For those who don’t know – lucky you – “Trig Troofers” are people who believe that former Governor Sarah Palin did not actually give birth to her son Trig Palin; they instead believe that the child is Bristol Palin’s, despite the fact that Ms. Palin herself had a child at about the same time*.  This has thus become a particularly bizarre conspiracy theory, on the level of the ‘we faked the Apollo moon landing:’ it will elevate (or descend) to the level of 9/11 conspiracy theorizing once the Online Left figures out how Sarah Palin’s uterus relates to the International Zionist Conspiracy.

I mention all of this because I wanted to make it clear that people who believe this nonsense are crazy.  And apparently some of them are riddled through the ranks of the leading liberal magazine The American Prospect.  Which means that there are people at TAP who are crazy.

The Daily Caller has released the contents of a Journolist thread involving Sarah Palin’s uterus that took place between August 30th and September 1st, 2008.  Now, let me be clear: most people involved in that particular thread thought that believing this nonsense was crazy – and even many of the ones who didn’t still thought that such a discussion was beyond the pale, for a variety of reasons.  We will let those people pass on by, with only a cheerful suggestion that they never, ever take a Trig Troofer seriously in public again if they wish to avoid being raked over the coals for their silence to date.  I think that’s fair: don’t you?

But then there are the crazy people.

Mark Schmitt
Aug 30, 2008, 3:11pm

It’s not a matter of being judgmental — it’s that to believe the official story requires believing that she would do something extremely unlikely, probably irresponsible (one could give birth in an airplane or at SEA-TAC, but shouldn’t create a situation where there’s a good chance of that happening) and that would contradict most medical advice.

I presume that this is the Mark Schmitt who is the Executive Editor of The American Prospect?

Paul Waldman
Aug 30, 2008, 4:04pm

If the date on this photo from the Anchorage Daily News web site is correct, she is absolutely, positively, not seven months pregnant. Some of the pictures are doubtful, but this could barely be clearer:

http://www.adn.com/2008/03/09/v-gallery/339576/baby-news-strikes-a-chord-030908.html

I assume that this is the Paul Waldman who is a Senior Correspondent of The American Prospect?

Dylan Matthews
Aug 30, 2008, 11:42pm

That’s exactly it, Katha. Her conduct on the plane – leaving a city, Dallas, with some of the best natal care anywhere for Wasilla, flying after her water breaks, staying in labor for an eight hour flight when her delivery, by virtue of her age and the baby’s Down’s, will be incredibly dangerous and need intensive care – is so grossly
irresponsible that it suggests that the baby couldn’t possibly be hers.

I understand the impulse to dismiss this as non-news. But assuming the baby is Sarah Palin’s, her conduct was the equivalent of punching herself in the stomach. It’s gross, gross negligence. I still remember when a family friend delivered her baby, knowing from the amnio that it had Down’s, and the surgeries went on for days. The baby was declared dead, revived, etc., etc. It’s a horrendous process. It was hard enough for her at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the best hospital in NE north of Boston, but doing that in Wasilla? Doing it in Wasilla when she very well could have stayed in Dallas? That offends me. That sort of thing warrants a social services call.

So I’m inclined to believe that the girl’s the daughter’s, because Palin is an absolutely wretched parent otherwise. Believing it’s the daughter is probably the most flattering possible angle here.

I assume that this is the Dylan Matthews who is a writer for The American Prospect?

So, I guess the question now is: do Schmitt, Waldman, and Matthews still believe this nonsense?  If they do, are there others at The American Prospect who share their beliefs?  If they do not, could they possibly announce just when they stopped believing in what is the most self-evidently absurd American conspiracy of the last ten years?

Moe Lane

*This fact infuriates a large number on the Left, as it utterly failed to trigger any sort of firestorm of condemnation and anger among social conservatives.  The netroots hate it when their prejudices are demonstrated to be unjustified.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.