LITTLE ROCK — John McCain's campaign fired back Wednesday at news media inquiries into the vetting process for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Campaign strategist Steve Schmidt called some of the stories circulated a "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee" for vice president.
"The McCain campaign will have no further comment aboutour long and thorough process," Schmidt said, lashing out at "the old boys' network" that he says runs news organizations. "This nonsense is over."
Schmidt also denounced a report in the National Enquirer, hours after its publication, as "disgraceful" and "a vicious lie."
"The smearing of the Palin family must end," Schmidt said in an e-mail distributed to journalists.
The Enquirer, which exposed John Edwards' extramarital affair, cited unnamed sources in alleging that the Alaska governor had an affair with a business associate of her "fisherman husband," Todd Palin - the story doesn't say when - and that he found out and severed relations with the man.
In a quickly arranged news conference, former Massachu-setts Gov. Jane Swift complained about "an outrageous smear campaign" against Palin and said, "She is more prepared than Barack Obama to be president of the United States."
Defending Palin as a solid running mate, McCain said Wednesday that her position as Alaska's governor and her experience as a mayor mean voters have evaluated her and approved of her at the ballot box.
McCain said Palin's background had been adequately checked out - and not just by his aides.
"The people of Alaska have vetted her," said McCain. "That's why she's got an 80 percent approval rating."
Striking a populist chord, he also asserted that her distance from Washington is a benefit.
"This is what Americans want," McCain said. "She probably hasn't been to a Georgetown cocktail party. But you know what, she represents everything we want to see in government and America - change and reform and ethics and taking on the special interests."
Arguing that the news queries are being fueled by "every rumor and smear" posted on leftist Internet sites, Schmidt said mainstream journalists are giving "closer scrutiny" to Palin than to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. In an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post, Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by news inquiries.
An anonymous blogger on the liberal Web site Daily Kos last weekend charged that Mc-Cain's running mate is actually the grandmother of Trig Palin, the 4-month-old baby born with Down's syndrome, and that the real mother is her daughter, 17-year-old Bristol Palin. That led to mainstream media inquiries that prompted the McCain camp to disclose in a statement Monday that Bristol is five months pregnant and plans to have the baby and marry the teenage father.
The site's founder, Markos Moulitsas, said he did not know the contributor's identity but thought that the admittedly "weird" pregnancy questions were a legitimate line of inquiry that he should not suppress.
Obama campaign officials have complained to news organizations that their man has been subjected to considerably more investigative reporting than Mc-Cain has come under, but they have done so in a more low-key manner.
By contrast, Schmidt spoke on the record Tuesday in denouncing as "an absolute work of fiction" a New York Times account of the process by which the Mc-Cain campaign vetted Palin. He also said that Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman was predicting that the governor might have to step down as McCain's vice presidential choice.
Fineman said that he has "never, ever said that" and that he has pointed out positive aspects of Palin's candidacy. "They decided a long time ago that they were going to work the refs," he said.
The lead author of the New York Times report, Elisabeth Bumiller, said she is "completely confident about the story." As for the campaign's criticism, she said, "This is what they do. It's part of their operation."
McCain canceled a scheduled appearance on CNN's Larry King Live on Tuesday, a day after prime-time host Campbell Brown repeatedly pressed campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds to provide an example of a decision that Palin had madeas commander of the Alaska National Guard.
"The interview was totally fair," Brown said. "I was trying to get an answer. I was persistent, but I was respectful. That's my job. Experience is a legitimate issue when John McCain raises it about Obama, and it's also legitimate for us to raise it about Palin."
Schmidt, a former spokesman for President Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, talked about his frustrations in his interview with The Washington Post. He said the worst media "feeding frenzy" he has ever seen surrounds the McCain camp.
Top McCain advisers said they welcome and expect a review of Palin's mayoral and gubernatorial record but that the news media went beyond that.
"Certainly, her record deserves scrutiny, but I think we ought to look at her record," campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters on a conference call. He condemned "the salacious nature" of some news stories designed to "throw dirt at our candidate." He urged news media to "dial it back."
The Wednesday edition of The New York Times included astory about Palin's first mayoral campaign in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996. In the story, Taylor Griffin, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, declined to address specific aspects of Palin's tenure as mayor.
A section of the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site where videos of past sermons were posted was shut down Wednesday. A message was posted saying that the site "was never intended to handle the traffic it has received in the last few days."
A video from the church's site, one that found its way onto other sites on the Internet, showed Palin telling ministry students that the United States sent troops tofight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."
Palin attended the Pentecostal church from the time she was a teenager until 2002, the church said in a statement posted on its Web site: http://tinyurl.com/ 67b7n8.
In an address last June, Palin also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state and called it "God's will."
Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.
"God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.
Information for this article was contributed by Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post, Maeve Reston and Noam N. Levey of The Los Angeles Times and Gene Johnson, Beth Fouhy and Liz Sidoti of The Associated Press.
Obama vs. Palin
Supporters of Republican vice presidential choice Sarah Palin argue her experience tops that of Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama. Here's a look at some major achievements in the lives of both:1979: Obama is a substitute on a high school basketball team that wins state championship.
1982: Palin captains a high school basketball team that wins the state championship.
1983: Obama graduates from Columbia University, works for a business research company, then becomes community organizer in poor section of Chicago.
1984: Palin wins "Miss Wasilla" pageant and places second in statewide beauty contest.
1987: Palin graduates from the University of Idaho, works in television sports and the family fishing business.
1988: Obama enters Harvard Law School.
1990: Obama becomes first black editor of the Harvard Law Review.
1992: Obama runs Project Vote!, which registers 150,000 new voters in Chicago, then begins teaching law at the University of Chicago.
Palin wins a city council seat in Wasilla, an Alaska town of about 5,500.
1993: Obama joins a law firm specializing in civil rights cases.
1995: Obama publishes Dreams from My Father, a memoir about growing up in America with an absent African father.
1996: Obama is elected a state senator.
Palin is elected mayor of Wasilla.
2000: Obama is defeated in an effort to unseat U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.
2002: Obama speaks out against invading Iraq.
Palin loses in the Republican primary for Alaska lieutenant governor.
2003: In the biggest year of his legislative career, Obama passes legislation requiring police to record interrogations in murder cases and collect data on the race of drivers they pull over.
Palin is appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
2004: Obama delivers the keynote address at the Democratic convention and is elected to the U.S.
Senate.
Palin investigates the conduct of a commission member, who ultimately resigns. She later files an ethics complaint against the state's Republican attorney general, who also resigns.
2006: Obama's book The Audacity of Hope, detailing his views on national affairs, is published. Works with Senate Republicans to limit nuclear proliferation and shed light on wasteful government.
Palin is elected as the first female governor of Alaska.
2007: Obama launches his presidential campaign.
Palin overhauls Alaska's ethics laws and pushes to build a natural gas pipeline despite opposition from the oil industry.
2008: Obama wins a marathon Democratic primary against Hillary Rodham Clinton and raises record amounts of money.
Alaska legislators probe whether Palin improperly pressured officials to fire her sister's ex-husband, a state trooper.
Front Section, Pages 1, 4 on 09/04/2008