Well, Joe McGinniss’ smear book on Sarah Palin is out (the one that he researched by, in part, moving in next door to the Palins’ home, overlooking their children’s bedrooms), and it has several conservative bloggers expressing their contempt for Joe The Peeper. And two of them are bloggers I consider… well, blog-friends, who are at a rather stark disagreement about just what sort of person Joe The Peeper is.
Rob Port, who is actually a family friend of the Palins (well, the Heaths, Sarah’s family), was contacted by Joe The Peeper during the writing and asked to help confirm some rather salacious and scandalous stories that peripherally touched on Palin’s father. Rob declined, and instead published the e-mail exchanges (I don’t see where Joe The Peeper asked for or was promised any confidentiality). And according to Rob, Joe The Peeper is “a slime ball.”
On the other hand, there’s Robert Stacy McCain, noted free-lance journalist, blogger, and recent acquaintance of mine. (I spent a few hours with him when he came to see Sarah Palin in New Hampshire.) He’s opined twice on the matter — first, he said that Joe The Peeper was “reckless” to the point of being legally liable for libel. Then he took off his pseudo-lawyer hat, put on this dad fedora, said that Joe The Peeper deserved “The Mother of All Ass-Whuppings,” and offered to pre-emptively start a “Todd Palin Legal Defense Fund” should he choose to impart said Ass-Whupping.
As I said, I consider both men blog-buddies, and I hate to see them at odds. So I offer a compromise: Joe The Peeper is a reckless slime ball who deserves the Mother of All Ass-Whuppings.
There, everyone’s a winner. How about it, guys?
Oh, and Rob: I’m surprised Joe The Peeper didn’t want to talk to you about the time you shared a shower with Sarah Palin…
Update: In the comments below, both Rob and Stacy have agreed to my suggested compromise. Thanks, pals. Delighted to have been of service. Next up, off to that pesky Middle East…
