Matt Scully - "Palin’s speechwriter not a fan of hunting"

[Median Democrat]

Talk about irony! I wonder whether the MSM will catch this:

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/washington/entries/2008/09/03/palins_speechwr.html

/snip

Former longtime Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully is the man behind tonight’s convention speech by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, which is interesting in light of Scully’s moral opposition to hunting and Palin’s love of the activity.

The speech by the woman selected by John McCain as his running mate is viewed as crucial as she withstands withering scrutiny of everything about her. Among the things learned about Palin is her love of hunting.

“We hunt as much as we can, and I’m proud to say our freezer is full of wild game we harvested here in Alaska,” she recently told Newsweek.

Another report detailed the home where her parents “live amid hundreds of sets of trophy antlers and a taxidermy collection that includes a giant moose head and a full-grown mountain lion.”

* * *

Now, at some length, here are some excerpts from a 2002 book by Scully, a George W. Bush speechwriter in the White House for five years. The book is “Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy.” It is a condemnation of factory farming, trophy hunting and other activities involving animals.

On page 347, Scully challenges Roger Scruton, a hunting advocate:

“Like other sport hunters, too, Mr. Scruton carries his moral relativism a step further in his constant appeals to experience. To ‘understand’ hunting and the delights of the ‘substantial minority’ of people who enjoy it (five to seven percent) we must hunt, submerge ourselves in the raw, choiceless passion of it all. We, too, might then know that sense of ‘homecoming to our natural state.’”

“Of course, this is an argument equally available to enthusiasts of bull-fighting, cockfighting, bear-baiting, hare coursing, crush videos, or, for that, matter pornography in general. Since when do we have to indulge in vice before we may adjudge it as such?”

* * *

So far today, no response from Scully about how he reconciles his work for Palin and his feelings about hunting.

A political operative familiar with Scully offered this: “Yeah, there is a kind of delicious irony re Scully working for the moose hunter, eh?”

/snip

[katandmoon]

1. He must DESPISE her. Good!

[Mojambo]

2. I'm sure he's quite fond of the paycheck though. n/t

[Median Democrat]

3. So, with excerpts, what do you think of Scully's speech?

Too bad we don't see what Scully wrote about hunting. It would be interesting to see how much he could sell out.