Sarah Palin Isn't Mama Grizzly's Best Friend

(Nov. 22) -- Dogged Sarah Palin critic Andrew Sullivan recently unpacked the ex-Alaska governor's record on bears and found it doesn't mesh with the warmth she professes for them on her TLC reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska."

"As she coos over them on TLC and anthropomorphizes them for the Tea Party, she tends not to remind people that as governor, she backed a bill called the 'Active Management -- Airborne Shooting' that allowed for aerial shooting of the bears for the first time in Alaska's history," writes Sullivan on his blog for The Atlantic.

The bill, which died in the state Senate, was opposed by the group Alaska Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, which described what the legislation would do:

The plan calls for the killing of 900-1,400 black bears over a 3-5 year period. Any licensed resident hunter over the age of 16 can participate after obtaining a free control area permit. There is no limit on the amount of bears a hunter can take, and hunters can take any black bear, including a sow with cubs, or cubs. Up to four bait stations will be allowed, as well as same-day airborne land-and-shoot "hunting." It will also be legal to sell the tanned hide of a black bear taken in this control area.

Sullivan also links to an Audubon magazine article that concluded, "Sarah Palin's war on wolves and bears has been a disaster not just for Alaska but for the moose and caribou it is supposed to benefit."

Meanwhile, The Nation identified eight other things the self-professed nature lover has done to despoil nature, including backing oil and mining interests and opposing a clean water initiative to protect Bristol Bay (for which her daughter is named.)

"When you see her posing as an environmentalist and nature-lover, remember the truth," writes Sullivan. "In this as in almost everything, she is a liar and a phony."

Read more at Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish.

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