Andrew Sullivan’s Reckless Cruelty to “white trash concupiscence”

(bumped up from Friday) Today, the NYT published a column noting the same phrase from Andrew Sullivan – “white trash concupiscence” – and calling it a class issue. Worth the read.

Yet another article on Trig Palin and “who’s his mommy” from Andrew Sullivan caught my eye (and I’ll need antibiotics). No one cares. No one not insane actually believes Trig is some mystery baby. And Sarah Palin isn’t running for vice president anymore.

Sullivan seems to think he is “due” an explanation. BS. He thinks Palin should produce records, pictures or perhaps very special election 2008 episode of A Baby Story.

Palin owes this schmuck exactly bupkis. Who is Sullivan to demand “proof” of maternity? The father? No. Anyone important to Trig’s life, or any other Palin? No.

Do a search of “trig” on Andrew Sullivan’s blog at The Atlantic. You’ll get “about 421 results.” (Second time I searched, I got 536, but we’ll go with the lower number.) Given Sullivan’s obsession about Trig Palin and his birth, it’s hard to believe 421 doesn’t actually represent 421 separate articles, although I’m sure there’s a few duplicates in the list. Reading the overwrought supercilious tripe is painful in the extreme. How many articles has this loser devoted to an infant, not his own? Hard to tell without reading each one and I definitely don’t have the stomach for that. But here’s a sample of a few brief “bullets” or teasers about articles available if you search on “trig” at Andrew’s blog.

From 8/2008

Where has Bristol Palin (far right, holding Trig, with a ring on her wedding finger) been for the past year? Has she been attending high …

From 9/2008

Now all we need is confirmation from the obstetrician who delivered Sarah’s baby

From 10/2008

But for some reason, Trig Palin’s name is not among them. … So why is there no formal record of Trig’s birth? This is not an “unspeakable” …

Here’s a longer sample of Andrew’s Atlantic-worthy writing – from 10/2008:

Now, when are we going to get some record of Trig’s birth and parentage from the hospital or the doctor? It’s been over a month now and still nada. Some basic record confirming Palin’s eight-month special needs pregnancy, amiocentesis, labor and birth would be immensely easy to find and release – even off the record – to news organizations. And yet the McCainiacs refuse to even go near it and demonize anyone who dares ask for something that must be extremely well documented and easily found. They have stated on the record that Sarah Palin is Trig’s biological mother. But they refuse to provide one iota of confirming evidence.

I mean: what’s the problem here? Why is this so hard?

And no, I haven’t let the basic issue of accountability and transparency go. Never. It’s my job.

From 10/2008

… must be plenty of medical records and obstetricians and medical eye-witnesses prepared to testify to Sarah Palin’s giving birth to Trig. . .

Wait! There’s more:

Again, that was in August. It is not an answer to call bloggers “insane” because they are asking factual questions to which there must be evidentiary answers. (Yes, as Ed Morrissey notes, Biden, McCain and Obama have been bad on this as well, and this blog has criticized them for it, especially Biden where I’ve been relentless, given his aneurysm history. But only Palin has offered nothing at all. And only Palin has a core question of basic credibility at stake. Only Palin has used her medical history – her fifth child – as a campaign plank.)
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Why does Sarah Palin refuse to prove that her baby – the baby that has been a campaign prop for two months – is actually one she gave birth to?

From 11/2008

All she had to do was arrive at the scene with her son Trig to … So Trig was the critical presidential qualification for the theocons. …

Sullivan thinks Palin was chosen for the ticket strictly because she didn’t abort her Down-syndrome baby. Of course, if she wasn’t the mother. . . But. Oh nevermind.

From 12/2008:

Here’s the latest photograph of her “pregnant” with Trig at. … Sarah Palin still has not established, and refuses to establish, Trig Palin is her child.

Here’s more writing worthy of a job at a national publication and tv.

From 12/2008

. . . Neither [another writer who disagrees with Sullivan about Sarah being Trig's mother] nor I have baldly asserted something we cannot know for sure: that Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s biological son. Our difference has merely been that he assumes that the Alaska governor is telling the truth and sees all the circumstantial evidence as very compelling backing for her maternity (as has almost everyone else in the MSM). For my part, I have always clearly conceded that that is perfectly possible, but that the bizarre chronology and facts in the public record raise enough questions that a simple piece of easily produced evidence should have been produced to end the issue at once. The facts of the case and the refusal to defuse it was enough to prevent me from assuming that she was the mother.. .
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As I said months ago, Trig is a human being as precious as any other. That he was not aborted is a noble, moral, beautiful act. Who his biological mother is, at this point, is much less important than that he has a loving and caring home, and it seems as if he has. What remains important in the larger scheme of things – and why I continued to ask pesky, awkard (sic) questions – is a press that is not afraid and not deferent (sic) to elected officials and not more worried about its own reputation than about flushing out the truth. I failed to do that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But I tried. And if the truth does definitively emerge, I will maintain my commitment to bring it to you.

Awwww. He’s just a good guy trying to do his job!!! Right?? Well, he surely doesn’t bear personal ill will, he just wants the truth for all of us. To save the country, after all.

From 12/2008

This deluded and delusional woman still doesn’t understand what happened to her; still has no self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations. She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged; she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her – but more excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her.

No, Andrew, what do you REALLY think?

Her candidacy, in short, was indefensible. It remains indefensible. Until the mainstream media, the GOP establishment, and the conservative intelligentsia acknowledge the depth of their error, this blog will keep demanding basic accountability

Don’t forget, Andrew’s blog is an irony free zone.

My point is not to persecute or hound some random person. I wish I had never heard of Sarah Palin. I wish this nightmare had never happened. I wish totally innocent by-standers, like Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston and Heather Bruce and Trig Palin, had not had their lives disrupted by this circus. It’s distressing to everyone, which is why most journalists left many aspects of this charade alone. But Palin is claiming vindication, is on every cable show, is at the National Governors Association Conference, and is touted as a future leader of the GOP. There comes a point at which you have to simply call a time out and insist that this farce cease and some basic accountability and transparency be restored to the process. Since no one else seems willing to do so, the Dish will stay on the case. So where are those medical records anyway?

Sullivan is upset Sarah Palin has the temerity to continue being the governor of Alaska and a public figure.

Yeah, I wish it were over too. But I can’t leave you with that, can I?

From 5/2009

But given this blog’s coverage of governor Palin’s various strange stories about Trig, and her continued refusal to provide any medical records to confirm …

From 06/2009

But the more her pregnancy with Trig becomes a campaign platform, … The truly bizarre circumstances surrounding Trig’s birth. …

So we come to June, 2009. Election is over now by what? Nearly 7 months. But Sullivan is still enraptured by the womb. . .

As the months have gone by since John McCain revealed his total cynicism and contempt for America’s national security by selecting one Sarah Palin to be a potential vice-president of the United States, we have learned that every single ghastly attribute we discovered in the campaign is worse than we thought at the time. The narcissism, the pathological and incessant lying, the viciousness, the delusions of grandeur, the vindictiveness, the fathomless and proud ignorance, the opportunism, the vanity, the white trash concupiscence and fraudulence in almost every respect: these are now indisputable. How an advanced democracy came that close to having this farce of a candidate running the most powerful country on earth reveals how deep the corruption of our politics and especially our media are.

Unfortunately, Sullivan promises another article on Palin at the end of the foaming-at-the-mouth rantarama above. But something about that bit catches the eye, doesn’t it?

White trash concupiscence. You know, I think THAT may be the key here. Andrew is nothing if not bothered by Palin women and their children. Maybe he only likes women safely past menopause. Either way, “white trash concupiscence” is quite telling. But not about Sarah Palin.

Luckily, others have tried to explain to Sullivan that he’s an idiot. But it didn’t take. I won’t waste time putting together another set of reasons why trig-truther Sullivan is an idiot. But someone at the New Ledger did make a few points worth noting:

Rarely in human history has a gay man been that obsessed with a married woman’s vagina.
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Behold Andrew Sullivan, a man who contains infinite contradictions: A believer in privacy, except a woman’s medical records, who never seemed upset that his preferred horse in the race released nothing besides a one-page “All clear!” note from his doctor; an opponent of the objectification of homosexuals, who objectified at least one, and arguably two, children; a professional journalist with a boundless understanding of not only applied medicine, but also hospital protocol and the art of diagnosis by news clipping and photograph.

Sullivan reminds me of someone. Someone dogged to find and root out that which offends him personally and which he feels is an existential threat to our country. Someone with a presence and a reasonable request that someone else produce “the truth.”

Someone quite assured he’s the smartest man in the room. Someone equally smarmy. Yes, exactly right.

Luckily someone else once had an appropriate response to a self-blind yet self-aggrandizing, rationalizing schmuck overly obsessed with what he saw as other people’s wrongdoing.

Reckless cruelty. Sounds right to me.