"She wasn't as outgoing and I just
didn't see the spark in her eyes about being the governor anymore,"
said Johnston, who lived with his then-fiance Bristol Palin and the Palin family at the time. "She became quiet, she would come home and just hang out in a
room, you could tell something was wrong."
Johnston's conclusion: "The fame got to her head."
Admittedly, the 19-year-old Johnston is hardly the kind of character
witness anyone would summon to their cause. An aspiring model who posed bare-chested with his infant son Tripp for GQ magazine, Johnston is routinely derided by Palin spokesmen for exploiting his 15 minutes of fame.
But Johnston may be on to something when he says Palin's sudden
resignation on July 3 was fueled by a desire to
cash in on her fame -- and to end the stress that her sudden catapult to national fame had created, complete with myriad ethics charges she has derided as bogus and a Legislature no longer enchanted.
OK, let's help the poor guy out here. It's a bipartisan gender solidarity thing.
Yes, yes, he's president of the United States of America. The most powerful male in the free world, perhaps le monde entier. Pretty wife. Great abs. Loving father. And a real good talker.
He better be 'cause, as they fly down to Africa right now, Mrs. Obamawith the buff bare arms may be asking her hubby one or two questions about this photo that's been flying all over the world ahead of them for a day now. Just as Desi Arnaz would ask his wife in the old "Lucy" show.
On the surface it might possibly appear to some jealous people that the 47-year-old ex-senator from Illinois is eyeing the working backside of Mayara Rodriguez Tavares, a 17-year-old youth delegate from Buenos Aires, no, wait, Brazil at the G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy. (And President Nicolas Sarkozy is checking it out too. But he's French.)
Such a suspicion about the nation's male chief executive is absolutely ridiculous, of course, and relies on the tired, old -- and patently erroneous -- sexist cliche about men having a roving eye for the opposite sex, even when they may already be in the company of a member of same said opposite gender.
There have, over the eons, been billions of misunderstandings like this between women and their men when the female followed the man's eyes and perceived them to be glued on some portion of another female's anatomy, back or front. It even happened in cave days when folks wore skimpy animal pelts. That's an Internet fact.
Those patently mistaken female impressions of visual infidelity have led to some verbal outbursts, punched arms, swung purses and long silences in the car followed by a night on the living room couch.
If the offended women would only wait one sec, they could learn the real honest-to-God object of their male's admiration. Most often, the male doesn't even know what other woman his lady is talking about. He was simply admiring a really attractive red sports car that was passing in the same spot but is now unfortunately out of sight.
The car one won't work this time. But there are other obfuscating explanations. Maybe the president had a speck in his eye -- it can happen to presidents anytime even with the Secret Service around -- and was looking down to try and get it out. Could be.
Also, as Ticket reader Tom points out, she does have great shoes.
The most innocent excuse or explanation is that the president was in the process of turning his head to thoughtfully take the hand of his life partner and help her safely down the last large step there so she wouldn't trip and embarrass herself with all the cameras around. What a guy! Chivalry lives!
And those European cameramen -- you know them -- cleverly snapped the photo to make it appear like he was looking at the long curly, brown hair and the female derriere in shiny red material that he hadn't even actually noticed was there. In fact, was there a woman there?
It's all perfectly innocent. So help him out, guys -- or gals. What other explanation can we helpfully offer the first man?
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photos of other male presidential encounters with derrieres below.
(UPDATE: As predicted Burris did announce Friday that he will not seek election in 2010.)
If you were thinking of running for Barack Obama's old U.S. Senate seat from Illinois but were holding off because of incumbent Roland Burris' intention to run next year, change of plans.
Looks like on Friday afternoon in Chicago, a time designed to minimize public attention, the 71-year-old Democratic veteran of Illinois' bare-knuckles brand of politics will announce he's decided not to run in 2010. Purely his own choice, of course. And all for the better of his state.
The first clue actually came when Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, now indicted for trying to auction off his nomination to fill the new president's vacant Senate chair, chose Burris as one of his final official acts before impeachment.
That tainted nomination, initially resisted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his No. 2, Dick Durbin, also of Illinois (see smiley photo above), eventually went through after a face-saving song-and-dance ...
The governor of Alaska went fishing Monday, wearing those waders with suspenders that fishermen fancy, accompanied by her baby, Trig, daughter Piper and her husband, First Dude for a Few More Weeks Todd Palin. Oh, and she alerted the media.
What a spectacle -- the stars of America's cable news personalities from Fox, NBC, CNN, ABC meeting the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the shores of Kanakanak Beach in Dillingham, Alaska, while the governor brushed salmon slime off her suspenders and blasted the media, bloggers and anyone who would dare question her politically bizarre decision to quit in the middle of her first term.
To Fox, she expressed bitterness at those who peppered her with ethics accusations, saying that their ridiculous charges had nearly bankrupted her family and brought Alaska's government to a grinding halt. "The critics want to put you on a course of personal bankruptcy so you can't afford to serve," she said, calling the attacks "bull crap."
She was coy about her plans for 2012, musing that it was difficult to know what the political future would hold, let alone the next salmon run. But she was quick to criticize President Obama. As she led reporters in a boat across Bristol Bay, she opined, "Average, hard-working Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right. Fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in."
As the Ticket noted over the weekend, Palin has a tendency to sound like former President Richard Nixon, who intoned in the middle of the Watergate scandal, "I am not a crook." Three days after resigning as governor of Alaska, effective at month's end, Palin told CNN, "I am not a quitter. I am a fighter."
She told ABC she's pleased with her decision, damn the consequences. “I’m extremely happy," she said. "Politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it.”
And when NBC's Andrea Mitchell said that some would say she didn't finish the job, Palin's voice rose. "You're not listening to me as to why I wouldn't be able to finish that final year in office without it costing the state millions of dollars and countless hours of wasted time," she snapped.
Noting that "everything changed" last August when Republican presidential candidate John McCain asked her to be his running mate, Palin said she had no regrets about accepting the nomination. "Not in the least," she said. "It was a great honor to stand by a great American hero. I would have done all that again in a heartbeat."
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: A previous Palin fishing trip. Credit: Associated Press
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement that she was bowing out of Alaska politics on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday left a lot of viewers scratching their heads. As the Ticket reported Friday, Palin's friends report that she is genuinely sick of the attacks that seem to be part of the fabric of national politics these days.
But Palin's hastily announced press conference also had all the earmarks of Richard Nixon's famous concession speech in 1962, after he lost the campaign for California governor to Democrat Pat Brown. Nixon's rant was also a last-minute affair. Reporters had been told that Nixon -- a former congressman and senator who served as Dwight D. Eisenhower's vice president from 1952 to 1960 and lost the 1960 presidential race to John F. Kennedy -- would not be making a public appearance.
Instead, Nixon surprised even his staff by taking the microphone and, at the end of a long, rambling, 16-minute discourse on national and state politics, he dramatically left the stage.
I leave you gentleman now and you will write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you I want you to know — just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference and it will be one in which I have welcomed the opportunity to test wits with you.
Like Nixon, Palin seemed fraught with emotion. Like Nixon, she seemed angry at her critics.
Of course to the surprise of his detractors, Nixon recovered. He spent the next six years stumping the country, piling up chits from grateful politicians who benefited from his endorsements, chits he cashed in during his successful 1968 run for the presidency.
Palin gave no hints of her future, except to say that a person can influence from outside the electoral process as well as inside the governor's office. Maybe Palin, who landed on the national political map in August when Republican John McCain plucked her from Wasilla, Alaska, as his vice presidential running mate, is planning to follow the Nixon playbook on that front too.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Nixon gives his "Checkers" speech on Sept. 23, 1952. Credit: Associated Press
Didja hear the story of the teenager who approaches his mother with a small cut on his finger?
Well, how'd you get that? she asks, reaching for the disinfectant.
From the glass, he says.
What glass? she asks calmly.
From the windshield.
The what?! says the startled mother.
It shattered.
What? Why?
In the big traffic accident.
What big traffic accident?
The one with all the cars and trucks. At the fire.
At what? Where?
The big explosion.
Wait, I don't....
We were all trying to avoid the stampeding elephants.
And on and on. Does this remind anyone of a particular governor in recent days?
The basic rule of political damage control is: Get it all out yourself fast and accurately. No loose ends. No stretchers, as Mark Twain would say. Take your hard hit one, maybe....
True to his coming-into-office promise, President Barack Obamahas held his top staff salaries at the same level as his predecessor.
Which ain't too shabby.
$172,200.
True, according to an initial analysis by The Hotline, Obama has more folks making that top salary (20) than George W. Bush did (18). The hours are long. And they could probably make more dough back in Illinois politics, if you know what we mean. And D.C. house prices always get jacked when a new administration comes to town because there's not a lot of time to negotiate.
But they get free parking for their foreign brand cars in downtown Washington. And access to the White House Mess.
Here are some of the newly-minted bigshots making the big bucks: David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett, Carol Browner, Larry Summers, James Jones, Susan Sher (Michelle's chief of staff), Rahm Emanuel and Jon Favreau, the paper Hillary-groping speechwriter (photo here).
(The president, btw, gets $400G's plus $50G's tax-free for expenses. Vice President Joe Biden gets $208,100, less than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's $223.5G's.)
It's official. After an election tally recount that lasted eight months, cost millions of dollars and tied up several courts, Al Franken, one of the early stars of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," is finally joining that exclusive club known as the U.S. Senate.
Democrats on Capitol Hill and at the White House were delighted at the news, seeing in Franken's arrival a 60th vote that would help them deter Republican filibusters.
For his part, the new senator -- restrained since the November election by a court fight against Sen. Norm Coleman -- was exuberant. Flanked by his wife Frannie, he thanked voters and added, "I can't wait to get started."
Mindful of the pitfalls of being a national figure before he was a name in state politics, Franken said he considered himself not the 100th senator but Minnesota's second senator.
"I know there's been a lot of talk about the fact that when I'm sworn in I'll be the 60th member of the Democratic caucus, but that's not how I see it," said Franken, who's expected to be seated Monday. "I'm going to Washington to be the second senator from the state of Minnesota, and that's how I'm going to do this job."
In terms of policy, there's no question Franken is a liberal. He has already signaled his support for a pro-labor bill making it easier for unions to recruit workers. President Obama said he looked forward to Franken's help on two other administration priorities -- "lowering
healthcare costs and investing in the kind of clean energy, jobs, and
industries that will help America lead in the 21st century." And Franken is a likely vote for the upcoming vote for Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Franken is not the first person from the world of entertainment to sign up for politics. President Reagan was a onetime president of the Screen Actors Guild. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is, let's face it, more famous worldwide as The Terminator.
And, frankly, he may not be the funniest person in the Senate. Only they know for sure.
Still, Franken's antics as a comedian are likely to follow him to the U.S. Senate, sometimes referred to, in all seriousness, as "the world's greatest deliberative body." For example, take a look at this video, in which Franken impersonates Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. Bet nobody else in the Senate has ever done that. At least publicly.
Of course at the rate scandals are coming out of Washington, maybe a comedian is just what the U.S. Senate needs.
''This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,'' Sanford said. ''A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.''
They met for romantic stays in Manhattan and in the Hamptons, paying cash so their whereabouts could not be traced. They met one more time in the city, a rendezvous meant as their last, sanctioned by his wife, Jenny, after she learned of their affair and chaperoned by a spiritual adviser who came to help them say goodbye.
But the governor could not stay away. Four months later, telling his staff he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail over Father's Day, he got on a plane to Argentina, hungry for more time with Chapur, and discovered why he could not close the door. "I will be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate," he said.
Crying at times and clearly wearing his emotions on his sleeve, the two-term governor also acknowledged that he had casual encounters with other women but insisted that he never crossed the line by having sex with them.
''If you're a married guy, at the end of the day, you shouldn't be dancing with somebody else," he said. "There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn't have crossed as a married man but never crossed the ultimate line."
And Sanford, who called for President Clinton to resign for lying about his dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky during a previous era, said he saw no reason to leave the governor's mansion now.
Despite his obvious emotional connection with Chapur, Sanford said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife, Jenny, his partner of 20 years and the mother of their four sons. "I owe it too much to my boys and to the last 20 years with Jenny to not try this larger walk of faith,'' he said.
So far, though many a state legislator is calling for Sanford to resign, the public in South Carolina seems to think the governor should be allowed to serve out the remaining 18 months of his term. In a poll conducted Monday night, nearly half of the state's residents think he should stay, as opposed to 41% who think he should step down and nearly 9% who aren't sure.
True, the poll suggested a party split -- Republicans lined up with their Republican governor, Democrats said he should go -- but the larger truth may be less political. I mean, we've all been in love, right?
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Sanford is solemn during a recent interview with the Associated Press. Credit: Mary Ann Chastain / Associated Press
Here’s something we hadn’t planned on contemplating: Karl Rove, the early years.
But that’s what comes to mind reading about a new production of a political morality play, “Farragut North,” which just opened a run at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
In his review today, our colleague Charles McNulty describes the play by Beau Willimon as an “engaging drama about the dirty tricks and brutal back stabbing of those conducting the spin war for aspiring presidents.” McNulty says the play has the ring of truth, observing that the playwright once worked for Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York and former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont. (We wonder if the play features a character who screams.)
Central to the play, McNulty writes, is its “attractively malign central character,” Stephen Bellamy, a 25-year-old press secretary for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Except for the Democratic part, this brings us to Rove. “Imagine Karl Rove as a fit, chicly dressed media strategist for the other side and you have some idea of the nature of this latest boy genius,” McNulty writes.
Bellamy is played by Chris Pine, who this year boldly went where William Shatner had gone before. Pine plays a young Capt. James T. Kirk in the latest movie incarnation of "Star Trek."
In a review of a New York production of the play last fall (yes, election season), the New York Times’ Ben Brantley had this to say about the Bellamy character (played by John Gallagher Jr.):
When Stephen is smooth-talking a reporter or a potential sexual conquest, like an ambitious 19-year-old intern named Molly...he sounds absolutely authentic. It’s when he is forced to speak from the heart, in anguished apology, that he sounds robotic. Spontaneity has become a foreign language.
Sounds like required viewing for pols everywhere. Even if you can’t see the play or find a copy -- we couldn't when we looked this morning -- the reviews by McNulty and Brantley still make for thought-provoking reading. Click here for McNulty, here for Brantley and here if you want more on Pine.
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Our Bloggers
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the Countdown to Crawford blog here at The Times.
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