Posted by Jed Lewison on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 12:48 AM Pacific

Sarah Palin's John Birch Society Moment

In the wake of the revelation that in 1995 Sarah Palin's reading materials included a copy of the John Birch Society Magazine, it seems to me that the media and intellectually honest conservatives should take another look at her ties with the pro-secessionist and Bircher sympathetic Alaskan Independence Party (AIP).

Even though Sarah Palin was not an AIP member, her husband Todd was a registered member from 1995-2002. Moreover, in 2000 Sarah Palin attended an AIP convention, and in 2006 and 2008 Palin recorded a video greeting for the AIP convention. Until it became a major campaign issue, members of the AIP said they had seen both Palins at party meetings in the mid-1990s.

This campaign isn't about Sarah Palin, but given the likelihood that she will become president if John McCain were to win this election, the media, the conservative establishment, and the McCain campaign must each come to grips with the mounting evidence pointing towards Sarah Palin's support for Alaskan secession.

If, as seems likely to be the case, Sarah Palin was ever a secessionist or was sympathetic to secessionists then John McCain, who has spent nearly his entire life working for the Federal government, must dump her from his ticket.