Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin managed to make news again Feb. 1, when she called for President Barack Obama to fire his Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, on her Facebook.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Emanuel told liberal activists last August they were “f***ing retarded” for planning to air attack ads against conservative Democrats opposed to health care reform.

For Palin, Emanuel’s poor choice of words is an attack on people with disabilities, and no different than using a racial slur.

“Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the ‘n-word’ … Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities … is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking,” Palin said.

It’s understandable that Palin would take such remarks personally as her youngest child, Trig, was born with Down Syndrome – though according to Levi Johnston, father of Palin’s grandchild, Palin allegedly joked about her son’s Down Syndrome, calling him “retarded baby.”

Photo Courtesy MCT

In a letter to Emanuel, dated Jan. 26, from Special Olympics Chair Timothy Shriver, son of Special Olympics Founder Eunice Kenney Shriver, he said that his organization is trying “to change the conversation and uproot the stereotypes and stigmas carried by what we refer to as the ‘r-word.’”

Palin accused the White House of indecency, saying she wants her child “to grow up in a country free from mindless prejudice and discrimination, free from gratuitous insults of people who are ostensibly smart enough to know better… Have you no sense of decency, sir?’”

According to Politico, the National Down Syndrome Society has condemned the remark, and Emanuel has met and apologized to Shriver.

A White House official told Politico, “The White House remains committed to addressing the concerns and needs of Americans living with disabilities and recognizes that derogatory remarks demean us all.”

Last March, President Obama joked on the Tonight Show that his bad bowling skills were, “like the Special Olympics.” President Obama later called Shriver from Air Force One to apologize.

Neither President Obama nor the White House gave an explanation to that remark.

While Palin is trying to rally her bootstrappin’ troops, along with the blow horn of AM radio, to oust Emanuel and accuse democrats of being insensitive and indecent, let us briefly look at a few downright appalling things said by those in her party in the last decade.

“There’s Adam Clymer – major league a**hole from the New York Times,” said then presidential candidate George W. Bush, who made civility a major issue in the campaign, to his running mate Dick Cheney, at a 2000 Labor Day campaign rally in Naperville, Ill.

“The NEA (National Education Association) is a terrorist organization,” said Bush Education Secretary Rod Paige Speaking at the National Governors Association, on Feb. 23, 2004, equating educators with Al Qaeda stating

Poor staffing choices must run in the family. “But I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose. You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down,” said The elder Bush’s “Drug Czar” Bill Bennett said elegantly on his radio show on Sept. 29, 2005.

“I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals … We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders,” said Senator Michele Bachmann, when she spoke at an EdWatch National Education Conference on Nov. 6, 2004.

Feb. 3, Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show, “Our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards,” and going on to say Emanuel’s meeting on Feb. 2 with advocates for the mentally handicapped was a “retard summit at the White House.”

“Governor Palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful,” said Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton, in a statement following Limbaugh’s use of the “r-word.”

While it’s curious Palin did note Limbaugh’s use of the word, this hardly lacks the passion Palin had for Emanuel. For one thing, aside from not mentioning Limbaugh specifically by name in the statement, there was no call to action by Palin for Limbaugh, who is extraordinary influential in the GOP camp, to step down.

So we ask, will Palin and her supporters publicly denounce those in their party who have said such offensive things in the name of children, “to grow up in a country free from mindless prejudice and discrimination?”