Palin, vetted at last

Mark Steyn links to this story:

When federal judges in San Francisco ruled in 2002 that reciting the
Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because it included the phrase "under God," Sarah Palin was not amused. Palin, who at the time was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, quickly drafted a terse letter to the editor of a San Francisco newspaper. “Dear Editor,” Palin wrote in 2002. “San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase ‘under God’ away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words,” Palin wrote. “God Bless America,” she concluded.

Hundreds of notes and lettersPalin’s letter to the editor is one of hundreds of personal notes and letters written by the former Mayor, and obtained this week to NBC News and others. The documents shed light on the management style--and personality--of the small town mayor turned vice presidential candidate.

There are few headline grabbers in the lot. Even Palin’s Pledge-of-Allegiance rant was a commonly held view at the time. (The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the ruling on technical grounds. But not before Palin pushed through a city resolution stating that the Wasilla City Council “shall continue to recite America’s Pledge of Allegiance, in its entirety, including and especially the words, ‘…one nation, under God…”)While hardly earth shattering, Palin’s personal missives can be revealing.Consider the letter to Mike Doogan, then a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News.Doogan had written in the paper on March 5, 2002, that lawmakers were considering moving the state legislature to Wasilla. “Now, I disrespect Wasilla as much as the next guy, but this seems a little extreme,” Doogan quipped. “Isn't being a blight on the landscape enough shame for Wasillians?”Palin couldn’t resist. Two days later, she wrote a personal letter that simply said:“Dear Mr. Doogan: Why do you do what you do to Wasilla?”She signed it, “Respectfully, Sarah.”