RCP: Palin Points to 'Strange Doings' With WH's Rouse

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This is mostly old news to Gov. Palin's supporters, but Scott Conroy's Real Clear Politics report should make a wider audience aware of the cast of character who are behind the Palin smears going back to the end of August, 2008:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin took to Twitter on Wednesday to deliver a pair of cryptic messages related to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, who is rumored to be a potential interim replacement for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the event that Emanuel leaves the administration next month to run for mayor of Chicago.

"Alaska's Pete Rouse (@ least he claims to be ‘Alaska')finally comes out of the shadows; Obama looks to appt him COS;strange doings in the WH," Palin tweeted, adding, "(Rahm's the smart one...bailing before Nov) Now, check out possible COS Pete Rouse. His background, voter reg in AK,etc. It's a small world"

Palin has previously alluded to her suspicions that Rouse, who once worked in Juneau and is still registered to vote in Alaska, may be at the center of a White House operation designed to undermine her politically.

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When Palin resigned from office in July of 2009, she cited as one of her primary reasons for stepping down the frivolous ethics complaints filed by liberal bloggers and other Alaska residents.

Her then spokesperson, Meg Stapleton, suggested to Time that the ethics complaints were being orchestrated by the Obama administration.

"A lot of this comes from Washington, D.C. The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," Stapleton said, adding that the attacks in Alaska against Palin appeared to be lifted from Emanuel's strategy for taking down Republican opponents. "It's the Sarah Palin playbook. It's how they operate," Stapleton said.

The two Time reporters who wrote the 2009 story added, "Palin and her Alaska circle find evidence for their suspicions about the White House in the person of Pete Rouse, who lived in Juneau for a time before he became chief of staff to a young U.S. Senator named Barack Obama."

(More)

Read the full article here.

- JP