As if you needed further evidence that John McCain didn't bother to vet Sarah Palin carefully: McCain's vetters never even spoke to the man at the center of "Troopergate", the former commissioner of public safety whom Palin fired.
No one from the McCain campaign ever contacted him to vet Palin as a candidate, [Walt] Monegan said.
Who did they contact? "We don't talk about the vetting process," said Maria Comella, Palin's vice president campaign press secretary.
Vetting "process"? I think "vetting chaos" would be a better term. It looks like McCain's vetting of "Troopergate" may have begun in earnest only on Saturday. Yes, Saturday, the day after McCain announced his VP choice - at least according to Celtic Diva's source in Alaska.
A very reliable source overheard Republican spokesperson McHugh Pierre state TODAY [i.e. Friday] that he had spoken to the McCain Campaign. They are coming to Alaska tomorrow to check out the "Troopergate" investigation.
McHugh Pierre is an ally of Frank Murkowski so it's possible that he doesn't have the best of intentions toward Palin in this matter. But from what I understand, Pierre's comment was not intended for public dissemination. Certainly the Anchorage Daily News' report quoted above implies that, if McCain vetted "Troopergate" at all, it was done sloppily and with no sense of urgency to get at the truth.
And now the McCain campaign is trying to blame this long running scandal on...you guessed it, Barack Obama. From the ADN report:
"The Governor did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide," the McCain/Palin campaign said in a statement, blaming the issue on the campaign of the Democratic nominee, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. "It’s outrageous that the Obama campaign is trying to attack her over a family issue. As a reformer and a leader on ethics reform, she has been happy to help out in the investigation of this matter, because she was never directly involved."
This is so silly, where to begin? Is McCain saying that Palin would not be willing to help in an investigation of something she is directly involved with?
And how is abuse of power a "family issue"? Is it just second nature for all Republicans to treat elective office as if its powers and perks belong to the family, sort of like an inheritence? Or is McCain actually admitting that Palin's husband was involved in pressuring Monegan to fire their ex-brother-in-law? It's no secret that Todd Palin wields power aggressively in the Governor's office.
In this profile of Sarah Palin's early career I said that she appears to have a temperament much like Dick Cheney's, especially as regards her readiness to abuse power the moment she gets it. By trying to shift the blame for the scandal to Obama, McCain is starting already to make excuses for her malicious behavior. Yet another sign that a McCain victory would mean a third term of Bush/Cheney.
For what it's worth, I suspect what the McCain campaign was really trying to suggest is that Sarah Palin is off limits to criticism because she's a mother. It's an extension of McCain's attempt to inoculate himself against legitimate criticism by crying "POW". From now on, it'll be a double Teflon Shield for the Republican ticket: POW + MOM.
crossposted from unbossed.com
