Trade Mission Exposed

Okay, this Palin thing is getting pretty old by now. It’s kind of like going hunting and shooting, oh I don’t know, maybe dairy cows or something. Not very sporting. But this just cropped up and I could not let it go by.

In the interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin gave as her foreign policy experience with Russia that she had engaged in “trade missions back and forth.” Well, it turns out, to no one’s surprise, that she may have, um, enhanced the truth just a little bit.

Alex Koppelman of the Salon website pursued this question with the governor’s office, but they would not speak to him about it, and the reason is a real side-splitter.

Morgan said she could not legally discuss any trade missions with me because she's a state employee and I had first heard this claim through the Couric interview, which was part of Palin's campaign for the vice-presidency.

So the state employee can’t talk about matters that occurred in the state, acts that were performed by the governor of the state, events that occurred before the governor was a member of McCain’s election campaign, because the questioner is asking as a result of something he heard in connection with McCain’s campaign. Presumably, if the questioner had asked out of idle curiosity, having had a bolt of inspiration out of the clear blue sky, the state employee would have been able to answer the question.

I wonder if CBS and Katie Couric know that she is "part of Palin's campaign for the vice-presidency" and how they feel about that.