(trichinosis?)

Yeah, but is Paul making that bit up about the lobbyist?

Washington Post (9/2/2008):

As mayor of Wasilla, however, Palin oversaw the hiring of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, an Anchorage-based law firm with close ties to Alaska’s most senior Republicans: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who was indicted in July on charges of accepting illegal gifts. The Wasilla account was handled by the former chief of staff to Stevens, Steven W. Silver, who is a partner in the firm…

Senate records show that Silver’s firm began working for Palin in early 2000, just as federal money began flowing.

In fiscal 2000, Wasilla received a $1 million earmark, tucked into a transportation appropriations bill, for a rail and bus project in the town. And in the winter of 2000, Palin appeared before congressional appropriations committees to seek earmarks, according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin and the Wasilla City Council increased Silver’s fee from $24,000 to $36,000 a year by 2001, Senate records show.

Alex is right. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing earmarks. It’s accepted practice (recent Presidential campaigns not withstanding), and it’s legal.

Maverick
– noun
a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates.

What’s wrong is brazenly pretending to be something that you’re not… lying for political gain. You know what’s even worse? Letting them get away with it. Can I tell you with certainty that my guy has never told a lie? Of course I can’t. But is he serving up this kind of whopper with a shit-eating grin every time he opens his mouth?