A Mole???

Good morning happy campers, welcome back from Labor Day! We're going to ignore the entire BabyGate issue this morning, although I have my own opinions on the matter, and they're quite cynical. Of perhaps more importance is a new question regarding the loyalty of John McCain's new Veep, who it appears was not vetted at all (the FBI has now stated they never did a background check on her, even though such a check is always pro-forma for any potential Veep, and the McCain campaign angrily asserted yesterday that the FBI had vetted her. It turns out that was a lie, but we're quickly getting used to those coming from the McCain campaign).

News has broken that S. Palin has decade-long ties to the Alaska Independence Party, whose platform is to seize Federal lands in Alaska and secede the state from the United States. It would be easy to get over-hyped and paranoid about this weird story, so we're just going to do a brief recitation of the facts, as they have so far come to light. Let's role the videotape-

-The Alaskan Independence Party was formed in the 1970s. It's motto is "Alaska First - Alaska Always". They claim that the 1958 vote admitting Alaska as a state was illegal, because it did not give Alaska residents the choice of becoming independent. Their goal is to force a new vote on statehood, with the option of becoming an independent nation. They also seek "the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska".

-S. Palin and her husband joined the AIP 1994, and were active in the party, attending at least one convention, until she left it to become a Republican and run for mayor of Wasila in 1996.

-S. Palin remains close to the party. This summer she addressed the party's annual convention via video, telling them- "I share your party's vision of upholding the constitution of our great state" and told members to "keep up the good work".

-In a video shown at the same convention this summer, Dexter Clark, the party's vice chairman, told the party members "The situation is completely out of hand, the decay of the federal government is totally complete" and urges members to "infiltrate" the mainstream parties. "Whichever party in that area [in which you are] you can get something done, get into that political party," he says.

So there we are- S. Palin maintains close ties to a party seeking the independence of Alaska and seizure of Federal lands there, whose Vice Chairman has stated the goal of infiltrating members into mainstream political parties. So, I just gotta ask- Has John McCain unwittingly selected a mole to be Vice President?

Huh.