Behar: Palin Made Her Children Targets, 'Passing That Kid Out More Than a Joint at a Grateful Dead Concert'
After having already used her appearance on Wednesday's The View show on ABC to defend author Joe McGinniss's claim that Sarah Palin was acting like a Nazi trying to intimidate him, Joy Behar again defended McGinniss on the same day's Joy Behar Show on HLN, and suggested that Palin is responsible for making her children into targets for daring to let the public see her family - as most politicians do - while she was running for Vice President. Behar: "The other thing is that isn`t she the one who put her kids in the spotlight in the first place? I mean, they, at the convention, when they were passing that kid out more than a joint at a Grateful Dead concert. Remember that? I mean, she started it, as far as I can tell."
Guest Lizz Winstead, co-creator of the Daily Show, then chimed in that Palin had already written about her "dumb life": "She already wrote a book about her own dumb life anyway, and, as far as I can tell, when Joe McGinniss writes about Sarah Palin, he doesn`t go into her personal life. He`s writing about whether or not she has a modicum of skill to run anything."
Behar also seemed to agree with McGinniss that the way Palin has dealt with him is indeed "Nazi-like." Behar: "He didn`t really equate her with the Nazis. He`s saying the tactic is very Nazi-like. Which is, which is what? Which is unleashing the wrath of the Palinites out there on this guy. That`s where the Nazi tactic comes in because when she says they`re attacking or being a threat to my children, all of these little Palinites go berserk, over the edge."
Below is a complete transcript of the relevant segment from the Wednesday, June 2, Joy Behar Show on HLN:
JOY BEHAR: You know, there`s something other than Russia that Sarah Palin can see from her house. It`s Joe McGinniss, the author who moved in next door to Palin while, while he writes a book about her. She`s calling foul claiming her privacy is being invaded. Now, a nasty war of words has erupted between the two. With me now are Ana Marie Cox, Washington correspondent for GQ magazine, and Lizz Winstead, comedian and co-creator of the Daily Show. Okay, Palin has made McGinniss a target of a national, of national harassment because he moved in next door to her. Okay, he`s renting a house. You know the story. Most people, I think, know it at this point. She`s tweeted and Facebooked about him. A conservative radio talk show host gave out his e-mail address which he had to shut down, and, after he moved in, she posted a Facebook, a picture of him on Facebook in the house. Now, is she now invading his privacy, Lizz?
LIZZ WINSTEAD, COMEDIAN: Here`s the thing. If she does this in her personal life-
BEHAR: Yeah.
WINSTEAD: -you know, just the pre-emptive crazy, can you imagine if she was holding a high public office. Like, it would be horrible. This is how she reacts, she`s just reactive and bizarre.
BEHAR: Yeah, she overreacts.
WINSTEAD: Yeah, and I think she is being a little bit weird. I mean, it`s, at first, I was like, it`s kind of weird he moved in next door-
BEHAR: Yeah.
WINSTEAD: -but then my second thought was, he made it very public he was doing this. So, because he knew she was going to react this way. I mean A, he`ll get press for it, but B, why not move in next door to her? It`s an investigative journalist's dream to have the subject that you are, living in the house next to you. How awesome is that?
BEHAR: Ana Marie, do you find it creepy at all that he`s there?
ANA MARIE COX, GQ MAGAZINE: Well, yes, I mean, I think, as a feminist, you know, as a woman, the male gaze is a little unsettling, but, as a journalist, I find it really upsetting the way that she`s reacting to him. And I have to agree with Lizz, I think the overreaction here and the escalation that she`s done, can you imagine if she had at her disposal, you know, a private police force or a national police force? I mean, if she was actually holding office and had an investigative team that she could have working for her, if she had access to people`s records, if she could do whatever she wanted, imagine what kind of havoc she could wreak in this guy`s life, which, of course, makes me think, remember Troopergate? That all seems, this all seems really familiar now and even more unsettling.
WINSTEAD: Well, and it also, she feels like she deserves this power, and that`s the part that freaks me out, is that she really feels like any amount of power that she is given, whether she`s governor or just a, you know, a talking bot, it feels like she's just, the second she gets a moment of power, she just feels like she can do whatever she wants with it.
COX: And not that she can do whatever she wants with it, but use it against her enemies.
WINSTEAD: Yes.
COX: She is someone who definitely like, feels like she has enemies.
WINSTEAD: Right.
COX: And that they are personal enemies. Like, she cannot take this to the level of abstraction.
BEHAR: Paranoid.
COX: She can`t think of this as like a journalist covering a subject, right?
BEHAR: Right.
COX: It is Joe McGinniss attacking her, her personally. And, you know, and she brought her kids into this, which I have to say I don`t has anything-
BEHAR: Well, she implies in her Facebook thing that he`s going to be staring at Piper through the window, which automatically makes him into some kind of pervert, which is not his intention at all. Okay, the fight escalated this morning when McGinniss went on NBC`s Today Show. Watch.
JOE MCGINNISSS, AUTHOR/SARAH PALIN`S NEIGHBOR: It`s probably a lesson for the American people of the power Palin has to incite hatred and her willingness and readiness to do it. She has pushed a button and unleashed the hounds of hell, and now they're out there slobbering and barking and growling. And that`s the same kind of tactic - and I`m not calling her a Nazi - but that`s the same kind of tactic that the Nazi troopers used in Germany in the `30s, and I don`t think there`s any place for it in America.
BEHAR: Okay, now she says in response, "When I say, all right, leave my kids alone, it means simply that. Let my kids have a fun summer without having a journalist 15 feet from their play area. How that equates me with the Nazis is quite beyond me." Okay, she`s not, he didn`t really equate her with the Nazis. He`s saying the tactic is very Nazi-like.
WINSTEAD: Well, I just think any time you know-
BEHAR: Which is, which is what? Which is unleashing the wrath of the Palinites out there on this guy.
WINSTEAD: Yes.
BEHAR: That`s where the Nazi tactic comes in because when she says they`re attacking or being a threat to my children, all of these little Palinites go berserk.
WINSTEAD: I know, but just Nazi thing kind of, like, he has (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the Nazi thing.
BEHAR: Over the edge.
WINSTEAD: Over the edge, you know what, I just find it boring. Now, here`s the thing that I think is the biggest problem with Palin, is that why didn`t Bravo find her two weeks before McCain did, and we could just had the real housewives-
BEHAR: I know, we have to blame him.
WINSTEAD: -of Alaska and have it begun because she is exactly like that crazy woman on the Housewives of New Jersey.
BEHAR: Yes, the other thing is that isn`t she the one who put her kids in the spotlight in the first place? I mean, they-
WINSTEAD: Yes.
BEHAR: -at the convention, when they were passing that kid out more than a joint at a Grateful Dead concert.
WINSTEAD: Yeah.
BEHAR: Remember that?
WINSTEAD: She drags them out constantly.
BEHAR: I mean, she started it as far as I can tell.
WINSTEAD: She already wrote a book about her own dumb life anyway, and, as far as I can tell, when Joe McGinniss writes about Sarah Palin, he doesn`t go into her personal life. He`s writing about whether or not she has a modicum of skill-
BEHAR: Yeah.
WINSTEAD: -to run anything.
BEHAR: Right. Now, do you think, Ana Marie, do you think-
COX: She`s certainly good at running her own branding.
WINSTEAD: Yes.
COX: I mean, I think, that, that`s what she has a skill at. I mean, I don`t think she has, she could be the CEO of anything other than, you know, Palinville, the Palin company. And she`s branded herself really expertly, like even this, her outcry over McGinniss, puts her in this weird, non-threatening female position. I mean, we were sort of sold a bill of goods about her that she`s a strong woman. But everything she does in the public eye makes me think she`s actually very retrograde.
BEHAR: So isn`t this, isn`t it, the fence is up, shouldn`t that be the end of the conversation? The fence is up.
WINSTEAD: Well, the fence is up, yeah. But you know what? I just feel, too, it`s not brave to attack through Facebook and Twitter. You`re a grown woman with a public platform. I mean, it`s really weird.
BEHAR: Okay. Thanks, ladies, very much. And you can catch the fabulous Lizz Winstead at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, in Burlington, Vermont on June 19 th. We`ll be back in a minute with Alan Alda.
-Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
