http://gopclownshow.com/elizabeth-hasselbeck-blasts-sarah-palin-for-her-target-list/Even Hasselbeck is bailing on Palin (March 2010)
On ABC’s The View today, conservative Elizabeth Hasselbeck lowered the boom on Sarah Palin today for her targeted list of congressional races. She called Palin’s list, “An abuse of the Second Amendment, and advertising… It’s dangerous. It incites crime.” This criticism has to be just a tad stinging, because Hasselbeck campaigned for Palin in 2008.
Hasselbeck said of Palin’s 2010 target list, “This was really disappointing to me…This hasn’t been a great week in terms of I think the Constitution, and where it says that you’re supposed to everyone it’s a mandate to have insurance, but I think the way that some Republicans are handling this is nothing more than purely despicable. The names that are next to and being highlighted by those crosshairs, I think it is an abuse of the Second Amendment and advertising. I also feel as though every person on here is a mother, a father, a friend, a brother, a sister. It’s disappointing to see this come from the party.”
She wasn’t done, when the discussion moved to rhetoric she said, “It is dangerous, and I think that when you take rhetoric like this with someone who is powerful, I would hope that anyone out there wouldn’t take it to an extreme, and take this literally, but the chance is there, and I think there is a responsibility, a civic responsibility, no matter how upset you are with how things are happening with our Constitution, with health insurance, etc., this is not the way to get anything done.”
Back during the 2008 election Hasselbeck said that she was honored to campaign with Palin, “I am more than honored to be there, so I will be flying there to travel with her and meet some pretty interesting people, I have a feeling. That’s an honor, I’m excited to do it, and I’ll have some stories I’m sure on Monday.”When celebrity supporters, like Hasselbeck start to criticize Palin’s actions, then she is definitely in trouble.
Hasselbeck is often held up as one of the poster children for empty headed GOP talking point eye candy, and I think that is what she is doing here. Her criticism can be viewed as mirroring the distancing of the mainstream GOP from the tea party movement. The Republican Party knows full well that the kind of radicalization that Palin was playing to could destroy the party, not just in 2010, but in 2012 as well, so while Sarah Palin continues to pander to the lowest common denominator, the GOP leadership is trying to figure out how to stuff the genie of extremism back in its bottle.