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A She Said, She Said StorySarah Palin gives the GOP an early start on its Thanksgiving family fight.

By John DickersonPosted Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, at 7:15 PM ET

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Sarah PalinThe Republican Party is having its Thanksgiving family fight early—and for that it can thank Sarah Palin. Palin, whose book is officially out Tuesday, has set off a new round of fighting with former McCain aides. Dede Scozzafava, the Republican who Palin refused to endorse in the race for a New York congressional seat, is firing back. Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, who once worked for Mitt Romney, is the latest to question Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, who is in a primary fight against conservative Marco Rubio.

Yes, the Democratic Party is still dysfunctional—just ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, both of whom have recently had to intervene to calm squabbling Democrats. There's bickering in the administration, too. But now Republicans are starting to rival their opponents in their chronic condition of family strife.

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For sheer disruptive value, no uncle who hogs the gravy can match Palin. She is wildly popular among conservatives, but her book—which will explode in full flower next week—will re-open old wounds. After being attacked anonymously by former McCain aides for months, she is pushing back. Charges and counter-charges will fly, and the bickering is likely to occasion a new round in the GOP debate among moderates, conservatives, insiders, outsiders, and self-styled outsiders over how the Republican Party should proceed.

In response to the leaks about her book, Palin has posted on her Facebook page. "As is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book." It's not clear whether she means the media has gotten the facts wrong or merely presented them in a way that she does not like. She tells her committed supporters to "keep their powder dry" and wait for the actual book.

The press's failings are a recurring theme with the former governor: She says we make stuff up. It's a serious charge. It's one thing to get the facts wrong—to "erroneously report," in her words—and it's quite another to consciously bend the material to meet your own ends.

Does Palin meet her own rigorous standards? The Associated Press suggests she does not. Let's examine a passage that has received a lot of media attention: her account of the negotiations over her interview with Katie Couric. (Disclosure: I work for CBS.)

Palin starts the passage setting the stage:

By the third week in September, a "Free Sarah" campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp's decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor's staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate.

Palin's chronology is off. By the third week in September she had not been "all bottled up." She'd given one network interview—with ABC's Charlie Gibson—and another interview with Fox News had been announced. By the third week of September, the campaign was in full Palin roll-out mode. Indeed, the interview with Couric had already been agreed to by then.

Anyone can get the dates wrong, especially when you're rushing to get a book out. But that's not the only way in which the facts are askew. Palin makes it seem like the disastrous Couric interview was her first interview. It wasn't. She also says her suggestion that the campaign "start talking to outlets like FOX" was ignored because she "didn't have a say in which press I was going to talk to." But Palin did a two-part interview with Sean Hannity of Fox a week before she talked to Couric.

It gets stranger. Palin says "while the media blackout continued" she "snuck in calls to folks like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity." Sean Hannity? Why was it necessary to make furtive phone calls to a guy you just gave a two-part interview to?

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John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at . Follow him on Twitter.

Photograph of Sarah Palin by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images.

COMMENTS

My take on this little inter-departmental feud is that the same thing happened that usually does when support staff becomes aware that the new boss is pretty much incapable of making good, intelligent decisions on his/her own. They circumvent her. They limit her choices. They keep her out of the loop. I can only imagine that's what the campaign staff learned to do with Sarah. It was just self-preservation. (Or "campaign preservation.") That's not saying the rest of them didn't have their own issues, but first comes damage control. Sarah, thy name is Damage.

-- didireaux
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It's nice to see her burning bridges in any case. One would think the Republican establishment would be useful were her to seek higher office. I suppose she figures her inner circle from Wasilla will do the trick.

-- fletc3her
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As with most of today's Republicans, Sarah Palin has very little interest in -- or regard for -- objective reality, especially when it conflicts with her shameless self promotion.

In short, Sarah Palin is a liar.

Her book basically rewrites history: During the 2008 campaign she was wise and honorable, and everybody else was foolish and craven. Of course, anyone with a memory can remember what really happened -- without prepared remarks the woman was a stumbling, bumbling gaffe machine.

Her supporters who believe that she's qualified to be president define the term "low information voters."

-- JackHughes
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A good many people right now are unmoored from any kind of reality. Facts mean nothing to them. It's all about which side they are on and who bugs the people they don't like the most. And for right wingers, Palin bugs the liberals the most, hence they are for Palin.

Note I didn't say this is anything exclusive to right wingers.

-- nerdman
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