Palin chides Clinton over protest

The only joint appearance of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin any time soon will apparently by their comedic alter egos in a "Saturday Night Live" skit.

When Clinton found out that Palin also planned to attend, Clinton pulled out of a protest being organized by several Jewish groups outside the United Nations on Sept. 22 against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Palin's spokeswoman this morning issued a statement hitting Clinton for her decision.

"Governor Palin believes that the danger of a nuclear Iran is greater than party or politics. She hopes that all parties can rally together in opposition to this grave threat," said Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for Palin.

Clinton aides were furious at organizers, saying they first learned from reporters that both Clinton and Palin were scheduled to appear, the Associated Press is reporting.

"Her attendance was news to us, and this was never billed to us as a partisan political event," Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines told the AP. "Senator Clinton will therefore not be attending."

A meeting would have been awkward, to say the least, bringing into the media spotlight the woman who nearly won the Democratic nomination and the woman now courting Clinton's loyalists.

Palin reportedly plans to meet foreign heads of state at the UN. Amid questions about her lack of foreign policy experience, she acknowledged last week that she has never met one.

John McCain's campaign weighed in as well. “Earlier this week Governor Palin accepted an invitation to join Hillary Clinton in speaking to a nonpartisan rally organized by groups dedicated to halting Iran's nuclear program. Senator Clinton has since withdrawn from the engagement, presumably at the behest of the Obama campaign, and according to news reports Senator Obama's campaign may be leaning on organizers to disinvite Governor Palin as well lest the rally appear partisan," spokesman Michael Goldfarb said in a statement.

"This issue is too important to fall victim to partisan politics. Instead of pressuring Senator Clinton to withdraw and pressuring the event's organizers to disinvite Governor Palin, we hope Senator Obama will consider lending his own voice to this cause."

The National Jewish Democratic Council called late today for Palin's invitation to be lifted as well.

"Monday's protest against Ahmadinejad is too important to be tainted by partisanship," Marc R. Stanley, the council's chairman, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the campaign of Senator John McCain is much more interested in scoring political points than insuring there is bipartisan solidarity around the anti- Ahmadinejad efforts.

"Therefore, we call upon the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations to withdraw the invitation to Governor Sarah Palin and we applaud Senator Hillary Clinton's decision to not attend the rally after the attendance of Palin was announced."

UPDATE: The National Coalition to Stop Iran Now, which is organizing the rally, issued this statement tonight:

"This rally represents the broadest possible spectrum of Americans, unified in our concern that nuclear weapons in Iran’s hands threaten not only the entire Middle East, but the whole western world. We have and continue to reach out to the highest levels of both major political parties, as well as to our elected officials at federal, state and local levels, religious leaders of all faiths, and to civic leaders in our communities to participate. We are determined that together with tens of thousands of people of every faith and race we achieve the goal of a united message that Iran must be stopped now."