Monday 29 June 2009

Sarah Palin's new mouthpiece


Juneau Empire reports on Bill McAllister's replacement as Sarah Palin's top spokesperson:

The turnover continues in Gov. Sarah Palin's public relations staff, with her top spokesman, Bill McAllister, forced out after less than a year in the position.

Replacing McAllister is David Murrow, an author of Christian books who lives in Chugiak.

Murrow said he was too busy to talk to the Empire on Friday, but earlier told the Alaska Budget Report Newsletter he began the job June 10 and is paid $103,716 annually.

According to the American Library Association's Booklist, "Murrow advocates injecting a strong shot of testosterone into the proceedings to restore the masculine spirit to the church," in his first book, "Why Men Hate Church," published in 2004.

In 2008 he published "How Women Help Men Find God."

Murrow is Palin's fourth communications director, following McAllister, Rosanne Hughes and Meg Stapleton. Hughes remains in Palin's communications office as director of external communications, while Stapleton is now working for Palin's political action committee.

Deputy Press Secretary Sharon Leighow remains in the office, while two other deputy press secretaries have departed.

A Christian, eh? What a surprise! Testosterone as well, how exciting!
.

30 comments:

Anne Whitney said...

Not just a Christian. His job seems to be being a Christian? A professional Christian evangelizer as the Gov's official spokesperson? Does he have any actual public official spokesperson credentials? Or just the professional evangelizing credentials?

Anonymous said...

103,716 annualy to do what, pray tell?

Since June 10th, the only person speaking for Palin is Megleton. Unless the tweeter is actually this Murrow guy, in which case he's making 103,716 a year to tweet? If not, then 103,716 to do nothing?

What a bunch of bullcrap waste of money!!

I await a press release from Mr. Murrow instead of Megletongue. We'll see if it's any more "Christian" than the missives from the PAC spokesperson.

Oh, and, that whole church and state separation thing is just SO annoying, isn't it Sarah?

Whoa, Baby! said...

So where did BM go and how does he feel about being dethroned? Any ideas about what precipitated his removal? Inquiring minds want to know.

mdlw56 said...

Too busy to speak to a newspaper? The director of external communications too busy to communicate? Wow.

Wonder how long Murrow will stay around after he sees those pictures of ol' GINO's faked pregnancy?

regina said...

Whoa, Baby!,

Bill McAllister went to the Attorney General's office. The move was initiated by Sarah Palin. We can only speculate why...

Regina

sjk from the belly of the plane said...

"Murrow advocates injecting a strong shot of testosterone into the proceedings to restore the masculine spirit to the church," in his first book, "Why Men Hate Church," published in 2004."
------------------------------

OK...I am officially LOSING IT!

WTF? He can go to that gun totin' church in KS.

No offense to Christians, but what is it with the constant self proclamations and adversitments, of "Christianity", "He/she/it is was a Christian?"..

Who the eff cares? I am SURE if there is a God, he or she KNOWS and doesnt need to be reminded as he or she is BUSY scoring points for the FL Gators.

;-)

Anne Whitney said...

Here's some bio and a interview with the new spokesperson:
http://www.faithfulreader.com/authors/au-murrow-david.asp

Try not to gag when you get to the bit at the bottom about how women are nurturers but "men are built to achieve."

And a more recent write-up about his association with Palin:
http://texas4palin.blogspot.com/2009/06/who-is-david-murrow.html

Anne Whitney said...

I also noticed at the bottom of that pro-Palin TX blog it mentions since Marrow "has limited experience dealing with reporters as a spokesman" SP will probably have to hire a real press secretary to deal with actual press secretary duties. WTF?

Why do I get the feeling this guy was hired to make sure she ups the count of evangelical code words in her tweets?

Can you tell that mixing this brand of Christianity with political office really peeves me?

sjk from the belly of the plane said...

"he began the job June 10 and is paid $103,716 annually."

-------------------------------

so just what has he done for the last 19 days?

Anonymous said...

SJK - Are you a GATOR FAN? Sorry to be off topic, but I just had to ask!

sjk from the belly of the plane said...

anon, Only by default. Feel free to insert YOUR Gods favorite team!

;-)

Oy vay!

Anonymous said...

Oh I am in complete agreement, see I'm a GATOR too! - Michelle

sjk from the belly of the plane said...

OT Michelle,

I just used the Gators since everyone knows Tim Tebow is "special".

Unknown said...

Tebow: Superman special!\

Sorry Regina - back to it!

Lisabeth said...

Do other governors have spokespeople that are paid six figures by the state?? That is a lot of money. She makes only $ 25000 more than him! This isn't a criticism of him-this poor guy will earn every penny

It just seems excessive. How many people live in Alaska?
And what is the average salary there?

I'll skip commenting on his sexist Christian comments. Barf. She does not separate church from state well and that is very troubling . She is one of the most inappropriate "leaders" I have seen .

MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel said...

OMG, no such thing as separation of church and state here, now is there? Bill McAllister at least came to Camp Palin from KTUU; David Murrow is, in effect, a professional Bible-thumper.

I'm going off to clutch my pearls, as my "servant's heart" is fibrillating. What do you want to bet that Murrow was as inadequately vetted as SP? There will be something fetid under his bed, count on it...

sjk from the belly of the plane said...

does he have a resume besides being a Christian?

sandra said...

Reading some of Murrow's stuff makes me think that he is anti-feminist. Of course his topics were to increase male participation in churches, but that doesn't have to be done by putting women in secondary roles.

He's probably not going to feel very comfortable working with the "old girls' network." Very interesting.

BLOW-POP-PALIN said...

I am going to be passing right through ceilings, roofs of cars, etc. if she is allowed to keep this up much longer!

basheert said...

Again, Alaska has HUGE problem and they don't seem to mind.

The people of Iran protested more than Alaskans have.

You up there do realize your GINO is violating the separation of church and state thingy right?

What does this idiot do besides TWITTER?

Anonymous said...

I personally believe that we here, at Palingates, should form our own "religion" and worship some sort of strange idol.

I mean, isn't that was the SP fans do?

She's sort of a god now isn't she?

Anonymous said...

Maybe this is the sorce of the recent rederic in Sarah's recent tweet's

Anonymous said...

Wonder what the hiring process was? Did all applicants have to submit a paper glorifying Sarah Palin?
Murrow's blog post about the governor:
http://churchformen.blogspot.com/2008/09/people-around-world-are-asking-who-is.html

sjk from the belly of the plane said...

I'm a bit slow on the uptake today. A headline loving self aggrandizing gov. filled a $100K+ official State of AK job, told no one for days and when the new Communications hiree is asked to say something, anything he is incapable? Or just not unmuzzled and crate trained yet?

LisanTX said...

I wonder if Murrow will continue to operate his website while employed by the State?
http://www.churchformen.com/

Surely he's not going to abandon his mission to bring men back to church.

There seems to be lots of opportunity to carry on personal and state business at the same time......

It would be interesting to see if McCallister was paid around $103k or if Palin retooled the job description to justify a higher salary. Anyone know about that?

Anonymous said...

If Murrow lived in Conroe, Texas, except for 2-3 summer months, I wonder if he will move his children from Texas schools, etc. to Juneau? Anchorage? Stay in Conroe?

Anonymous said...

Lisan, Tx: Don't quote me on this (LOL)but I remember reading about McAllister's transfer about a month ago, Alaska Ear(ADN). They reported (I think) then that his salary was cut to $90,000 from about $103,000 for the LG's office.

I expect these two (Palin and Murrow) personalities will clash. One is going to be the "submissive" and the other (SP) the boss. Wonder if he'll write a new book based on this new education, after he quits.

Julie said...

Murrow is a published author so my guess is that he will help SP write her upcoming book. Not on the state's time or dime, of course! (wink, wink)

sauerkraut said...

**** NEWS ALERT ****

Please pass this on to the folk(s) who had their ethics complaint dismissed due to announcing their intent to file…

from http://www.pennlive.com

Federal judge rules state Ethics Commission ban on discussing complaints against public officials violates free speech
by Pete Shellem, Of The Patriot-News
Monday June 29, 2009, 4:47 PM

A federal judge has ruled that the state Ethics Act’s ban on publicizing filings against state officials is likely unconstitutional and has granted a temporary injunction to a local activist who was fined for violating it.

District Judge Christopher C. Conner granted the injunction to Middle Paxton Township activist Gene Stilp, who was charged with violating the act after he announced he filed a complaint against former House Majority Leader William DeWeese based upon a newspaper article that accused DeWeese of spending $290,000 in tax money on political polls.

Within a day, the State Ethics Commission ruled there was not enough evidence in Stilp’s complaint to conduct an investigation and instead charged Stilp with violating the act by publicizing the filing of his complaint. On Oct. 16, Stilp entered into an agreement with the commission in which he admitted violating the act and agreed to pay a $500 fine. Stilp then filed suit in federal court to enjoin the commission from enforcing that provision of the act, saying it was a violation of his right to free speech.


Feel free to pass this on to Palin’s folks who’ve yapped about how filers have violated the law. …

sauerkraut said...

Were it not for patronage and taxpayer money, Billy McAllister might have to get a real job. So much for Palin's theory of smaller government. Which leads me to this question: why is someone with a (supposed) journalism degree not capable of speaking for herself?