Sarah Palin appears almost stunned that the Associated Press got a pre-release copy of her book and fact-checked it.

“We’ve heard 11 writers are engaged in this opposition research, er, ‘fact checking’ research!” Palin continued. “Imagine that – 11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to “fact check” what’s going on with Sheik Mohammed’s trial, Pelosi’s health care takeover costs, Hassan’s associations, etc.”

To which, The Hill’s Michael O’Brien responds dryly, “The Associated Press employs roughly 4,100 journalists around the globe.”

This is entirely reminiscent of the campaign, when Sarah Palin introduced herself to America with the line about her saying, “Thanks, but no thanks, on that Bridge to Nowhere.” Then, as now, she and the McCain team seemed completely unprepared for the fact that that claim was going to be debunked roughly eight minutes after it was uttered. Palin had actively pursued the money for the Bridge to Nowhere until it became clear that she wasn’t going to get the money because it had turned into a national symbol of wasteful pork-barrel spending. She wanted to tie herself to McCain’s image as a crusader against government profligacy. But Alaska is more dependent on profligate federal appropriations than any other state in the union. It’s main representatives in DC, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, had both compromised themselves through their corrupt efforts to bring home the bacon. Palin had been elected, in part, as a reaction to this kind of ossified corruption, but she still behaved as any representative of Alaska would behave. She had her hand out. If she wanted to point out how she had made some baby steps at reform, that would have been acceptable. But she decided to introduce herself to the nation by telling an enormous whopper that was debunked as fast as it could be googled. And, worse, she insisted on repeating the lie at appearance after appearance, even after it had been thoroughly debunked.

A story from August 10th, 2008, before most people had ever heard of Governor Sarah Palin, shows just how full of shit her image as a crusader against taxes and socialism is.

Republicans in Congress this June united to defeat a proposed windfall tax on oil companies, deriding it as a bad idea that would discourage investment in U.S. oil exploration.

Things worked out far differently in the GOP stronghold of Alaska, a state whose economic fate is closely tied to the oil industry.

Over the opposition of oil companies, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska’s Legislature last year approved a major increase in taxes on the oil industry — a step that has generated stunning new wealth for the state as oil prices soared.

Now, that was a progressive reform. Not only did Palin buck the national party’s position on taxing Big Oil, she turned around and handed that money out to the citizens of her state.

Democrat Barack Obama supports a national windfall-profits tax, while Republican John McCain opposes it.

Alaska collected an estimated $6 billion from the new tax during the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. That helped push the state’s total oil revenue — from new and existing taxes, as well as royalties — to more than $10 billion, double the amount received last year.

While many other states are confronting big budget deficits because of the troubled economy, Alaska officials are in the enviable position of exploring new ways to spend the state’s multibillion-dollar budget surplus.

Some of that new cash will end up in the wallets of Alaska’s residents.

Palin’s administration last week gained legislative approval for a special $1,200 payment to every Alaskan to help cope with gas prices, which are among the highest in the country.

That check will come on top of the annual dividend of about $2,000 that each resident could receive this year from an oil-wealth savings account.

Imagine this as federal policy. Imagine every citizen of this country getting an annual check for $3,200 from the federal government. Imagine all of that money coming from royalties and taxes on Big Oil. That’s what Governor Palin did in Alaska. She was the biggest and certainly the most effective socialist leader in the country. She could have introduced herself to America honestly by saying that she stood for massive socialist subsides paid for through windfall taxes on Big Oil. But that didn’t fit in with McCain’s platform, so we were told that she was a huge opponent of pork barrel spending and an anti-socialist crusader.

Her entire story is a gigantic lie. Why should we expect her book to be any different?