Althouse: "I will not call him the knuckle-dragging Neanderthal. I'll let his wife call him that instead."

February 10, 2011

"I will not call him the knuckle-dragging Neanderthal. I'll let his wife call him that instead."

Said Sarah Palin about Rick Santorum.

35 comments:

Phil 314 said...: tempest in a teapot; 2/10/11, 9:15 PM
Big Mike said...: Do not anger a momma grizzly.; 2/10/11, 9:16 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Not Sarah's best comeback - but it's Rick Santorum, so whatever.; 2/10/11, 9:19 PM
Meade said...: "I'm not the mother to all these kids"

If you believe Andrew Sullivan, neither is she.; 2/10/11, 9:25 PM
Mark said...: Santorum's "apology" was just about as classless as his original statements. "Other things to do" indeed.; 2/10/11, 9:29 PM
traditionalguy said...: Sarah just sent a message to all of the GOP guys. Poking fun at a Grizzly is a dangerous activity that will often require medical attention. Santorum needs to go help his wife to raise 7 kids.; 2/10/11, 9:33 PM
Peter said...: Sarah must have been taking lessons from Ann Coulter. I like it!; 2/10/11, 9:33 PM
Unknown said...: She was joking. I heard her say it on Hannity last night and it wasn't the big deal CNN would like it to be.; 2/10/11, 9:38 PM
Mark said...: edutcher, let CNN help make Palin the socially progressive (she's supporting gays in the GOP, remember?), fiscally conservative, foreign-policy-hawkish figure that they think won't sell to anybody.

We all know what sales geniuses CNN execs are.; 2/10/11, 9:52 PM
JAL said...: If one reads her words, she said this: "I will not call him the knuckle-dragging Neanderthal,"

So why the headline that said she called him a Neaderthal?

(And RS really had no business commenting on the appearance or non appearance of anyone else. Who cares?); 2/10/11, 9:53 PM
Methadras said...: I like Santorum, however, he is from Pennsylvania, so that, by definition makes him a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal. The entire state is filled with them. Shitsburgh is the capital of low browed, chin-jutting trogs.; 2/10/11, 10:15 PM
Peter Hoh said...: Santorum is just another former drug user.; 2/10/11, 11:24 PM
Mark said...: What I love about Palin is her ability to cut to the chase.

Which is what she cut to in her remarks about Santorum.

His whole narrative (from the quotes) is that Palin is (a) a mother who ought not to be out in the big bad world and/or (b) milking the celebrity culture for bucks and/or (c) not really conservative, 'cause she didn't come to the club's big dance.

FWIW, slamming Palin got Rick some press that he otherwise certainly would not have gotten. It may have tickled some memories in the God-bothering part of the GOP base, but the rest of it (including the ones who believe God and Jesus are personal relationships, and don't particularly want Rick mediating) were probably tickled the wrong way.; 2/10/11, 11:25 PM
Mark said...: I also love it that Santorum now claims that it was all just locker room stuff. No hard feelings.

Sure.; 2/10/11, 11:28 PM
MadisonMan said...: Santorum was probably rooting for the Steelers, not the Packers. It is the Packers who are the World Champions. The Green Bay Packers are the World Champions of football.; 2/10/11, 11:50 PM
Ankur said...: The comment about 5 kids, coming from a guy who has 7 kids himself..is raw, unadulterated sexism.; 2/11/11, 12:24 AM
newton said...: Oh, don't worry.

She got her revenge this afternoon at CPAC.

You know, dish best served cold and all that...; 2/11/11, 1:13 AM
Mick said...: Palin has more balls than any of theses wuss politicians by far.
I think she realizes that she is too polarizing to run for Pres.. but she has fun leading everyone on, especially the Alinskyan Liberals attempting to "identify and ridicule" the target. She will be the Kingmaker not the King, and she's WAY smarter than the morons that call her dumb.; 2/11/11, 3:21 AM
rhhardin said...: Palin is trading on being a woman and so is fair game.

A man in her position would be dismissed as a moron.; 2/11/11, 4:44 AM
Shanna said...: The comment about 5 kids, coming from a guy who has 7 kids himself..is raw, unadulterated sexism.

Yeah, I don't know what these men who start saying "oh she's got to take care of the kids" think they are accomplishing. Are you saying you don't take care of your own kids, Mr. I'm so super religious/conservative I trash everybody else? And if he meant it to be a dig on her alaska show, he should have left the kids out of it.

So, Santorum isn't actually running next time around, is he? I don't know anyone who considers him Palin's rival...except apparently the people who wrote that article.; 2/11/11, 6:55 AM
Shanna said...: Yeah, I don't know what these men who start saying "oh she's got to take care of the kids" think they are accomplishing.

Although during the campaign, there were an awful lot of women saying that too. Of course, they were all liberals.; 2/11/11, 7:02 AM
kk said...: The interesting thing about polarizing candidates is that they almost always win. Look back at the past 8-10 general elections - the more polarizing candidate wins every time.

So don't fall for the "too polarizing to win" nonsense. The fact is, most of the other GOP guys aren't polarizing enough to win.; 2/11/11, 7:21 AM
Triangle Man said...: The Green Bay Packers are the World Champions of football.

I can confirm that this is true.; 2/11/11, 8:30 AM
Skyler said...: Maybe it was a set up to keep Palin in the press?; 2/11/11, 8:33 AM
Original Mike said...: "The Green Bay Packers are the World Champions of football."

I saw it with my own eyes.; 2/11/11, 8:48 AM
markwark said...: The Green Bay Packers are the World Champions of football.

For the fourth time. Yinz still got some catchin' up to do.; 2/11/11, 9:18 AM
Original Mike said...: 13th time, actually. More than any other team. Almost twice as many as the New York Giants.; 2/11/11, 9:24 AM
Meade said...: rhhardin said...
"A man in her position would be dismissed as a moron."

Barack Obama was in her position. He wasn't dismissed as a moron.; 2/11/11, 9:39 AM
Scott M said...: Barack Obama was in her position. He wasn't dismissed as a moron.

HOWARD MEADE IS RIGHT!!!; 2/11/11, 9:40 AM
Lisa said...: CNN said she callled him a neanderthal.

She didn't. She merely said she would expect his wife to.

He made a sexist comment and IS a neanderthal; 2/11/11, 10:31 AM
Thorley Winston said...: I’m not a fan of Rick Santorum or Sarah Palin but I think that calling his comments “sexist” is quite a stretch. He basically said that she’s a very busy person and that’s why she wasn’t going to attend CPAC. Tempest in a tea party pot.; 2/11/11, 11:14 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: The first chink in Sarah's armor appears - and I've had it:

There is no shortage of brewing opposition to the Church of Scientology gaining power inside the Federal Government. In the wake of recent headlines, many Tea Party activists have grown vocal against prominent political figures growing so cozy to a church about which millions of Americans have legitimate concerns. But, to date, Sarah Palin has not answered calls from fellow Tea-Partiers to speak up and demand that elected officials not accept financial donations from the church of Scientology and its members until more questions are answered about the religious organization's questionable practices.

Sarah Palin, of course, is no stranger to Scientology and, as a result, may not readily join the large and growing anti-Scientology movement. As coverage from the War Room notes, "Sarah Palin is personal friends with prominent Scientologists Greta Van Susteren and her husband, attorney John Coale. Coale helped Palin start her PAC -- and he once proposed starting a Scientology PAC, in the 1980s."

And, once again, Ann and Glenn and all the rest are left flat-footed.; 2/11/11, 11:19 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Crack, the norm in America is to tolerate and basically ignore the religion of people we have social and professional relationships with. So Sarah Palin is easily within that norm. The idea that I should have to get after Sarah Palin is another degree removed from that. You have your agenda and you're being proactive. The failure of other people to make that their main thing is absolutely nothing. You make yourself seem flakier than the people you want to unmask. It doesn't work to win people over. It's off-putting.; 2/11/11, 11:50 AM
Thorley Winston said...: I agree with Ann that generally we tolerate and/or ignore other people’s religious beliefs unless and until they make it an issue. But this caught my attention:

But, to date, Sarah Palin has not answered calls from fellow Tea-Partiers to speak up and demand that elected officials not accept financial donations from the church of Scientology and its members until more questions are answered about the religious organization's questionable practices.

I can understand calls for candidate’s not to accept contributions from certain types of organizations that advocate a particular agenda. I don’t necessarily agree with such calls (as they generally seem silly and shrill along the lines of “we call upon candidate X to apologize for his comments” or “call candidate Y to denounce the comments of candidate X”) but I can understand the logic behind them.

But getting the point where candidates are expected not to accept contributions from individuals based solely on their membership in a legal organization is frankly unreasonable. Particularly when you have a prior personal relationship, as Palin does with Van Susteren (who I had not idea nor do I care what her beliefs are). Doubtlessly if we went through all of the people who contributed to Sarah Palin’s PAC or prior political campaigns, we’d find a few people who were registered Democrats or belonged to other organizations she disagreed with.; 2/11/11, 12:39 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Scientology - a cult with a long list of crimes behind them - is now being investigated by the FBI for human trafficking. They are not a religion - according to their own founder - so to refer to them as one, or to pretend their involvement in American politics is anything even remotely like "the norm" is a lie.

Your willingness to blind yourself to what you don't want to see - as everyone did to the proclivities of Jared Lee Loughner - is what's off-putting.

People are being killed by these groups, it's not "absolutely nothing" that you don't care.; 2/11/11, 12:57 PM