Palin's pastor problem?

It's starting to look like GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin may well have a pastor problem of her own. According to ABC Senior News Correspondent Jake Tapper:

Officials of Gov. Sarah Palin's former church, Wasilla Assembly of God, in Alaska, shut down part of their Web site Wednesday, stating that their server could not handle the higher-than-normal traffic.

The part of the Web site no longer functioning appears to be the section where the sermons of senior Pastor Ed Kalnins were available, including one from 2004 -- after Palin left the church -- where he suggested heaven wasn't necessarily in the cards for anyone who voted for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Also no longer available is the video of a speech Palin delivered in June at the graduation service for the church's School of Ministry.

But -- Palin's new church may be even more controversial:

Palin's current church has also undergone scrutiny.

The Politico's Ben Smith reported that Palin was present for an Aug. 17 sermon by David Brickner, an activist for the missionary group "Jews for Jesus," considered quite controversial among many American Jews. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith has criticized Brickner for "targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception."

Brickner in his sermon described terrorist attacks on Israelis as part of "an ongoing reflection of the fact that there is judgment" by God of those who have not accepted Jesus as their savior.

I don't normally do much first person writing from this blog, but I had some contact with a member of the group "Jews for Jesus" back in the 1980s.

My postal carrier would drop their flyers in my mailbox. Yes, I know that was a violation of federal law and should probably have got him a serious reprimand, but he was a nice guy, kind of a goofy ex-hippie looking guy (I thought he had a pony tail shoved up under his postal carrier cap but it just turned out to be a fringe of red hair surrounding a thinning pate) and I really didn't want to get him in trouble.

I guess he figured I was Jewish (sorry kids, I know this plays to stereotypes but it's probably on point here: I was pretty tanned in those days and have a, shall we say, prominent nose).

At any rate, my curiosity was piqued and one time when we were chatting I mentioned the flyers. He said, Oh yeah, that's a group I'm a member of. I thought you might be interested.

I said, Ah, well, I'm not Jewish, but I do find the idea of Jews converting to Christianity intriguing. And then, thinking about his red hair, I said something like, So, I guess your family was from northern Europe?

Uh yeah, he said. I'm Irish.

I said: Irish? Wow, I don't know if I've ever run into an Irish Jew before, except one of my mom's friends who converted to American Conservative Judaism. Interesting that you'd find yourself converting to Christianity.

He looked kind of sheepish.

Well, I'm not Jewish, he said.

Ah, I said. But there are a lot of Jews involved in your chapter of Jews for Jesus, I guess, hunh?

Uh, well, no, he said. Actually, there aren't any Jews in our chapter.


True story.





Technorati Profile

More signs McCain campaign blew Palin vetting

The McCain campaign has come under increasing fire for what many claim was a hasty, ill-researched, last-minute vice-presidential choice. A number of veteran Alaskan politicians -- both Democrat and Republican -- have expressed shock and outright skepticism about Palin's readiness to lead.

Now, it turns out that -- despite claims of background vetting that McCain campaign manager claimed -- falsely -- included an FBI background check (such a check would violate Bureau rules and federal law) -- the vetting process appears to have been haphazard and hurried.

According to Sam Stein, writing in the Huffington Post:

The McCain campaign has gone to great lengths to present the selection of Sarah Palin as one made after a careful, meticulous vetting process. But evidence continues to suggest that the Arizona Republican made his VP choice with surprising haste.

On Saturday, a Democrat tasked with opposition research contacted the Huffington Post with this piece of information: as of this weekend, the McCain campaign had not gone through old newspaper articles from the Valley Frontiersman, Palin's hometown newspaper.

The opposition researchers were dumbfounded:

"No one else had requested access before," said the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which means the McCain camp didn't."

The hometown paper, The Frontiersman, was withholding comment -- but the claims have since been confirmed by another source

If true, the failure of the Arizona Republican to access the newspaper clippings becomes another in a growing list of revelations that calls into question just how and why he made his decision to choose Palin. A rudimentary clip search, such as this, is presidential politics 101 as campaigns not only look for the majority of background information on any high-level appointee, but also try to prepare themselves from future attacks.

It has been previously reported that the McCain campaign did not contact Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, who Palin pushed to have fired after he refused to remove her sister's former husband from the state's police force. That controversy, an investigation of which will be made public in late October, could cause major headaches for Palin in the days leading up to the election.

A late update to the article concluded:

More evidence is emerging suggest a less-than-thorough vetting of Palin. Marc Ambinder reported on Monday that, contrary to prior claim, the McCain campaign did not conduct an FBI background check on the governor. Such a check would be against bureau policy. And as NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported, that Republican lawyers are just now (i.e. currently) doing a vet of Palin up in Alaska

Palin lies about 'Bridge to Nowhere' revealed

She said she said, "No thanks," to the fabled, near-quarter billion dollar earmark boondoggle.

But what she really said to the pork barrel bonanza was, bring it on.

From Reuters:

Last year, Palin announced she was stopping state work on the controversial project, earning her admirers from earmark critics and budget hawks from around the nation. The move also thrust her into the spotlight as a reform-minded newcomer.

The state, however, never gave back any of the money that was originally earmarked for the Gravina Island bridge, said Weinstein and Elerding.

In fact, the Palin administration has spent "tens of millions of dollars" in federal funds to start building a road on Gravina Island that is supposed to link up to the yet-to-be-built bridge, Weinstein said.

"She said 'thanks but no thanks,' but they kept the money," said Elerding about her applause line.

Former state House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican who represented the Kenai Peninsula city of Homer, is also critical about Palin's reversal on the bridge issue.

"You don't tell a group of Alaskans you support something and then go to someplace else and say you oppose it," said Phillips, who supported Palin's opponent, Democrat Tony Knowles, in the 2006 gubernatorial race.