Sunday Snapshot -- Lady In Red

Sarah Palin continued to be the talk of the town. Focusing on "gender politics," CBS' "Face the Nation" hosted AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and ex-MA Gov. Jane Swift (R).

Swift, asked if Palin should she be treated any differently than anyone else who is running for public office: "I think that she should absolutely not be treated differently. There shouldn't be a double standard. We shouldn't ask of her questions about her ability to do the job that we wouldn't ask a guy in a similar circumstance. But I think that we also have to acknowledge that, because we've had so few women running for these high-level offices, although this is a great year on that front, that we're also not attuned to hearing women's voices and to seeing them in these positions."

Schultz: "All Sarah Palin is being asked to respond to is whether she's up to the task. And it is absolutely fair game. And all I've seen is her being asked about her background, her experience, what qualifies her to be vice president, and whether she knows anything. So the tough questions that have been asked of Sarah Palin thus far just have been about the fact that she doesn't know anything and isn't ready to be vice president. That's fair game and it has nothing to do with her gender."

More Schultz: "Quite honestly, the interview that I saw and that Americans saw on Thursday and Friday were similar to when I didn't read a book in high school and had to read the cliff notes and phone in my report. She's cliff-noted her performance so far."

After the jump, more on Palin and the general election tone takes a turn for the worse.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

Hutchison: "Well, let me say that four of the last presidents have been governors, and they have come in, every single one of them, without an in-depth foreign policy experience. But they, like Sarah Palin, read the newspapers. They have a working knowledge of our place in the world and what we should be doing. And so I don't think the fact that she ... hasn't been to the Middle East yet is a factor. I think what we're looking for and what the [John] McCain-Palin ticket is talking about is changing the way Washington works. And she does have experience in that for sure."

Napolitano: "The key issue in this race is not Sarah Palin. It's John McCain and what he is proposing for this country, which really is a continuation of what we've seen over the last seven-and-a-half years on the economy, on energy, on issue after issue. He chose Sarah Palin because she's going to support those views. And that's why she shouldn't be the vice president, because she'd be the vice president continuing the same administration, the same failed policies that we seek to change" (CBS, 9/14).

WE'RE ALL EAR(MARK)S

Ex-AK Gov. Tony Knowles (D) and AK LG Sean Parnell (R) were on "Fox News Sunday," and the two were asked about Palin's position on the Bridge to Nowhere and earmarks.

Parnell: "When it comes to the bridge in Ketchikan, she was originally -- and has said that she would not stand in the way of infrastructure dollars coming our way to Alaska. But that was when that bridge was, what, $223 million. When she got to be governor and found out that it became a $400 million bridge, she said, 'No, not going to do that.' Congress was the body that actually pulled the earmark language off of it, letting that money come to Alaska into our transportation formula funds, just like that money goes to other states' transportation formula funds."

More Parnell: "If you sit through her cabinet meetings, she's driving down the number of earmarks that Alaska is requesting. The prior administration asked for about 63 earmarks when we came in. The requests are down to 31 earmarks this year. We're driving those numbers down, working to bring reform to Alaska. This is not something you can just turn the switch on overnight and change. Change takes time, and our reformer is taking that step by step."

Knowles: "There were two 'Bridges to Nowhere.' There was one so-called 'Bridge to Nowhere' in Ketchikan, and there was another in Anchorage. The one in Anchorage the governor continues to support. She never diverted any funds whatsoever. ... When she says the 'Bridge to Nowhere,' there were two bridges, and her position on the other one, which goes to an area which her hometown, Wasilla, that is absolutely incorrect to say that she said no to the 'Bridges to Nowhere.'"

Knowles, on the idea Palin has cut back "dramatically" on earmarks in AK: "Well, the fact that in terms of business as usual and that she is going to be the reform on that issue is just not true. There has been a reduction in the number of earmarks, but that has more to do with the fact of what Congress is putting out and the attitude that Americans have against special earmarks more than anything that she is doing for reform."

They also talked about Troopergate.

Fox's Wallace: "Originally, Governor Palin said that she was going to cooperate with the legislative investigation. Now the lawmakers just yesterday issued 13 subpoenas. She has said that her lawyer is going to fight those subpoenas. And she also has talked about wanting the state panel, the personnel board, which she appoints the members to, to take over this investigation. Whatever happened to open government?"

Parnell: "Governor Palin practices open and transparent government. There's no question about it. When this investigation first started, it appeared that it would be a fair fact-finding-type investigation. But since then, it's become a political circus. The legislative committee, the judiciary committee that voted on the subpoenas yesterday, is chaired by Senator Hollis French. That senator is a Barack Obama supporter. Everything now is tied to timing for this general election. It's not about finding the facts anymore."

Wallace: "First of all, the fair and impartial tribunal is by the state personnel board, and she appoints the members to that board. And secondly, ... there certainly is some partisan aspects to this ... but the fact is the person who broke the tie and voted for the 13 subpoenas was a Republican, not a Democrat. And in fact, it was the state senator from Wasilla."

Parnell: "The legislative tribunal is not the appropriate place for these charges to be heard. There's no question that politics are entering in during this time. Secondly, the personnel board is the body created by the legislature to review these kinds of charges and allegations, not the legislature."

Wallace: "Governor Knowles ... doesn't Lieutenant Governor Parnell have a point? The fact is that several of the members of this legislative board are announced and public Obama supporters, including the Democrat Hollis French, who's running the investigation, who, in fact, has even talked about Palin can look forward to an October surprise."

Knowles: "This is a completely diversionary tactic. Let me just put it in the right context. This is a very serious charge. In fact, when the legislature initiated the investigation, it's for the first time in the history of Alaska that the legislature has ever initiated an ethics investigation of a governor. Second of all, as to whether it was partisan or not, it's a Republican-controlled legislature. And the committee that voted as to whether or not to hire an investigator was a bipartisan committee of 12 House and Senate members, and they unanimously voted to do it. So that's how serious it is. Now, the question in terms of what was the supposed crime on that, again, it's an abuse of power and possibly an illegal action by a governor to direct a commissioner to take an illegal action in firing of someone -- of personnel for a personal agenda -- very serious. You would hope that the American people would have the chance to find out what happened in this particular case" (9/14).

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and McCain Victory chair Carly Fiorina also discussed Palin's record on earmarks during a joint appearance on "This Week."

McCaskill: "Sarah Palin has taken more in federal earmarks per person than any governor in the history of the planet. While John McCain was making fun of DNA earmarks for bears, she was asking for a DNA earmark for seals. Almost at the identical moment."

Fiorina, in response: "Claire McCaskill conveniently forgets the fact that Barack Obama has asked for almost $1 billion worth of earmarks in a very short tenure in the Senate. That's about $1 million a day. She also conveniently ignores the fact that Sarah Palin as governor stood up and said, 'I know earmarks are corrupting. We must ask for less of them.' ... As governor, she vetoed about half a billion dollars."

McCaskill: "She just requested this year ... hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarks for Alaska. She took the money for the Bridge to Nowhere. She hired lobbyists to get earmarks. This is a woman who has been lobbying for earmarks, has received earmarks. As a mayor, as a governor. ... Honor is talked about a lot in this campaign. Honor comes with honesty. And you've got to be honest about the facts. Sarah Palin has been an earmark queen in Alaska. That's the facts."

Fiorina: "The facts are that Sarah Palin rejected the money for the Bridge to Nowhere. The facts are that Barack Obama has asked for more earmarks in his short tenure than Sarah Palin ever has. So if we want to have an argument about the facts of reform, let's ask whether Barack Obama has ever stood up against his party, has ever took a tough position. Sarah Palin without question stood up against the Republican Party, is a reforming governor. ... It is true that as mayor, she worked within the system that she was a part of, but it is also true that she stepped forward against her own party and said enough is enough" (ABC, 9/14).

SUMMER HATIN' HAD HER A BLAST

There was also reaction to Palin saying Obama made a mistake in not picking Hillary Clinton as his VP during an interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): "I was a supporter of Hillary. I mean, I don't think Sarah Palin is Hillary Clinton. Their views are very different, their views on reproductive freedom, the fact that, you know, Sarah Palin's personal view is that if your child is raped, that child can't have an abortion. And I don't think that stands well with American women. Her view on pay equity. There are a number of other things that are coming out. I think one of the things that concerns me most is there seems to be resistance to vetting her. ... I think she needs to be vetted just as Geraldine Ferraro was vetted and Hillary Clinton has been vetted year after year after year" ("Late Edition," CNN, 9/14).

McCaskill: "Sarah Palin this summer called Hillary Clinton a whiner. And now it's oh, you know, they are being disrespectful to Hillary. I didn't hear her say that when she was asked that before she was the vice presidential pick. And when John McCain was asked a question at a forum -- you remember this -- someone said, 'how do we stop the b,' referring to Hillary Clinton, and John McCain laughed" ("This Week," ABC, 9/14).

Fiorina: "Barack Obama made a critical strategic error by not choosing Hillary Clinton. There are a whole host of women in the Democratic Party who believe the Democratic Party does not understand what sexism is, routinely underestimates the impact of women, and they are coming in droves to the Republican Party because they think the party and John McCain get it. That's a fact" ("This Week," ABC, 9/14).

There continued to be talk about Palin not releasing her tax returns:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): "There are three other questions I think she has to answer if she wants to be the reform candidate. First, is she going to support Senator Stevens in this election campaign? ... If it's politics as usual, she's supporting Stevens. ... Second, there's an investigation about abuse of power, that she wanted to fire a state trooper because he was in a bitter divorce with her sister. And she has ordered all Alaska employees not to talk to this bipartisan investigation that was set up before she was vice president. I want to ask Governor Palin, 'If you're new politics, you should certainly let the employees in the state of Alaska talk to the investigators.' Stonewalling is not new politics. And finally ... will she release her tax returns? ... Joe Biden has, Barack Obama has. There are some questions there, because she was given per diem payments for staying at home, $17,000. Are those on her tax returns?"

More Schumer: "And as she has to answer these questions, not in set interviews, I don't think she's going to be quite as popular as she is today" ("Meet the Press," NBC, 9/14).

Rudy Giuliani, asked when Palin should release her tax returns: "I think that that's something they have to decide. ... I should also point out that that whole investigation in Alaska that ... that's being run by Obama supporters. I don't know if you know that. Have you shown the picture of the three state senators that are involved in that right behind an Obama sign? One of them has already said that the McCain campaign can be ready for an October surprise. And I'm a lawyer, I guess, before I'm anything else, and I'd be very wary of having Governor Palin participate in that investigation. It is not an unbiased and independent investigation. It shouldn't be presented that way. That's really very unfair" ("Meet the Press," NBC, 9/14).

As well as talk about Palin's experience:

Bill Richardson: "I just learned on national security grounds that she said she had been to Ireland in her travels as a governor. You know, the fact is, it was a refueling stop in Ireland. That she went to Iraq? She was on the border of Kuwait and Iraq. A lot of distortions about the national security record. It is clear that she doesn't pass the test as a national security candidate."

More Richardson: "She didn't know what the Bush doctrine was, which is a foundation of our foreign policy. She was confused about going into al Qaeda and terrorist cells. She claimed that no vice presidential candidate in the past or vice president had met foreign leaders. I mean, almost all of them had -- Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Richard Nixon. I mean, just the facts are so blatantly wrong that they should just admit, all right, she doesn't have this foreign policy experience, but she has executive experience" ("Late Edition," CNN, 9/14).

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): "What is so interesting about being the governor of Alaska and the commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard is the way you prepare and the way you work with the defense resources that our nation holds there in Alaska, the way they prepare to defend our homeland, if, indeed, there were to be some kind of attack. ... Sarah Palin in her role is the commander-in-chief has prepared a bit differently. And I think probably has a little bit broader view than maybe some governors of other states" ("Late Edition," CNN, 9/14).

Swift, on the Obama camp saying Palin did not get more than a quarter of a mile inside Iraq: "I think it is overblown. The truth is, she went to Kuwait to visit the troops who were going to be fighting in Iraq. She was accompanied by a general who will say they traveled into Iraq, and it has been misreported" ("Face the Nation," CBS, 9/14).

Giuliani, on McCain saying Palin "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the" U.S.: "I think John was referring to elected officials. He would not be referring to Boone Pickens and certainly wouldn't be referring to nuclear scientists and people like that. I think he was talking about politicians and probably, in particular, the people involved in the race" ("Meet the Press," NBC, 9/14).

Feinstein: "Alaska has, what, 600,000 people. I come from a state with 38 million. Alaska has fewer people in it than the city of which I was mayor. She was mayor of Wasilla, that's about the size of Sausalito, California. These are not big, complicated state issues. ... What I want is somebody that really knows national policy and international policy" ("Late Edition," CNN, 9/14).

DON'T TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME, MISTER

The general tone of the WH '08 campaign, especially in recent ads, had some pols and pundits worried.

Karl Rove: "Both campaigns are making a mistake, and that is they are taking whatever their attacks are and going one step too far. ... McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test. They don't need to attack each other in this way. They have legitimate points to make about each other."

Fox's Wallace: "Do they need to be 100 percent passing the truth? Just, in other words, when you were running Bush's campaign, did you care whether some fact-check organization..."

Rove: "No, and look, you can't trust the fact-check organizations, with all due respect. They're human beings. They're individuals. They've got their own biases built in there. But both campaigns ought to be careful about it. ... There ought to be an adult who says, 'Do we really need to go that far in this ad? Don't we make our point and won't we get broader acceptance and deny the opposition an opportunity to attack us if we don't include that one little last tweak in the ad?'"

Rove, on what the Obama camp should do: "Stop attacking Palin. It doesn't do him any good. It diminishes Obama. Now, they may actually be taking that advice ... because the morning papers are filled with stories in which Obama's operatives say he's going to stop talking about Palin and focus instead on McCain. The second thing, though, is one that I think is difficult for them to do, given the mindset of where they are, and that is they ought to stop attacking McCain. This is not about McCain. This is about reassuring the American people that Barack Obama's up to the job" ("Fox News Sunday," 9/14).

Giuliani: "Everybody has their own biases and prejudices in how they view these ads. But I agree that the campaign has gotten too negative on both sides -- Senator Obama; on our side. I think the main reason for that is that Senator Obama has refused to debate in these town hall meetings every week with Senator McCain. ... If the two of them are out there answering questions, a lot of these ads are going to get done that way, they're going to be able to confront each other with these things" ("Meet the Press," NBC, 9/14).

Fiorina: "It was the Barack Obama campaign that launched the first negative ad. Let's just recall ... the spate of ads that said that John McCain was in favor of a 100-year war in Iraq. Please, I mean, this high and mighty attitude that somehow John McCain has stopped to a new level in politics is A, untrue, and B, as I recall, Barack Obama promised a campaign of hope and politics of promise, et cetera, et cetera" ("This Week," ABC, 9/14).

Schumer: "The critics will look back a month from now and say a big mistake of the McCain campaign was to switch the battlefield to change because that is Obama-Biden's strong suit."

Schumer, asked if Obama was insufficient in his response to McCain's attacks: "Look, Barack Obama, to his credit, would like the campaign to just be on the big issues -- issues like Iraq, issues like energy, issues like health care. But, under Karl Rove's leadership, McCain is doing what Karl Rove does -- small-bore, nasty, diversionary. And I think they realized while the predominant way to win this election is still that higher ground, you have to answer. We have in the DSCC ... a 24-hour rule. They hit you, you have to hit back with the same speed and velocity within 24 hours. The Obama campaign is now doing that ... answering back right away, not staying above the fray. And that's how they're going to win the election" ("Meet the Press," NBC, 9/14).

Napolitano: "One of the disappointing things about this campaign has been John McCain's ads, which now have been soundly criticized even by non-partisan groups as being sorely misleading, taking comments out of context. All the things that in the past the old John McCain used to criticize. We're now seeing the rejuvenated Karl Rove face of John McCain, and we see it every day in these kinds of advertisements that really don't assist voters in making the key decision that is facing them right now, which is who should be the next president of the United States" ("Face the Nation," CBS, 9/14).

Meanwhile, McCain sr. economic adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer and Obama sr. adviser Linda Douglass discussed Obama's seven lobbyists ad on "Late Edition."

Pfotenhauer, on being featured in the ad: "Yeah, it's hilarious. ... To give you some idea, a little fact check. I haven't been a registered lobbyist for seven or eight years. I ran a nonprofit and then retired. So that's how far they're stretching. This from the campaign that to this day refuses to release their list of advisers, even though they acknowledge that there are registered lobbyists on the list. So they have absolutely nothing they can say again."

More Pfotenhauer: "Senator McCain throughout his entire career fought corruption. He received the award from John F. Kennedy, a profile in courage award for his campaign finance reform. He received an award from public citizen because of his effort. He introduced and passed the gift ban. I mean, he has been a lobbyist's worst nightmare. Compare that again to Senator Obama in three brief years and proposed a billion dollars in special interest giveaways."

Douglass: "Senator Obama does not take any money from lobbyists. He does not take any money from PAC. The top seven people in the McCain campaign have been some of the top lobbyists in Washington representing the oil companies, drug companies, foreign governments, and now the head of the transition team on top of all of that, Mr. Timmons, who's going to be setting up the government that John McCain would put into place if he was elected president is one of the best-known, biggest lobbyists in Washington. ... So, what kind of people are going to be running the government of John McCain if his campaign is run by lobbyists, if his transition team is now being run by lobbyists?" (CNN, 9/14).

ROUNDTABLE ROUNDUP

The "This Week" roundtable discussed WH '08 and Palin's first interview.

George Will, on how Palin did in her first interview: "Better than I would have done because I would have flunked the Bush doctrine question."

Time's Carney: "No major gaffs, and you know what? It doesn't matter. Tone matter more than substance in these debates and we're still talking about Sarah Palin, which means that's all the McCain campaign cares about" (ABC, 9/14).

The "Fox News Sunday" roundtable discussed WH '08 and Palin's first interview.

Fox's Hume, on the Palin interview: "She did fine in the interview, and she was probably helped by the fact that I think the ABC News crew shot the interview in such a way that made my dear friend Charlie [Gibson] look sort of unflatteringly like an old school master looking down ... his nose at her."

NPR's Liasson, on Tina Fey's impression of Palin on NBC's "SNL": "It's really unbelievable. I think she is the exception that proves the rule, the rule being vice presidents don't matter. This one certainly has mattered a lot so far" (9/14).

The "Late Edition" roundtable discussed WH '08 and Palin's first interview.

Dem strategist Donna Brazile: "I thought the bar was set pretty low, but she didn't make any major affes. ... If you like her, then you loved her performance. If you are still questioning her readiness to be vice president and president, then you came away from that interview saying she's still not ready for prime time."

GOP strategist Alex Castellanos: "Most Republicans are very pleased with the way she did. But, you know, the Obama campaign and even the media ... they're tackling the guy without the ball. That's Sarah Palin" (CNN, 9/14).