The Mudflats has a barn-burner story on Sarah Palin's presidential plans, Joe Miller's diss of Sarah Palin's candidacy, and a major rift in the Clampett clan Palin royal court.
[I]nternal emails obtained by The Mudflats provide the most conclusive evidence to date that Palin will be running for president, and also indicate a behind-the-scenes rift between the Palins and an Alaskan candidate that they have both publicly endorsed.
An irate email written by Todd Palin seems to confirm his wife’s presidential ambition, and revealed his anger at Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller. The email demands that the treasurer of SarahPAC, Tim Crawford, "hold off on any letter of support for Joe," and came on the heels of an interview Miller gave to Neil Cavuto on Fox News Sunday.
Here's that interview.
Miller replied to Cavuto's question about whether Palin was qualified to be president by saying there are "a number of great candidates out there." The Palins reacted to the slight by the most drastic means possible--not going on Facebook on Miller's behalf. Seriously.
[The interview] roused the ire of Todd Palin who launched an angry email blasting Miller on behalf of his wife. Palin sent the email on the morning of the Cavuto interview to Tim Crawford, Joe Miller and the Palins’ personal attorney, Thomas Van Flein (who also serves as Miller’s attorney.) In the email, Todd Palin instructs SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford to "Hold off on any letter for Joe. Sarah put her ass on the line for Joe and yet he can’t answer a simple question "is Sarah Palin Qualified to be President". I DON’T KNOW IF SHE IS."
....
In the email Todd Palin went on to ask, "Joe, please explain how this endorsement stuff works, is it to be completely one sided." The specific use of the word "endorsement" and the Palins’ anger at the endorsement being "one-sided" appears to be strong evidence that the Palins were, in fact, not only expecting a quid pro quo endorsement from Miller for a yet-to-be-announced Palin presidential run, but were furious that they didn’t get it.
The email continues "Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book post for Joe, she won’t use it, not now. Put yourself in her shoe’s Joe for one day." Though the exact contents of the Facebook post and the previously mentioned letter are not clear, it is obvious that the Palins did not, at the time of the email, intend to put any more political muscle behind Miller’s candidacy, and were specifically withholding support they had intended to give in retribution for Miller’s failure to support Palin’s presidential aspirations.
And Palin hasn't used her vaunted Facebook power on behalf of Miller since. You can read the e-mails here [pdf]. So it's a battle of the teabaggers, but what's unclear so far is who will keep the hearts and minds of the Alaskan fringe now that the rift is public. Couldn't happen between two more deserving political charlatans.
(There's more in AnnetteK's diary.)
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