Sarah Palin's Dike Connection

Yesterday I was reading multiple articles on the has-been that Sarah Palin has become. Words that came to mind included “failure,” “obsolete,” “outmoded,” “worn out,” “and “old.” My favorite article was from Huffington Post  analyzing the cost to Fox for Sarah’s word salad, which they calculated to be $15.85 per word.  However I learned something about Sarah Palin in these articles that I didn’t know. Of course I knew that all of Palin’s last interviews on Fox had been with Greta Van Susteren. What I didn’t know is that Greta had a personal connection to Palin that was never disclosed in any of the many interviews.

Greta married John Coale in 1988. Coale is a “self-described” ambulance chaser, and an “adviser” for Sarah Palin.  Coale admits he was the person that helped Palin launch SarahPAC, and the legal defense fund for her PA.  That means that Greta received financial benefit from the creation of the SarahPAC, and that while Greta was interviewing Sarah pretending to be a disinterested news reporter, Greta received financial benefit every time Sarah used PAC money to pay Coale for “advice.” Clearly, the more positive publicity Palin received on Fox, the more her supporters would donate to her PAC, and the more “advice” Palin might need.

It was June of 2010 and this blog was only 6 months old. Palin gave her, now infamous, interview with Bill O’Reilly suggesting that the solution to the Gulf Oil Spill was to consult the Dutch people and build dikes. I was so incredulous that Palin would declare, on national television, that we could solve an oil spill 50 miles from shore, at a depth of 5000 feet by constructing dikes, that I began my career writing funny posts about Sarah Palin.  That Letter to Sarah has been one of my most popular articles since the inception of the blog. In addition to the absurdity of the comment, I was amazed that Sarah Palin even knew about the Netherlands or the Dutch people, or the fact that they built dikes. I knew she had never been there, and her knowledge of world geography has been shown to be severely lacking.

Perhaps it was the Greta connection that made Palin aware of the Dutch?

Greta is of Dutch heritage and because of that, was asked to become the Honorary Chairperson of the Little Chute Windmill Committee. An authentic reproduction of a Dutch windmill was built in Llittle Chute Wisconsin, where Van Susteren’t family lived.

As close as the Palins and Van Susterens seem to be it is ironic that Palin has promoted her Christian values, and Greta and husband are members of the Church of Scientology.

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