Legal Commentary

Tuesday Night Republican Convention Thread

By Jeralyn

I'm watching a Pledge of Allegiance video being narrated by a Republican teenager with a wonderful speaking voice.

Then I read this, about Sarah Palin and the Alaska Independence Party, with which she was affiliated (although not a member) for many years. The party founder, Joe Vogel, in 1991 said:

"But you get to thinking. Why the hell do I owe them anything? And then you get mad. And you say the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska, that's how I do--I'm an Alaskan see. And they know it. I've told them so-- to go to hell every way I can and then I sway. I took a case to the Supreme Court believing in the Supreme Court. And I'd rather be tried in a wh*rehouse with a madame as a judge--there's more justice! And if they don't like it they know where they can go.

I tried it. I believed in my country. I believed in the court system and it stinks. . . .

[More...]

The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. And I won't be buried under their damn flag. I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."

The audio is located at the Oral History Program in the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. You can listen here.

TPM has more on the Alaska Independence Party and Sarah Palin's reaching out to it.

Three years after the controversial interview, in 1994, Palin attended the group's annual convention, according to [a] witness who spoke to ABC News' Jake Tapper. The McCain campaign is disputing her presence there, but Tapper found two people to attest to it.

....The McCain campaign has confirmed she visited the group's 2000 convention, and she addressed its convention this year, as an incumbent governor whose oath of office includes upholding the Constitution of the United States.

Palin's husband, Todd Palin, was a member of the party from 1995-2002 with a brief exception in 2000.

Vogel is still featured on the party's website. The AIP is the third largest party in Alaska. While the McCain camp denies she attended the 1994 convention, Palin has not responded to calls to confirm or deny the witness' account.

So, Palin has always been a registered Republican and not a member of the AIP but she reached out for their support, attended and spoke at one or more of its conventions.

I can only imagine the response had this come out about a Democratic candidate.

This thread is about tonight's Republican convention.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 02, 2008 (boomark / email).