Alaskan Bloggers Uncover A Vast Write-Wing Conspiracy

Well, chalk up a new high (or is it a new low?) in the level of vitriol and sheer frivolous silliness on the Alaskan Palin-bashing blogs. Virtually all of them, including Shannyn Moore, "Doctor Phil" Munger, Celtic Diva, the Mudflats - even Andrew Halcro - are linking to/echoing a claim by a French Trig Truth blog; the essence of the attack is that, because Governor Palin apparently signed thank-you notes to people who donated to help her with legal bills, she therefore must have been involved with the management of the Alaska Fund Trust.

How petty can you get? Wait, what am I saying? These are people who have gone after her on everything from her hair to her toenails - literally - and everything in between, including the logo on her jacket, the length of her skirts, and her childbearing decisions.

But attacking someone, and assuming evil intent, for writing thank-you notes in return for a good deed? Come on.

Halcro's piece sums up the essence of the meme they would like to create - essentially they're attempting to say that the Fund Trustee, Kristan Cole, is a corrupt liar. In order to do so, they misrepresent what she stated at her press conference, and then add in irrelevancies like thank-you notes and the fact that SarahPAC has mentioned the fund in the past.

Halcro:

As soon as the story broke, Palin's fund, the Alaska Fund Trust responded by saying the report was wrong because the governor was as never (sic) informed about the trust.

[...]

But yet today Cole is trying to sell the press that the governor didn't have a clue about the fund she granted permission for Cole to launch?

Halcro can't even present his allegation honestly - he fabricates his argument out of whole cloth, putting words in Ms. Cole's mouth that she never said. Let's look at Kristan Cole's press release:

I want to be clear on a point that has been misrepresented: The Governor is not and was not involved with the Trust. The Governor has never worked on or with the Trust. The Governor has not even accepted or requested one penny from the Trust or quite frankly anything of me. And I have never expected anything from her. Really it’s quite the contrary; as I, and many other caring folks across the country have only sought to help with this legal burden.

NOBODY has ever said the Governor was unaware of the Trust, or that her PAC and political advisers were unaware of it. In fact, that would be a pretty stupid thing to suggest, since the fund was given wide publicity at the time of its creation.

Others, like Mudflats, have tried to make hay out of out the fact that the fund was mentioned by SarahPAC spokespeople and on the SarahPAC website. So what? If you think back to the circumstances at the time of the fund's creation, that notification was probably necessary to protect Palin's political supporters.

When news came out of the huge legal bills placed on Governor Palin due to frivolous complaints, people were clamoring to help out. A Texas man named Clayton Paslay created a fund to solicit donations; however, the fund didn't meet legal guidelines. Now, Mr. Paslay seemed an honorable and sincere guy, but what was there to stop some scam artists from setting up a "Palin Defense Fund" and raising money in the Governor's name? As the organization representing the personal and political sides of Palin's persona (as opposed to the government side), it was perfectly appropriate to direct those people who wanted to contribute to the Alaska Fund Trust, as it is a known, trustworthy, Alaska-based organization with strict guidelines.

The bottom line: Governor Palin did not manage, operate, create or direct this Trust. Just because she's aware of it, or is appreciative of the efforts made on her behalf, doesn't mean she used her position as Governor to benefit personally. And this whole argument proceeds from a dumb assumption - i.e., that's there something wrong with having a legal defense fund to begin with.

I'm mystified by the need these folks feel to personally attack Kristan Cole. Shannyn Moore calls her a "spokesmodel". Mudflats skirts the edge of calling her out-and-out corrupt. And Professional Annoying Weenie Andrew Halcro, who's always up for some woman-bashing, essentially says she's a liar. I won't go through the rest of the pile-on but, looking through comments at all these sites, you even get attacks on her family.

By all accounts, Kristan Cole is a decent, respectable and trustworthy woman. She's a wife and mother and a small business owner. She overcame adversity in her life to achieve success. She takes time away from her family and business to serve on state boards, and is so completely non-corrupt that she refuses to accept travel and per diem expenses that she's entitled to. And, as many of us did, she apparently felt a desire to offer support to Sarah Palin in the face of a wave of politically-motivated attacks. We understand completely. It was the same motivation we had when we organized our own webathon to raise funds for her legal defense.

But apparently she's not entitled to any respectful treatment; she's forfeited that for the crime of being a friend of Sarah Palin.

The people writing these things make me ill, and I've actually been friendly with a lot of them in the past. I guess they're sacrificing everything in one last push before they become irrelevant. After all, who besides Dan Fagan is going to care about Andrew Halcro when Palin has left the Alaskan stage?