Palin’s Alaska Independence Party Problem

Looks like the Alaska Independence Party might be a bigger issue than we first thought.  Although the McCain campaign has proven that Sarah Palin was never a member of the AIP, she did attend the convention in 2000 (and in 1994 according to the AIP) and also recorded the message to the AIP convention that I posted about yesterday.  Also, her husband, Todd Palin, definitely was a member of the AIP from 1995-2002 (note that 2002 is the year that Sarah Palin first ran for statewide office).

Greg Sargent over at Talking Points Memo has once again done some great investigative work.  Turns out the AIP is crazier than I realized.

The AIP founder, Joe Vogler, made the comments in 1991, in an interview that’s now housed at the Oral History Program in the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government,” Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.

“And I won’t be buried under their damn flag,” Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. “I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.”

At another point, Volger advocated renouncing allegiance to the United States. In the course of denouncing Federal regulation over land, he said:

“And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska.”

I think it’s critical we get to the bottom of this.  How deep are Palin’s ties to the AIP and to Joe Vogler?  Does she actually support Alaskan seccession?  How can she be Vice President of the United States if she advocates seccession for her state?