Yeah, WTF? My thought exactlym though it's far from the first time we've seen this:
Radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger tells Larry King on CNN that she will not renew her contract, which is up at the end of the year.
"My contract is up at the end of the year, and I have made the decision not to do radio anymore," Schlessinger said. "The reason is, I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what is on my mind."
Dr. Laura has been under fire for repeatedly using the N-word on a recent segment of her show.
"I am not retiring," she said. "I am not quitting. I feel energized."
Of course she's not quitting. Only quitters quit... by staying on the job. She's Palinizing. Which is only fitting, since Palin is the queen of this sort of thinking. Press asking tough questions?
In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.
Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.
"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."
If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.
"Three weeks ago I was asked a politically-charged question with a hidden personal agenda. I answered my question honestly and sincerely from my heart [...] As [Perez Hilton] was trying to be self-promoting and hateful while I have remained silent since, I am honored to be here today to finally let my voice be heard and address the hateful attacks, despicable rumors and false allegations I have had within the last three weeks."
"On April 19th, on that stage, I exercised my freedom of speech and I was punished for doing so. This should not happen in America. It undermines the Constitutional rights for which my grandfather fought for."
"The liberal onslaught of malicious attacks against [Miss California] Carrie Prejean for expressing her opinion is despicable," said Palin in a statement. Palin added that she spoke to Prejean soon after the beauty queen said publicly that she believed she had lost the Miss USA competition due to her answer to blogger -- and contest judge -- Perez Hilton that marriage is between a man and a woman.
"What I find so remarkable is that these politically-motivated attacks fail to show that what Carrie and I believe is also what President Obama and Secretary Clinton believe --- marriage is between a man and a woman," Palin added. "Our Constitution protects us all -- not just those who agree with the far left."
All of us except gays & lesbians, of course! And Moslems! And Arabs! And Hispanics!
Well, with such shining examples to follow, why not "Dr." Laura, too???
But that's only one part of the mix. Also present is the belief that the Constitution is their own private bodyguard, ready to protect them against any and all comers. Or perhaps Samurai would be more in keeping with the medieval flavor of their beliefs. This does seem to echo the broader theocratic belief that our Constitution represents a continuation of the divine right of kings, rather than a refudiation of it, nothwithstanding the complete absence of both God and kings from that esteemed document.
There's also that very personal sense of being a chosen person, and here one really can't understand Sarah Palin, at least, without referencing her anointing by an African witch-hunter:
This is the sort of theology of entitlement that ultimately lead to the Spanish Inquisition and the bloody wars of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.
It was, in turn, the effort to ensure that such mass murder in the name of God would never happen again that planted the seeds of religious tolerance as an idea--first as simply a practical matter, then over time as a matter of deep principle. And from that seed came the broader ideology of political liberalism on which America was based.
So when you look at how Palin, and Prejean and Schlessinger twist the First Amendment inside out to make it into their own personal shield against anyone saying anything negative about them, don't just see it as a sign of of incredibly deep-seated narcisssism, though of course it is that. You should also see it as the natural expression of a profoundly anti-American worldview.
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