The media/Hollywood tar & feathering… er… vetting of Sarah Palin

It’s been amazing to see a media shunned… since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the McCain veep, the unofficial 4th branch of power has been in overdrive for their own personal “vetting”. And evidently, they are so insulted that they were not included in the campaign vetting, they’ve swarmed Wasilla like locusts, concentrating on just about anything *but* Palin’s political record.

So here’s a roundup of the desperation, twists and turns, and tales of just what the media there is up to. And this doesn’t even include the antics of Obama’s team of lawyers, researchers and investigators.

By Sept 3rd, Wasilla Mayor, Dianne Keller, and her staff was so swamped with requests… hindering the daily business of keeping Wasilla functional… that she called a press conference at Wasilla’s Iditapark to lay out some ground rules.

The rules? If you want to ask questions about Palin, file requests in advance, 10-minute interviews, mornings only. Any records requests require a form filed with the city clerk. And no long-distance phone calls will be returned.

“We are a small city with a small staff and our residents and business community expect us to fill their needs as well as the needs of the media,” Keller said.

~~~

Requests for actual records have to be submitted in writing and the city has 10 days to respond, but Smithers said her office had filled 17 of the 18 requests received by 3 p.m.

Even then, the reporters were on the case… asking about the book burning rumors. Keller told him to “file a request”.

By the next day, the requests were up to 25-30 a day. The city officials compiled city’s legislation and council minutes during Palin’s tenures as a councilwoman and mayor, burning them to CD’s and creating a special page on the city’s website to ease the workload.

Evidently documents on Palin’s performance as a city administrator were not what they wanted. They were more interested in probing for stories from childhood to Trooper’gate. With everyone searching for a new angle, and the same pool of residents who were willing to trust and cooperate with the media, the zoo was increasing… and the rumors along with it.

By the end of Sept 4th, the desperation for dirt was becoming readily apparent:

Andrew Sullivan labeled Wasilla the “meth capital of the world”, citing an increase from 9 labs in 2003 (Palin was mayor 1996-2004) to 42 last year (2007).

Richard Best, Palmer City Councilman, wrote an opinion piece for The Frontiersman telling the locals how the NYT’s was calling his wife to get the skinny on a car accident between the Councilman and Bristol Palin. He let ’em have it in no uncertain terms in the op-ed.

If “journalists” really want answers, then ask the right question. If Obama really wants to be the “leader of change,” then ask him “why he does not demand and then produce all his papers that are being held out of the public’s eye.” This information includes his involvement with a Bill Ayers, an admitted terrorist against the United States of America, and his Tony Rezko issues.

I challenge everybody including “journalists” to dig deep into Obama’s past with the same fervor that they have with the past of a 17-year-old daughter of the Republican VP pick.

It was explained to this reporter that he indeed had his facts wrong.

I believe she IS the working-class lunch-pail folk that cling to our guns and our religion and it IS here across the Heart Lands of American that Obama will find his defeat that he has been so eagerly seeking!

By the 6th, even the Politico reports the Alaskans are pretty fed up with the hoards of media pond scum, searching for everything *besides* Palin’s record as an elected officials.

The National Enquirer was doing their digging on the divorce of Scott and Deborah Richter in order to suggest an affair between Scott and Sarah Palin.

The liberal blogosphere was abuzz Friday with news that a friend of Sarah and Todd Palin had tried to seal his divorce records.

Surely, the Netroots speculated, that friend must be the unnamed business partner whom this week’s edition of the National Enquirer alleges — without proof so far — was romantically linked to Palin. The McCain campaign’s characterization of the story as a “vicious lie” seemed to only fuel more speculation.

And then the moment of truth, as the motion to seal was denied.

The filings, housed in a district courthouse in this town about eight miles east of the Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, contained a lot of hot news — presuming, that is, you’re interested in the child-custody agreement reached by Scott Richter and his ex-wife Deborah Richter, or in the former couple’s holdings, which include a recreational property that Scott owns with Sarah and Todd Palin.

Then of course, was the next angle… Palin cheated as a beauty queen to win runner up… huh?

Mitchell said the Daily News received a call from a media outlet seeking the rules of the Miss Wasilla Pageant, presumably to determine whether Palin cheated when she won it in 1984.

The quest for scandal really started getting to the locals, with one very perky lady suggesting that their politeness to the lower 48ers in their midst might be running thin…

Stopped outside Wasilla’s post office on a blustery afternoon this week, Cynthia Shoemaker said “people in Alaska want to give the national media a mouthful” for scrutinizing Palin’s background. “She answers to God, not reporters,” Shoemaker said

Amen, Cynthia. Go ahead, tell ’em what you feel… the rest of us would not only applaud you all, we’d be jealous as hell at the opportunity.

Remember, by this time, city official records were at the reporter fingertips. Since we weren’t deluged with performance deficiencies, one can only assume they found nothing there to use for sheeeet to throw at the fan.

So the same day, and on a completely different tact, Phoenix’s KTAR gets downright huffy on McCain’s vetting of Palin, pointing out none of the locals were contacted for their input on the possible veep.

Such include those names we are now familiar with today… like outgoing Senate leader (not rerunning… low poll numbers) and no-Palin-fan, Lyda Green (who’s long running political feud with Palin culminated in thwarting Palin from visiting Track’s boot camp grad ceremony). Green is also the liberal symbol of sympathy when Palin laughed at a radio host who went off on Green and her corruption while on air.

Then, of course, they suggest they should have talked to GOP chairman Randy Ruedrich… a man who, after being exposed by then fellow Oil and Gas Commissions member, Sarah Palin, ended up resigning, confessing and being fined. Later, as GOP chair, Palin tried to get him ousted as part of sanitizing the corruption of the party, which was under scrutiny by the feds as well.

Absolutely… of course these are two stellar contacts for the McCain campaign to use while vetting Palin… no bad blood and bias there, right? What bozos these reporters are.

Here’s more on what Palin was put thru for campaign vetting…

The subject is now closed, said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.

“Gov. Palin was fully vetted as previously described and we are no longer commenting on the vetting process,” Bounds said Friday. “She was selected, is qualified and is ready to serve.”

Attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. led the review and told The Associated Press earlier this week that Palin underwent a “full and complete” examination.

~~~

Culvahouse said Palin’s review, like others, began with two dozen people sifting through information from public sources: speeches, financial records, tax information, litigation, investigations, ethical charges, marriages and divorces.

For Palin, the team studied online archives of the state’s largest newspapers, including the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin answered a personal data questionnaire with 70 “very intrusive” questions, Culvahouse said, and was asked to submit years of tax returns. Culvahouse conducted a lengthy interview.

“They obviously felt like they did enough research and were comfortable,” Harris said.

The media… or the DNC, for that matter… having the chutzpah to dictate to the McCain campaign vetting criteria and standards, strikes me as petty, vindictive (for being left out of the info loop, of course), and above all, hypocritical. Did anyone delve into the DNC vetting of Obama? Did the party leadership call personal friends (Rev. Jeremiah Wright) and fellow community organizers buds (like William Ayers)? Did they bother to try and check into Obama’s experience on education, like the Chicago Annenberg Challenge?

Were it not for a few conservative journalists like Hannity, Wright and the black theology teachings that form Obama’s mindset would never have come to light. Were it not for intrepid citizens like Steve Diamond, the records of the CAC and relationship between Obama and William Ayers would be swept under the rug… all after a year and a half of 24/7, all-Obama-all-the-time media coverage.

A few days later… and the now infamous email by Anne Kilkenny – one of those Wasilla residents who’s not a Palin fan – creates a media firestorm of excitement. Breathlessly, a liberal blogger proclaims she’s a “real person”.

Yet even the very left PolitiFact from the St. Petersburg Times says the budget numbers are right, but the context missing on Kilkenny’s final budget analysis.

Factually, Kilkenny’s claims about the budget are true. But the conclusions that Kilkenny reaches are a matter of debate.

Current Mayor Diane M. Keller, who served on the City Council when Palin was mayor, said just presenting those raw figures is misleading.

Yes, she said, Wasilla’s budgets increased and tax receipts went up under Palin’s reign, but much of that was due to the growth of the city during those six years.

Yes, she said, the sales tax rate went from 2 percent to 2.5 percent under Palin, but that was approved via voter referendum, with the extra proceeds earmarked specifically to pay off that sports complex. CBS News reported that the referendum on the sports complex passed by just 20 votes.

Due to the economic growth in the community, Keller said, Wasilla is going to be able to stop charging that extra .5 percent sales tax two years earlier than anticipated.

The property tax rate was reduced under Palin from 2 mills to .5 mills (it was later eliminated under Keller).

Voters also okayed the bond issue to pay for road improvements, Keller noted.

“The people in our community wanted road improvements,” Keller said. “The taxpayers voted on it. Same thing with the sports complex. It’s up to us to do what the people are asking for.”

The U.S. Census does not provide yearly population estimates before 2000, but Wasilla’s population grew by about 13 percent in the last two years of Palin’s mayorship alone. It stands to reason that a town’s budget will grow as the population rises.

And if voters okayed the bond issues for the sports complex and road projects, as well as for the sales tax increase, we think it’s a little misleading to pin them entirely on the mayor, even if she did lobby for them. But Kilkenny’s numbers are mostly accurate, so we rule her statements about Wasilla’s finances under Palin Mostly True.

From the St. Pete Times, that’s high praise…

Catching on that reporters are just digging for sensationalist dirt, Palin’s Wasilla church members are keeping a tight lip. Wise decision when one considers what lands on the edit bay floor…

With the slime and mud getting traction only in the desperate leftist blogs, the Seattle Times decides to cast doubt on Palin’s mayoral term by highlighting her rookie year as turbulent. Too bad they have to admit at the end of the story that her popularity was cemented, and reelection was the reward.

When you add to that, the population and economic growth Wasilla enjoyed… allowed mostly by those dreaded “scandal” federal “earmarks” for septic improvement and other comprehensive city plan needs… Palin’s career as mayor can be deemed far more successful than, say, Detroit’s mayor? That would be, of course, the same man who Obama described as a “great mayor”.

Oooops…. then again, that may explain why Obama has such little regard for the skills of a mayor… he does tend to choose strange role models.

Apparently, too impatient to wait for the Personnel Board’s investigation of Trooper’gate (the legal way to deal with ethics complaints again the Admin branch in Alaska), or even too y’ancy to wait for the legislative witch hunt, Robert Thorson emulates Andrew Sullivan’s angle…. lashing out at Wasilla itself as a holdover “angry” town because they weren’t picked as the state capital.

And of course, no one hates to be upstaged more than Hollywood. So Larry Johnson over at No Quarter has a complete report of the Hollywood’ites lining up to bash Sarah…

Larry’s piece is quite the read, covering everything from Michael Seitzman’s sexual fantasy of the “ignorant” Sarah, to the opinions of that great brain power, Pamela Anderson. It’s rich with links and excerpts, including Whoopi’s suggestion that McCain’s trying to enslave her, and Matt Damon likening it to a nightmare Disney movie.

All in all, “news” of Palin has been a’whirl of mud, lies and scandal that morphs and piles on daily. Yessum… the tar and feathering of Sarah Palin is in full force, and being conducted by an unashamed media and progressive liberal faithful following.

If it weren’t so sad to see the 4th branch descend into an abyss from which they can never return, it’d be downright funny.