911review/mccain

election map - INTERACTIVE

Along with the winks and folksy "doggone" moments early in her debate with Joe Biden last week, Sarah Palin repeated her familiar claim to the title of "maverick," declaring that "as a governor and as a mayor," she's had a "track record of reform" and has now "joined a team of mavericks."

Despite the free fall that her polling numbers went into after her disastrous interviews with Katie Couric, that branding as a "reformer" has been resilient. Introduced skillfully before tens of millions during an intense surge of interest six weeks ago, it's been hammered home with repeated soundbites.

But the label doesn't hold up under close scrutiny. From the controversy that catapulted her to the governorship, to her ties to the indicted patriarch of Alaska's GOP, to the multilayered nexus of lobbyists and Big Oil interests around her, and, finally, to the Wasilla sports complex that capped her mayoral career, the myth of Sarah Palin, reformer, withers under inspection.

PALIN'S CLAIM to fame as an Alaska reformer--that she risked her career to expose the chairman of the state GOP--is revisionist. In fact, Palin supported the methane-drilling project that helped sink GOP boss Randy Ruedrich before she later decided she was against it--a mirror of her flip-flop on the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. And her reversal had more to do with seizing a political opportunity than following her conscience.

In 2003, Ruedrich, an oil executive known for his ability to raise industry contributions for the party, was appointed to the powerful Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC) by Governor Frank Murkowski at the same time as Palin, who had finished her second term as Wasilla mayor the year before. Murkowski had given Palin the plum position to compensate for overlooking her when he appointed his own daughter Lisa to the U.S. Senate seat he vacated when he was elected governor in 2002. Palin's near-win in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor earlier that year--losing to the first Alaskan of native ancestry ever elected to state office--had made her a statewide star. She had filmed commercials and stumped for Frank Murkowski that fall, so he owed her. But she rejected other top posts that he offered until she got the one she wanted--a position that allowed her to live at home and commute to Anchorage, rather than relocate to Juneau. She certainly also saw the commission appointment as a stepping-stone, and as late as October 2003, she told reporters that she was considering a race against Lisa Murkowski in the upcoming 2004 special senate election.

Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.

At a news conference this afternoon, offiicals said they believe that Ashley Todd's injuries were self-inflicted.

Todd, 20, of Texas, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police.

Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.

Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.

Authorities, however, declined to release the results of that test.

Investigators did say that they received photos from the ATM machine and "the photographs were verified as not being the victim making the transaction."

This afternoon, a Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story.

Todd told investigators that she didn't remember what happened.

Police say they do not believe any other people were involved; and her friends believed the story about the attack.

According to police, investigators working on the interview process detected several inconsistencies in Todd's story that differed from statements made in the original police report.

Pittsburgh Police Public Information Officer Diane Richard released a statement earlier today, saying: "Because of the inconsistencies in her statements, Ms. Todd was asked to submit to a polygraph examination which she agreed to do."

No photos of Todd are being released by Pittsburgh Police at this time.

WASHINGTON - The federal government on Friday determined that a species of beluga whale native to an inlet off Anchorage, Alaska, is endangered and will require additional protection to survive.

The finding could even have presidential implications: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's running mate, had questioned scientific evidence that the population was declining.

The listing has the potential to affect major Alaska projects including an expansion of the Port of Anchorage, additional offshore oil and gas drilling, a proposed $600 million bridge connecting Anchorage to Palin's hometown of Wasilla and a massive coal mine 45 miles south of Anchorage.

From the page: "Based on the documented analysis I posted on my website finebergresearch.com [finebergresearch.com] ) Sept. 27, I feel compelled to oppose Governor Palinâ€s candidacy for national office. For case studies that call into question Governor Palinâ€s management of major oil and gas issues, please check out the facts and documents I have assembled and posted. My analysis identifies and documents:
• fundamental flaws and inconsistencies in the design of Governor Palinâ€s major oil and gas policy proposals;
• disappointing implementation failures;
• a strangely reclusive management style; and
• potential staff and consultant conflicts of interest within her administrative team that sully her image as a reformer.

The story line on my website is simple: The events I have documented and reported suggest that problems I first dismissed as anomalies in 2007 turned out, in fact, to be harbingers of dubious policy outcomes in 2008. In my estimation, Governor Palin is extremely adept at using public relations to mask problems that result from an apparent unwillingness or inability to roll up her sleeves and deal with the all-important nuts-and-bolts issues that are essential to good governance."

The prosecution just rested in the Ted Stevens trial, in which he is accused of accepting $250,000 worth of free renovations to his house from VECO, an oil pipeline company. VECO workers labored for months remodeling Stevens' home at the company's expense.

The Palin's two-story, four bedroom, four bath home on Lake Lucille is worth $552,000. "Todd Palin built the house with friends who were contractors, he said in a recent television interview.

From the page: "Back in the days of the Willie Horton ad and Jesse Helms' re-election campaigns, a healthy garnish of racial fear would almost guarantee an election victory for the offending party. Flash some dark flesh in an ad, allude to white girls put in jeopardy by the colored menace and you could pretty much start measuring curtains for the executive mansion.

However, the demographics have clearly shifted around, though the Republican Party seems nearly blind -- and tone deaf -- to the fact.

Conservatives got too complacent playing bait-your-way-to-victory and failed to notice that in 2008 it's minority voters who may very well decide the outcome of this presidential election. The same minorities that conservatives have been handing a slap to the back of the head at nearly every opportunity. From not-so-subtle euphemisms to open slurring, how much is conservative race-baiting going to cost the Republicans?"