never thought I would write, let alone think, that I feel sorry for Sarah Palin. But her progressively steeper downward spiral is as ooky as watching photo montage of Michael Jackson as he morphed from a person to plastic surgery super-weirdo. By contrast, Kerry’s various explanations of being for the Iraq War before he was against it are models of clarity. Based on what I read about her second press conference to clarify her first press conference, I imagine that, by the time this political sideshow ends, there will be an anthology of clarifying statements for future generations to ponder.
I think she will be responsible for a new words in the English lexicon: palinate: (verb) means to implode or self-immolate. palination: (noun) implosion or self-immolation.
I feel bad for her kids.
I was away this weekend, trying to unplug and relax. I worried about a threatened North Korean attack on the Fourth of July but that would mean that Kim Dong Il was crazy, sick AND stupid. Still, in the back of my mind, I worried. I thought Honduras would continue in chaos as nations back the principle of democracy although probably not the president himself. Even Dick Cheney gave it a rest. Ok, I thought, the usual grandstanding in Washington while everyone sets about the “people’s business”.
Oh, no! Sarah Palin is back! Check Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. She is listed under antonyms for “articulate”, “cogent” and “decipherable”. She bails because she does not want to be a lame duck? So, she passes the fiscal mess (recession compounded by low oil revenues) to the lieutenant governor? Unless he is running for governor in the next election, isn’t he a lame duck as well? I guess she wins the title, “Lamer Duck of Alaska”. (There would have to be three competitors in order to have a “most lame”, but, Sarah, dear, don’t start worrying about grammar.) Must be something about the days of Sarah Barricuda or the beauty pageants.
So Governor Family Values Stanford goes down the Appalachian trail. Then Governor Responsibility in Government (but not in family planning) Palin goes OFF the Appalachian trail.
P.S.: Sarah, being a leader is about sticking it out when it becomes hard and tough decisions have to be made. Thank G-d you were not vice president. If you had to ascend to the presidency, would you have bailed if Russia got tough, or Pakistan fell to the Taliban?
Death doesn’t erase parts of a person that are more conveniently forgotten or “forgiven”. As Elie Wiesel once said, only the victims [or hurt parties] can forgive. Leave the cleansing for G-d. Not that I want only to harp on the allegations or the bizarre physical transformations swirling around Michael Jackson. We just need to recognize the complexities of a person and then give that person his or her due. Because each of us is a jumble of good and bad impulses and acts.
I think we idolize “winners”. And our “winners” cannot have feet of clay or disappoints their fans, so they either fall from grace or their sins are overlooked. Unless, of course, the erstwhile “winner” emerges triumphant from adversity and then we have an inspirational Sunday movie about it.
No one fits neatly into the pigeon holes our society creates for us.
Look at my statistics:
I am not married to the mother of my child but we live together (we are waiting for same sex marriage to be legal) so we have a “child AT RISK” . “At risk” for what is never spelled out but clearly it is beyond what a civil society can bear.
I have a high paying job and we own our home so we are upstanding members of the community.
I am a finance lawyer so I am a blood sucking parasite who doomed our economy.
We have our widower fathers over to dinner on Sunday nights along with my sister and brother-in-law so we are the Cleavers or Ozzie and Harriet.
We are members of a synagogue, so we are righteous.
We have never railed against heterosexuality, so we are prophets.
We are lesbians so we are dangerous to family values and a scourge.
We love this nation and we were against the Iraqi war, so for 8 years we were unpatriotic enemy sympathizers.
Call me Sybil.
So don’t deaths happen in threes? Michael Jackson, a complicated legend who lived as a child until his death, and Farrah Fawcett, a 70’s cultural sensation as a giggling detective (in a bathing suit) in the age of the feminist movement. I don’t know these people but they bookmark points in my life. Just their mention evoke memories of times and places — some good memories, others not so much . Since the child molestation accusations against Michael Jackson, I have not been able to listen to his music. I am not in a court of law and I do not choose to separate the artist from the alleged predator. Others will disagree (but this is my blog).
The silver lining is that Jon & Kate will fall off the news cycle. I have never seen (or wanted to see) the show. All that I have learned about them is the result of Jon’s infidelity. (Hmmm. Another thread running through stories, huh, Gov. Sanford). The bad news is that Iran, North Korea, Myanmar and health care, global warming and financial system reform and other critical issues will also fall off the news cycle.
All as we mourn people we don’t know but think we know. I guess I understand mourning people we don’t really know. I was very sad when the former Chief Judge of the US Bankruptcy Court for the SDNY, Tina L. Brozman, died. She was an incredible role model for me as a young lawyer appearing before her. She had the self-confidence to be polite and gracious in her courtroom. She was fiercely intelligent. Once she dressed me down in court. She taught me many lessons. I remember lighting a candle for her along with those for my mother and grandparents on Yom Kippur the year that she died. Because I guess people, even unintentionally, impact the lives of others. It is an awesome power, really. That each of us could be a role model for good or for bad to those around us. What a powerful connection that ties one human to another.
So bad things happen in threes? Let’s hope the third casualty is Gov. Sanford’s career.