A good article from the American Lawyer on how/why McCain's legal team f'd this one up: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202424226724 Palin Disclosures Raise Questions About Lawyers' Vetting ProcessBrian Baxter The American Lawyer September 3, 2008 Printer-friendly Email this Article Reprints & Permissions The revelations on Monday that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and that Palin's husband, Todd, was once arrested for drunk driving, are raising questions about how thoroughly Sen. John McCain's lawyers -- led by O'Melveny & Myers Chairman Arthur "A.B." Culvahouse Jr. --vetted the current Alaska governor. But several Washington, D.C., lawyers contacted by The Am Law Daily say that McCain didn't do Culvahouse any favors by giving his team a tight time frame in which to conduct such a complicated process. "Google and LexisNexis searches make these things a lot easier than they used to be," says one Beltway lawyer, who appraised vice presidential picks in past elections. "But you would think they would have gone through all the clips surrounding [Palin], and they would have gone out and interviewed people, particularly in the Alaska Legislature, which it sounds like they might not have done." Another D.C. lawyer at a prominent Am Law 100 firm -- all individuals contacted for this story requested and received anonymity in return for information on the vetting process -- says McCain's attorneys may have felt they needed less time to vet Palin because of her relatively small legislative record. Moreover, only friendly sources might have been interviewed. "When you're vetting someone and trying to keep it confidential, you go to the public sources and people that are close to the candidate, not to those that are hostile to that candidate," the lawyer says. "You're not going to be able to keep [a nominee's identity] confidential if you're talking to hostile individuals." Both lawyers say that an ideal length of time to conduct a legal vet -- most candidates go through a political vet as well on important policy issues -- is several weeks to a month. Several firms can often be involved in the process since lawyers serving political campaigns often do so on their own time, sources say. A vetting team for an individual candidate usually consists of between six to 10 lawyers, with court documents and tax returns usually being examined first, and then confidential interviews conducted with key individuals (such as family members or colleagues) that go beyond the public record. Lawyers familiar with the vetting process who spoke to The Am Law Daily say that usually the FBI does not conduct an inquiry into a vice presidential candidate. Typically, this only occurs with a formal appointment to a federal government position, such as a judgeship or cabinet position. O'Melveny itself is a veteran of the vetting process. Current O'Melveny senior partner Warren Christopher, who chaired the firm for 10 years prior to becoming Secretary of State in 1993, helped then-Gov. Bill Clinton find his future running mate, Al Gore. The firm confirmed in March that Culvahouse was consulting with McCain on the GOP's vice presidential candidate. (Christopher, who later represented Gore during the 2000 Florida recount, declined to comment; Culvahouse had not responded to a request for comment at press time.) A spokesperson for Palin told the Los Angeles Times that Culvahouse spent three to four hours interviewing the Alaska governor, who also completed a 40-page questionnaire submitted by lawyers for the McCain campaign. The Times says that in the interview with Culvahouse, "Palin disclosed her daughter's pregnancy and her husband's DUI," and that McCain aides also combed through her credit history, financial records, speeches and court records, and various news accounts of the VP candidate. But Monday's news still came as a surprise to many, a no-no since the last thing vetting lawyers want to do is "miss the big one" before it gets into the hands of the news media. "How do you miss this stuff?" one lawyer with a few vetting notches on his belt asks. "Ask Bob Kimmitt, the deputy secretary of the Treasury and a Vietnam veteran, how he forgot to ask Dan Quayle what he did during the war! These things happen." (Quayle's service in the Indiana Army National Guard during the Vietnam War became a major issue during George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign.)
Apparently Palin didn't reveal her soon to be grandchild until the day before she was selected as VP. She also didn't meet Mccain face to face until the day before she was announced. According to the latest washington post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090203462.html?hpid=topnews
The fact that you have to keep putting it in capital letters indicates that you're the one who is lying, like you have before here.
Maybe your reading comprehension skills are off a tad, here is what the article is about: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday. Palin was one of two finalists in the vice presidential sweepstakes who were interviewed last week by former White House counsel Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., just days before McCain introduced her to the nation as his choice. The other finalist was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. One of the officials said Culvahouse was chasing down last-minute information about Pawlenty at the request of the campaign as late as last Thursday, the day McCain offered the job to Palin and she accepted. The new details of the selection process provide a fuller picture of how and when McCain made his decision. Despite the late interview of the little-known Palin, senior McCain advisers said Tuesday night that she was chosen only after a lengthy and deliberative process that included the same background investigation given to others on McCain's shortlist and considerable debate among the candidate's inner circle about all his choices. McCain did not speak face to face with Palin until Thursday morning, at his retreat in Sedona, Ariz. He also talked to her by telephone the previous Sunday. McCain had spoken with all of the others on his shortlist over the course of a selection process that went on for several months, but he was least familiar personally with the person he finally chose. (THIS IS NOT ABOUT WHEN THEY MET, BUT THE SELECTION OF THE VP AND VETTING) Palin flew to Arizona last Wednesday and met with senior McCain advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter that night in Flagstaff. What had not been known previously was that she had met earlier the same day with Culvahouse. McCain advisers said they had gathered extensive information about Palin before that meeting, including details of an ongoing investigation in Alaska involving her firing of the state's public safety commissioner. Details of her life and her record as governor that have since emerged in media accounts were discovered during that process, they said. Palin, along with other finalists, completed a lengthy questionnaire that probed many personal issues. Campaign officials declined Tuesday to respond to questions about whether she had returned the questionnaire to the vetting team before she arrived in Arizona, saying they would not provide details of the timing of the process. McCain officials said that questionnaire and the personal interview revealed three new facts previously unknown to the team: Palin's daughter's pregnancy, the arrest of her husband two decades ago for driving while intoxicated, and a fine Palin paid for fishing without proper identification. "We made a political determination that the American people would not object to a female candidate with a 17-year-old daughter who was pregnant," Schmidt said Tuesday. "We believed that parents all over America would understand that life happens. The team made a recommendation to the senator that these issues were not disqualifying." Schmidt also said the campaign had made a decision much earlier not to announce McCain's running mate until the day after the Democratic convention ended. He said McCain's team had long planned to use all the time available to weigh the choice. He dismissed questions that the campaign had made a hasty or ill-informed decision in the selection. "Throughout this deliberative process of selecting a vice president, John McCain's political advisers each argued pro and con positions to the senator about each of the finalists for his consideration," he said. "The senator had an opportunity to reflect on all the pro arguments for each nominee and all of the con arguments for each nominee." The search process started in the spring. McCain's vetting team was given a list of 20 names and Culvahouse's group prepared lengthy background books on each candidate, based primarily on a search of public records. Ultimately, the list of 20 was pared to six serious finalists, then to two, and finally to Palin. According to several campaign sources, Palin was on the list from the start. In addition to Palin and Pawlenty, the four other finalists are believed to have been Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut; former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge; former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney; and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. All six were subjected to a lengthy background investigation that included a review of tax returns dating back seven years, a credit check, and a 70-item questionnaire that addressed nannies and household employees, infidelity, payment for sex, treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, and other personally intrusive subjects. Last weekend, two campaign officials told The Washington Post that the background investigation of the finalists included an FBI check of any possible ongoing criminal investigations. That information was incorrect. A knowledgeable official said Tuesday that the vetting team had hoped to run such a check but that FBI officials declined to do so because that type of inquiry is reserved for people nominated for senior administration jobs. The official also said the FBI was uncomfortable providing the information to a political campaign, rather than to government officials. One U.S. law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the FBI does not conduct any kind of background checks or criminal history searches on behalf of political candidates or parties. Culvahouse's personal interviews of the prospective vice presidential candidates included other questions as well. Among them: If the CIA were to report that Osama bin Laden had been identified in the frontiers of northern Pakistan, but that an attempt to kill him would result in civilian casualties, would the person authorize such an action? If Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean announced that he was holding a news conference with a mystery person to reveal damaging information about the candidate, who would they most fear it would be? Palin's firing of Walt Monegan, Alaska's public safety commissioner, after he refused to fire a state trooper who had been married to her sister, and a probe surrounding that action, has become one of the key questions about her background. The vetting team turned up relevant information during the review of public records, but at Culvahouse's direction, they investigated the matter at length. The matter was also part of the three-hour interview Culvahouse conducted with Palin. "We spent a lot of time on the Monegan thing," said one McCain official. "So that was one that was absolutely no surprise." Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, said the trooper allegations were made in a "highly charged political environment" in which Palin has battled with fellow Republicans for years. He said a full inquiry will back up Palin's complaints about what he called "heinous acts" by the trooper. A bipartisan panel of the Alaska legislature is investigating whether Palin tried to pressure the commissioner -- and eventually removed him from office -- for failing to fire her former brother-in-law from the state police force. Palin denies the allegation, saying she had merely alerted officials of concerns about her former brother-in-law, who was going through a bitter divorce with her sister. Palin said she witnessed dangerous behavior from him that prompted her to act. Lawmakers are trying to determine whether her subsequent decision to fire the commissioner was the result of his unwillingness to remove the trooper from his job. Through the course of the process of picking a vice president, McCain met with his political team about half a dozen times for extensive discussions and debate. That group included Davis, Schmidt, Salter and senior adviser Charlie Black. McCain's wife, Cindy, also played an influential role, aides said. One lengthy meeting was held in Aspen, Colo., in mid-August. But the final stages did not occur until last week as the self-imposed deadline loomed. Aides had said earlier that Palin was invited to meet McCain in Arizona only after she appeared to be a likely choice, barring something unforeseen in her interview with the candidate. But what they had not said was that Culvahouse had not yet conducted his interview until that time as well. "From the beginning, Senator McCain knew he had until Thursday to make a final decision," Schmidt said. "The process was anything but rushed and hurried." But another official said the "process almost by definition is going to be back-end-loaded." "We expected the last two weeks after Senator Obama made his selection to be pretty frantic," the official said. Staff writers Michael D. Shear in St. Paul and Dan Eggen in Washington contributed to this report. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- An entirely credible article. McCain was wreckless in his pick and pandered to the Religious right, which should be marginalized if he wants true reform. DD
I never thought I would see DaDakota completely and utterly own somebody on the BBS with an argument backed by well-marshalled facts and substance. ....looks like I overestimated basso.
More self-pwnage by the Republicans, looks like Ricky Davis (who knew McCain was picking a lousy backup SG for his campaign...another lapse in judgment) was busted saying something MATERIALLY FALSE, from the atlantic http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/palin_and_the_fbi_background_c.php Palin And The FBI Background Check -- Updated 01 Sep 2008 01:52 pm The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not participate in the vetting of Gov. Sarah Palin and did not conduct a background check as part of the process, an FBI spokesman said today. The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing an interview with campaign manager Rick Davis, that the vetting process "included reviews of financial and other personal data, an FBI background check and considerable discussion among the handful of McCain advisers nvolved in the deliberations. "In general, we do not do vetting for political campaigns except as it might regard investigations needed for security clearances," said John Miller, the chief FBI spokesperson. The FBI did not participate in a vet, nor did it run a background check of Gov. Palin as part of the process. Palin might already have a clearance that relates to her duties as governor. But the FBI can't speak to that, and in any event, those investigations wouldn't be accessible to the McCain campaign anyway
well, to be fair Dak you do tend to base most of your arguments on gut feelings and what you think is the right way to do things. You rarely use documentation to prove you are right. and helluva nice job ya did this time.
I think I get a bum rap about that from some people because most of the time it is about basketball, which is pretty much a matter of opinion anyway. You can look at the same situation and get totally different opinions, which is pretty much all they are, and some of mine are not all that popular, like me thinking JVG was a bad fit, or thinking V-Span could have developed into a nice player....all opinion......and in the matter of V-Span...HIGHLY unpopular.....LOL.... This election is too danged important for anyone in this country to go to sleep on, it is our chance to redeem our standing in the world and get confidence back in our own country and government....and take it back from the right wingnuts that have gone too far, IMO. And it must have killed Sammy to even give that much of a compliment to me....ROFLMAO... DD
What's not true about it - we already busted McCain's campaign spokesman in a lie about the FBI background check, which never happened. You're in a pretty untenable position here. YOu're saying McCain KNEW about all these possible eruptions and didn't care? or even bother to have a response until a few days later? As somebody else said, that even makes them sound worse. Also how do you reconcile Palin's "fully vetted" -ness and then dispatching a team to Alaska to dig for dirt last Thursday? That's been confirmed by the McCain campaign. The evidence is piling up against you - can you address any of it? Do you just HATE HATE HATE democrats so much that you really can't give one bit here? You look oh so silly here the last few days.
TTB Sam, or are you waiting to see how the speech turns out before you acknowledge your convictions? word to the wise: beware the barracuda.
