Rep. Frank Says Palin’s Family Is “Fair Game”
by Aaron Margolis, September 3rd, 2008 at 12:54pm
Rep. Barney Frank says Sarah Palin’s family is “fair game.” He is among the first to make this suggestion, and is breaking ranks with the de facto party leader and Democratic nominee for president Barack Obama.
“They’re the ones that made an issue of her family,” Frank, D-Mass., said Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Republicans stressed Palin’s conservative family values in announcing her selection as John McCain’s running mate on Friday. Frank says the recent disclosure about her daughter blunts conservative claims that liberalism harms family life.
“Apparently she’s a great favorite with the conservative social movement,” Frank said. “They have said that it’s liberalism and liberals who have undermined families — same-sex marriage has been a problem, they don’t want gay people to adopt … This helps undercut those arguments.”
Not so, Congressman. Growing up with conservative values in the home does not 100% shield you from liberalism, and vice versa. You can’t walk down the street, go on the internet, or turn on the television to see how liberalism has undermined family values. Parents can only do so much to impart their values on to their children. Let’s face it, it is impossible for parents to safeguard children from values that do not align with their own, short of keeping them locked up in a dungeon somewhere with no outside contact.
Revelations about Palin’s 17-year-old daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy and other family troubles reflect the stresses and strains of modern everyday life more than anything else, said Frank.
“Well, hers is a family in great turmoil,” added Frank. “She fired the state police commissioner because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband. She has a daughter who became pregnant. That’s not her fault.”
I don’t understand why her family is “in great turmoil” for simply having to deal with the stresses and strains of modern everyday life. Many families deal with these issues, and some many times worse. But you are correct, Congressman. It’s not her fault. You can fairly go after the actions of Sarah Palin, but when it comes to her children, or any politicians children, listen to your messiah, “children are especially off limits.” Let’s keep it that way, for the children of a politicians regardless of what party they are. If Palin’s children are fair game, then all politicians’ children are fair game, and I don’t think we want to go down that road, Congressman.
(Will Congressman Frank say that Senator Biden’s son and brother are also fair game?)
Entry Filed under: Capitol Hill, Election 2008, Family Issues, Uncategorized
2 Comments
1. Maggie | September 6th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
If Palin’s family is fair game, then I just want to say - “Hot Bottom”!!!!
The Palin girl may be knocked up but at least Levi wasn’t running an escort service out of the Governor’s residence.
2. Matt Media | September 11th, 2008 at 7:44 am
While I don’t particularly like family attacks, or anything that doesn’t have to do with policy debate, the reality is that both parties have been doing this for years. Because of this, when you walk into the political arena, you have to expect your family to be criticized for whatever shortcomings they have. If your daughter is an unwed teen who’s 5 months pregnant and your husband was affiliated with an Alaskan secessionist group, you have to expect going into it that it will be used to attack your family values and patriotism.
That said, while I don’t like Sarah Palin (for fundamentally political reasons - hers and mine don’t jive), I would say that these family attacks are helping her. They’re keeping her in the news, and gaining her a lot of sympathy, not in part because she’s deflecting them so well.