Spare Sarah Palin the self-righteousness

Mark Whitaker Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin hardly needs defending.

She prides herself on being a supportive hockey mom, but she can lace on skates and deliver hard checks into the glass with the best of them.

Still, while watching and listening to a lot of the media discussion of the rollout of her book, I can't help noting that some of the coverage is more than a little selective, and hypocritical.

No, Sarah Palin’s new book, “Going Rogue” is not, as Rush Limbaugh described it, “one of the most substantive policy books I’ve read.”

On issues, it’s full of conservative platitudes and seemingly Googled philosophical wisdom. It’s mostly a work of self-mythologizing — Annie Oakley gets her political gun — mixed with bitter political dish.

These days, the best way for a political figure to get a fat book contract is to promise to unload on enemies and rivals.

Palin obliges. In her best-selling tome, she takes on John McCain's aides she says mishandled her. In particular, she field-dresses top strategist Steve Schmidt like an Alaskan moose.

Historians may just be getting to work on the 2008 presidential race. But for Palin, revenge is a dish best served warm.

Seeking payback on the bestseller list may or may not be smart politics. But reporters who covered the McCain campaign should at least acknowledge how understandable her anger is on a personal level.

INTERACTIVE Rough year From the Levi Johnston flap to the David Letterman controversy, the trials and tribulations of the Republican former vice presidential nominee. NBC News

Americans had barely finished voting a year ago when anonymous sources in the campaign (who were widely assumed to be Schmidt and fellow adviser Nicolle Wallace) were calling the Palin family “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus.”

[Since the publication of this story, Schmidt called to refute that either he or Wallace were the source of anti-Palin leaks.]

In any event, there were leaks about Palin’s lavish spending on clothes, unwillingness to stay on message and demand that she deliver her own concession speech on election night.

John McCain, who to this day chivalrously refuses to speak ill of Palin, may have deserved better from her in this book.

But aides who so quickly sought to shift attention from their own responsibility for his bungled campaign by dumping on his running mate did not.

On her presidential aspirations, Palin predictably played coy in her interview with Oprah Winfrey and insisted that 2012 is “not on my radar screen right now.”

MORE FROM POLITICS

Politics Section Front

Obama: Parties must 'transcend petty politics' GOP flexes muscles, defeats Obama nominee N.Y. governor says scandal rumors are dying Police: Man who took over Clinton office flees White House pokes fun at Sarah Palin NYT: McCain takes on GOP foe by tilting right   NY senator who dragged girlfriend fights expulsion Obama says music fueled civil rights movement First lady begins fight against childhood obesity GOP wary of Obama's health care summit Politics Section Front   Add Politics headlines to your news reader: