MCMULLAN CO/SIPA; John W. Ferguson/Getty ImagesWe can see the animosity from our house!
Bristol Palin has wasted no time in taking up the family mantle of publicly calling out her haters (or in this case, alleged haters), and while Levi Johnston was the first object of her ire, Palin now appears to have put the entire McCain clan in her crosshairs.
In a new excerpt from her memoir, Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far, Palin openly discusses her relationship with Meghan and Cindy McCain, and, to put it mildly, there doesn't appear to be any love lost between these Republican rivals.
In the book, due out Friday but excerpted by ABC News, the 20-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin reveals details of her first meeting with the political family and said that John McCain's daughter "ignored us during the entire visit."
She added that she didn't get the warmest of fuzzy vibes from the 26-year-old and even "had a sneaking suspicion I might need to watch my back."
"Every time we saw Meghan, she seemed to be constantly checking us out, comparing my family to hers and complaining," she wrote. "Oh, the complaining."
While she wisely showed enough sense not to bring the senator into her political party in-fighting, Bristol didn't seem to have any better an opinion of Cindy. And didn't mind bringing her down into the fray.
"I'd never seen people with so much Louis Vuitton luggage, so many cell phones, and so many constant helpers to do hair and makeup," she wrote, going on to say that Cindy looked "like a queen" and carried "herself like royalty."
But Cindy's worst offense—at least in Bristol's eyes—was her unsolicited attempt to ingratiate herself into Palin's own fledgling family, in particular, calling out the time that Cindy offered to be godmother to Bristol's then-unborn son, Tripp.
"I had just met her and I wondered why she wanted any type of guardianship over my child."
Of course, none of that is as bad as the vitriol Bristol reserved for Levi Johnston, whom she called a "gnat," a serial cheater (who incidentally allegedly fathered a half-brother for Tripp while still with Bristol), claimed he "stole" her virginity while she was drunk on wine coolers, and told Bristol that their then-unborn child "better be a f--king boy."
And what with her being on a role and all, she also had some words to share with her Dancing With the Stars competitors.
"I noticed some of the contestants rolled their eyes when they realized we'd survived to dance another day," she said of her and partner Mark Ballas' third-place run. Some of the fellow stars, she said, "literally would not speak to us or acknowledge our presence."
So, what do the victims of her pot shots have to say for themselves? Well, for the most part they're refusing to take the bait and give Bristol any more publicity than she already has by engaging in a public war of words. Or maybe they just haven't read the book yet.
But one person has lashed back, and it shouldn't be surprising to know that that person is Meghan McCain.
According to Meghan, Bristol's fact checking abilities rival her mother's (in other words, are nonexistent) and she issued the classiest possible retort to the attack on her family.
"My response to Bristol Palin," she tweeted yesterday, providing her only response on the topic. The tweet linked to a behind-the-scenes YouTube video from the campaign trail in which Meghan was seen cozying up to "sweet, sweet" Piper Palin and giving her take on the VP nominee.
"I couldn't be more excited with this choice," she said. "It is my ideal ticket…She is everything I could possibly hope for in my father's running mate, I am beyond excited…I am so proud that this is my father's choice for vice president. I feel like my heart is going to explode with pride for her and him."
Of course, that's not to say that Meghan has always kept it quite so classy. Last fall, Meghan took a couple digs at the Palin clan while promoting her own book, Dirty, Sexy Politics, telling Jon Stewart that being the daughter who was sent to an image consultant while a pregnant teen is left alone "does a little bit to your self esteem."
We'd say that's one-all.