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Chris Graham: Bring out the Truth Squad, indeed

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Column by Chris Graham
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Those of us who dare to raise questions about Sarah Palin’s public record are officially on the enemies list now.

“We’re proud of Gov. Palin’s leadership in Alaska and record of taking on entrenched special interests and the good old boys network,” said former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift, a member of the Palin Truth Squad, which according to a McCain-Palin campaign press statement “will set the record straight against Internet and liberal smears of Gov. Palin.

“Gov. Palin’s commitment to reform is well-known, but there are those who would seek to distort that record with vile rumors and smears against her, her husband, her children and her friends,” Swift said. “We will not allow those on the left and in the media to smear a woman who has always served her constituents with honor. We know the truth and are committed to ensuring it as well,” Swift said.

Three members of the Truth Squad represent Virginia – Congresswoman Thelma Drake, Lori Ann Miller, the chair of the Young Republican Federation of Virginia, and former Virginia First Lady Susan Allen.

My guess is that it isn’t part of the job description to do things like correct the record on items like the McCain-Palin campaign’s repeated insistence that she told Congress “thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere that she supported during her 2006 gubernatorial campaign before acting to block the construction of the bridge even as she took steps to use the funds that had been committed through the federal earmark processs for other state projects. Even as that would be acting in a Truth Squad sort of way.

And I’m not going to waste a lot of time wondering if the Squad is going to commit its resources to clearing the air on the Nixonian approach that she has taken to the Troopergate investigation that her attorney is now trying to get out of the hands of the Alaska state legislature and into the hands of a state commission over which she holds the power of appointment.

No, the Squad will be focused on blowing up quotes and comments on blogs about Palin’s private family life and linking them to the Obama-Biden campaign whether or not the quotes and comments in question have anything to do with the Obama-Biden campaign – and since Barack Obama himself has forcefully said that he does not endorse the idea that matters involving private family affairs are at all fair game in a presidential campaign, the linkage would be tangential at best.

If you ask me, the McCain-Palin campaign quietly wants to place the public attention squarely on Palin’s family matters and not on Troopergate and Bridge to Nowhere-gate and the Spending Money Like a Drunken Sailor-gate that is to come when the national media picks up on just how out of control Palin’s Wasilla and Palin’s Alaska are on the government-spending side of life.

The more the public’s focus is on how downright mean some people are being to Sarah Palin, the less time we all have to ask the hard questions about how Sarah Palin is as a potential national leader.

Swift and others who are defending Palin as a fellow woman say they want us to judge Sarah Palin on those merits as if she were any other politician. I can’t agree more. Let’s delve into her record and see what we come up with in terms of positives and negatives.

That is what this Truth Squad wants. Right?

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