TPM Editor’s Blog

Beware Post-Dated Resignations?

Let me start by saying I don’t think this is likely. But given our experience with Larry Craig, I do think it’s worth considering. Remember, former Sen. Larry Craig came out and announced he was resigning his office. But folks who listened closely noticed that he only announced his ‘intent to resign’. And later he decided that his ‘intent’ had changed and he wouldn’t resign after all. He ended up serving right through the last day of his term in January 2009.

Now, Palin’s situation is different in as much as Craig was under great pressure to resign and the ‘intend to’ workaround ended up just buying him time. Palin did this totally out of the blue. But given the thundering derision that has greeted her decision and exposure as a quitter of gargantuan proportions, is it possible she’ll reconsider? After all, if she’s resigning, why doesn’t she just resign? Why wait until the end of July?

Again, I don’t think it’s likely. And I can’t fathom a scenario in which it was planned all along. But remember we’re dealing with a deeply erratic and probably mentally unstable person who does lots of completely whacked things at the drop of a hat. So it’s hard to figure that three weeks isn’t plenty of time for her to reconsider. It might even be enough time for her to un-resign and decide to re-resign all over again in time for the deadline.

Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall is editor and publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com.

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