As read in The Nation -- John McCain has a problem.
His running-mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, is the subject of a legitimate bipartisan inquiry into charges that she abused her authority to fire a respected lawman who would not do her personal bidding.
The charges are so serious that they could lead to her impeachment and removal as governor -- a development that would not reflect well on the Republican presidential candidate's decision to try and put Palin in line for the presidency.
What's a McCain to do?
On the eve of the first and only vice presidential debate, McCain has authorized a smear campaign designed to foster the fantasy that the inquiry into Palin's alleged wrongdoing is just partisan politics.
The campaign is based on lies, lies about the people involved in the inquiry and about Palin's relationship to it.
Those lies are contained in a new advertisement from the McCain campaign titled, "Alaska's Political Circus."
Here's the script:
ANNCR: In Alaska. The circus has come to town.
When Gov. Sarah Palin dismissed Walter Monegan over insubordination regarding his budget, blogger conspiracy theories started to fly and an investigation ensued.
Meet Sen. Hollis French. An Obama supporter.
He moved the investigation deadline to the middle of the presidential campaign, saying it could lead to an October surprise.
Meet Sen. Kim Elton. An Obama donor who continues to ignore the calls of his own committee members to reconsider whether the investigation is legitimate.
And then there's Steve Branchflower. Appointed as a QUOTE independent investigator by Elton. Branchflower and French were recently exposed for colluding on the issuing of subpoenas.
So why are they even investigating Gov. Palin? Conspiracy theorists say it's because Monegan was dismissed because he wouldn't fire Trooper Michael Wooten.
Even after Wooten was cited for tasering his 10-year-old stepson.
Secrecy, collusion, and October surprises. It's nothing more than a three-ring circus emceed by Obama partisans.
What the McCain campaign ad fails to note is that the inquiry into Palin's activities was initiated by Alaska Republicans.
It has been supported all along by Alaska Republicans.
The investigation continue to this day because Alaska Republicans believe the allegations against Palin are serious enough to warrant the expenditure of $100,000 to organize the investigation, the hiring of an independent prosecutor to conduct it and the abuse they have experienced from the McCain campaign to pursue it.
Let's be clear about the facts:
Palin did not say she fired Monegan, a former Anchorage police chief who served as state Public Safety Commissioner and who has been hailed by the state's most conservative commentators as the state's top lawman, for "insubordination." That word only came into the discussion after the McCain campaign flew a former Bush-Cheney administration federal prosecutor from New York to Anchorage with instructions to derail the investigation.
Republicans, not Democrats, and certainly not Obama backers, control the Alaska legislature.
It was a former Republican legislator and statewide candidate, Andrew Halcro, who began pressing for the investigation.
It was Alaska's Republican-controlled Legislative Council that authorized the investigation and appointed Hollis French to manage it. French did not move the deadline to conflict with the election campaign, he actually moved it away from the election so that the report on Palin's wrongdoing would not be released on the eve of the November 4 national vote. He did that to try and avoid partisan conflicts.
It was Alaska's Republican-controlled Legislative Council that approved the hiring of Steve Branchflower, a universally respected retired prosecutor who has no partisan affiliation.
It was Alaska's Republican-controlled Legislative Council that authorized continuation of the inquiry after the McCain campaign flew a noted Bush-Cheney administration fixer -- a veteran of the Florida recount fight -- into the state to try and prevent completion of an investigation that McCain aides feared would expose Palin as an abusive and irresponsible official.
It was a Republican-controlled state Senate Judiciary Committee that began issuing subpoenas in the case.
It was a Republican governor who welcomed the legislative inquiry and promised full cooperation with Hollis Smith, Steve Branchflower and everyone else involved with the investigation.
Her name was Sarah Palin and she said, "Hold me accountable."
It appears now that she was lying.
Palin's lie, while distressing, cannot compare with those contained in the McCain campaign's latest ad.
The ad is a shameful, big-lie assault on the truth.
And it is authorized by John McCain, a man who once claimed to practice "straight talk."
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