Elephant Dung #21: O'Reilly challenges Palin over entitlements for the poor

Tracking the GOP Civil War

By Michael J.W. Stickings

(For an explanation of this ongoing series, see here. For previous entries, see here.)

I'm not sure this was really a sign of the deeper Republican crack-up as much as it was about O'Reilly just being fed up with Palin's platitudinous right-wing bullshit:

It's hard to say why it happened, but all of a sudden Bill O'Reilly decided last night to stop tossing Sarah Palin the usual softball questions and Hannity Jobs she's become accustomed to during her tenure at Fox News. He asked her to finally get specific instead of bloviating in vague generalities about where and how she's achieve the budget cuts she's calling for.

Yes, O'Reilly actually looked compassionate and sane next to Palin, who responded to O'Reilly's comment about how there are "a lot of people on the dole" in Alaska by, predictably, blaming the federal government and calling for more irresponsible environmental misuse ("tap into energy resources").

In the meantime, you have to wonder how much longer Palin is going to enjoy her free ride at Fox. If O'Reilly is toughening up on her, that probably means Roger Ailes is getting close to throwing her to the wolves.

Well, I'm not sure we're there quite yet, but it's abundantly clear that many on the right, and within the GOP, have grown tired of Palin's idiocy, however popular she may remain with the base.

Here, watch and enjoy: