Conservative Parker calls for Palin to go

A conservative columnist who welcomed Sarah Palin's entry in national politics says she's proved to be a dud and should step aside as John McCain's running mate.

Kathleen Parker, writing in National Review Online, says her "cringe reflex is exhausted" after watching the Alaska governor stumble through TV interviews and it's become clear to her that Palin is out of her league.

"No one hates saying that more than I do," Parker writes. "Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does."

Joseph Biden charged Thursday during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania that John McCain's tax proposals for health insurance would be "the largest tax increase in the history of America for the middle class." He was wrong.

McCain does propose taxing the health benefits that some 156 million people get through the workplace. That's a major change, because now no income taxes are levied on those benefits, but it's not the whole story.

What Biden didn't say was that McCain also proposes to give the insured a new tax break in exchange -- a $2,500 tax credit for individuals and a $5,000 tax credit for families.

For most families, that tax credit would, for several years, be more generous than the current tax break for employer-sponsored health insurance.

The cable network MSNBC on Friday stopped airing a commercial by two liberal groups that makes an issue of John McCain's past bouts with skin cancer and demands that he release his medical records.

"The ad had not been thoroughly vetted prior to air, and has since been removed from our commercial rotation," NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said in an e-mail.

CNN had already declined to run the ad, but MSNBC ran it several times Thursday evening and Friday morning before the network halted it.

The 30-second ad was financed by Democracy for America and Brave New PAC, political action committees that have already aired another anti-McCain ad. Democracy for America is headed by James Dean, the brother of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she will donate to charity more than $1,000 in campaign contributions from two Alaska politicians implicated in a federal corruption probe. She also is giving back $1,000 from the wife of one of the men.

"Governor Palin has made a career of holding herself to the highest standards of ethics. As soon as the governor learned of the donations today, she immediately decided to donate them to charity," campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said.

Seven of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's top aides defied subpoenas for their testimony Friday at a legislative hearing into whether she abused her power when she fired her public safety commissioner this summer.

Alaska Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, D-Anchorage, said the witnesses could be found in contempt when the full Legislature convenes in January.

Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg filed a lawsuit on behalf of the seven workers Thursday challenging the subpoenas.