Culvahouse also detailed which stumper questions the top VP choices were asked, including whether they were ready to use nuclear weapons and whether they would take a shot at Osama bin Laden even if it meant the death of civilians. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “hit them out of the park,” said Culvahouse, without saying what the correct answers were.

He said, mysteriously, that other candidates had not performed as well: that means at least one possible 2012 candidate like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty might have lost out at this stage of the process.

Culvahouse was blunt about Palin’s ability to serve as president: “I don’t think she would have been ready on Jan. 20, but few people would.” At the end of his interview, he informed McCain that Palin would be a “high risk, high reward” pick for the job. McCain’s response?

You shouldn’t have told me that. I’ve been a risk-taker all my life.

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I didn’t check Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s claim in her acceptance speech for the GOP vice presidential nomination on Wednesday night that she had sold the governor’s “luxury” jet on eBay.

Luckily, The Los Angeles Times is on the case.

It turns out Palin did put the 23-year-old jet on eBay. But it didn’t sell.

A local entrepreneur ultimately bought it for $2.1 million — $300,000 below asking price.

What was this luxury 10-seater’s main use? To ferry convicts to a prison in Arizona. From The Times:

Because Alaska does not have adequate prison capacity, it contracts for space with a private facility near Phoenix. On Thursday, 24 percent of the 4,546 Alaskans in jail or prison were serving their time at Arizona’s Red Rock Correctional Center, said Richard Schmitz, spokesman for the Alaska Dept. of Corrections.

When the state began using the plane in November 2005, prisoner transport accounted for 58 percent of the jet’s use, and Murkowski’s office used it 23 percent of the time. Over time, Murkowski’s usage increased.

Today, without the jet, the U.S. Marshals Service transports 90 percent of Alaska prisoners to Arizona, with Alaska Airlines taking the rest on commercial flights.

Maybe someone should check just what happened to that private chef. Just kidding!

Mike Lillis and Matt DeLong are pitching in to help me comb through everything. One of the interesting documents we’ve come across so far is the memorandum from 2000 (available here) outlining why the town should hire a federal lobbyist. According to the document and accompanying contract, it looks like the lobbyist started about four and a half months sooner than previously disclosed. The city council approved a $15,000 initial budget for the plan without much fanfare. The item passed unanimously and without public discussion, along with a list of other more mundane city politics business, according to meeting minutes from Feb. 14, 2000.

The resolution explains that the firm, Robertson, Monagle & Eastbaugh, had been successful in getting money federal money for a neighboring city. As The Washington Post reported this week, the lobbyist from the firm eventually assigned to Wasilla, Steven Silver, had worked on Sen. Ted Stevens’ staff. I just spoke with the city’s current mayor, Dianne M. Keller, who confirmed that Silver is still the town’s federal lobbyist.

In 2000, the city wanted money for a variety of public works and safety projects, plus “weapons” for its small police force:

The city could use the assistance of a lobbyist to receive appropriations with a number of projects including: $6.6 million for Wasilla Water Utility Improvements, two 12-inch wells, well pump houses, 3-million-gallon reservoir and transmission mains; $3.2 million Urban Storm Retention and Lake Water Quality Improvements, three lift stations, oversizing for pipes (Parks Hwy), side road connections; and $90K for various Wasilla Police Department safety equipment, communication needs and weapons.

The hire was a smart move. Between 2000 and 2003, Wasilla received $11.9 million in federal money, plus another $15.9 million in money specifically for transportation improvements. During that time, Sen. John McCain, a strong opponent of the earmarking system, complained three times about specific earmark projects heading for Wasilla, The Los Angeles Times reports today.

Palin has positioned herself as a reformer, announcing how she killed the infamous “bridget nowhere earmark” — without mentioning her initial support for the project. She’s got some serious repositioning to do to pull off the fiscal-reformer image.

A new montage of criticism of the pick is gaining ground on YouTube, featuring reporters like Mark Halperin; prominent Democrats, like Paul Begala and James Carville; and even former GOP officials, like David R. Gergen. The video is accompanied by text rebuking McCain:

In his first presidential decision, Senator John McCain did not put country first. At a time of grave international threat, Senator McCain took a reckless and impulsive gamble in order to make a shallow political statement.

So far, Obama and his aides have done little to fan these flames. Obama’s strongest remarks on the topic, in fact, came in defense of Palin’s family, when he urged the media to back off prying into her daughter’s pregnancy. Yet there is a huge opening here, for Obama, or his surrogates, to hammer McCain for putting politics above country.

PRODUCTION NOTES: The homemade video sticks to the basics: clips of prominent political and media figures making the case against McCain, set to a looped instrumental score that suggests looming panic. The only editorial additions come in the video’s conclusion, where a few lines of white text argue that McCain’s choice, given his medical history, has literally put the nation “in peril.”

Arthur B. Culvahouse, McCain’s vetter-in-chief, told The Associated Press‘ Liz Sidoti the process was painstaking. But The New York Times reported today that a Republican souce said the McCain campaign’s Palin-vetting team didn’t even arrive in Alaska until Thursday, just one day before McCain announced Palin as his running mate.

During a photo-op at a fire station here this morning, McCain took the extreme measure of answering a question from the press to defend his campaign’s vetting efforts:

“The vetting process was completely thorough and I’m grateful for the results.”

This just in – Laura McGann reports NOBODY requested records about Palin’s stint as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from the city clerk, the person responsible for maintaining those records! A completely thorough vetting process indeed.

I told her I appreciated her help, since I’m sure she’s been bombarded with requests these last few weeks. The clerk’s office keeps all City Council meeting agendas, minutes, legislation, ordinances, etc. She chuckled. Then she told me that I’m the first person who has asked her office for anything.