Osborne Ink || News that's fairly liberal, but never unbalanced.

Palin is a Train Wreck that has whistled past Denial Station.

The pajamas-clad liberal blogger who first broke the story turns out to be a kindergarten teacher. He still insists his story is dead accurate, even though Sarah Palin’s lawyers have threatened him with a lawsuit by name. He’s so confident that he spoke with HuffPo and laughed at the threat.

The Enquirer has already paid sources on the record. That’s not “proof” by any stretch, but it’s tantalizing. The whole Palin story gets juicier by the minute, but I am not an enquiring mind; I don’t want to know, or have need to know, the private life of Sarah Palin. It genuinely does not matter because whether this sordid story is true or not, it still makes me feel better.

If it’s not true, then it’s sweet revenge for all those lovely internet memes about President Barack Obama. That’s right, capitol-P, as in POTUS. The fringe needs to get used to that reality and I refuse to suffer fools among them.

On the other hand, if it’s true — and it’s only a matter of time before it becomes self-evident how true these reports are — then it is still sweet revenge, but for something else entirely:

Yes, we at last have sweet revenge for Monicagate. And having disposed of every possible candidate, Mitt Romney may very well play fall guy for the Last Stand of the Teabag Terror.

Someone commented on this video at YouTube saying it had a right-wing message. How incredibly stupid: The Drive By Truckers are known for their very left-wing lyrics; “Righteous Path” is no exception.

Lyrics to Righteous Path, from the album Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

I got a brand new car that drinks a bunch of gas
I got a house in a neighborhood that’s fading fast
I got a dog and a cat that don’t fight too much
I got a few hundred channels to keep me in touch
I got a beautiful wife and three tow-headed kids
I got a couple of big secrets I’d kill to keep hid
I don’t know God but I fear his wrath
I’m trying to stay focused on the righteous path

I got a couple of opinions that I hold dear
A whole lot of debt and a whole lot of fear
I got an itch that needs scratching but it feels alright
I got the need to blow it out on Saturday night
I got a grill in the backyard and a case of beers
I got a boat that ain’t seen the water in years
More bills than money, I can do the math
I’m trying to keep focused on the righteous path

I’m trying to keep focused as I drive down the road
On the ditches and the curves and the heavy load
Ain’t bitching bout things that aren’t in my grasp
Just trying to hold steady on the righteous path

There’s this friend of mine I’ve known all my life
Who can’t get it right no matter how hard he tries
He’s got kids he don’t see and several ex-wives
And a list of bad decisions bout eight miles wide
Trouble with the law and the IRS
And where he’ll get the money’s anybody’s guess
He’s a long way off but if you was to ask
He’d say he’s trying to stay focused on the righteous path

Trying to keep focused as we drive down the road
Like we did back in High School before the world turned cold
Now the brakes are thin and the curves are fast
We’re trying to hold steady on the righteous path

We’re hanging out and we’re hanging on
We’re trying the best we can to keep keeping on
We got messed up minds for these messed up times
And it’s a thin thin line separating his from mine

Trying to hold steady on the righteous path
80 miles and hour with a worn out map
No time for self-pity or self-righteous crap
Trying to stay focused on the righteous path

Rep. John Lewis caused a dust-up this weekend by comparing the rhetoric of McCain and Palin rallies to George Wallace. McCain took umbrage, sending his campaign manager to declare on Faux Noise: “The idea that you’re going to compare John McCain to the kinds of hate spread in the ’60s by somebody like George Wallace is outrageous.” McCain called on Obama to repudiate the remarks, and while the Obama campaign didn’t denounce them they agreed the comparison went too far.

Bullshit, I say. The comparison is apt; there are extraordinary parallels between McCain’s disturbing rhetorical turn and the strange career of America’s best known racist. I say this as a lifelong resident of Alabama and a student of its history, but the Drive-By Truckers have already summed it up better than I could:

Wallace started out as a lawyer and a judge with a very progressive and humanitarian track record for a man of his time, but he lost his first bid for governor in 1958 by hedging on the race issue against a man who spoke out against integration.

Wallace ran again in ‘62 as a staunch segregationist and won big and for the next decade he spoke out loudly. He accused Kennedy and King of being communist and he was constantly on national news representing “the good people” of Alabama.

His track record as a judge and his late life quest for redemption make a good argument for his being, at worst, no worse than most white men of his generation, North or South. But because of his blind ambition and his hunger for votes, he turned a blind eye to the suffering of black America and he became a pawn in the fight against the Civil Rights cause.

Basically, John McCain is a decent fellow whose “blind ambition and hunger for votes” have led him to abandon respectable campaigning — and take up the coded language of racism, fear, and ‘other-ness’ instead. That is exactly how Wallace became the voice and face of southern racism. Just a few months ago, McCain admonished surrogates who used Barack Obama’s middle name. Now, the frequency of ‘Hussein’ at his rallies has gone up dramatically.

Sarah Palin is part and parcel of this late, negative turn. As Wallace called King and Kennedy ‘communist,’ Palin infers that Obama is a terrorist. Wallace claimed to represent “the good people of Alabama” and Palin says their ticket represents “good, ordinary Americans” — in contrast with, say, that exotic terrorist with the Muslim name.

McCain has sold his soul in the same way, and for the same reasons, as Wallace. And the rabid supporters who show up at campaign rallies to shout “terrorist!” and “Kill him!” are exactly the same crowd who turned out for Wallace when he ran for president.

Some of them even look old enough to remember:

And if you need a more direct linkage, take a look at who John McCain endorsed in Alabama’s 2006 race for Lieutenant Governor: George Wallace Jr., co-sponsored by the Council of Conservative Citizens. (Get it? CCC=KKK.)

The comparison is more than apt; it’s damning.