Stevens & Palin: "Singing from the Same Sheet of Music"

by: Dean Barker

Fri Aug 29, 2008 at 22:42:59 PM EDT

Sure enough, when I went to search for connections between Ted Stevens and Palin on her gubernatorial website, I found that the links to her press releases go dead starting from the middle of July 2007 and all preceding.

So I went to the Wayback Machine.  Some oddities popped up there too.  I couldn't get links to press releases from newer versions of the website, but did manage to track down this page, which lists, in March 2007,

 • Governor Meets with Senator Stevens

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2003 No. 03-122

Murkowski Announces Grimes as Head of State Troopers

Not to be deterred, I tried a basic google search for "Governor Meets with Senator Stevens." A-ha!  There it is.  Except that long sought after link clicks to a list of releases that does not include the Stevens' one.

Thank goodness for the cached option:

"It is so encouraging to hear again that Senator Stevens and I are singing from the same sheet of music," said Governor Palin. "In his address, he pushed for action this year on a natural gas pipeline. I also have the Senator's assurance that once the state has acted on the AGIA, our Congressional Delegation will do everything it can do to expedite the federal review of the natural gas pipeline project."

And if you're wondering about this natural gas pipeline, it's the same one Dick Cheney was discovered to be personally bullying the Alaskan legislature about on behalf of Stevens (as he himself explained to VECO's Bill Allen).

But that's not really the point.  The point is that this is another example of a possible internet cleansing of Palin's digital history, and if this is indeed a pattern, it ought to be looked into by people who get paid to do journalism for a living. Because it's not like she would be a heartbeat away from the presidency, or anything.

Update: In the comments, Mike C. adds to the evidence that this may be an intentional scrubbing:

Google cache reveals this page was removed sometime after 7:21 GMT this morning.

http://64.233.169.104/search?q...

and here's webcite to preserve the page:

http://www.webcitation.org/5aR...

SO let's see 7:21+5= 12:21 EST?

This page was being cleaned up AFTER the announcement. this was without a doubt cleaned up on the day of the announcement... how vetted does that look to you?

Governor Meets with Senator Stevens  Print Now Printer Friendly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 07-061

Governor Meets with Senator Stevens During Juneau Visit - Applauds Senator's Comments Before Legislature

March 19, 2007, Juneau, Alaska - For the second time in less than a month, Governor Sarah Palin met today with the state's senior Senator, Ted Stevens. This morning's meeting was held in the Governor's Juneau office.

During the meeting, Senator Stevens and the Governor focused on the AGIA. Many of those comments were reiterated during the Senator's joint address before the Legislature soon after.

"It is so encouraging to hear again that Senator Stevens and I are singing from the same sheet of music," said Governor Palin. "In his address, he pushed for action this year on a natural gas pipeline. I also have the Senator's assurance that once the state has acted on the AGIA, our Congressional Delegation will do everything it can do to expedite the federal review of the natural gas pipeline project."