I’m skimming over toward wikipedia for a quick flash on the background of James Westbrook Pegler , where it is noted:

Interest in Pegler was revived when Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin quoted him in her acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity”, she said, a Pegler quote that also appeared in the book “Right From the Beginning” by Pat Buchanan. Rather than acknowledging Pegler by name, Palin merely cites ‘a writer’.^[4] The speech was written by Matthew Scully, a senior speech writer for George W. Bush.^[5]

Following the Palin acceptance speech New York Times columnist Frank Rich elucidated the political significance of quoting Pegler. Mr. Rich noted that “Pegler was a rabid Joe McCarthyite who loathed F.D.R. and Ike and tirelessly advanced the theory that American Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe (“geese”, he called them) were all likely Communists.”^[6] He pointed out that Palin’s use of a quote from “once powerful right-wing Hearst columnist Westbrook Pegler” was intended to send a subtle but unmistakable signal to far right wing supporters. ^[7]

Also Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. expressed outrage about Palin’s quoting of Pegler in her speech. ^[8] Referring to Pegler as a “Fascist writer” and an “avowed racist”, he reminded readers of the fact that, when Senator Kennedy considered running for president in 1965, Pegler had expressed hope that ‘some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies.’^[9][10]

I don’t know about “sending messages”, almost code-like, but this is a little reminiscent of when George W Bush made a reference to IF Stone by way of arguring against the — um — Agnew’s nattering nabobs of negativity regarding progressing with Reconstructing Europe post World War II — or, fighting the Insurgency post Iraq War.  To best encapsulate what a reference to Stone would mean to a certain generation and ilk of Conservative Warrior, and what frame of mind one would be sending in referencing Stone: to this day your Robert Novak believes that IF Stone was a tool of the Soviet government.  Now, considering the plucking up of Pegler from the fading memories of our public discourse, I have to wonder if it was the same speech writer.

Moving on to the talk function, I see this argument was advanced.:

Cleraly posted before the addition of the reference to Scully in the piece.  I do wonder how it is we come to a point where anyone can brush aside statements made by a politician when they come out of their mouths, and this argument does not argure well for Sarah Palin.  Particularly in light of the odd brief against the ghost-writer and the defense you see when you google for it pointing out that every politician has speech writers.

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