Apparently I seemed to have touched a nerve with that column. Did you see JoAnn Seufert's letter in the PRESS yesterday? Politics is always messy and emotional.
Let me be clear, I'm sure that Sarah Palin is a good person in many respects and a devout Christian as well. I think John McCain is a good person at heart in many respects as well. I just don't think either of them are right for our country at this time.
As a cartoonist and a political humor columnist, I use exaggeration and sarcasm. I know that isn't gentle as a lamb, but it's normal to be provocative and occasionally abrasive.
I apologize when that winds up being offensive to any other readers. I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinions, hope to help inform those opinions, trigger both research and discussion, and encourage people to write to the paper with their opinions. Thank the Lord that we live in a nation where we the right to have and express differing opinions (for now).
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I may be wrong about this, but I really suspect that this portion of the column I wrote an imaginary McCain's convention speech is what set off JoAnn Seufert and Angie DeJong-
"If I truly put country before party, I’d have asked someone like my fellow Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator from Nebraska. Chuck and I disagree on Iraq and on torture, and he’d genuinely be willing to tell me the what he thinks and stand up to our party and special interests. But I’m more interested in my own personal legacy than in actually advancing real reforms.
I really wanted to pick my friend Joe Lieberman, the Independent Senator from Connecticut. I like him, we agree on things and get along well, so I know he’d be a good working partner. But after all, he used to be a member of the Democrat party, among other things.
I thought for sure that Governor Frist of Florida or Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania. Both could garner a few more electoral votes than Nebraska, Alaska or Connecticut. But lets face it, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, GOPAC and Republican strategists decided to stick me with this former local TV Anchorwoman and beauty pageant runner up.
You gotta admit, it was a stroke of genius. Should Liberals attack her, we'll get to cry "sexist" and make them look like a bunch of hypocrites. Even though we’ve opposed equal rights for women and equal pay for equal work, if we win, we’ll get to lay claim to breaking that glass ceiling for women, not those pesky Democrats.
Sure, for years, Republicans have argues that women should stay home with their kids instead of pursuing a high profile career, but it’s the Democrats who’ll look sexist or even “elitist” if they question her for putting her five kids through a national campaign.
It’s a win-win. She advocated abstinence-only sex education and cut funding for programs offering shelter to homeless unwed mothers, but she and her pregnant 17 year old daughter are heroes for not having abortions.
Sure, she may have improperly pressured then-Public Safety Commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law, an Alaskan state trooper, who had been in the middle of a custody dispute with her sister- but that just shows that she can stand up to men and she gets things done. It doesn’t mean she won’t help me fight corruption and reform government. Maybe I’ll put her in charge of hiring and firing U.S. Attorneys, so that the Attorney General won’t have to be bothered."
Listen, I'm not in favor of promoting abortion and I really support women in politics. But let's face it, today's Republican party is not Barry Goldwater's party. Karl Rovian tactics dictated that they exploit religion and values voters. Wedge issues are what get people fired up. And let's face it, Palin is no Einstein- she got caught thinking that Africa is a country (it's a continent) and the ONLY Supreme Court case she's familiar with is Roe. That's not someone you want a heartbeat away from the Presidency. So I truly am sorry if I hurt people's feelings. And yep, I'm still pretty defensive about criticism, and having to give up my column. But I don't retract what I wrote, I still think it was true and if anything Palin's own performance again and again vindicated my position.
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