When Sarah Palin introduced herself to the nation last Friday in a speech in Dayton, Ohio, she highlighted a few items that the McCain campaign thought would help them weave a positive narrative. But it’s all coming apart. After Palin got down introducing her family, her first bullet item was that she is a crusader for reform.
I was then appointed ethics commissioner and chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and when I found corruption there, I fought it hard and I held the offenders to account. Along with fellow reformers in the great state of Alaska, as governor, I’ve stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the “good old boy” network.
Now, if there is a good old boy network in Alaska, the leader of that network is Sen. Ted Stevens who has been in the Senate since Christmas Eve of 1968. Ted Stevens is currently facing seven felony counts of corruption related to taking kickbacks from Big Oil companies. Therefore, it is a problem that Sarah Palin served as the director of Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.:
…a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.
That doesn’t sound like someone who has a record of standing up to the Good Old Boy network.
