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Alaska releases Sarah Palin e-mailsJun 10, 2011 (Detroit Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed an e-mail from Dan Mulhern to Gov. Sarah Palin as one from today's release of Palin's e-mail. In fact, that e-mail was part of a batch that was released in February 2010, but lives in the same database as today's documents . WASHINGTON -- MSNBC has released the first batches in more than 24,000 pages of e-mails to and from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The emails being released today come from a request made in 2008 and include those during her first 21 months as Alaska's governor. Many media organizations are making them available to readers to scan. The e-mails were released at 1 p.m. in paper form and news organizations were hoping to very quickly scan the documents to get them online today. It's not clear how many, if any, surprises will be contained in the e-mails. "I think every rock in the Palin household that could ever be kicked over and uncovered anything, it's already been kicked over," Palin told Fox News on Sunday. We'll be watching the Web today as news trickles out from those combing through the e-mails. Keep checking back here for all the latest. In an e-mail contained in the same database, but first released in February 2010, Michigan's First Gentleman apparently wanted to get together with Alaska's First Gentleman Todd Palin and the other governors' husbands during the 2008 National Governor's Association in Philadelphia. "I'd love to get together with the fellas and kick things around," Mulhern writes. "I find myself thinking all the time about this weird stretch of history in which we are, as my kids would call it, riding 'shotty.' It's a wild and weird perspective on politics and family." He continues: "If that doesn't work, maybe we can go fishing or snow machining with Todd some time! Or meet Gary in Kansas -- what would we do there?" Gary here refers to the husband of former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The meeting wasn't meant to be, though. Todd Palin replies: "Please respond to Dan to let him know that I'm busy commercial fishing in Bristol Bay and I will not be traveling with the Governor to Philadelphia." "I just received a call from VP Dick Cheney. He called directly from his home and asked that you give him a call. Here is his direct number." The phone number was redacted. Palin laments gossip In the months before she was named the vice presidential nominee, Palin's emails showed a governor dealing with complaints, rumors and gossip about her family. In several, she asks about the identity of someone who alleged that she had not buckled her son, Trig, properly into his car seat. In another, she laments about gossip about her family and marriage. Palin and her daughter, Bristol, appear to be traveling in a car, and Bristol e-mails a Palin staffer in July 2008: "Mom and I were just praying about the hurt and anger that comes with her job. Thank you for your faith in God. "We share it and we love you!" Bristol wrote, from her mother's personal email account. Palin camp responds Sarah Palin's political action committee is framing the release of the e-mails as a window into a dedicated governor. "The thousands upon thousands of emails released today show a very engaged Gov. Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state," said a statement from Tim Crawford, the treasurer of SarahPAC, as posted to MSNBC.com. "The emails detail a governor hard at work. Everyone should read them." Some e-mails held back According to the image, 953 of the 14,482 records (6.6%) were not released. It's not immediately clear, of course, why those were withheld or what might be contained in those e-mails. To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com Copyright (c) 2011, Detroit Free Press Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |
