@AKMudflats, it’s a beautiful day on the Internets when attorneys threaten bloggers and radio hosts with defamation, for freedom. Let’s all get our boots on, it’s gonna get spooty.

AKMuckraker: Huffington Post Blogger in Palin’s Cross Hairs

Using the substantial might of the Executive branch of government to bring down unenforceable legal threats on a private citizen in Alaska, and attempting to curtail free speech through intimidation on the Fourth of July? Not a particularly brilliant PR move. By specifically singling out and naming Moore, Palin has done two things; she has shown herself to be a reactionary immature politician, and she has made Shannyn Moore a lot better known. And she is not the only one in Sarah Palin’s crosshairs, mind you. You stand warned Huffington Post, New York Times, MSNBC and The Washington Post! You just better knock it off!

Back during the election, Palin was told in no uncertain terms not to make waves and bring extra media attention to something that the McCain campaign considered a distraction. She never really learned that lesson, as Friday’s hastily convened press conference and surprise resignation created a massive story on what should have been one of the slower “hard news” days of the year.

Now she’s threatening to sue the Internets for spreading baseless allegations, via her Twitter account. Bring it on, we all say.

So now the FBI is they don’t have her under investigation, which was one of the “Iceberg” rumors that’s been floating around Alaska news circles since at least August. The real reason must be something else, then, right?

Snark aside, rumors aside, there are a lot of reasons why Palin might realistically come to a conclusion that the best thing to do would be to resign, and they would all have to do with family matters. Given what we’ve seen of her public reactions to the unflattering articles, jokes, and satirical japes aimed at her and her family, can you imagine what her private reactions are like? What’s it like to live in constant uproar for a family with 5 kids, 6 counting Bristol’s baby? How is Trig doing, and is he getting the extra attention he needs at this stage? How are the early intervention programs in Alaska? Frankly, any other woman in Sarah’s position would be thinking about quitting her job to stay home and focus on the two babies in her family, and her oldest daughter needs her help, too.

Remember, every single negative story must get discussed, endlessly, around the Wasilla house by Sarah and her husband Todd. The older kids must get a sense of the turmoil, and it has to be incredibly stressful for everyone, especially the flap over Letterman’s poorly framed joke that was supposed to be at Bristol’s expense. Of course, anyone would want that to stop immediately, shield their kids from those “slings and arrows,” and get back to some semblance of normal family life.

I do sympathize. I just don’t have very much respect for her motives, and I really question her timing.

The fact that she’s always had a flair for self-dramatization does not help Palin in her public life, and it sure couldn’t help her in private.

Nobody would have blamed her if she had quietly resigned back when she realized she was pregnant with Trig, long before the nomination was announced. The state of Alaska would have been satisfied with the “I need to step away from the public view and concentrate on my family, who need their mom now more than ever.” Nobody would have dared criticise that statement, because it would have been true. She would have gotten a ton of sympathy and offers of support when she revealed Trig’s Down Syndrome, and she could have gone on to be a fine advocate for disabled children and their parents.

Later, when Bristol’s pregancy was no longer possible to conceal, the matter would have raised eyebrows and mild interest in Alaska, but nowhere else. My childfree compatriots and I would have snickered endlessly about how she and her daughter “Oopsed her” out of office, but no-one else would have paid much attention.

Instead, imagine the shitstorm we’d be in if McCain had been elected. Would Palin still have resigned, if she were getting even MORE of this kind of “extra media attention?” By this time, she would have gotten the younger kids started in school with plenty of breathless reportage on FOX News, there would have been endless stories about finding the right kind of Washington-area church, and don’t believe for a second there wouldn’t have been plenty more material for late-night comics. Also, Cindy McCain would have plenty of chances to be photographed petting Trig, to help soften her image.

Just think about that: would Sarah Palin still have resigned if she were Vice President, living in Washington above Cheney’s secret underground lair?