Palin, Secret Service, and dog whistles

Somewhat related to the Secret Service prostitution scandal, it was revealed last night that one of the agents recently fired in the scandal had been assigned to then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008 and was "checking her out" and posting about it on Facebook. Obviously, that's truly unprofessional behavior and shouldn't be tolerated. And obviously, that won't faze Palin, who has a famously thick skin about these sorts of things.

No, wait, I forgot that Palin has the thinnest skin in politics, and whenever anyone disses her, she gets to go on Fox to talk about it. (Damn, I want that deal.) So here's the transcript of a truly painful interview with Greta Van Susteren in which Palin repeatedly tries to link the Secret Service agent's behavior to Barack Obama (who was a U.S. Senator at the time of the incident) and Van Susteren tries (unsuccessfully) to keep the train on the rails. A few key moments:

Palin: Well, this agent who was kind of ridiculous there in posting pictures and comments about checking someone out. Well, check this out, bodyguard. You're fired. And I hope his wife kicks his ocoli and sends him to the doghouse, as long as he's not eating the dog, along with his former boss.

Oh my God, she totally went there! No, I don't know what an ocoli is, but she totally jumped on the Obama-eats-dog meme, giving a subtle shout-out to all the hockey moms out there who disapprove of presidents who eat dogs, or something.

Van Susteren then tries to suggest that maybe Obama should just be held accountable for things that happened during his presidency. But Palin wasn't buying:

Well, Greta, it's not just this particular issue, though, with GSA or with the Secret Service, it's everything that's going on in our federal government right now. What are we getting for the tax dollars that are being taken from our incomes, being sent to the federal government today? 

We're getting higher unemployment numbers than when Barack Obama first took over. We're getting less energy [security] than when Barack Obama took over.... 

And the number one thing, Greta, that he is responsible for is -- he today violating Article I, Section [9], Clause 7 of the United States Constitution in not having a budget. Going on three years, over a thousand days with no budget, no blueprint to run our federal government!

Is this a conservative talking point that I missed? Obama is violating the Constitution by not having a budget? Because you know who's supposed to create a budget? Yeah, the Congress -- that's why is mentioned in Article I. Not that the president plays no role here, but suggesting that Obama is somehow violating the Constitution is a real stretch.

Then Van Susteren concedes that the buck does stop with the president. And Palin's all over that.

Yes. Exactly. That's the bottom line. And thank God we live in America, where in this republic, we have these democratic votes that are taken, you know, every four years in November. And we get to decide whether we want the positive change that we so seek, that we so need in order to keep our nation solvent. 

Thank God that we have that freedom. Thank God that we have the United States military fighting for the defense of freedom!

Yeah, well spoken. You might have thought that after four years with a lot of interviewing experience, Palin would be less of a trainwreck on camera than she was in 2008. You'd have been wrong. For the life of me, I don't know why these interviews keep happening. Are they good for Fox? Are they good for Republicans? Are they good for Palin? I'm kind of doubtful on all three counts.

Hey little girl, is your daddy home?

The Denver Post today provides us with the three favorite songs of each of the 3,000 people currently running for mayor of Denver. In most cases, these lists aren't particularly revealing about the type of mayor the candidate would turn out to be. But I was struck by one of them: Chris Romer -- a recent state senator and the son of a former governor -- claims his favorite song is Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire."

Let me just submit that "I'm on Fire" is nobody's favorite song. If you were to rank the top 500 Springsteen songs (and you probably could), "I'm on Fire" would probably come in somewhere south of 450, if it even made the list. Sure, it was a hit, but only in the sense that virtually everything on the "Born in the USA" album became a hit, in the same way that any show sandwiched between "Friends" and "Seinfeld" was going to be a hit, even if it starred Jonathan Silverman and Ernest Borgnine. And even if Romer just wanted to give a shout out to Boss fans, why choose this piece?

There was actually one other politician who listed "I'm on Fire" as a favorite song. That would be Barack Obama. My hypothesis is that this is a form of dog-whistle politics. The Denver mayor's race is a crowded field consisting largely of Democrats in an officially nonpartisan race. Romer is signaling to the largely Democratic electorate that he is the true Obama Democrat in the race.

Okay, it's thin gruel, but I can't come up with any other reason for listing that song as a favorite.