A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain's choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket. On Monday morning, Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father. Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state's public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge. Aides to McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Palin's background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Palin. Although the McCain campaign said that McCain had known about Bristol Palin's pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom. While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Palin on the first day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the selection of Palin to question McCain's judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions. At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Palin had been selected as McCain's running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described. Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before McCain introduced Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania. But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Ridge or Lieberman by the delegates. Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory. With time running out – and as McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable – he turned to Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Pawlenty and another of the finalists on McCain's list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months. “They didn't seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before,” said a Republican close to the campaign. “This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn't get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge.” In the final stages, two Republicans familiar with the process said, McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, emerged as a key advocate for Palin. McCain's advisers said repeatedly on Monday that Palin was “thoroughly vetted,” a process that would have included a review of all financial and legal records as well as a criminal background check.
