How a Daily Kos diarist pushed Sarah Palin’s ties to the Alaskan Independence Party into the national spotlight
How a Kos diarist helped spark McCain-Palin infighting
At a quarter-past the hour, Daily Kos diarist Liz Arnett posted a diary featuring several videos tying Sarah Palin to the Alaskan Independence Party, a pro-secession fringe group in Alaska. The diary rocketed up the rec. list and a few hours later, georgia10 followed up with a front page post summarizing the questions raised by Palin’s apparent connections.
Later that day, the story was picked up by reporters at ABC, The Atlantic, and TPM. They fleshed out some of the important details: it was Todd, not Sarah, who was actually a member of the party, they found, but Sarah had addressed the AIP and members of the AIP felt Sarah was sympathetic to their pro-secession cause.
Flash-forward six weeks, and Salon published a detailed article by Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert showing the tight connections between the Palins and the secessionists, attracting CNN’s interest.
That it was Todd, and not Sarah, who’d been a member of the party does seem to be an important detail.