In speech to Alabama Republicans, Sarah Palin blasts Obama and 'RINOs' alike

The Mobile Press-Register ^ | April 25, 2014 | Brendan Kirby

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin offered plenty of red-meat attacks on President Barack Obama during an appearance at the Baldwin County Republican Party’s annual fundraising dinner Friday, but she did not spare her own party. Palin, who rocketed to political stardom after presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate in 2008, expressed nearly as much exasperation with the GOP establishment as she did with Democrats. She referenced her own upbringing in an Alaskan hunting family in declaring that she would fight politicians that conservatives deride as “Republicans in Name Only” during intra-party squabbles. “I’m not afraid at all to go on a little RINO hunt,” she said. Since her unsuccessful bid for vice president, Palin has devoted a great deal of energy toward supporting like-minded Republicans in primary battles, whether they be incumbents or challengers. Along the way, she has become one of the top draws on the speaking circuit. Baldwin Republican Chairman Matt Simpson said it was a big coup to get Palin. He declined to say how much the party paid for her appearance and said the former governor agreed to an interview only with Yellowhammer News, a conservative blog in Alabama. Simpson said about 500 people attended the speech at The Wharf in Orange Beach. The audience included most of the county’s Republican leaders, along with the chairman of the state GOP, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, Republican leaders from the rest of the state and even a U.S. Senate candidate for Louisiana. Palin charmed her audience with her signature speaking style and a few local references. She noted the famed Flora-Bama Mullet Toss that takes place this weekend. Turning serious, Palin questioned the commitment of some Republicans to repealing the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature legislative achievement. “They’re giving a lot of lip service to it, but it’s not happening,” she said. The reason, Palin suggested, is that some Republicans have concluded they are better off raising campaign contributions off of the issue and leaving the law alone. She said too few Republicans in Congress supported efforts by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, to shut down the federal government in order to force the defunding of the health reform law. “They left some of our guys out there alone,” she said. “Worse than that, they joined the lapdog media” in condemning Lee and Cruz. Palin urged Republicans to “send reinforcements” to help tea party Republicans in Congress. She paraphrased a famous Obama quote in crediting the tea party for engineering the Republican takeover of the House in 2010. “Republican establishment, you didn’t build that – the tea party did that,” she said. Referencing big Republican electoral gains in Alabama since 2010, Palin held up the state as a model for the nation. “Alabama really is the picture of this – especially Baldwin County,” she said. Palin had plenty of fire for Obama and the Democrats, too, starting with the “Orwellian boondoggle” of Obamacare. She blasted the administration over the National Security Agency spying scandal, the murder of the American ambassador in Benghazi, Libya, and Obama’s response to Russian aggression in Ukraine. “We are going to do all we can to stop Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of the most exceptional country in the world,” she said, later adding that his policies represent a “depression on the soul of America.” Palin got her biggest applause and a standing ovation for her defense of America’s veterans. She decried cuts to veterans’ health benefits and Obama’s proposed defense cuts. “They’re the ones who should be getting the free ‘Obamacare,’ not the prisoners,” she said.