U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson and Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez are members of a new team of Republican women assigned to combat “smears” about the party’s vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.
The two women are among 55 nationwide assigned to the “Palin truth squad.”
According to a news release from John McCain’s campaign, the team was formed in response to a Wall Street Journal report that Democrats have dispatched 30 lawyers and other operatives to
TheAtlantic.com’s Marc Ambinder reported that there has been plenty of accurate information reported that could be considered controversial — “that Palin sought and obtained earmarks, that she didn’t initially oppose the Bridge to Nowhere, that she raised sales taxes as mayor of Wasilla, that she maintained a working relationship with Sen. Ted Stevens,” but inaccurate information has also spread, including allegations that she “cut special needs funding (she didn’t), was a Buchananite (not true), that she wanted to mandate the teaching of creationism in Alaska public schools (she said that it didn’t have to be taught alongside evolution, although she didn’t oppose it), that her pastor was a Jew for Jesus (a guest pastor at the church was, not her regular pastor), that she was a member of the Alaska Independence Party (her husband was) and that she covered up her daughter’s pregnancy (Nope).”
Other claims are pending, Ambinder wrote, and “the battle to define Palin will probably last through the election.”