Fact check please

Last night I tuned into the Republican National Convention in order to listen to Sarah Palin's speech. I have to say that I was underwhelmed. I tuned in because I wanted to learn more about this relatively unknown woman, and after almost an hour of brilliantly staged speechifying I came away thinking that I still knew precious little about her.

However, before Palin took the stage Rudy Giuliani spent a good amount of rhetorical energy whipping up the crowd, and he left me stunned when he railed against liberals who would dare to challenge whether Palin would be able to uphold her VP duties while being a good mother to her children. I thought, "Wow, he's right, that's a stupid thing for someone to say."

So today, I put on my reference-librarian hat and decided to find out which bloody idiot said this. Problem is, I can't find where it happened. At least, I can't find where any liberal said it.

I did, however, find the following quote, thanks to Commondreams.org and an article from Salon.com by Glenn Greenwald.

I’m stunned - couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? ... But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

I am haunted by the family pictures of the Palins during political photo-ops, showing the eldest daughter, now pregnant with her own child, cuddling the family’s newborn. When Mom and Dad both work full-time (no matter how many folks get involved with the children), it becomes a somewhat chaotic situation. Certainly, if a child becomes ill and is rushed to the hospital, and you’re on the hotline with both Israel and Iran as nuclear tempers are flaring, where’s your attention going to be? Where should your attention be? Well, once you put your hand on the Bible and make that oath, your attention has to be with the government of the United States of America.

And, guess who wrote this? Some liberal pundit? Some university-funded uber-feminist? Nope, this comes directly from the blog of Dr. Laura, that icon of right-wing radio and the "family values" set.

Mr Giuliani: Shame on you.

*****

And, for more fun, read the full article by Greenwald for a report on Palin's attempted firing of the Wasilla library director after the librarian refused to remove books that Palin found objectionable. Palin did fire the Wasilla police chief and possibly others as part of a "loyalty test" for her newly elected mayoral administration.

I lost count of how many times Palin, in her speech last night, referred to a McCain administration as one that would bring about positive change in Washington (so much so that she sounded like an opposition candidate -- isn't that wierd?). But when I read this article, my initial thought was that we've had enough Justice Department firings for this decade. I'm sick of having politicians abuse their power once in office by firing people over questions of "loyalty" instead of competency.