treason

Treason is such an ugly word. It isn't one to be used lightly.

But if Joe Biden had been a member of a party dedicated to the independence of the State of Delaware, wouldn't Fox News and the rest of the Republican noise machine be screaming "treason!" at the top of their right-wing lungs?

Of course they would. Yet they don't seem to as concerned by the fact that Alaska governor and (presumably) GOP nominee for the vice presidency Sarah Palin was in fact a member of the Alaska Independence Party before becoming a Repug.

The Alaska Independence Party wants a referendum on Alaska's status, with "independence" presumably its preferred choice since it isn't known as the Alaska Referendum Party. Palin belonged to it in the mid-1990s.

That is much more important to me than her decision to run despite having an infant with special needs (that's for the Palin family). Her oldest daughter Bristol's pregnancy is only relevant to the extent that Palin is opposed to sex education, condoms, birth control and the lot - Bristol Palin is a symbol of the failure of that approach, but does NOT deserve to have her situation dragged into the limelight.

But a nominee for the second-highest office in the land once belonging to a lunatic fringe party that advocates independence? That is news.

Because after all, we once fought a war over what you could call, SECESSION.