Pittsburgh Columnist Salutes Sarah

NOTE: Christopher Wensley (http://youngrepublican.townhall.com/) brought to my attention that the Republican Governor's Association (http://rga.org/) features Gov. Sarah Palin on its website, along with a reprint of the Fred Barnes Weekly Standard piece on her as the GOP's rising star. I brought the Tribune-Review article (see below) to the attention of the RGA's press people. Re Sarah: The iron is hot, and we need to keep striking.


The following is a reprint of a July 16, 2007 column about Sarah Palin that appeared in the Pittsburgh (PA) Tribune-Review. I hope every supporter of Sarah will drop a short e-mail to Dimitri Vasillaros, the author (see link at end), and tell him just how right he is about Sarah.

Palin is GOP's beacon
By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, July 16, 2007

Sarah Palin can teach Republicans how to be Republicans. It's a simple lesson. But it won't be easy for anyone who thinks being pragmatic and principled are mutually exclusive.

Mrs. Palin, 43, is the governor of Alaska and the brightest light in the land of the midnight sun. While rasing four kids with her husband, Palin has reduced taxes, embraced the state Constitution, publicly complained about powerful fellow Republicans she thought unethical, encouraged companies to compete for state contracts -- and has not ruled out running for president.

She relishes moose burgers because "they taste better than beef with no chemicals, steroids or hormones." She adopted the Pittsburgh Steelers because of the team's success in the 1970s and because there are no major professional teams in her state.

As a teenage flautist trying to win a scholarship, she was second runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant. Looking back, she now thinks she was livestock in a swimsuit being eyed by the male judges. "Degrading" she calls it now.

Talk with her for awhile, as I did last Wednesday, and try to count the number of references to her state Constitution. During that phone call, she cited it more than 12 times -- not once gratuitously.

"It's my bible in governing," Palin says. "I try to keep it so simple by reading the thing and believing in it and living it. It's providential. Some of the crafters of the Constitution are still alive. They're my mentors, my advisers. I get to meet with these folks and ask, 'What did you mean by this?' And it makes so much sense."

Palin does not favor same-sex marriage. However, she vetoed a bill prohibiting official gay unions because the judiciary had ruled that banning it was unconstitutional. "I wasn't going to disobey what the courts said we could and couldn't do." When she swore to uphold the law, she meant it.

Ask her to articulate her conservative principles and you'll hear, "Fiscally speaking, the private sector can do a better job than government can do." She also believes in man. "Also just trusting individuals to make wise decisions for themselves and families. I have a lot of trust in individuals. I don't trust government nearly as much."

Gov. Palin vetoed about a third or more of the capital budget, she says. "It's not an open, transparent process at all. The way (the Legislature) works, the administration doesn't even know what's in it until the gavel falls. It's handed to the governor without public process and public debate. It's a nonsensical way of budgeting."

Many of the vetoed items were earmarks by her fellow Republicans. Little wonder she and her party are estranged political bedfellows. "There's absolutely no communication between the state administration and the Republican Party," she says. "No communication, no calling for advice either way."

Some would look at that as the price she has to pay for being a GOP maverick. That is, someone who talks the talk and walks the walk. "I look at it as the way it's supposed to be."

Palin recently signed a bill vastly improving Alaska's ethics and disclosure laws. Now it's a crime for public servants not to report bribery they know about.

Ask her five or six different times if she will run for president and hear nervous giggles and self-deprecating humor. But you won't hear "No."

Dimitri Vassilaros is a Trib editorial page columnist. His column appears Sundays, Mondays and Fridays. Call him at 412-380-5637. E-mail him at dvassilaros@tribweb.com.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/vassilaros/s_517252.html