The Note: Expecting Surprises

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2, 2008 -- ST. PAUL, Minn. --

What did John McCain know, and when did he know it?

We will get a full Republican National Convention back starting Tuesday. (Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Sen. Fred Thompson help get us from telethon to television -- and President Bush will get his address via satellite, for better and worse, while Rudy Giuliani gets bumped to another night.)

But even if we didn't get back on track, just think of what we've been through together already. A storm blew through St. Paul Monday -- and there was a hurricane you may have heard about, too.

And behind the news about Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter (biology as pushback?) is a pregnant series of questions about Sen. John McCain: Did he know, really and fully, what he was getting in to? Does his campaign regret the choice, even a little bit? What does all of this say about his judgment?

(How many more stories before Palin = "Northern Exposure," and how long a trip is it from there to Tom Eagleton/Harriet Miers territory?)

(And while we're waiting for those answers -- Sen. Barack Obama will be George Stephanopoulos' exclusive headliner Sunday on ABC's "This Week.")

It was a good political day to dump Palin information, as Gustav wasn't quite dumping its wrath on the Gulf Coast. But this starts to add up:

"Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state's public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge," Elisabeth Bumiller writes in The New York Times.

"We are going to flush the toilet," new McCain-Palin aide Tucker Eskew (yes, THE Tucker Eskew) tells the Times.

Things Team McCain may have wanted done, say, last week: "Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin's background," Bumiller reports. "A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice."

Surely somebody up there got a phone call: "The former U.S. attorney for Alaska, Wev Shea, who enthusiastically recommended Palin back in March, said he was never contacted with any follow-up questions Chris Coleman, one of Palin's next-door neighbors, said that no one representing McCain spoke to him about Palin. Another neighbor also was never contacted, he said Monday," McClatchy's Sean Cockerham reports.

"Republican Gail Phillips, a former speaker of the Alaska House, said that she was shocked by McCain's selection of Palin and told her husband, Walt, 'This can't be happening because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out.' "

It is happening, indeed. And as Team McCain tries to make it stop -- how much of this is cold hard fact? (And why did search details like these only come out after the revelations did?)

"Before she was chosen to be Sen. John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin submitted to a three-hour interview with the head of his vice presidential search team, and responded to a 70-question form that included 'intrusive personal questions,' a senior campaign aide said Monday," Michael D. Shear and Karl Vick write in The Washington Post. "The aide said all facts about Palin's record and background that have caused controversy as they were revealed in the past few days -- including the ongoing 'troopergate' investigation and the fact that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant -- were known to the McCain campaign."

The AP's Liz Sidoti: "Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., the lawyer who conducted the review, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Palin underwent a 'full and complete' examination before McCain chose her. Asked whether everything that came up as a possible red flag during the review already has been made public, Culvahouse said: 'I think so. Yeah, I think so. Correct.' "

McCain senior adviser Nicolle Wallace, asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer when precisely McCain learned the pregnancy news: "We're going to let some things stay private, and I don't happen to know the minute, hour, and day. . . . It was certainly known, and it didn't give Sen. McCain any pause."

Said ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "The question is, what else is out there? . . . Was the vetting process complete and professional? . . . What does it say about Sen. McCain's judgment?"

Consider what else we're learning (and she hasn't even sat down for a single real media interview yet):

"For every piece of the portrait of Palin that the McCain campaign sketches, a far more complicated picture of the Alaska governor is drawn," Peter Wallsten writes in the Los Angeles Times. "The woman introduced to America as a reform-minded Washington outsider who opposed the infamous 'bridge to nowhere' -- the symbol of McCain's hatred of wasteful spending -- originally supported its construction. The governor who in her introductory speech decried the practice of budgetary 'earmarks' sought, as the state's chief executive and as mayor of Wasilla, hundreds of millions of dollars in such federal funding for local projects."

Speaking of -- it's not just a bridge: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor," The Washington Post's Paul Kane reports. "There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage."

"In fiscal year 2002, Wasilla took in $6.1 million in earmarks -- about $1,000 in federal money for every resident. By contrast, Boise, Idaho -- which has more than 190,000 residents -- received $6.9 million in earmarks in fiscal 2008," Kane adds. "All told, Wasilla benefited from $26.9 million in earmarks in Palin's final four years in office. . . . In February, Palin's [governor's] office sent Sen. Stevens a 70-page memo outlining almost $200 million worth of new funding requests for Alaska."

Plus: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens," Matthew Mosk reports in The Washington Post. "Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the 'Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,' a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors."

This would make it harder to get earmarks: "Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States," ABC's Jake Tapper reports. "And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is 'Country First,' the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- 'Alaska First -- Alaska Always.' "