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Re: Hypocritically Hating Sarah, the new leftist pastime

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/02/uselections2008.republicans20085
New revelations about the Republican
vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin -
including her membership of a party that
wants Alaskans to vote on becoming a
separate country -

are raising questions about how
thoroughly John McCain's campaign
vetted her background before
adding her to the ticket.

Palin was a member of the
Alaskan Independence party (AIP)
before becoming an elected Republican official,
and recorded a video message for the AIP
convention this year.

The party's chief goal is securing
Alaska a vote on seceding from the US,
a goal that AIP leaders believe the
state was denied before it became
part of the US almost 50 years ago.

Yet it is the AIP's motto,
"Alaska First, Alaska Always",
that may cause the most trouble for McCain.

The Republican's campaign slogan
this year is "Country First".

At the convention where Palin's video was played,
the AIP vice-chairman, George Clark,
told the audience that she was an AIP
member before getting her first political
post as mayor of the small town of
Wasilla, Alaska.

"But you get along to go along -
she eventually joined the Republican
party,

where she had all kinds of
problems with their ethics,
and well, I won't go into that," Clark said.

"She also had about an 80% approval rating,
and is pretty well sympathetic to her former
membership."

Palin suggested in a July interview with
CNBC news that she would insist on making
Alaskan issues a high priority before
agreeing to serve as a vice-presidential
candidate.

"We want to make sure that that
VP slot would be a fruitful
type of position,

especially for Alaskans,
and for the things we're
trying to accomplish up
here for the rest of the US,
before I can even start
addressing that question," she said.

Intense media scrutiny of Palin
since she became McCain's running
mate four days ago has led to
speculation that the Republican
party failed to fully examine
her background.

In addition to the pregnancy of
Palin's 17-year-old unmarried
daughter, Bristol,

several other disclosures threaten
to throw the McCain camp into turmoil.

Palin has promoted her independence
from Alaska's powerful senior senator,
Ted Stevens, who is facing seven
criminal charges in Washington.

But she served for two years as a
director for one of his political
groups that was able to raise
unlimited money from corporate
patrons.

Palin faced pressure to
resign as mayor of Wasilla
in 1997 after she fired the
city police chief for not fully
supporting her agenda,
leading to a lawsuit for breach of contract.

In Alaska, Palin faces an ethics
investigation into whether she
abused her office by firing the
public safety commissioner,

who refused to intervene in a messy
divorce case involving her sister.

Palin has hired an attorney
to help her handle the case,
leading to another round of
embarrassing press coverage.

McCain's spokesman, Tucker Eskew,
defended the selection:

"This legal defence is neither new
nor uncommon nor at all political.

It is a matter of her job and is not
recent and it is not related to her
selection on the McCain-Palin ticket."

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