Why is Politico trying to create a Palin vs Bachmann feud?

Last night, retracto at Big Government strongly suggested Politico authors Paul Goldman and Mark Rozell correct and retract their claim that Sarah Palin demanded she should get the credit for building the TEA party constituency especially since she’s taking constant beating in the media. Of course, Politico made up the entire thing.

The original Politico post by Goldman and Rozell first three paragraphs included the following, with my emphasis in bold.

Will Sarah Palin’s intensifying rivalry with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) cause the former Alaska governor to run for president?

The first female Republican vice presidential nominee clearly believes she is the one who has paid the heavy dues by bearing the brunt of the “liberal elite” attacks to help build the tea party, social conservative wing of the GOP.

Palin’s bus tour had some of the hallmarks of a primal scream: “I built this constituency, not Bachmann, not anyone else,” she said. Looking at it through her eyes, she has a point.

Of course, the quote was a total and complete fabrication, and when Politico did update the opinion piece this morning, they claimed it was an editor’s error.

An editing error caused a false attribution in an earlier version of this column. A comment by the authors was transformed into a direct quote from Sarah Palin. She never said the words attributed to her. Those words were written by the authors.

Here’s the problem for Politico as far as I can tell. The entire piece written by Goldman and Rozell was specifically based on the fake quote attributed to Palin. With that in mind, the entire piece should have been killed.

Sure, it’s an opinion piece and no doubt, there are quite a few conservatives and Republicans who are not interested in having Palin run for president. Fine … that’s nothing new and it’s happened since the beginning of time.

Politico … I’m certain there may be internal discussions and disagreements between staffs, but don’t let Democrat operatives make crap up out of thin air and post it.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

4 Comments

  1. Lynn on June 10, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    To your title, Sorry guys, but most men I know LOVE catfights



  2. Lynn on June 10, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    Let’s hope Palin and Bachman are smart enough not to fall for it



  3. Eric on June 10, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    There was a time when I went to politico.com for everything relevant in politics at any given time. I felt as though I could trust these guys… but they’ve gone and done the same thing that has turned the New York Times into a tabloid newspaper. They can no longer be trusted to present anything fairly, or truthfully for that manner. As far as I’m concerned, politico no longer exists in any of my net research. Too bad…



  4. drjohn on June 11, 2011 at 11:43 am

    I can tell you why?Obamico Politico does?it. They hate Palin and are completely in the tank for Obama and have a long history of Palin persecution. Have a look.

    http://floppingaces.net/2011/01/16/politicos-persecution-of-sarah-palin-reader-post/



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