Palin joins old pal McCain to rescue GOP from extinction

Hey, they were so successful last time, let's bring 'em back together.

Sarah Palin is joining John McCain in that new Republican resurrection group called the National Council for a New America. And so far, her personal office and her political action committee haven't issued contradicting statements about her involvement.

If this holds, it would be precedent-setting coordination between the two offices. In the past, the two organizations have been as out of sync as Joe Biden and President Obama were on giving flu advice.

If it does pan out, she'll be a part of the newly christened organization charged with breathing life into the flat-lining party.

"[She] looks forward to doing all she can to bring about positive change many desire and deserve, across Alaska and our great nation, through this National Council for a New America and others," a spokeswoman from SarahPAC said in an email to Politico.

Snub-hub

Up until this announcement, there was wild speculation that Palin had been snubbed. The group was chock full of GOP stalwarts like Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Eric Cantor, and John McCain. But no Palin.

Channeling a 1987 Richard Marx video, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor said Palin's absence from the Council "don't mean nothing." No official invitations were sent out and everyone could join. Even Democrats, he said.

“We want her participation and involvement in this,” he said. “This is not an organization that is meant to be exclusive.”

Palin's former running mate John McCain concurred. Plus, they said they weren't able to get a hold of her.

De facto

One of the de facto leaders of the Republican party -- Rush Limbaugh -- rushed to her defense today and said that the leaders of the National Council were afraid of Palin, and worse.

"They despise Sarah Palin, they fear Sarah Palin, they don't like her either," Limbaugh said.

"Clearly, in last year's campaign, the most prominent, articulate voice for standard run-of the mill good old fashioned American conservatism was Sarah Palin. Now, everybody [in the group] has presidential perspirations. Mitt Romney there, he wants to be president again. Jeb may someday. Eric Cantor, some of the others, McCain — I don't think he does, but you never know. So this is an early campaign event, 2012 presidential campaign, primary campaign, with everybody there but Sarah Palin."

In for now

But now it appears that all that hand-wringing was for naught. Palin's in.

"I am pleased to announce that Governor Palin has joined the National Council for a New America's panel of experts," Cantor said in a statement. "When NCNA was announced last week, we spoke about a dynamic organization that worked to constantly bring in new people and innovative ideas."

Trust but verify

We should be cautious however because the last time SarahPAC confirmed Palin would participate in something, the governor's office contradicted them saying they knew nothing about it and then the whole thing blew up.

That was the Republican House-Senate dinner scheduled for next month. She was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. The only problem was her political action committee accepted the invitation without telling the governor's office about it.

A flap ensued, Palin got booted and Newt Gingrich ended up being the keynote speaker.

Hero

Despite that problem, Palin is still a hero to many. The NRA is honoring Palin with a special M4-like assault rifle at their annual banquet in mid-May. Read more about that here.

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