Alan Keyes Takes Aim at Sarah Palin from the Right

Is Sarah Palin vulnerable to an attack from the right?

Former Ambassador Alan Keyes, best known for his attempts at the Republican nomination and his bid for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois in 2004 against a then relatively unknown Barack Obama, went after the former Alaska governor in a column that was published late last week after Salon reported that a Palin aide was being paid by George Soros:

While Glenn Beck was focusing on George Soros as the Machiavellian "eminence grise" behind a whole slew of Democratic left-wingers, Justin Elliot, a commentator at Salon.com, wryly made note of the fact that "one of Sarah Palin's top aides has been on Soros' payroll for years. That would be Republican lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, Palin's foreign-policy adviser and a member of her small inner circle." Not surprisingly, Scheunemann is one of the advisers Palin acquired through her association with John McCain. McCain's creative reliance on George Soros as a source of funds for his political advisers and associates is well-documented and ought to be well-known.

Considering the source, I'm sure many wishful and well-intentioned Palin fans will be moved brusquely to dismiss this information as an isolated fact being exploited (as usual) by another one of Palin's leftist abusers. Yet the telltale flaw in Palin's supposedly conservative credentials is a proven penchant for relying on advisers who mislead her into decisions that are anything but conservative.

Keyes has hammered Palin before from the right -- including on the matter of abortion.