Nothing Fey About This

Tina Fey isn’t the only dark-haired actress-comedian Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has a bone to pick with. She’s angry now at Ashley Judd for appearing in a Defenders of Wildlife advertisement lambasting Alaska’s “predator control” policies for the states wolves. Wolves can be shot from the air and a bounty, reputedly instituted by Palin herself, is attached to any wolf foreleg brought to a state game official. Judd’s Defenders ad says it’s time to stop Palin before more killing takes place. Palin has launched a counter-attack, labelling Defenders an “extremist” group (it’s generally acknowledged to be pretty mainstream, if not even a tad center-right in its political outlook) that’s distorting “Alaska’s positive record of managing wildlife for abundance” and seeking donations in hard economic times. Read Palin’s statement and check out Defenders’ powerful ad in a Politico story. One element in the piece is factually incorrect. Politico reports that a previous Defenders ad about Palin and Alaska’s wolf control policies, run during last year’s U.S. presidential campaign, got little attention. The opposite was true: apparently it was among the most successful of the “issue” ads. It’s encouraging to see an intersection of animal rights and the environment as a potentially potent “wedge” in U.S. national politics — even as Alaska’s aerial hunt proceeds, pace Palin’s terming Defenders’ ad “reprehensible.”