US:REPUBLICAN vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's record as governor of Alaska has moved to the centre of the US election campaign as Barack Obama and John McCain have set up rival teams to battle over her credentials as a reformer who stood up to powerful special interests, writes Denis Staunton
Mr McCain established a "truth squad" this week to counter rumours about Ms Palin's conduct during her two years as governor and before that, as mayor of the small city of Wasilla.
Mr Obama yesterday launched "Alaska Mythbusters", a group of Alaskans who have followed Ms Palin's career and question some of her claims about her record in public office.
A committee of Alaska state legislators will decide tomorrow how to proceed with an investigation into Ms Palin's firing of a public safety commissioner after he failed to dismiss her former brother-in-law, a trooper in the state police.
Democratic state representative Lindsay Holmes, a member of the investigative committee, said the legislators would consider issuing subpoenas to force Ms Palin's associates to testify.
"We're continuing with our investigation, which she had said all along she would co-operate with," Ms Holmes told The Irish Times.
"She said publicly on a number of occasions before she was chosen for the VP spot that she would be happy to co-operate and she would order everybody else to co-operate.
"And now all of a sudden they're refusing to show up. So we're going to have a hearing on Friday and talk about how to proceed."
Campaigning in Virginia yesterday, Ms Palin repeated her claim to have said "thanks but no thanks" to federal funding for the notorious "Bridge to Nowhere", more than $200 million for two bridges linking an island of 50 people with the Alaskan mainland.
She contrasted her record of cutting half a billion dollars in federal spending on her state with Mr Obama's request for almost a billion dollars in such funds for Illinois.
Funds for specific projects in US states are often authorised in congress through congressional "earmarks" inserted as lines of text into sometimes unrelated bills or committee reports.
Ms Palin initially supported the "Bridge to Nowhere" but cancelled the project after she took office as governor last year.
"I don't remember her really campaigning against the earmarks several years ago. I think this is really sort of a new thing after they became so unpopular nationwide," Ms Holmes said, adding that the governor did not say "thanks but no thanks" to the federal funds.
"Well that's not true because we kept the money. The state got the money for the bridges. They just chose to spend it on something else.
"So at no point did we say, thank you but no thank you for the money. The money stayed in the state."
Mr Obama yesterday accused the McCain campaign of using "lies and phoney outrage and Swift-boat politics" in claiming he referred to Ms Palin as a pig.
Republicans claimed that Mr Obama was referring to the Alaska governor when he suggested that the McCain campaign was putting "lipstick on a pig" in claiming to represent change from the Bush administration.
"You can put lipstick on a pig . . . it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years," the Democrat said during a campaign event on Tuesday.
The McCain campaign said the remark was a reference to Ms Palin, who joked at the Republican convention last week that the difference between a "hockey mom" and a pit bull was lipstick.
Accusing Mr Obama of "smearing" Ms Palin in "offensive and disgraceful" comments, the McCain campaign demanded an apology but the Democrat hit back yesterday during an event in Virginia.
"What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country.
"They seize on an innocent remark, try to take it out of context, throw up an outrageous ad because they know that it's catnip for the news media," he said.
Ms Palin was due to return to Alaska last night for the first time since she was named as Mr McCain's running mate two weeks ago.
She will attend a deployment ceremony today for her 19-year-old son Track's military unit, which is being sent to Iraq as part of the latest round of troop deployments by the American army.