The Final Word on the Palin in Des Moines “Controversy”

By Shane Vander Hart, Caffeinated Thoughts

She’s not coming, but would like to in the future.  She’d also come for free.  Bryan English at the Iowa Family Policy Center just sent the following press release:

10/30/09 Pleasant Hill, IA - Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION received word this morning that Governor Sarah Palin is unable to accept our speaking invitation due to her book tour contractual commitments, which cannot be changed.

We extended our invitation knowing she would be in the middle of her book tour and the chances of her being able to accept any invitations were extremely slim.

She has asked if she could speak at a future mutually agreeable date. She will not accept any fees for her appearance.

That seems to put the controversy created by Politico’s Jonathan Martin yesterday to bed.  Speaking of the asinine article that Jonathan Martin wrote, Emily Geiger at The Iowa Republican notes some background on those who talked with Jonathan Martin:

And, Jonny had lots of completely impartial sources who were happy to comment and help him “cobble together” an eleven-hundred word story.

Oh, those sources… they were so shocked at this (unconfirmed) unprecedented occurrence. How dare political operatives get paid obscene amounts of money. And speaking of politicos getting paid obscene amounts of money, Jonny went to a very knowledgeable source on that particular issue, Ed Failor, Jr., of Iowans for Tax Relief fame.

Hey Ed, how much were you paid by the Pataki campaign only to end up submarining it when you had a change of heart and decided McCain was your man? Oh well, at least Ed refrained from calling Palin a jackbooted Nazi, so he did show some self-restraint.

Jonny also got some inside info from David Kochel, who was a top aide to former (and future) presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

Hey Dave, didn’t I just read a story about how Mitt Romney tried to buy off the Iowa Christian Alliance? I heard you helped facilitate that little scheme. And somehow you are shocked at the thought of a well-known political figure (who very likely isn’t running for president) getting paid a speaker’s fee for (gasp) a public speaking appearance?

Another of Jonny’s sources was the Iowa Christian Alliance’s Steve Scheffler, who is totally impartial given that he runs a competing organization which is dealing with its own scandal.

And then we’ve got Tim Albrecht quoted. He was the Iowa spokesman for Romney’s 2008 caucus campaign.

Hmmm… Between Kochel and Albrecht, this sounds suspiciously like yet another case of former Romney staffers “going rogue” and badmouthing their meal ticket’s perceived competition.

I’m sure that it was completely coincidental.

Updates can be found here.

Shane Vander Hart is the editor of Caffeinated Thoughts.  Feel free to follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.