In Tuesday's Alligator, College Republicans Chairman Bryan Griffin said that Sen. John McCain's pick for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was a person of honesty and integrity.
Palin served as a director of "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a group allowed to raise unlimited corporate funds. The group was named after Ted Stevens, the disgraced Republican senator from Alaska who was indicted on corruption charges. While Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she hired a lobbying firm that secured $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of only 6,700 residents.
In the 2000 election, Palin supported Pat Buchanan, the far-right commentator infamous for his anti-Semitic comments, for president. Palin wore Buchanan buttons and attended one of his rallies, only to deny that she ever supported him when it became politically inconvenient to do so.
McCain's choice of Sarah Palin illustrates that he wants more of the same instead of the change we need.