Stalker, Joe McGinniss Interviewed by His Biggest Fan, Dave Weigel

Dave Weigel is standing by his man, providing a forum for renowned "creepy stalker," known liar, and suspected plagiarist, Joe McGinniss. Friday evening he posted a piece called "Joe McGinniss talks about why he moved in next to Sarah Palin" in the Washington Post. Weigel was an obvious choice for McGinniss to use as his 'message man' considering Dave has shown sympathy for Joe's disturbing behavior. Weigel was also taken to task by many bloggers (I'd love to link examples but there's just too many) for his indefensible, defense of McGinnis, and rightfully so.

Weigel starts the article:

When a source told Joe McGinniss that he could rent the house next to Sarah Palin's Wasilla, Alaska, home, the author was sold.

A room at the Best Western, not far away, would have been prohibitively expensive. The landlord of this house, meanwhile, offered it to McGinniss for $1,500 per month after a friend of the author recommended him as a solid alternative to the other people asking about the property.

"She was talking to this mutual friend of ours and said, 'I've got to find someone we're comfortable with,' " McGinniss said Friday evening from the deck of the house -- a deck that became famous after Palin posted a photo of it on Facebook this week. " 'My biggest concern is the Palins' privacy, especially the children.' So this mutual friend said, 'Well, you know, I think you're in luck. Joe McGinniss is going to be coming back here, and you couldn't find a better guy, just the right sort of person to move in and guarantee their privacy.'"

Wait a second... In the last post I wrote on this matter, I quoted Joe McGinniss Jr. claiming that the property owner sought out Joe McGinniss. According to him, the owner, Catherine Taylor did that because she knew he was writing an unfriendly book about Governor Palin and that she did this as some sort of retribution to the Palin's over some financial dispute. Here, McGinniss Sr. contradicts his son's comments and instead says that some shadowy third party initiated the rental agreement. I'll stick with my first and perpetual instinct to never trust the words of a left-wing crackpot. Who set up the deal that placed this jerk next door to the object of his obsession, and his meal-ticket, is still up for debate.

Weigel's piece then says:

What happened next, said McGinniss, came as a total surprise. He had planned to keep the news off the Internet and tell the Palins himself that he'd be their neighbor as he wrapped up his biography of the former governor.

McGinniss had written a Portfolio piece about her leadership, and a critical Daily Beast piece on her book tour for her memoir, "Going Rogue," but he hoped to keep things civil and introduce himself anew to Palin and her husband, Todd.

Okay, first of all McGinniss is not writing a biography. He's writing an attack book called "Sarah Palin's Year of Living Dangerously." The title honestly makes me laugh out loud... It's that stupid. Secondly, the idiotic Portfolio piece was not about her "leadership." That was drive-by, pseudo-journalism at it's worst. Governor Palin said that article resulted in her "Department of Natural Resources announcing that his work is the most twisted energy-related yellow journalism they’d ever encountered." Yeah Dave, that's not an honest article about a former governor's leadership, but then again, you're not an honest journalist so what do I expect?

It continues:

"'I wanted to say, 'I'm writing this book, but I hope we can just get along as good neighbors, and after that, you'll never hear from me again,'" said McGinniss. "That's basically what I told Todd on Monday when he came over. He didn't really want to hear that.

"He took off on how my Portfolio piece was a bunch of lies, and a smear, and all this and all that, and he said, 'You going to be putting the microphones in now, and the surveillance cameras?' I said, 'Listen, you don't know how lucky you are that I'm renting this place because that's exactly what's not going to happen as long as I'm here. I won't see you, you don't see me, this will be fine.' He talked for a few more minutes beyond that, and he got, I'd say, increasingly hostile. And then he left, and I was still out here on this deck, where I'm sitting right now, when they took that picture for Facebook."

So Todd got "increasingly hostile" did he? You don't say... Perhaps it was the Portfolio hit-piece that was Todd's first clue that Joe was there for no good reason. It also could have been the fact that McGinniss told a reporter ""I'm not intending to write a salacious book about Sarah Palin's sex life. But if it's true, I'll find out." Maybe that, plus Joe's location is what upset Todd Palin.

I guess this piece of human trash (Joe) considers getting visibly angry (I'm sure Todd wasn't smiling at the guy) as "hostile." Well good for Todd. I agree with those who have said Todd deserves a medal for 'courageous restraint.' Where I come from, right or wrong, your face would get bloodied for such antagonistic behavior. Joe McGinniss, consider yourself lucky for 'picking a fight' with such good, civilized people.

He goes on:

After that happened, McGinniss -- who is hoping to finish his local research for the book by Labor Day -- became the target of fury from Palin fans. After radio host Mark Levin gave out the author's e-mail address, McGinniss got 5000 messages in four hours, eventually shutting down the account. Wasilla police and state troopers are keeping an watchful eye on the place, although McGinniss said no one had come to the house to threaten him on Friday. He simply didn't anticipate the scale of Palin's response.

"I would term this hysterical," said McGinniss. "The mayor said to me, when I chatted with him in his office a couple of days ago, 'You know, if Sarah had the brains that we like to think she has, Todd would have come back and said, do you know who's living next door? This son of a bitch McGinniss who wrote that Portfolio piece. He's writing a book about you. Sarah should have baked a plate of cookies, and come around the fence, and said hi, and laughed about this.' I would have happily accepted a cookie, and then in my book I would have had a lovely scene about how gracious she had been." McGinniss sighed. "She is, in many ways, a very gracious person."

I don't think the mayor really said that but if he did, vote for the other candidate next time, Wasilla! Perhaps the good folks at the Frontiersman should ask the mayor next week if he said that and if he did, what the hell was he thinking?

Regardless, Joe thinks a cookie from Sarah Palin would have been an appropriate response to his invasion. He's toying with readers of the Washington Post in more ways than one here. This man is one of those guys who thinks he's smarter than he actually is, therefore he plays mind games with those around him. He's trying to say 'hey look, I'm reasonable, just trying to get my scoop. I was going to be nice to her but her and that husband of hers are just so darn mean, so now I have to write a bunch mean things about her, you see.'

By the way, YES Joe, Sarah Palin is indeed a very gracious person. That's the first time I've seen the truth associated with his words, but when he's right, he's right. I have read many accounts from people who know her and who have met her, that have stated as much.

Weigel's piece continues (emphasis mine):

While Palin intimated that McGinniss could watch the family when it went swimming, he said that only the edge of their land near the lake was visible from his property. He was deeply offended by the implication, not thinly veiled in Palin's note and subsequent interview with Glenn Beck, that he would be peering in on the children.

"These little kids, I couldn't care less about them," said McGinniss. "I have my own kids and grandkids to care about. I don't have any interest in Palin's kids. I'm not going to write, oh, I saw Trig run across the lawn, and I saw someone else change his diaper. I haven't been writing for 40 years to wind up on that level. I'm just very offended by this."

I highlighted the first part of that statement because I thought it was very telling. Mark that as the second time I have seen the truth come from McGinniss. He most definitely doesn't care about Sarah Palin's children. I imagine the kids aren't going to get to play outside much this summer as he has sort of pushed everybody away from certain areas of their own property. He unapologetically has taken certain freedoms away from these children. It's very obvious to the world that Joe McGinniss could care less about the Palin kids.

Mr. McGinniss should understand as a parent that whenever there is a threat around, a parent's instincts are to protect their young. Joe McGinniss' past behavior of hit-pieces, stalking, and now this invasion are threatening. It is perfectly acceptable and understandable for Sarah Palin's first concern be the safety and privacy of her children. For McGinniss to be "offended" by the notion that he would write at that level is laughable. Consider the company Mr. McGinniss keeps while he is in Alaska. It seems Joe likes to hang around the Alaskan lefty goon squad when he's not stalking his subject or her family. See Rich Crowther's piece for further details on that.

More from Weigel:

Palin supporters have argued that McGinniss has made a nuisance of himself by previously delivering a copy of a previous book to the Palin home and by betting on a dinner with Palin in a charity auction. McGinniss said the first encounter was friendly, and the second was a "spoof."

"I just kept bidding because there was nothing else to do and it was fun," he said. "She offered dinner with herself for a price? Well, if a journalist could pay the price, it would be responsible journalism to try and win that prize. I knew I couldn't pay the price, so I wasn't in there as a serious bidder."

This is what this man considers "responsible journalism." No wonder I'm sitting here writing about this clown, again! This is another example of mental pretzels being woven by McGinniss trying to cover his own ass for his past behavior. He says "I wasn't in there as a serious bidder," but he bid $68,000! He's just trying to change the subject again and distort the meaning of what he was originally doing.

He said "She offered dinner with herself for a price?" Way to cheapen an auction for a wounded warrior fund, Mr. McGinniss. Then again, I wouldn't expect someone from his background to appreciate a military charity. Instead he makes a underhanded, snarky, sexist comment insinuating Governor Palin was offering herself "for a price." This guy is a scumbag through and through.

Weigel ends it:

McGinniss said he will limit his interviews on this topic, appearing on NBC's The Today Show next week, before getting back to his own work. And he told the Post that he had been a responsible neighbor, shooing off a pair of Minnesota tourists who stepped onto his property to take photos of Palin's home.

"Look, this is a pain in the ass for them," he said. "I understand that. If I were her, I'd be upset. I'd be annoyed. But I'd be an adult about it, and I would figure out, okay, how can we resolve this in a way that's not going to make into something that everybody gets obsessive about? By being here I have learned things, and I've gotten an insight into her character, into her ability to incite hatred, that before I only knew about in the abstract."

There's that 'inciting hatred' meme again like we heard from Junior McGinniss the other day. Lefty, mud-slinging apples must not fall to far from the tree.

Mr. McGinniss has no idea who the Palin's are. He is testing their ability to put up with an enormous amount of crap from a deranged old man with nothing better to do than to harass a family that just so happens to have a mother that doesn't agree with him politically. He's trying to see if he can push their buttons enough to provoke a reaction he can write about in his book and generate more publicity for it's release. He is going to fail and he is going to fail miserably. The Palin's will not be provoked to do anything and he is simply going to have to rely on his old method of lying.

Joe McGinniss... Go to Hell and take Dave Weigel with you.