The LuLac Edition #844, June 11th, 2009

PHOTO INDEX: GOVERNOR SARA PALIN WITH JUDITH GUILIANI AND HER HUSBAND RUDY SUNDAY AT THE NEW YANKEE STADIUM (TOP) and Sixty five former members of Company A 2d Battalion, 109th Infantry, and their guests recently met at the Armory in West Pittston to greet old buddies, socialize, and discuss having a reunion later in the year. Those in attending also embodied other units spanning more than 60 years of service, from 1947 to present. The old Companies were represented by 5 men of the Heavy Mortar unit, and Combat Support had 8. The longest tenured unit, Alpha, had 52 in attendance.Those in attendance included: Matt Andrasko, Joe Armitage, Bernie Babonis, Frank Baux III, Tom Baux, Bob Begliomini, Kirk Bonanny, Bob and Charlie Brack, Tom Brunton, Ted Cadora, David Carey, Nick Chieumento, Bill Connell, Bill Connell Sr., Bob Costello, Tony Demark, Ross Denisco, Jim Dougher Jr. Karl Dymond, Celwyn Evans, Guy Fasciana, Vince Fitch, Norm Frederick, Jim Gilhooley and Jim Gilhooley Sr., George Gilroy, Ray Girardi, Ben Gorey, Alan Gribble, Paul Hatrack, Marty Kane, Barrett, Joseph and Paul Leonard, Nancy London, Matt Mastruzzo, Vic Malinowski, Kirk Mattern, Paul Menichinni, John & Gloria Milko, John Molitoris, Clarence Moss, Bob Murphy, Ed Nowakowski, Jim O'Reilly, Bruce Prandy, Crash O'Donnell, Richard Parry, Ed Romanko, Charles Rutcavage, Al and Dominick Sarti, George Searfoss, Bob Seidel, Joe Sherinsky, Joe Skochen, Tom Skrzysowski, Joe Smalley, Bill Their, Bob Tirva, Frank Tokash, and Archie Williams. (BOTTOM).

SARA IN THE CITY

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appeared at a Republican congressional fundraiser Monday night, ending a will-she-or-won't-she mystery that overshadowed the event and frustrated the GOP. Palin — the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee was initially slated to headline the annual Senate-House dinner — left organizers hanging as late as Monday afternoon after she was told she wouldn't have a speaking role at the event. In March, organizers replaced Palin as the keynote speaker with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich after she wavered over accepting the invitation. She hadn't been expected to attend until last week, when her advisers approached organizers saying she would be near Washington and would like to come.
Republican officials involved in the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Palin was invited to sit at a head table but was told she would not be given a chance to speak for fear that she might overshadow Gingrich. Newt Gingrich has been a party leader for years. This had to be a staff thing because I can’t imagine the bellicose Gingrich being afraid of anyone.
Palin did attend the event on Monday night, did not overshadow Gingrich in any way but still managed to not avoid controversy. On David Letterman’s late night talk show, Palin was featured in a top ten that received tepid audience response. The number 2 item on the top ten "Bought makeup at Bloomingdale's to update her slutty flight attendant look," was in my opinion over the line. Granted it is satire and it is Letterman. But later Letterman let fly with a joke how Palin’s daughter Bristol got pregnant under the stands with Yankee slugger Alex Rodriquez. Again, in my estimation, over the line. Palin was asked about it on a talk show and here was her response: "What a commentary there," Palin said of the comment during an interview on conservative host John Ziegler's Los Angeles-based radio show. "That's pretty pathetic, good ole David Letterman."Palin noted while in New York as indicated on the radio, she had participated in an event on the subject of autism.

Now anyone who has read this site knows I’ve never been a Sara Palin fan. I think she was woefully unprepared for the big time but muddled through a few things in her campaign for the Vice Presidency. Unfortunately in American public life these days, even in business, and the work place “muddling through” is good enough for some people. But Palin has a constituency and can easily build on that with sympathetic voters if she is disdained and put down enough by the perceived culturally elite. Plus adding the sexism component with words like “slut” borders on the pyrotechnic. Rabid Democratic leftists and arbiters of pop culture should be cautious when characterizing Governor Palin as “out of touch”, "vastly unqualified”, “inexperienced” and “not ready for prime time”. Once upon a time these very words were used to describe another West Coast Governor who initially was not taken seriously by the power brokers and people in the know. His name was Ronald Reagan.