Politico reports on the latest instalment in the saga of Sarah Palin and the GOP fundraising dinner:
Sarah Palin’s on-again, off-again appearance at Monday night’s gala GOP fundraising dinner is off — again.
After being invited — for a second time — to speak to the annual joint fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Palin was told abruptly Saturday night that she would not be allowed to address the thousands of Republicans there after all.
Palin was originally supposed to be the headliner for the dinner. NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas wanted the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee to speak. And officials with the two party committees thought earlier this spring that she had committed, even going so far as to issue a press release announcing her appearance.
But after public uncertainty as to whether she had actually accepted and would attend, the NRSC and NRCC decided to invite Gingrich instead.
The disinvitation from speaking, said a campaign committee official, was done “out of respect” for Gingrich.
This latest snafu involving Palin and the national party apparatus has left both sides deeply irritated.
Tired of being derided as the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, Palin officials want it known that they were not responsible for this latest mix-up. They say the governor was happy to appear and fire up party loyalists, but that, yet again, GOP operatives and officials in Washington would just as soon try to marginalize her.
But the dinner’s planners are equally exasperated with Palin. The NRCC, especially, is still irked about how she handled the original invitation in March, leaving the two committees scrambling to find a fill-in for what is their chief money-raising event of the year.
Many in the party establishment, mindful of her polarizing persona and the devastating caricatures that emerged last fall, would prefer she remain in Alaska and leave the party rebuilding to others who may appeal to the broad middle of the country.
We all know that Sarah Palin lied to the Republicans back in January. She declined an invitation to attend the House Republicans annual winter retreat, claiming to be too busy governing Alaska, then turned up at the Alfalfa dinner with Fred Malek.
Later she used the same excuse not to attend the GOP fundraiser, which she appeared to have accepted. The organizers of the event were embarassed because they had issued a press release confirming Sarah Palin as headline speaker, there was a lot of confusion and they ended up inviting Gingrich to speak instead.
They must have been surprised to see the busy governor celebrating Alaska statehood in the state of New York this weekend, among other engagements outside Alaska.
As Sarah Palin was already on the East Coast, Fred Malek attempted to have her invited to speak at the GOP dinner again:
But then last week — in part due to the urging of Republican überfundraiser and Palin friend Fred Malek — the NRSC extended a new invitation for Palin to speak. The plan, Republican sources say, was to make her appearance something of a surprise for GOP donors in attendance.
Their message to Sarah Palin seems to be: "siddown and shuddup".
This must come as a surprise to the governor. According to her speech introducing Michael Reagan, the people who want her to sit down and shut up are far removed from the GOP:
I…I think things here that have so drastically changed these past months…some want to forbid others from speaking up and it’s been through lawsuits, been ethics violation charges, media distortions…by the way today we won that 14th ethics charge. And only Alaskans can appreciate this one. We won the one where I show up at the Iron Dog because it’s freezing cold and I’m wearing my warm Arctic Cat coat, and a charge is levied against me for wearing the logo on the coat, but we won so that’s cool. And those are the folks that want to tell me, want to tell you to siddown and shuddup.
We will not do so.
Oh, please do! Even your own party would love you to do just that!
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