Will the Real Rogue Please Stand Up?

I’m sorry…(sticking finger in ear and wiggling)…I’m afraid I didn’t hear you properly McCain aide.  You were saying something about someone in Alaska being “rogue”.  You MUST mean Sarah Palin’s ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, or former Commissioner of Public Safety, Walt Monegan.

Don’t you remember when our governor and her mouthpieces told the whole country they were “rogue”?  Yeah, I know…pretty serious stuff that “rogue” talk.  Pretty scary.  Ask any cop on the force.  Being called a “rogue” is fightin’ words.  Yup…   I even looked it up in the dictionary when Governor Palin used that  word. Where’s that definition….ah!  Here it is:

1. Vicious and solitary. Used of an animal, especially an elephant.
2. Large, destructive, and anomalous or unpredictable: a rogue wave; a rogue tornado.
3. Operating outside normal or desirable controls: “How could a single rogue trader bring down an otherwise profitable and well-regarded institution?” (Saul Hansell).

So who was this person who went “rogue” according to a McCain aide?  In a delicious twist of irony, it’s the Governor herself.  And while the wonderful poetic metaphor of the Republican VP nominee being compared to a vicious elephant is not lost on anyone, I think it’s definition #2 and #3 we’re looking at here.

With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say.

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.” [insert crazy elephant noises here – AKM]

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls — recorded messages often used to attack a candidate’s opponent — “irritating” even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign’s decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”

A Palin associate defended her, saying that she is “not good at process questions” and that her comments on Michigan and the robocalls were answers to process questions.

Process questions?  What are “process questions”?  Another quick Google search will answer that. [time passes]  Google doesn’t know what a ‘process question’ is either!  But apparently, whatever it is, it makes the rogue elephant go all crazy.