I thought
Andrew Sullivan had a bad case of Palin Obsession (PO). Until this morning when I ran into these guys:
palingates.
These are the Palingates listed in the sidebar:
Babygate
Troopergate
Prisongate
Legal Fund
Ethics
Religiongate
Expenses
Housegate
Wasilla
Dairygate
Pebble mine
Wildlife
Environment
Lawsuits
Alaska Natives
Civil rights
Race
Government
Big oil
Alaska Independence Party
Indifference
Special needs
Education
Cronies
Victims
Family
Now, there's one more --
Abortiongate.
It's a long, convoluted story, from several sources, with many updates and additions by commenters. Lots of comments, so far nearly 800. I was going to try to summarize it here, but I found a comment by ivyfree, which does an excellent job.
Basically it starts with an odd story in Going Rogue about $arah's second pregnancy, right after the first child, Track, later a troubled young man, was born. The pregnancy ended in a 'miscarriage'. But $arah tells us that the bill for the D&C specified the procedure as 'abortion'. $arah says the clinic must have realized its mistake, because 'abortion' was whited-out and 'miscarriage' typed over it.
Some backtracking: in high school, $arah was smitten by a popular boy named, Curtis Menard, Jr, who did not return her interest. They remained friends and he was named godfather of Track. Also, at the time of her second pregnancy, Curtis lived next door to the Palins.
The post at palingates speculates about the second pregnancy and questions Track's paternity. There are many side-by-side photos of Track, Curtis, and Todd at the link, which are, to say the least, very interesting.
I think you're probably up to speed, so I'll let ivyfree take over:
Re: Track. I've always thought it was odd that we hear so little of Track. I thought he was probably very angry with his parents, because who wouldn't support his mother's run for office? Heck, Phyllis Schlafly's son is gay, and he says he'd never do anything to embarrass his mother. (Which? Good for him. I dislike her politics, but she's not doing anything illegal.)
But a kid growing up with two dads... and it sounds like his "godfather" was very involved, going to his games and all... is bound to grow up confused. And I thought, well, if he was caught vandalizing school buses and had a history, and was given the choice of the service or jail, that's a reason for him to be angry at his parents. I imagined Sarah screaming at him that she'd called in favors to give him this choice, and he was going into the marines whether he wanted to or not. He could easily be pissed at her and not communicating much. That's how I explained it to myself.
Did he even issue a statement supporting his mother? I don't recall reading about it, but I don't claim that I've ready everything. I am in awe of some of the regulars here and the knowledge they have.
So look at it this way: Somebody gets pregnant and there are two possible dads. She marries the one that is willing to marry her... not the guy who has a history of liking really smart girls and is educated himself. She suggests his name as godfather, and that's a nice cover for his interest in the kid that, he thinks, just might be his. There's kind of a resemblance that he hopes people don't notice much. Most people aren't that suspicious anyway. He doesn't like the way she's raising the kid, so he goes to her office rather than discussing it en famille. Because she's a real dramatic sort and he's hoping that dealing with it in a professional place might encourage her to keep it quiet. Didn't work, so she mentions it, because people around couldn't help but overhear something. Her husband hears around town about his wife and the friend and the kid, and she explains it by bitching to her husband about the other guy butting in where it's not his business. In the ensuing fight- because the husband isn't a total moron, and has had suspicions- the kid overhears some things that raise questions. The kid, confused, starts acting out. This leads to the vandalism incident and eventual military service. In the fighting over his "voluntary" enlistment, he accuses his mom of misleading him about his father, and in the ensuing familial explosion, the truth comes out.
Kid goes off to boot camp, and the marines- surprise! treat him like an adult, and he starts creating an adult life. He discovers that not everybody has the home life he had. He decides that he's going to lead as separate a life as possible. (Note: this closely parallels the actions of my goddesson who joined the Navy. He now lives three states away from his family of origin, and gets on with them much better for the distance.)
I think learning that the guy you thought was your father, isn't, would cause a lot of trauma in a young man. And it would certainly cast a new light on his mother. No doubt I'm old-fashioned, but I think most men want to respect their mothers.
I can see this causing a rift in the family, and it would explain why you don't see many pictures of Track and his mom together.
This would also explain the fighting between the couple mentioned by the ex-son-in-law-to-be, as well as the sleeping apart issues. You'd never know who your partner had been with, so would you risk having sex with them and getting exposed to something contagious? To say nothing about the fact that it's widely considered preferable to have married sex with somebody you actually like?
Which brings us to the abortiongate thing. Somebody gets pregnant... again. She's not sure who the father is, but the timing leads her to believe that it may not be her husband's. Her husband's away a lot, and he's kind of oblivious to the kind of cyclic observations that many husbands notice in their wives, when they live with them constantly. The same other guy is still interested in having sex, but he doesn't want to go through another pregnancy. He decides to confess to his wife and dares her to blackmail him. She knows her husband would be furious and might leave her, which means she would be alone, with another man's baby and another man's fetus inside of her, and minimal job skills, and parents who would NOT be happy with her. She decides on an abortion.
So she tells her husband that the baby's died and she needs a D & C. She arranges for this with the only doctor around who performs abortions and makes sure the doctor knows that her husband thinks the baby's dead. Abortion providers would have to be discreet, and she has the D & E. Some time later, she receives a bill for... an abortion. (Our hospital, when it was a general public hospital and not a Catholic one, called them "Requested abortions") She panics. She grabs the wite-out and carefully paints over it, and types in the word "miscarriage" because she doesn't realize that doctors bill for procedures, not diagnoses, and that "miscarriage" isn't a diagnosis anyway. Now she has something to tell her husband when he sees the bill, and she's officially devastated by the cruel "mistake" made by the billing office. Her marriage is saved! What a relief- she doesn't have to support herself!
And the second guy goes off for two years of orthodontic school, which his wife, who is committed to their marriage and forgiven him, suggested as a means to get him away from the Other Woman, and of course insists that he not see her alone (which also plays into the discussing the kid at the Mayor's office thing). However, he's committed to the first kid and tries to pay attention to him, and even makes a point of going to his school games. He wants to be involved as much as he tactfully can.
I'd welcome people poking holes in my theory.
Interesting, no?
As more and more
obsessed curious bloggers get deeper and deeper into her various and varied stories, it may turn out that $arah is not just
Liar of the Year, she may well turn out to be Liar of the Decade.
And, yeah, OK, I seem to have caught a case of PO too. But when one thinks of the influence this wingnut has on even wingnuttier wingnuts, it's damned scary to contemplate what she's capable of. I think the PO'd bloggers are doing a great service in helping to expose exactly what kind of person she is.
No wonder she
hates the bloggers.
