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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

“So Sambo beat the bitch.”

posted by on September 9 at 10:14 AM

Charles linked to it in his post, but I thought we should have the full quote in context up on Slog:

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.

RSS icon Comments

1

Can we all sing a round of "Oh Canada!"?

I also think we should all become familiar with Canadian history. Oh, and it would be COOL to have pictures of the Queen on our money!!

God Save the Queen!!!!!

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger | September 9, 2008 10:17 AM
2

It's a revolting comment, but it's second-hand and seems unlikely to be corroborated. This story will get no traction. Even if it does, it's easily denied by Palin and will be used to show how unfair the media is being to her.

Posted by sleestak | September 9, 2008 10:20 AM
3

Perhaps she WAS thoroughly vetted. Perhaps McCain ISN'T a bumbling idiot. Perhaps McCain realized that his best bet was to offer redneck America a racist, bible-thumping hick as his perhaps-likely replacement. Perhaps he is, in fact, evil incarnate.

I hate them both.

Posted by violet_dagrinder | September 9, 2008 10:21 AM
4
Posted by Danisparanoidandhysterical | September 9, 2008 10:22 AM
5

C'mon, Dan. I'm not a fan of Palin at all, but this story doesn't appear to have any verifiable facts to support it.

Posted by Madisonian | September 9, 2008 10:22 AM
6

What sleestak @2 said.

Posted by Marshal Will and Holly | September 9, 2008 10:25 AM
7

i reiterate: i loathe all republicans.

Posted by adrian | September 9, 2008 10:27 AM
8

@4: Yet your link doesn't dispel the sambo comment, or that she asked *how* to ban books (per the librarian), or that her husband was indeed registered as a member of AIP. Or that Alaskans live on the federal dole getting $14,000 per person. But she'll sure promise to shrink funding for your kid's elementary school education in the name of smaller government. Awesome!

Posted by eric sic | September 9, 2008 10:30 AM
9

Dan, would you call this yellow journalism or are you truly this desperate?

Posted by You've created another McCain voter | September 9, 2008 10:31 AM
10

While the campaign burns Savage fiddles.

How about working to recruit people to give money and go to states that might matter and work.

Obama ran a great primary campaign, Obama ran a great primary campaign, Obama ran a great primary campaign...

So glad Idaho gave him more of a delegate swing than HRC's win in Ohio gave her.

What an idiot for not picking her for VP.

Oh well...

Posted by McG | September 9, 2008 10:32 AM
11

Neither the musings of Dan Savage nor the eavesdropping of a waitress named Lucille will change a single vote.

Posted by Ziggity | September 9, 2008 10:33 AM
12

Look, I hate Sarah Palin like every true patriotic American should but this tripe is not worth spreading around the internet or anywhere else for that matter. Until this can be verified by a more legitimate source, we should leave this story alone.

There is a plenitude of legitimate reasons to criticize Palin, especially her record as a so-called "reformer," but this is not one of them. It is probably not true.

Posted by ghostlawns | September 9, 2008 10:34 AM
13

That Newsweek article torques my jaw. They're deliberately cherry-picking the most lunatic stuff they can find in order to gloss over the true charges. No one has seriously claimed that she "banned books" or that the list that was floating around was anything more than a list of books that kooks like Palin have tried to ban elsewhere. The fact is she DID pressure the city librarian on book banning and attempt to fire her for being uncooperative. The article mentions this, but the section lead is still "false rumor".

God damn all Republicans. God damn them all to hell.

Posted by Fnarf | September 9, 2008 10:37 AM
14

Like 2 said, unless someone has a video of this, ala Maccaca, this will be nothing but a blog rumor. Same with the "trollup cunt" remark.

video, people! We need video! This he said she said shit only works on Dems.

Posted by Mike in MO | September 9, 2008 10:38 AM
15

To No. 3: There's no "perhaps" about it. McCain realized his best approach was divide and conquer, hope you get the bigger half. By using Palin to do it instead of himself, he gets to appear above the fray, and maybe pick up some idiotic former HRC voters along the way.

Posted by Dianna | September 9, 2008 10:39 AM
16

I believe this story. What many people fail admit is that white women can be more openly racist than white men because it makes them seem tough. The fact that she has traditional good looks lets her get away with a lot more than you think.

Posted by Fly-Over Illinois | September 9, 2008 10:40 AM
17

In publishing rumors with Lucille as a source, you are either actively or unwittingly helping out with the RNC playbook.

On the other hand @4 and Newsweek for Christ sake, talk about legalese. She wasn't a member of the independence party that wants to secede? Talk about your lies of ommission. Her husband is or was, and aren't Christian women taught to obey their husbands, where does that leave us with her as VP? She didn't "push" creationism. Maybe, but she actively supports teaching it.

Yesterday, she claimed that the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac take over was due to their costing the taxpayers too much money. That's completely false and unacceptable in light of this being the biggest govt takeover in my lifetime. Are we really going to have her a heartbeat away from managing the economy?

Posted by left coast | September 9, 2008 10:40 AM
18

Oh please Dan do you think this is helpful?

You are acting like a right winger.

I read it on the Internet so it must be true.

Your use of the word "context" is a gross insult to those of us who can actually think.

I've lost a lot of respect for you just now.

Posted by counterproductive | September 9, 2008 10:41 AM
19

@16: I fully agree with you.

Posted by kerri harrop | September 9, 2008 10:45 AM
20

Ziggity @11: Neither the musings of Dan Savage nor the eavesdropping of a waitress named Lucille will change a single vote.

OK, this is hyperbolic, sure, but it's my sentiment too.* Unless someone has audiotape of Palin calling Obama the N word or a YouTube clip of her goosestepping in front of a swastika, the more the left calls attention to Sarah Palin and her political incorrectness (to put it mildly), the more the campaign is fought on the right's home turf.

If this campaign is about Sarah Palin and the culture wars, John McCain is our next president.

(* Well, I'm under no illusion myself that posting a comment on Slog of all places is going to change a single mind worth changing.)

Posted by cressona | September 9, 2008 10:46 AM
21

Ummm.. Seriously why is everyone planning on learning french if they immigrate to Canada? Unless you are planning on moving to Quebec or just east of Quebec you wouldn't run into a need to EVER use it. I've lived in Canada all 27 years of my life and never had to speak it outside of grade 8 french class...

Posted by Josh | September 9, 2008 10:47 AM
22

Hate her, but this is dumb and unproven.

move on.

And, if one more Henny Penny pulls out the "I'm movin' to Canada/Europe" line, I'm personally coming to your house, on the slim chance we lose, the day after the election to help you move.

It's a tired cliche.

Posted by michael strangeways | September 9, 2008 10:48 AM
23

Palin was not a formal member of the AIP, but supports it wholeheartedly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI

Posted by Mom | September 9, 2008 10:50 AM
24

Here's how the "Lucille" reporter defends the story - by comparing himself to Woodward and Bernstein!!!

Hilarious.

http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/06/sarah-palin-and-me/

Anonymous sources are the bane of a reporter’s existence, and have been at least since Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein used them extensively to unmask Watergate and topple Richard Nixon.

Posted by oh | September 9, 2008 10:51 AM
25

@2 Is right.

Dan, If this story is true, it shouldn't be a problem to find one of the five or six people at her table to confirm it. Why don't you send one of your crack investigative journalists to Alaska to get the full story?

Also, reading the linked to "story", it accuses her of being a racist and referring to Alaska's Aboriginal people as "Arctic Arabs". This seems like a bit of a stretch since her husband (and her children) are part Alaska Aboriginal.

Todd Palin's mother, a former secretary of the Alaska Federation of Natives, is one-quarter Yup'ik, and his maternal grandmother, Lena Andre, is a member of the Curyung tribe.

When did "racists" start marrying "natives" and giving them lots of little "native" babies?...

These hysterical and unlikely smears are destroying the lefts ability to criticize Palin on legitimate issues.

Nice try though.

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | September 9, 2008 10:54 AM
26

besides the whole unproven nature of the comment, it really strikes me as odd that offhand comments like this are taken, face value, to be evidence of racism, sexism, or any other prejudice.

I get the feeling in cases where hatred is not the obvious motive force behind the phrase, comments like this would be acceptable in a stand-up routine, blurted out as a joke by friends in a bar, etc.

People always use offensive and shocking language as a form of comedy - is it just the fact that she's a conservative republican that puts her under suspicion of being racist and not merely edgy?

Posted by rococo | September 9, 2008 10:59 AM
27

#16 and #19 are incredibly sexist. I'm totally offended.

Posted by so, that's what the majority know, so you think you can call it out? | September 9, 2008 11:00 AM
28

Having spent a month in Alaska prosecuting a civil rights case I can say with confidence that the bulk of the article accurately frames the open racism that still exists among a segment of Alaskans. Also, the author Charley James, is a well known journalist who does include full identification of some of those he quotes in the story. Accordingly, after reading the following follow up from James,which I snagged from his blog, http://thepoliticalcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/ I'm going to assume the quote is accurate.
---
"Anonymous sources are the bane of a reporter’s existence, and have been at least since Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein used them extensively to unmask Watergate and topple Richard Nixon.

... So I am not surprised that a number of readers who wrote comments about the article raised questions about my sources. It has happened before, especially when I tackled a subject that raises a lot of dust, and it will happen again. Although I won’t reveal any sources – I honor promises of anonymity – let me explain how the story unfolded and sources came to my attention as I did the reporting.

When Palin’s name began leaking out the morning of Aug. 30, I sent an e-mail to an old friend from childhood who has been teaching in Alaska since he finished far too much graduate school, basically asking, “Who is Sarah Palin when it’s not raining and what was she before?”

...A short list of names was provided, including Lucille the Waitress, the much-discussed and oft-doubted woman who seems to have drawn the largest number of questions from commentators on the article.

And how does he know her? Well, like many people living on minimum wage and tips, Lucille holds a second job which, in this case, includes cleaning my friend’s family home every other week.

Lucille was the first person I interviewed. In her late 50s or early 60s, she was nervous even though I provided her with my friend’s name and suggested she call him first to verify who I am. She decided to proceed with the interview, which lasted about 10 minutes. Assuming she knew nothing about having to put an interview “off the record” or on a “not for attribution” basis before the interview starts. I asked Lucille if I could use her name in my article. She let me use her first name but not her last because she said she was afraid she might be fired.

I called my friend after the interview and, relating what’d said, asked if she was trustworthy. I was assured that, “It’d be easier for Lucille to hunt bears bare handed than to tell a lie."
---
What I don't get is those who assert that this type of matter should not be reported. It's all their for the reader to accept or reject based on the identification of witnesses as given. And anyone who occassionally listens to the swift boaters of the right knows this would be turned into repeated hour long shows. And of course Palin is free to deny. But such a denial may just get Lucille to step forward to validate the story.

Posted by Mike in Iowa | September 9, 2008 11:02 AM
29

Dan Savage = Anal Cum Guzzler

Again, Dan, you best just stick to tips on getting poo out of the end of your pee pee, and why sperm tastes like pineapple. Your journalistic skill is being stretched to it's limit.

Posted by ecce homo | September 9, 2008 11:16 AM
30

Has that link been taken down?

Also, while perhaps this story is true, this isn't enough proof, and anyway we don't need it to know how screwed up Palin is.

Posted by Trevor | September 9, 2008 11:18 AM
31

@27, they're right. Ann Coulter's a perfect example. She's blond and a male Republican's wet dream. They love hearing her be racist, as well as sexist towards her own gender.

Posted by apres_moi | September 9, 2008 11:19 AM
32

Holy fuck -- it never occurred to me that "ecce homo" was "John Bailo" (was "PC" was "McG" was "You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me) until now...

Posted by Just Sayin' | September 9, 2008 11:23 AM
33

@21: Josh, knowledge of French is worth many, many points on the immigration checklist; it's almost mandatory if you don't have a job already lined up there.

Posted by Fnarf | September 9, 2008 11:25 AM
34

I'd like a second opinion, please. This looks bogus.

I'm not surprised Dan posted it though, considering he bought all of Bush's bogus claims about the Iraq War, and then went on JOHN CARLSON's show to talk about it.

Posted by Frank Sinclair | September 9, 2008 11:27 AM
35

Josh @ #21,


Go to Canada's immigrations website.

Posted by Nom De Plume | September 9, 2008 11:30 AM
36

Oh please, you think the Republicans don't take this kind of stuff and run with it, what, 1000 times a day?

This is what bringing a gun to a gunfight looks like. Let em deny it - it sure rings true to me.

Posted by Mr. X | September 9, 2008 11:31 AM
37

Mr. X @ 36 is right. Congrats Dan, you've become everything you hate most...

Posted by A change you can believe in | September 9, 2008 11:38 AM
38

Even by Slog standards, this is half-assed, made-up bullshit. At least the Obama raped me in the limo guy has a name.

Posted by UnoriginalAndrew | September 9, 2008 11:51 AM
39

@21 - Because it's a very easy way to increase your point score, and much cheaper than getting a degree.

Posted by wench | September 9, 2008 11:55 AM
40

Listen, not that all Republicans are racist but it has been one of the major unspoken party platforms for many years. So, it should come as no surprise that their new darling would make such a comment, hell, most of the republicans will love her even more for it.

Posted by Sad Comment | September 9, 2008 12:02 PM
41

@21 - I'm with you. Unless you're moving to Quebec, speaking French in 2008 is about as useful as speaking Latin.

Posted by Mahtli69 | September 9, 2008 12:05 PM
42

Hey Dan (and all you other knuckleheads obsessing about Sarah Palin):

Read this article by Arianna Huffington.

Palin isn't running for president, MCCAIN IS. The reason he's pulling ahead in the polls is that the Dems and libs have been thrown off course by the hockey mom.

"Every second of this campaign not spent talking about the Republican Party's record, and John McCain's role in that record, is a victory for John McCain.

Her critics like to say that Palin hasn't accomplished anything. I disagree: in the space of ten days she's succeeded in distracting the entire country from the horrific Bush record -- and McCain's complicity in it. My friends, that's accomplishment we can believe in.

Just look at the problem John McCain faced. George Bush has a disastrous record, and the country knows it. John McCain -- the current one, not the one who vanished eight years ago -- has no major disagreements with George Bush (and I'm sorry, wanting to fire Donald Rumsfeld a bit sooner doesn't qualify) and wants to continue his incredibly unpopular policies for another four years. The solution? Enter Sarah Palin, a Trojan Moose carrying four more years of disaster.

And the plan has worked beautifully. Just look at what's being discussed just 57 days before the election. Is it the highest unemployment rate in five years? The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The suicide bombing yesterday in Iraq that killed six people and wounded 54 -- in the same market where last month a bomb killed 28 people and wounded 72? That the political reconciliation that was supposedly the point of "the surge" is nowhere near happening? That Iraq's Shiite government is now rounding up the American-backed Sunni leaders of the Awakening? That the reason 8,000 soldiers may be leaving Iraq soon is so more can be deployed to Afghanistan where the Taliban is steadily retaking the country?"

Posted by Frank Sinclair | September 9, 2008 12:08 PM
43

Hey "Frank" - Sarah Palin is the first executive decision that McCain has ever made (other than firing/hiring various campaign managers), and was such a spectacularly disturbing insight into his decisionmaking abilities that it (and she) is extremely relevant as an issue -- while Huffington has a point, that Bush's governing has been a spectacular failure that has left the US in shambles, McCain has had little or nothing to do with that governing other than giving it a confusing thumbs up over the last few years.

Palin is so unbelieveably unqualified to lead or govern this country that the pathetic attempt to barely vette her before choosing her almost arbitrarily at the urging of right wing radio talk show hosts (that by the way, universally decried the nomination of McCain himself just a few months ago) for the shock value smacks of the desperation of his campaign to be the head of a dying movement.

Posted by Just Sayin' | September 9, 2008 12:44 PM
44

Yes, it's an example of McCain's decision making skills, but it's a small piece of a very big pie.

Obsessing and harping over Sarah Palin will lose us the election. It's distracting attention from the PRESIDENTIAL candidates and the issues and it's exactly what Karl Rove wants.

They mocked Obama for being a "celebrity" so they went and created a new celebrity to overshadow him because the Republicans figured out the Cult of Celebrity is what drives America.

Posted by michael strangeways | September 9, 2008 12:56 PM
45

OK - back on topic, John McCain is an out-of-touch deluded lying phony who is tied at the hip to the failed policies of George Bush and the Republican party.

...and he picked a right-wing lunatic for a running mate.

That better?

Posted by Mr. X | September 9, 2008 1:19 PM
46

@44

Actually it isn't. 'Celebrity' is for middle-class and below to gawk at while the actual decision/money makers and tax payers are busy working, making decisions, making money, and paying taxes. Your blog shows that you pretty much do nothing but watch movies, jack off to greasy pictures of hairy men, and make $15 an hour.

Posted by Please speak for yourself. And thanks in advance. | September 9, 2008 1:28 PM
47

I didn't realize anyone under the age of 85 used the word "sambo."

Posted by ahava | September 9, 2008 1:34 PM
48

@47

I had the same thought. They don't. That makes this all the more suspect.

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | September 9, 2008 1:38 PM
49

@47 & 48, she's not very smart. @45, yeah i think it is. She is McCain's first decision, and it stinks of politics and incompetence. @38, is his name Unoriginal Andrew? Loser.

Posted by left coast | September 9, 2008 1:59 PM
50

Dear, "Please speak for yourself. And thanks in advance"

It sounds like you are implying that you are one of those very important, upper middle class, responsible policy makers who don't have the time of day for the riff-raff of the middle class or below.

If that's the case, where do you find the time to so obviously and obsessively read my dumb blog? Shouldn't you be hard at work making money and public policy?

Fuck, you're stupid...but I enjoy our encounters. Take care.

Posted by michael strangeways | September 9, 2008 2:08 PM
51

@ 36, yes, and I expect the Dems to show that they've grown a pair in returning fire.

One thing I dislike more than the PanTrogCavewoman that is Sarah Palin - those milquetoast, mamby pamby Dems that can't defend themselves or what they stand for. This is a smackdown

Posted by jackseattle | September 9, 2008 3:26 PM
52

Raise your hand if you're not compleely oblivious to the fact that the religious right have signed on with McCain dues to Palin's addition to the ticket. Those people don't care if the person they're electing is a liar, a cheat, an bureaucrat. They don't give a shit if the person they elect is the personification of everything they condemn. They only care that this person will use their office to enforce their religious ideaology with extreme prejudice.

We're not dealing with rationalists, we're dealing with the spiritualists.


Posted by Have Bike Will Travel | September 9, 2008 4:01 PM
53

I have swallowed too many other Palin rumors that were too good to be true to swallow this one.

I want proof. Someone needs to go on the record.

Posted by Quintus Slide | September 9, 2008 4:46 PM
54

@53, I've still seen no proof that Trig's not her daughter's child, and trying to confuse me with math by telling me that her daughter is five months pregnant (rather than the actual three months) ain't cutting it.

Posted by left coast | September 9, 2008 5:19 PM
55

If this inane comment is proven to have been said by Gov. Palin, then all of the "deference" that McSame's campaign is demanding for her is off the table.

If she can dish out racist and sexist statements, then she can damn sure take them.

Kinda makes the "lipstick on a pig" thing a bit irrelevant, don't it?

Posted by Jonathon | September 10, 2008 12:21 PM

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