Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was one of the keynote speakers this weekend at a dinner for the Gridiron Club, an exclusive organization for D.C. journalists. Palin, alongside her co-speaker Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), joked about her book, the media and life on the McCain campaign.
“It’s good to be here though, really, in front of this audience of leading journalists and intellectuals… or as I like to call it, a death panel,” she said.
On her book tour bus, she said, “The view is so much better from inside the bus than under it.”
On her failed candidacy, she imagined what could have been: “If the election had turned out differently, I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks, and Vice President Biden could be on the road selling his book, ‘Going Rogaine.'”
For the first time ever, the Gridiron Club relaxed its off-the-record rules for the dinner, allowing attendees to report on the dinner and even tweet, although not during speeches.
And Palin, who routinely bashes what she calls the “lamestream media” for their coverage of her, had some kind words for those very journalists.
Mr. Frank and Ms. Palin agreed on one thing: Each acknowledged that for all their criticism of media outlets — or “death panels,” she called them — they respect what the press tries to do in holding elected officials accountable. And Ms. Palin interjected “Yeah!” when Mr. Frank confessed that when politicians complain they were quoted out of context, what they really mean is, “Geez, I wish I hadn’t said that.”
To finish the dinner, the Gridiron Singers shared their version of the Twelve Days of Christmas, which began, “On the first day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: A Marxist in a dead tree,” and ended, “On the twelfth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: twelve flaming liberals, hunted down in the wild and field dressed, medium well-done, seared on the fatty edges –”
At which point Palin chimed in, “”Right next to the mashed potatoes.”
