Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The Palin selection destroyed one of the major selling points McCain and his campaign team sought to exploit, that of experience.  In that Obama chose as his running mate an experienced Washington veteran in Joseph Biden, the younger candidate was perceived as making a shrewder choice than had the long serving Capitol Hill insider from Arizona.

Realizing that he could not package Palin as an experienced political figure, McCain and his brain trust sought to present her as a "reformer" who had achieved results as a mayor of the small town of Wasilla in Alaska and subsequently as the state's governor after her election in 2006.

Now the McCain team has bungled badly again.  The marketing of any reformer's has been eviscerated in the same manner as McCain's initial experience argument prior to Palin's choice.

While proclaiming loud and often that politicization by the Obama campaign was responsible for Sarah Palin's refusal to cooperate in the investigation into her  firing of Commissioner of Public Safety Walter Monegan for an alleged refusal to dismiss her former brother in law Mike Wooten, who took control of the ongoing investigation and urged that Palin reverse her former position of cooperation?

Who further muddied the picture by urging that Palin's husband Tony, the state's self-designated "First Dude", refuse, along with Palin herself, to honor a subpoena and answer questions from the investigation team headed by Special Prosecutor Steve Branchflower?

While it is a conceded fact that Obama campaign operatives were in Alaska after Palin's selection by McCain, it is far from proven, and no credible allegation or allegations have been presented, that any of them had anything to do with the ongoing investigation into Palin's activities.  

It would be expected that opposition operatives would visit the state to learn about the new Republican vice-presidential nominee, particularly in view of her newness to the national scene and paucity of information about her as part of any national record.

An already deteriorating situation worsened significantly when Ed O'Callaghan, who had been prosecuting terrorist defendants with the U.S. attorney's office in New York, was flown to Alaska and delivered a ringing indictment accusing the Obama campaign along with Monegan for destroying the credibility of the investigation by politicization.

Since Palin had initially agreed to cooperate with an investigation that was launched after a unanimous 14-0 vote, how did this make Palin look?  O'Callaghan's media barrage in one CNN interview with a sharply accusatory vein looked like a scene from "The Sopranos" with a fast talking mob mouthpiece protecting a Mafia don.  

Does this activity by the McCain team and O'Callaghan do anymore than make the American public suspicious about Palin, her husband and their motives concerning Walter Monegan's dismissal?  The logical response is to ask:  What is she hiding?

Former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles in an interview last week on MSNBC noted that O'Callaghan with his reckless rhetoric had "defamed" a dedicated Alaskan who has spent his entire life in law enforcement in Walter Monegan.  It can be further noted that Special Prosecutor Steven Branchflower is held in similar esteem.

Monegan and Branchflower are both viewed as honest public servants and not as political partisans, such as O'Callaghan and other McCain operatives involved in the Palin investigation fireworks appear to be.  National media members currently in Alaska have noted that, since Palin at the behest of the McCain campaign began to stonewall, discontent has arisen within the ranks of Alaskans.

While the foregoing behavior is damaging enough, Palin has taken matters one step beyond.  In her last officially stated reason for firing Monegan, the governor explained that it was not because of the firing of Mike Wooten, but because of Monegan's seeking of expense money to fly to Washington on state business.

What she did not mention was the nature of the state business that concerned Monegan.  He was seeking to lobby Congress for additional funding to bolster law enforcement efforts in the realms of rape and overall female victimization by violence.

Come now, Sarah.  Was Monegan's effort not more meritorious of funding than your tanning bed and private chef at public expense?

Meanwhile the McCain "Straight Talk Express" has turned into a latter day version of the Marx Brothers at their zaniest.