For years of 'pubic service,' years of being the butt of jokes

"Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas ..."

I don't know where the expression comes from, but I certainly know what it means. If Sarah Palin, aka Snowbilly T. Grifter, ever comes anywhere near Georgia, I'll spend the day in Alabama.

Snowbilly T. Grifter

Everyone who comes into contact with her ends up suffering for it. The latest victim appears to be Richard W. Postma Jr., who is apparently both black and a former judge in Alaska. He is suing several people, although none of them are named Palin, for ridicule he received from the time the former governor appointed him to a judgeship.

The problem was that in the letter officially appointing him in 2007, Palin thanked Postma for his "pubic service."

Now I'm certainly not saying a governor in any state types his or her own correspondence. I'm not blaming the mistake on Palin, but I do think when you have what is certainly a short, sweet letter intended to be special to the person who receives it, you ought at least to glance at it.

Think of it this way:

If you were told that a governor of a state had signed a letter in 2007 with this mistake in it, would there be any doubt your first thought would be that it must be Palin?

The problem is that the mistake ruined the job for Postma from the get-go. He claims that people began hazing him over the mistake, some of them saying he earned his appointment "by performing oral sex on former Governor Palin."

Others were apparently a little more imaginative. They went on "to suggest Postma was actually the biological father of Trig."

The "Pubic Enemy No. 1" sign was apparently also put together by hazers.

In 2010, Postma even lost his job. The commission that makes recommendations on such things suggested that he not be reappointed (apparently the stress was affecting him a lot) and later that year, voters removed him from office.

He returned to practicing law, but he says he is having trouble getting fair hearings for his clients. In addition, he says, the Alaska Bar Association tried to take away his license to practice law.

If I wanted to be flip about it -- OK, more flip -- I would say that the biggest surprise in this story to me is that there are black people in Alaska. Actually, though, according to the 2010 census, 3.6 percent of the state's population is listed as Black.

I do feel sorry for the guy. Really I do, but my guess is he probably overreacted when the hazing first started, which is of course the worst thing you can do. Seems to me a couple of "contempt of court" citations would have crimped their style.

And when the oral-sex-on-Snowbilly jokes started, just saying, "Hey, guys, I kiss my mother with that mouth" might have helped a lot.

As for Trig, that's just taking a dumb joke too far.

Leave the kid out of it.

But once again, you lay down with Sarah, you get up with fleas.

Alabama is just an hour away.