Paper Beats Rock, Scissors Beat Paper

In her resignation speech, Sarah Palin had this to say about the political and legal attacks she has faced since becoming John McCain's running mate last August:

Some say things changed for me on August 29th last year - the day John McCain tapped me to be his running-mate - I say others changed.

Let me speak to that for a minute.

Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations - such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters' questions.

Every one - all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We've won! But it hasn't been cheap - the State has wasted THOUSANDS of hours of YOUR time and shelled out some two million of YOUR dollars to respond to "opposition research" - that's money NOT going to fund teachers or troopers - or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the "politics of personal destruction" ... Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn't cost them a dime so they're not going to stop draining public resources - spending other peoples' money in their game.

It's pretty insane - my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with THIS instead of progressing our state now. I know I promised no more "politics as usual," but THIS isn't what anyone had in mind for ALASKA.

This was the most unfortunate part of the speech, as it added to the sense that she is leaving office under a cloud. I would have left it out entirely. Structurally, her plaint came after her recital of her accomplishments as governor and before her (vague) description of her plans for the future. So, between these positive statements, we get this negative one about ethics complaints. It was not just a sour note. It made it look like her enemies' attacks had gotten to her. Not good.

Now, I know Gov. Palin has a legitimate complaint here. The ethics complaints were frivolous. They were brought with the express purpose of (1) impugning her character and (2) distracting her in the performance of her duties as governor. But, Gov. Palin's complaints that she had been forced to engage in expensive and time-consuming litigation indicate that she and her attorneys were approaching these complaints in the wrong way. They were approaching these complaints as legal problems, rather than what they were: political attacks through legal process. You say these are frivolous complaints? Then treat them as such. Give them the legal equivalent of the back of your hand: give them to your attorney and say "make this go away." Fill the air with demurrers, motions to strike, and motions to quash. But, don't spend time and money actually responding to this crap.

Not only that, you need to go on the attack against this stuff. There was apparently one guy responsible for most of these complaints. Let's hear his name. Let's hear about some ethics complaints against him. Let's have some abuse of process and malicious prosecution suits against him. Most whistle-blowers and ethics-hounds are not junior Karen Silkwoods. They are much more likely to be contemptible partisan hacks like Joe Wilson. It's time Republicans start treating them as such. Instead, Palin makes the same mistake as other members of the GOP: fighting cut-throat political warriors with earnest legalisms.