Alaska Independence Party and the Palins: A Simmering Controversy

Against the better wishes of my fellow contributors, Warm Apple Pie will continue to push this fact-driven story: The Palins' ties to the Alaska Independence Party ("AIP") and the unwillingness of the mainstream media to explore the history of the relationship. There is a ton of unfinished meat on the bone.

Some say this is "out there" already and yesterday's news cycle. But I believe it is ripe for media plucking considering McCain-Palin's incessant push to link Obama to William Ayers.

And others are starting to agree (Colmes to the rescue? Colmes? Say it ain't so, Joe!):



From last evening's Hannity and Colmes. Around minute three, Colmes raises the parallel between the Ayers-Obama attack and the Palins' unchallenged AIP involvement. He notes how Democrats have decided not to play in this pigpen (lipsticked pigpen that is). Former Deputy Governor of Maryland, Republican Michael Steele, after two minutes of usual, overwrought shredding of Obama on his dubious connections (with the help of the always-willing Hannity), suddenly becomes very terse when confronted with AIP allegations, dismissing them as merely "irrelevant."

A simmering controversy, not a stale one. And it is starting to creep out of the blogosphere to the print media.

"Country First" Or "Alaska First," Sarah? Just Who Is Sarah Palin?

Where is Michelle Bachmann when you need her. There is anti-Americanism afoot!

It seems Sarah and Todd Palin were members of the Alaska Independence Party ("AIP"). Its slogan: "Alaska First. Alaska Always." Its platform: Secede from the United States of America and become a sovereign nation at all costs. In the words of its pioneering member, Joe Vogler: "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."

More startling, the AIP and Bill Ayers have much in common when it comes to approved tactics. From Talking Points Memo:

The AIP has been described as an extreme-right, anti-government organization comparable to militia movements such as that which carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City attack. The group's aims are voiced no more forcefully than by its founder, Joe Vogler, as CNN observes in direct quotations: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government...," Vogler states in one quotation, "...And I won't be buried under their damn flag." In another quotation, Vogler says: "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand." As though to leave no doubt in our minds regarding his willingness to use violence to achieve his secessionist aims, Vogler says in one final quote: "I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on trampling our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."

Sarah Palin sent the AIP a video greeting welcoming the party delegates to their 2008 convention in Fairbanks, Alaska. There's another clip floating around where the AIP Vice Chairman, sporting a burly, anti-establishment ZZ Top beard, refers to Sarah Palin as a former member of the AIP before she was mayor of Wasilla and is still "sympathetic to her former membership" (after minute six of the attached video). Reportedly, the Palins attended the 1994 AIP Convention in Wasilla, Alaska.

Now, I'm going to need some fact-checking from my fellow contributors, but if this is a verified news story, why doesn't this line of attack effectively end Palin's bid for Vice President and seal McCain's fate? And where is the mainstream media on this?

Not only did she "pal around with secessionist(s)" - here the plural form is warranted - but she married one? Is this not the epitome of Bachmann's Anti-Americanism or the GOP pundit class's "guilt by association?" Let's get some perspective using the besieged Barack Obama - if there was a clip of Senator Obama welcoming the Chicago chapter of Communist Party USA to the United Center on Madison Street, praising the importance of their movement, with the party's chairman affectionately referring to Obama as a former member, how fast would his double-digit cushion evaporate? Bill Ayers set off pipe bombs in government buildings. The AIP wants to lay claim to an entire state and sever it from the Union by any means necessary?

With each passing day, Sarah Palin's hoked-up rhetoric gets more and more deliciously hypocritical and proof-positive of her political meretriciousness.