A series of messages forwarded to The Daily Caller show a top aide to former Alaska Gov. and possible presidential candidate Sarah Palin mocking top political figures and even her boss’s own daughter, Bristol Palin. 
 
 Red State Editor-in-Chief and CNN contributor Erick Erickson is “a total douchebag,” wrote Palin speechwriter and domestic policy adviser Rebecca Mansour in a May 22, 2010, message. “Greasy dumb ass with a talent for self-promotion. He threw himself in at the Gov’s SC rally. Self-promotion.” (Erickson said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley invited him to the rally). 
 
 Mitt Romney supporters are “wacky as hell,” Mansour wrote, but usually Romney’s presence online is just an “AstroTurf brigade.” 
 
 “Would love to tell Mitt’s lackeys to stop backstabbing my boss anonymously,” Mansour wrote. 
 
 Then-California Senate candidate Chuck DeVore “wants to be the next Hugh Hewitt (or Huckabee). He knows he can’t win. He wants to become a ‘personality’. Give him a show to go away,” Mansour wrote. Palin endorsed Carly Fiorina over DeVore in the GOP primary for the race, angering some conservatives. 
 
 Mansour sent these embarrassing and revealing missives as “direct messages” on Twitter to an online-only acquaintance approximately a year ago. The person who received the messages forwarded them to TheDC. 
 
 The messages show that, at least last summer, Palin was planning to run for president and calculating her political moves with a run in mind. 
 
 Palin (whom Mansour refers to as “BigBoss”) “took a big risk in endorsing Nikki [Haley for South Carolina governor]. You don’t pick a loser in SC. Very important state. Mitt has no hope of winning it, so…he could endorse a 4th place underdog ‘cuz his strategy for ’12 is ignore the South. SC is crucial to someone like the Gov. She took a risk.” 
 
 When author Joe McGinnis moved next door to Palin, prompting a protest by her, Mansour told her correspondent, a pro-Palin activist, “Time to find a way to go medieval on this McGinniss. Don’t be fooled by the light tone of the [Facebook] post. The BigBoss is so upset by this.” 
 
 In response to an unknown suggestion by the recipient of the messages, Mansour wrote “I was thinking more along the lines of mailing him a dead fish.” 
 
 But by far the most incendiary messages are about Palin’s daughter Bristol. Sent in the aftermath of Bristol announcing to Us Weekly she was planning to marry Levi Johnston, Mansour wrote, “I wish they were the Cleavers too. But it’s life.” 
 
 “Two words: Patti Davis. Okay three more: Ron Reagan Junior. Two more: Billy Carter. Doesn’t your family have one?” Mansour said. 
 
 “She will hold her at arm’s length. Even Thatcher was never able to disown her screw up son Mark. It’s a Mom thing,” Mansour wrote. 
 
 Other messages, including several TheDC has chosen not to publish, reveal details about the internal dynamics of the Palin family and Mansour asking the activist whether he knew “anyone upstanding? I’m serious?” who could replace Johnston as a suitable suitor for Bristol. But Mansour did add she was “impressed” by how much Bristol Palin loved her son. 
 
 Contacted about the messages, Mansour said she was trying to “calm down” a Palin supporter and that the messages reflected only her opinions, not Palin’s. Mansour refused to provide additional context or information about the messages. 
 
 
 
 In one instance, Mansour leaked damaging information about a liberal radio host in Alaska. 
 
 “Got a scoop for you about Shannyn Moore. You’ll love this! Feel free to post it far and wide and chat about it everywhere,” Mansour wrote in a July 3, 2010, message, “First, Shannyn gets no pay for her show. In fact, she actually has to pay $150 a hour or $450 a day to rant on the air … Second, ever wonder why there are no sponsors KUDO 1080am’s 11am-2pm show? No one will buy commercial time.” 
 
 “It seems her life partner Kelly Walters is hocking the show for any sponsor. I guess Planned Parenthood and Valtrex were unavailable,” Mansour wrote. Valtrex is a drug for treating genital herpes. 
 
 Mansour serves as Palin’s domestic policy adviser and speechwriter. She is a gatekeeper, deciding who gets to see and talk to Palin, and who doesn’t. Mansour also maintains Palin’s online presence. 
 
 Part of her online work, apparently, includes improving Palin’s morale by urging activists to say nice things about the former governor online. 
 
 “Hey can you remember to send BigBoss some love @SarahPalinUSA. She reads her RTs (now that she has the new BB Twitter app) & haters spam her,” Mansour wrote in a May 30, 2010, message. 
 
 When originally contacted by TheDC about the messages, Mansour lied and said none of them were from her. Mansour said she had already encountered the messages and accurately recalled the Twitter handle for their source. 
 
 “I did actually send him one direct message. He was asking for – it was like something really innocuous – he was just asking for information about something. And I just replied and said, ‘no’ or something like that. And then the kid then used that and started to create direct messages. And that was like a real serious thing for me because I realized anyone can do that with like a screencap,” Mansour explained. 
 
 TheDC then took steps to authenticate whether the messages were real, including logging into a Hotmail account that received email announcements from Twitter with the content of the direct messages in them. Two forensic computer analysts verified that the emails had been sent from Twitter’s servers after searching the message source code for signs of forgery. 
 
 Presented with this evidence, Mansour changed her story from an initial denial to anger (“this is really kind of skeezy”), bargaining (“can I just appeal to you to leave the Bristol stuff alone?”), and sadness at the consequences of her words (“this is going to destroy my reputation simply because people will say, ‘why were you sending a direct [message to a Palin activist]?’”). 
 
 In some instances, Mansour admitted to sending the messages and recalled additional context about what she was thinking when she sent them. 
 
 “If you’re asking whether I called Erick Erickson a douchebag once? Absolutely, I probably did, because he’s written some nasty things about my boss.” Minutes later she said, “I believe at the time when I wrote that comment about Erickson he had written a snotty piece about Palin.” 
 
 Finally, rather than answer questions about the context of the messages, Mansour sent a short statement saying the messages were part of “personal private conversations between myself and someone who I thought was a friend.” ||||| Sarah Palin has used Twitter to weigh in constantly on politics and policy, often driving full media frenzies over a one-sentence message. 
 
 But Palin’s account was silent Tuesday morning, as the Daily Caller published direct messages on Twitter from a member of the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate’s inner circle showing the aide’s disdain for some conservative personalities and even criticism of Palin’s daughter. 
 
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 The messages, from Palin spokeswoman Rebecca Mansour, are creating a major headache for Palin’s operation and again leading to questions about Palin’s staff. 
 
 Likely the most damaging internal messages regard Palin’s daughter Bristol, whom Mansour predicts will be held “at arm’s length” by the former Alaska governor. “I wish they were the Cleavers too. But it’s life,” Mansour wrote. “Even Thatcher was never able to disown her screw up son Mark. It’s a Mom thing.” 
 
 A Palin spokesman declined to comment on Mansour. Her current status within the organization is unknown. 
 
 Mansour came to SarahPAC after founding a pro-Palin fan site that attracted the former governor’s attention. Mansour was hired as a policy adviser and speechwriter, but quickly transitioned to the role as Palin’s lead spokesman and representative to the press. 
 
 Mansour frequently responded harshly over Twitter to any negative story or comment about Palin, but was often much less direct in phone conversations. Mansour’s public role, however, has noticeably diminished in recent weeks. She did not make any statement about the story over Twitter, until now her preferred form of communication. 
 
 Mansour is also quoted in the story calling RedState founder Erick Erickson a “total douchebag” after the conservative blogger and activists attended a rally with Palin and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley last year. “Greasy dumb ass with a talent for self-promotion. He threw himself in at the Gov’s SC rally. Self-promotion,” she wrote. 
 
 Erickson responded via a post on RedState by saying that Mansour likely didn’t know he had been asked to attend by Haley’s staff. 
 
 In addition to the damaging Tweets, the Daily Caller reported that Mansour initially denied that she had sent the messages to the unnamed source, claiming they had been doctored. “I did actually send him one direct message. He was asking for – it was like something really innocuous – he was just asking for information about something,” she tried to explain. “And I just replied and said, ‘no’ or something like that. And then the kid then used that and started to create direct messages. And that was like a real serious thing for me because I realized anyone can do that with like a screencap.” 
 
 If Mansour has been let go by SarahPAC, there is unlikely to be any announcement for some time. Staff changes and reshuffles in Palin’s camp are typically announced quietly only weeks or months after the fact. Or Palin watchers might have to wait for an answer until the PAC’s next FEC report to see if the aide is still being paid. ||||| In one instance, Mansour leaked damaging information about a liberal radio host in Alaska. 
 
 “Got a scoop for you about Shannyn Moore. You’ll love this! Feel free to post it far and wide and chat about it everywhere,” Mansour wrote in a July 3, 2010, message, “First, Shannyn gets no pay for her show. In fact, she actually has to pay $150 a hour or $450 a day to rant on the air … Second, ever wonder why there are no sponsors KUDO 1080am’s 11am-2pm show? No one will buy commercial time.” 
 
 “It seems her life partner Kelly Walters is hocking the show for any sponsor. I guess Planned Parenthood and Valtrex were unavailable,” Mansour wrote. Valtrex is a drug for treating genital herpes. 
 
 Mansour serves as Palin’s domestic policy adviser and speechwriter. She is a gatekeeper, deciding who gets to see and talk to Palin, and who doesn’t. Mansour also maintains Palin’s online presence. 
 
 Part of her online work, apparently, includes improving Palin’s morale by urging activists to say nice things about the former governor online. 
 
 “Hey can you remember to send BigBoss some love @SarahPalinUSA. She reads her RTs (now that she has the new BB Twitter app) & haters spam her,” Mansour wrote in a May 30, 2010, message. 
 
 When originally contacted by TheDC about the messages, Mansour lied and said none of them were from her. Mansour said she had already encountered the messages and accurately recalled the Twitter handle for their source. 
 
 “I did actually send him one direct message. He was asking for – it was like something really innocuous – he was just asking for information about something. And I just replied and said, ‘no’ or something like that. And then the kid then used that and started to create direct messages. And that was like a real serious thing for me because I realized anyone can do that with like a screencap,” Mansour explained. 
 
 TheDC then took steps to authenticate whether the messages were real, including logging into a Hotmail account that received email announcements from Twitter with the content of the direct messages in them. Two forensic computer analysts verified that the emails had been sent from Twitter’s servers after searching the message source code for signs of forgery. 
 
 Presented with this evidence, Mansour changed her story from an initial denial to anger (“this is really kind of skeezy”), bargaining (“can I just appeal to you to leave the Bristol stuff alone?”), and sadness at the consequences of her words (“this is going to destroy my reputation simply because people will say, ‘why were you sending a direct [message to a Palin activist]?’”). 
 
 In some instances, Mansour admitted to sending the messages and recalled additional context about what she was thinking when she sent them. 
 
 “If you’re asking whether I called Erick Erickson a douchebag once? Absolutely, I probably did, because he’s written some nasty things about my boss.” Minutes later she said, “I believe at the time when I wrote that comment about Erickson he had written a snotty piece about Palin.” 
 
 Finally, rather than answer questions about the context of the messages, Mansour sent a short statement saying the messages were part of “personal private conversations between myself and someone who I thought was a friend.” ||||| All attend to Palin’s every move with a focus that could be called obsessive, and all are given, in varying degrees of intensity, to juvenile outbursts that can rival C4P at its worst. For instance, among the Immoral Minority’s fictional captions for screen grabs from a Palin interview with Sean Hannity was the following: “Yeah I tole Levi to place his nasty sperm filled nuggets right here before he started his apology to my family. And every time he did not look sorry enough to me, I just gave them a little squeeze.” Still, without these blogs, the world would have much less information about Palin’s life right now. 
 
 Of the group, only Shannyn Moore, an Anchorage radio and TV personality, has any experience as a journalist. Moore and Devon, who consider themselves political activists as well as reporters, have become close friends and share a dream of persuading wealthy donors to give them millions of dollars to renovate an old Anchorage theater as headquarters for a foundation, where they would study Alaskan politics and do proper investigative work on Palin. For now, they do what they can with the meager resources they have, which means they spend a lot of time reading tea leaves. Moore, a green-eyed blonde who, like Palin, was once an Alaska beauty queen, albeit a few stripes more self-aware, drives her Subaru through downtown Anchorage, steering with one hand, holding a cigarette and her smartphone in the other. When Devon calls to tell her that Glenn Beck has booked the Dena’ina Center, the largest venue in Anchorage, for a speech on September 11, 2010, she sits bolt upright and yells. Immediately, they start trying to figure out what the news might mean. “Listen, listen, listen: Why in the world do you imagine Glenn Beck would come to Anchorage on 9/11? You think he might have a special guest? With a special announcement? Oh,” she says, her whole face falling as the implications of a Palin campaign kickoff hit her, “Jesus Christ.” 
 
 The best-known investigative reporter to insert himself into Alaska is Joe McGinniss, the author of The Selling of the President and Fatal Vision, who moved to Wasilla in May to spend the summer reporting for a book about Palin to be published next year by Random House. McGinniss rented the property next door to Palin, who, upon learning his identity, wrote a scathing Facebook post, accompanied by a snapshot of McGinniss standing outside on his deck: “Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden, and the family’s swimming hole?” 
 
 Overnight, C4P, Glenn Beck, talk-radio hosts, and many other Palin allies rallied around. Within 24 hours, McGinniss had received 5,000 hostile e-mails. Death threats were investigated by the F.B.I. A local man who helped move some furniture into McGinniss’s house had one of his truck’s windows shot out. The author, with his disingenuous response to all this, did himself no favors. On the Today show, McGinniss absurdly claimed that he “didn’t expect any publicity at all” for moving in next door to Palin. On July 3, the first anniversary of Palin’s surprise resignation, I had dinner with McGinniss on the deck of his rented house. “I can’t even see her windows!” he said, gesturing across the way. Actually, from where I stood on the deck, even with the 14-foot-high fence the Palins put up the week McGinniss moved in, it was possible to see several of the Palins’ windows, a fair bit of the yard, and much of the lakefront edge of their property. 
 
 McGinniss told me his version of the story of the night Todd came over to ask who he was and what he was doing there. After a tense conversation, McGinniss says, Todd left, and Track Palin, Sarah and Todd’s older son, came out to the front yard “to do sit-ups” while holding what McGinniss assumes was a digital camera—which he figures Track used to take the picture that Sarah posted on Facebook. While McGinniss and I talked, there was no sign of life in the Palin house, and the only noise on the water came from squawking grebes—until about 8:30, when a floatplane roared in for a landing on Lake Lucille. It slowed to a stop directly in front of the Palins’ house, turned, crept closer to the shore, then idled for a long moment in front of us before taking off and heading back in the direction whence it came. The airplane was too far away for me to read the tail number, but it was a white Piper PA-18 Super Cub with red stripes: the same model and colors as Todd Palin’s airplane. 
 
 The Palins that night were in Todd’s hometown of Dillingham, about a two-hour flight southwest of Wasilla. If this was Todd’s plane, and if he was flying it, the choice to make the trip up here seemed odd. Given that this was the anniversary of Sarah’s resignation, it perhaps made sense that the Palins would want assurance that no curiosity seekers would trespass. But why make such a long flight, just for a quick look at the house? “Wouldn’t it be easier to hire a guard?,” I asked aloud. McGinniss, whose reporting has put him in the frame of mind of his subject—where everything is fungible, and everyone is suspect—replied, “A guard would have a story he could sell.” 
 
 City of Fear 
 
 You might be tempted to dismiss such a thought as the product of paranoid contagion—and it does seem at odds with the way Wasilla likes to present itself. Outsiders’ descriptions of the town (population 7,245) usually highlight the strip malls and the drug problems—which are real, but are less salient features of life here than the townspeople’s connection to the landscape, especially the majestic peaks of the Chugach Range to the southeast, visible from almost everywhere. The people of Wasilla, in the main, are reflexively generous and open. During coffee hour after worship at Church on the Rock, where a moose head is mounted over the sanctuary entrance, a member of the congregation invites me to join him for a three-day fishing trip a mere 15 minutes after we meet. 
 
 When I ask about Palin, though, a palpable unease creeps in. Some people clam up. Others whisper invitations to call later—but on this number, not that one, and not before this hour or after that one. So many people answer “Off the record?” to my initial questions that it almost seems the whole town has had media training. They certainly have issues with the press. Some tell of reporters who seduced them with promises—Don’t worry, I’ll make you look good—and then published stories that made them out to be hicks, stupid, less-than. “These were people we let into our house,” one Wasilla resident says. “We served them food.” But the real concern is with Palin herself—they don’t want her to find out they have talked with a reporter, because of a suspicion that bad things will happen to them if she does. The salty, seen-it-all bartender at one of the town’s best restaurants says, “I wish you luck—but I like my job.” Has Palin actually had people fired for talking about her?, I always ask, and the answer always comes, Remember that trooper? The reference is to Mike Wooten, a state policeman who fell out with the family after divorcing one of Sarah Palin’s sisters and ended up at the center of the scandal known as Troopergate. The Alaska Legislative Council found in 2008 that Palin “abused her power” as governor in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired. 
 
 Even Palin’s strongest supporters say they feel confused by what their former governor has become. “She quit us,” says one Wasilla woman. “We elected her, and she left us,” says another. (“Sarah was my babysitter,” she later adds, as an indication of goodwill.) Yet they are too nice to turn me away, and they are too honest to completely suppress what they themselves feel unable to tell. After one local Republican delivers 90 minutes of uninterrupted praise for Palin, I ask whom else I should talk to, and the answer comes so fast it’s like a cry for help—which is how, the next day, I end up in the living room of Colleen Cottle, who is the matriarch of one of Wasilla’s oldest families, and who served on the city council when Palin was mayor. She says she and her husband, Rodney, will pay a price for speaking candidly about Palin. Their son is one of Todd Palin’s best friends. “But it is time for people to start telling the truth,” Colleen says. She describes the frustrations of trying to do city business with a mayor who “had no attention span—with Sarah it was always ‘What’s the flavor of the day?’ ”; who was unable to take part meaningfully in conversations about budgets because she “does not understand math or accounting—she only knows buzzwords, like ‘balanced budget’ ”; and who clocked out after four hours on most days, delegating her duties to an aide—“but he’ll never talk to you, because he has a state job and doesn’t want to lose it.” This type of conversation is repeated so often that Wasilla starts to feel like something from The Twilight Zone or a Shirley Jackson short story—a place populated entirely by abuse survivors. ||||| « That Uganda Beheading Story | Main | Not Even Civil Unions » 
 
 
 
 
 
 From Mercede Johnston's blog: 
 
 The message was from my mother saying that Levi, who has not spoken to us since he rekindled his relationship with Bristol (although we had attempted repeatedly to call or text him), left a message saying that if I did not take my blog down by Wednesday that I would never get to see him, or Tripp, again. I could not believe it! I thought to myself if he was really willing to make such a threat that he would at least have the decency to call me and talk about it first. I mentioned on my blog repeatedly that my intention was not to hurt or attack the Palins, but to speak out and tell the public my side of the story. As well as how badly my life, and the lives of our family members, had been impacted by our association with the Palins. It had my mind spinning. How could my brother threaten me like this? 
 
 That's a very good question. So is the question of how Palin finally put the screws on Levi. In Palinland, no one knows what's really going on. But I wonder if this is a somewhat panicked response to the recent blip upwards in web interest in the Trig question. With all these family members able to speak to the public and McGinniss digging deeper, Todd and Sarah may have felt the need to crack down and use Levi's access to Tripp and Bristol as their latest weapon. Mercede has this to say about Levi's latest statement, which reads like a man who has a metaphorical gun to his head: 
 
 As for this new People magazine article where my brother “Apologizes to the Palins” I am extremely disappointed in him. Not only is he being controlled like a puppet, but saying that all of his comments and stories were lies is absurd! I know for a fact that all of his comments were true. I lived through all this and I remember clear as day all of the times that Levi would come home and tell me about Sarah complaining, or fights going on between the family, .etc. I know he wasn’t making all that up, why would he have back then? I am very disappointed that he is allowing them to control him in such a manner. 
 
 A message to all those under Palin's thumb in Alaska. Don't be intimidated. The only thing to do with bullies like Todd Palin is to face them down. Or in Mercede's words:
– It pays to know who your social media friends are: Sarah Palin's spokeswoman and perhaps fiercest defender has egg on her face today after a former Palin supporter leaked a series of not-so-subtle Twitter direct messages to the Daily Caller. Rebecca Mansour savaged top Republicans in the private messages—and even Palin's own family, notes Politico. A sampling of the highlights: On Bristol Palin's former plans to marry Levi Johnston: “I wish they were the Cleavers too. But it’s life. Two words: Patti Davis. Okay three more: Ron Reagan Junior. Two more: Billy Carter. Doesn’t your family have one?" Then: “She will hold her at arm’s length. Even Thatcher was never able to disown her screw up son Mark. It’s a Mom thing." On Joe McGinniss: “Time to find a way to go medieval on this McGinniss. Don’t be fooled by the light tone of the [Facebook] post. The BigBoss is so upset by this.” Then, in response to an unknown message: “I was thinking more along the lines of mailing him a dead fish." On endorsing Nikki Haley: Palin “took a big risk in endorsing Nikki. You don’t pick a loser in SC. Very important state. Mitt has no hope of winning it, so…he could endorse a 4th place underdog ‘cuz his strategy for ‘12 is ignore the South. SC is crucial to someone like the Gov. She took a risk." To supporters: “Hey can you remember to send BigBoss some love @SarahPalinUSA. She reads her RTs (now that she has the new BB Twitter app) & haters spam her." Mansour's Twitter account is here.