Gingrich backs Palin on "death panel" lie

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As Steve Benen notes, some on the right, like David Brooks (who is known to have a sane moment every now and then), have been critical of Sarah Palin's claim that Obama's proposed health-care system -- "Obamacare," as it has been misleadingly dubbed -- would subject Americans (and specifically the elderly and the disabled) to "death panels," panels of bureaucrats that would supposedly make life-or-death decisions like Roman emperors at some gladiatorial extravaganza.

The facts are the facts, the truth is the truth, and Palin was just lying, spinning fear, like many others on the right. Brooks himself called the claim "crazy." "Maybe, just maybe," Benen writes, "[Palin's] 'death panel' message on Facebook -- complete with lies, poor writing, policy confusion, and family exploitation -- will be enough to convince the skeptical that Palin really is that far gone?" Personally, I doubt it. And I doubt it because Palin isn't alone. There are many who think like her and lie like her, and many more still who credulously accept whatever she and her ilk offer as the truth and nothing but, so "far gone" are they. Besides, Palin's already done more than enough to convince us that she's "that far gone." Those who remain skeptical are the bitter residue of irrationality, and they aren't about to be convinced.

And, indeed, Palin's various backers on the "death panel" lie include not just the usual suspects on Fox News and mobocratic talk radio, as well as in the right-wing blogosphere but a leading Republican and media darling: Newt Gingrich, who, yesterday on ABC's This Week, actually supported Palin's claim. It's hardly news that he's as "far gone" as Palin, and he's long been a leading GOP spinner and propagandist, a partisan who says whatever needs to be said in support of narrow Republican interests regardless of the truth, but it's good to have him confirm like this his place in the Palin wing of the right-wing insanitarium.

It's funny, though. He's a media darling not just because of his past electoral success but because he's convinced enough people, media people, that he's a smart guy, an intellectual conservative, in other words, a rarity that sets him apart. And he often talks a good talk -- consider that he's been a frequent guest on Jon Stewart. And yet his record is quite different than the manufactured image. It's a record of rhetorical insanity suggesting not just a deep reservoir of partisanship -- party before country, party before truth -- but core convictions that are just as insane. This latest foray into the wilderness of delusion and deception only proves the point.