Palin: A mother’s rage?

last updated 8 January 2015

Sarah Palin wants President Obama to fire White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for a comment she characterizes as a "slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities." Palin, whose infant son Trig has Down Syndrome, is incensed by reports that Emanuel once called liberal activists who'd run negative ads against moderate Democrats "f—king retarded" — slamming his word choice as “heartbreaking” and comparable to the “N-word.” Is Palin’s rage justified, or is she exploiting the episode to score political points? (Watch a Fox report about Sarah Palin's outrage)

Palin isn't the only one calling for Emanuel's head: Liberal activists are equally outraged by the remarks, says Mike Madden in Salon — creating a unique situation in which Palin and a faction of the Left actually agree on something. Maybe President Obama should listen, and fire Rahm Emanuel. After all, Obama keeps saying he wants to "unite often-warring political factions."

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Look who's politically correct now: I get why the liberal activists are ticked off by the insult, says John Aloysius Farrell in U.S. News, but "I'm disappointed to see Palin embracing [the] kind of political correctness" that's more typically adopted by "very silly liberals." Besides, Emanuel's use of "retarded" was merely an "apt metaphor" for the "self-indulgent cannibalism" of liberals, not an insult or comment on people with special needs.

Rahm was wrong, but Palin's motives aren't pure: "If anyone’s 'retarded' here...it’s Rahm Emanuel," says Arturo Mora in the Kansas City Star. His remark was profoundly "insensitive" and “deserves universal condemnation.” But just because Emanuel's a "putz" doesn't mean Palin's motives are pure. Her belated condemnation smacks of cynical opportunism: Why has she never spoken out against, say, racism before? She comes out "smelling very political."

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