Sarah Palin and the Birchers

Personally I think this is much ado about nothing, and believe me, if I thought there was any sane way to pin this on Palin I would.

In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society.

The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council, ran beside a profile of Palin in Saturday's New York Times. The magazine, The New American, is sitting on top of her calendar on her desk, unopened.

(snip)

"Any attempt to link her to the John Birch Society would be ridiculous," he said of speculation on the liberal blogs that first noticed the magazine, first noted by the photo site BAGNews.

"This photo from the early to mid 90s shows the Governor having her photo taken in front of a three ring binder of information from local citizens presented regularly to Wasilla council members by the town clerk," said Palin spokesman Michael Goldfarb. "These binders featured material given by members of the public to all council members."

"We sent thousands of copies of that newsletter out to all kinds of people trying to forestall the constitutional convention," McManus recalled. "The plan at that time was for us to send copies of that newsletter to county commissioners, mayors, state legislators, local officials."