Maybe John McCain never lived in one place long enough to understand about small town silences and small town grievances. Apparently his vetters didn't either, thinking it was enough to do an internet search, a questionnaire, and make a few calls when His Impetuosity decided to go with his gut.
Now we're about to learn a lot more about Sarah Barracuda — the stuff locals apparently knew but were too intimidated to talk about Outside, as the rest of the world is known to Alaskans.
A Wasillian sent a long email to friends shortly after midnight on September 1st. Today, I received it via a Colorado friend who claims to know the author.
By then, it had already gone viral. Though she asked, "please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there," someone posted it with her name attached in a comments thread yesterday at The Washington Independent. Andrew Sullivan posted about it midday.
So much for not posting it on any websites. I hope the kooks keep their distance.
The full account is worth a read. No doubt, you'll be hearing more as reporters start digging into the actual accomplishments of wundermayor.
For example, the Wasilla mayor's job was to function like a city manager, and it came with a $75,000 salary. But Palin was apparently pressed by party officials to hire an administrator with managerial skills.
Palin has not been straight about her support for the Bridge to Nowhere. She only backed off when it became clear it was a not going to happen. In fact, Palin the Reformer is painted quite differently here:
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined)
It also looks like, for a guy who is an oil worker, fisherman and snowmobile racer, Todd Palin had a lot of time to attend meetings with the governor where private citizens wouldn't normally be.
John McCain is shaking things up, all right.
