Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has retained counsel to represent her in an legislative investigation into whether she abused her power in Troopergate.

Anchorage attorney Thomas V. Van Flein has requested a copy of all witness statements and documentary evidence from the Legislature's investigator, Stephen Branchflower.

Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat, responded on behalf of Branchflower, saying he instructed Branchflower not to comply with the request.

Lawyering up is the smart thing to do. She probably should have done it months ago. Retaining a lawyer bears no connection to guilt. No inference of wrong-doing should be drawn from it. [More...]

Republicans sure know how to party.

As residents of New Orleans were fleeing Hurricane Gustav, top Republican party officials donned pink boas and swigged vodka shots at a wild whirl of corporate and lobbyist-paid parties this weekend in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Really, you can't have a good party without pink boas and vodka shots. Attendees at the "corporate and lobbyist-paid parties" apparently didn't get the memo that Republicans are supposed to feign concern for those whose lives are being disrupted by Hurricane Gustav.

Here's the funniest line of the linked ABC story: [more ...]

TalkLeft recently called attention to the preemptive strike that the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department has launched against protesters at the (now downsized) Republican National Convention. Glenn Greenwald has a noteworthy post arguing that it is "increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign." The "anti-terrorist" tactics include spying upon, and even infiltrating, "dangerous" groups of vegans and peace-promoters.

So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone.

Take a minute to read what Greenwald has to say.

Again, we are not discussing Gov. Sarah Palin's family issues. Zero tolerance policy.

But, I won't be silenced from discussing reasons to oppose her and the Republican party.

• Max Blumenthal in The Nation: Ultra-Right Wing Christian Cabal Vetted Palin In MN Last Week

• Katha Pollit, The Nation, Wrong Woman for the Job

• Arianna Huffington: Saving the GOP and the Unbearable Lightness of Being Sarah Palin:

More...

John McCain, according to a scrawl on the bottom of the MSNBC tv screen, may not go to Minneapolis-St. Paul at all and give his acceptance speech instead from the Gulf. [Hat tip Scribe.}

Could he be any more transparent? What's he running for, Panderer-in Chief?

CBS says it's an attempt by the party to "redeem" itself on the competence issue.

I hope some of you take some time to celebrate the holiday. The summer sure went by fast.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, with the caveat I stated below. Please read it before commenting.

Hillary Clinton's advisers tell the New York Times she will increase her campaigning for the Obama/Biden ticket. One reason: McCain's choice of Sarah Palin and Palin's co-opting of her campaign theme.

Mrs. Clinton’s friends said she was galled that Ms. Palin might try to capitalize on a movement that Mrs. Clinton, of New York, built among women in the primaries....Guy Cecil, the former political director of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said it was “insulting” for Republicans to compare Ms. Palin to Mrs. Clinton.

Hillary's advisers have no problem making the inexperience argument against Palin: [More...]

Howard Wolfson explains how Obama's speech in Denver made him a solid Obama supporter:

For 18 months, I listened to Obama on television, sometimes intently, often just barely -- background noise to a running series of conference calls and meetings and e-mails. In person, my attention undivided, I saw something of what so many others had seen for so long.

Progress in America is never cheap, and even today history exacts a price for Obama's victory -- the dreams of electing the first female president, the dreams of so many who rushed toward Hillary Clinton on rope lines across America and refused to give up her hand and their hopes. Today these dreams are giving way to another kind of progress.

For me, the presidential campaign began in a crowded Iowa hall, where I saw a man my age lift up a daughter around my daughter's age and tell her that one day she could be president. Last week things came nearly full circle, when I saw another man my age lift up another child and say the very same thing.

Nice piece by Howard.

By Big Tent Democrat

I always thought Roger Cohen was not the sharpest knife in the drawer and this column on NATO, Georgia and the Ukraine proves it. Interestingly, Cohen starts well:

In retrospect the NATO summit declaration of April 3 about Georgia and Ukraine seems almost criminal in its irresponsibility: “We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.” That lofty commitment emerged from a Bucharest meeting so split over the two countries’ aspirations to enter the Atlantic alliance that it could not even agree to offer the first step toward joining, the Membership Action Plan that prepares nations for NATO.

(Emphasis supplied.) Absolutely. So what does Cohen suggest NATO do?

at the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in December, it should replace Bucharest blather with basics: a Membership Action Plan for Georgia and Ukraine.

Say what? To coin a phrase, that would be "criminal irresponsibility." Does Cohen think we do not have enough wars to fight right now? More . . .

Actually, in real life, he does, but I am really sick of the silly "Obama plays poker" arguments regarding politics. Obama is playing politics, not poker, and quite well. Here is an example:

A reader e-mailed me explaining the choice this way: Obama plays poker, McCain plays craps. Poker relies on a steady understanding of the probabilities and the willingness to bet when you have a good hand. Craps requires the willingness to bet and bet big, even though you know the house is against you.

In politics, no one is going to fold before election day. And in terms of issues, you won't know who won the hand until election day. It turns out, imo, that Obama was dealt a sweet political hand - George W. Bush, the worst President in history. And now he is playing the hand by the book (Biden as VP, hammering on Bush's Third Term, etc.) There is no poker involved. As for McCain, he has a lousy hand and is drawing new cards (the Palin pick), playing draw poker, not craps. (Oh no, now I am doing it.)

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

It made landfall this morning.

This is an Open Thread.

Michael Kinsley:

The whole "experience" debate is silly. Under our system of government, there is only one job that gives you both executive and foreign policy experience, and that's the one McCain and Obama are running for [BTD - That's what Bill Clinton was saying when he noted no one was really "Ready to be President."] Nevertheless, it's a hardy perennial: If your opponent is a governor, you accuse him of lacking foreign policy experience. If he or she is a member of Congress, you say this person has never run anything. And if, by chance, your opponent has done both, you say that he or she is a "professional politician." When Republicans aren't complaining about someone's lack of experience, they are calling for term limits.

[More . . .]