Bob Maistros

The “refudiators” are out in full force.

Crisis communicators have a playbook at the ready – one I’ve helped run – in countering a negative article (or book or program) aimed at clients or allies.  And now, Team Palin is rolling that game plan out with a vengeance.

You go low.

The object of their scorn: a particularly nasty broadside by Vanity Fair reporter Michael Joseph Gross that highlights the onetime wannaveep’s alleged Jekyll-and-Hyde temperament, apparent financial hi-jinks, potential intimidation of staff, friends, family and political opponents, seeming high-level hypocrisy and even questionable maternal instincts.  And that was on her good days.

Page #1 in the playbook, naturally, is to zero in on factual errors, large or small, to throw the reporter’s overall credibility into doubt.  Oops.  Gross has admitted, in describing a backstage scene, to confusing another Down’s syndrome baby with the potential presidential candidate’s son Trig, an especially sympathetic subject.  Score one for the home side.

Then there’s the neat trick of having people quoted in the story issue blanket denials, claim to be misquoted, or complain about broken interview ground rules.  Cue former staffers Ivy Frye and Meghan Stapleton, plus long-time friend Kristan Cole, to put out timely statements insisting that they had not drifted from the media megastar, as reported in the VF piece.  And whether part of the coordinated assault or not, even blogger and Palin antagonist Shannyn Moore has come out blasting at Gross.  Yikes.

Closely related is targeting a scribe’s use of anonymous sources to juice his tale.  Palin got all scatological on that one.  “Impotent and limp and gutless?”  You go low.

Let’s not forget the “persecution ploy:” the object is being targeted because he or she has taken on the status quo and ticked-off the powers-that-be.  Commander Mac’s 2008 running mate has morphed seamlessly into the role of party giant-killer in allying with the Tea Party forces wreaking havoc among Republican incumbents and in particular, in backing such primary ambushers as South Carolina’ Nikki Haley and in her own backyard, surprise GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller.

Last but certainly not least, we see that old standby, the “discrimination card:” our poor Sarah, model to aspiring women leaders from sea to shining sea, is being called out for her behind-the-scenes comportment in ways that no male pol would.  After all, isn’t everyone in the electoral arena by nature a hyper-charged Type A prone to tantrums and megalomania?  Even some feminists are siding with their conservative counterpart on this score.

All well and good.  The ex-guv’s crowd has done its job to a T in putting Gross firmly on the defensive.  But even after some serious gnawing by Sarah Barracuda and the rest of her school, plenty of meat remains on the bones of the ink-slinger’s account.

Like some solid digging into the sudden standup of PACs and shell corporations seemingly designed with the sole purpose of shoveling cash Palin’s way.  The strange behavior of her parents, who are apparently under the same gag order as the rest of her staff and family when it comes to interacting with the media.  That strange Facebook flackery supplanting press availability.  The reported hypocrisy of the Tea Party favorite in presenting herself as a woman of the people and intrepid hunter … yet serially stiffing porters and other service personnel and having the First Dude burning up the phone lines looking for moose meat for Greta’s stew.  The sudden sidling of sycophantic bloggers and other supporters into her inner circle, even as competent staff bleeds away.

And most sensationally, further confirmation of earlier accounts of The Divine Guv P’s erratic and abusive conduct and Chicago-style score-keeping.  And no, Gross is not discriminating against the Alaskan in reporting on her alleged rages – the need for some anger management was ground well-trod in commentary during John McCain’s run for the Oval Office and Bill Clinton’s presidency, just as Barack Obama’s cold dispassion is Topic A in analyzing his flailing stewardship.  And yes, it matters – wouldn’t you say America deserves to know the mental state of a person many would like to see with her neatly filed nails on the nuclear button?

No question:  Team Palin has piled up some points in going on offense  rather than simply closing the curiously tight circle of friends and admirers surrounding the still relatively untested figure.  Still, no amount of skillful crisis management can erase the additional doubt Mr. Gross has planted in the minds of many – like yours truly – who wonder just how far America’s political sweetheart can or should march down the runway to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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