Sarah Palin’s Praetorian Guard

Friday, November 21st at 7:14PM EDT

11 Comments

Recommenders: GB221 (Diary)

I am a big supporter of Sarah Palin. I don’t subscribe to the cult of personality. She is not my savior. But I do support her and I am defensive about it.

I defend her because I believe in her skills and politics. I also defend her because I know the politics of personal destruction when I see it. Make no mistake about it; there are influential factions in American that are trying to destroy her. And make no mistake about it; they want to destroy her because they are afraid of her. They are afraid of her toughness, her charisma and her populist appeal. They are afraid of her because she debunks myths about liberalism, feminism and conservatism.

So I am zealous in my defense of Sarah Palin. And I will engage those that seek to destroy her. Much like the popular Roman Generals had their Praetorian Guards, our star generals should have theirs and we she defend Sarah from the snakes trying to destroy her.

This leads me to Chris Cillizza. I do not profess to know his intentions. I just know that he has scribbled some garbage. He either wants to delegitimize Sarah Palin or is a victim of the Beltway cocoon and is getting his scoops from Lepers. Chris should know that lying or listening to Lepers is no way build journalistic credibility.

You have to be living under a rock not to recognize Sarah Palin as one of the GOPs top ten stars. His list is so preposterous that I have to call out his motives. I wonder if he knows just how stupid he looks. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he is listening to Lepers. He explains his omission this way:

The most notable omission is that of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. While we expect the former vice presidential nominee will be on this Line in the coming months, she doesn’t make it this time around because it is not yet clear how she will find a way to remain in the national dialogue from her far-away outpost in the Last Frontier. Palin is also VERY lightly regarded by many of the opinion leaders and establishment types within the GOP, making it tougher for her to command a leading role.

Wrong Chris. Palin is not “VERY lightly regarded by many of the opinion leaders and establishment types within the GOP”. There are not “many”. There is a small contingent of jealous opponents and outcast Beltway Rockefeller Republicans. Furthermore, they do not “VERY lightly” regard her. They don’t understand her and are afraid of her.

Most importantly, our party is not made of kingmakers or establishment types. We are not Democrats nor are we the press. We are Republicans and it is we, the base, the grass roots, and the rank and file who choose our leaders and please be aware that we have already chosen. Regardless of who we will support in 2012, Sarah Palin already has a voice in our party. Sarah Palin is already one of our brightest stars.

Check yourself Chris.

Truly,

Sarah Palin’s Praetorian Guard

11 Comments Leave a comment

Well, actually, the Praetorian Guard

Achance (Diary) Friday, November 21st at 7:35PM EDT (link)

guarded the city of Rome and, if the money was right, the Emperor. From the mid-Empire onward, paying the Guard was the way to the Purple, and the Guard simply auctioned off the Emperor on more than one ocassion.

Learn some history before you start annointing Emperors or deifying politicians.

In Vino Veritas

Know All About the History

Swamp_Yankee (Diary) Friday, November 21st at 7:53PM EDT (link)

You really do have something personal against her. Others have said it and now I’m starting to see it.

The guards originated as the personal bodyguards of popular Generals who were threatened by assassins. In common parlance, this is how the term is understood. Get a life instead of nitpicking. Want to compare notes on Gibbons.

I see the snakes in the grass trying to assassinate her political career. She is one of her brightest stars. She is not even running for anything and there are people out their still undermining her every move – like you. They’ll delegitimize and marginalize her by turning her into a running joke. They’ll do to Bobby Jindal once he becomes a household name.

No, just wrong; the praetor was a sub-consular office

Achance (Diary) Friday, November 21st at 8:12PM EDT (link)

in the City Government. Praetors had a judicial function and the Praetorian Guard originally was something akin to a bailiff under our system.

And, no, I don’t much like Sarah Palin and that was true long before she was a Vice-Presidential nominee, even before she was a gubernatorial nominee, and had a band of admiring cultists.

But really, my issues with her are all about Alaska poltics. I had a sign in my yard for her as the VP. I just don’t see some very vital Alaska issues the same way she and her adherents do.

In Vino Veritas

History

Swamp_Yankee (Diary) Friday, November 21st at 8:24PM EDT (link)

Chill out.

here

Evolving from the concept of a Legionary Legate’s personal bodyguard, under Augustus, the Praetorian Guard was established as the same, but instead were directly attached to the Emperor. The headquarters of the legion, or praetorium provided the namesake, and the practice was simply altered to encompass a much broader spectrum. The Praetoria Cohors, as they were first known, was originated with the emergence of great soldier politicians, Scipio Africanus being among the first to adopt these personal guards. Formed from the best, bravest and most loyal of his own men, the Praetoria were generally exempt from any standard camp duties, save for protecting their general.

here

The Praetorian Guard, as they have become popularly known, were formally organized by Octavian following his final victory over Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony). In a symbolic gesture, Octavian — who was soon to receive the title Augustus (“The Revered One”) and become the first Roman emperor — combined the surviving cadres of Antony’s and his own bodyguard troops, called in Latin cohortes praetoriae, into the structured arm we know as the Praetorian Guard.
**The first credible example of bodyguard-type cohorts dates to 133 BCE, when Scipio Aemilianus organized 500 of his clients into a so-called "troop of friends."  The practice of keeping a bodyguard unit, later termed a cohors praetoria, became standard as the Republic devolved into civil war.**  (The cohors praetoria was named for the praetorium, the central area of the military camp where the commander's tent had been pitched; thus, the praetorium was the camp headquarters, and its guardians, the praetorian cohort.)

**According to the Roman historian Appian, the rival successors to Julius Caesar's autocratic legacy, Marcus Antonius and Octavianus, each formed for themselves several praetorian cohorts out of a volunteer cadre of Caesar's legionary veterans:**

Did you lecture Erick about the insensitive use of the word Leper. After all Leper’s were really victims and have Biblical significance. Chill out

And both of my brothers lived in Alaska and fished scallopers and King Crab boats and my father was a commercial fisherman too. I was raised in the biggest fishing port in the US, but I’ve been a lwayer in Boston for years now.

You should be proud to have one of your own. The fishermen I know are ten times better men then all the professors, lawyers, elites, MBAs and professional types the infest Boston and our cities.

Where do I sign up?

azaeroprof (Diary) Friday, November 21st at 8:47PM EDT (link)

I’d love to sign up to join you as one of Sarah’s “guard”. However, I think I’d rather be one of Maximus Decimus Meridius’ guys than one of the Praetorian Guards. He dispatched with them pretty nicely. Besides, his post-arrest persona fits better with Sarah’s “outsider” image.
:^)

well, I've signed onto Team Sarah,

heathermc Friday, November 21st at 9:10PM EDT (link)

because I think she is a totally remarkable politician, and I HATE watching the eunuchs try to drag her down to a gutter level.

The folks at “Team Sarah” send an email about David Letterman’s remark that Palin is “the first vice presidential candidate that I found myself being aroused about.”

I have sent off a complaint to the FCC, but have another thought, re “praetorian guard.” In times past, that kind of sniggering remark made by Letterman would have led to the nearest actual gentleman dragging the weasel into the nearest alley and teaching him a brisk lesson about manners, and how you talk about married ladies.

And, I think that the present overabundance of potty mouth tv types is because gentlemen no longer perform that useful action.

These "establishment types"...

Josh Painter (Diary) Friday, November 21st at 9:12PM EDT (link)

are the same ones who have led the Republican party to defeat in two successive national elections. Their influence is on the wane, methinks. The House Republican leadership has just made a rightward move, and if Michael Steele wins the RNC chairmanship, that will be two giant steps toward returning the party to its conservative Reagan roots.

“An armed society is a polite society” – Robert A. Heinlein, “Beyond This Horizon” (1942)

Back on the farm

SteveLA (Diary) Saturday, November 22nd at 12:11PM EDT (link)

Back on the farm in Alaska there are real questions confronting the state, and it sounds like the local folks want their governor to be focused on working on those problems, sounds fair to me.

From the Alaska Daily News an editorial asking about those questions "back on the farm". Opinon

Before all the talk of the ascendancy of Sara Palin once again to the national stage, there is a lot of work to be done back home.

______________________________________

Competency over ideological purity and litmus tests

Good way to put it

GB221 (Diary) Sunday, November 23rd at 3:12PM EDT (link)

“I HATE watching the eunuchs try to drag her down to a gutter level”.
I think it summarizes well what swamp_yankee is expressing when he says,
“I also defend her because I know the politics of personal destruction when I see it. Make no mistake about it; there are influential factions in American that are trying to destroy her. And make no mistake about it; they want to destroy her because they are afraid of her. They are afraid of her toughness, her charisma and her populist appeal. They are afraid of her because she debunks myths about liberalism, feminism and conservatism.”

I subscribe to both of these quotes.

Are there any suggestions on how to proceed aggressively to ” engage those that seek to destroy her” for those of us who are not expert in political strategy? Thanks in advance.

I agree!

benning Thursday, December 11th at 2:12PM EDT (link)

I pushed for Palin in February, not realy believing the eventual Republican Candidate would ever choose her. But I was wrong! Happily so!

I supported Palin throughout the campaign and will continue to do so. The Republican Leadership – a misnomer – can kiss my hind-quarters if they think thier Moderate- DemLite approach is what I approve. All I need do is read the things they’ve said about Governor Palin and they revolt me! And I revolt!

Palin’s my choice. She has my support. The RNC does not!

“If I knew what I was doing would I be here?”