We at Various Things & Stuff have been surprised by the level of defensiveness that Republicans and conservatives have shown since John McCain announced Friday that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be his pick for vice president. We just figured the rhetoric was so shrill because the level of desperation was so high.

Not hardly, as a glance at this morning’s Huffington Post shows.

First, Palin’s firing of the Alaska public safety commissioner is apparently not her first firing scandal. As mayor of the tiny berg of Wasilla, she fired the police chief and the library director because they didn’t support her in the election. (Seriously!) And it doesn’t stop there: She also asked for the resignations of several other key officers of her town’s government, as a test of loyalty.

Oh, and she’s too busy running for vice president to be interviewed by the special counsel investigating the commissioner firing, which allegedly took place after he refused to fire Palin’s ex-brother-in-law who was embroiled in a child custody dispute with Palin’s sister. Subpoenas have been mentioned.

Next, although Palin is known for taking on Republican corruption in Alaska — and you can’t swing a bowl of moose stew in Alaska without hitting a corrupt Republican — she was a director of a 527 campaign committee for … U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, the target of a corruption investigation and a part of Alaska’s Republican elite! Apparently, she and Stevens were closer than previously thought.

Finally, Palin seems to believe that our military misadventure (to which she’s lending a son this month) is a divine task. Hey. what’s the word for that? A war waged on behalf of God? Oh, yeah: Crusade! (If you guessed “dangerous religious fantasy,” give yourself the points anyway. That applies.)

It’s little wonder that some are questioning how deeply Palin was vetted. Her neighbors and some party leaders in Alaska say they weren’t contacted, or didn’t know of anybody who was. We know that McCain was pushing for Joe Lieberman to be his vice president, until party leaders threatened to revolt at the convention since Lieberman still votes with the Democrats in the Senate. If Palin was a second choice (or further down the list) is it possible that her vetting fell victim to a compressed schedule?

In any case, we just hope our conservative friends don’t read the Huffington Post. They could be downright depressed!

UPDATE: Never fear. It turns out that Republican attorneys are currently in Alaska to vet Palin. Sure, the vetting is supposed to happen before the announcement, the convention and the hype machine. But this was clearly a last-minute thing.

Should have known that anybody endorsed that vigorously by Bill Kristol had to be a loser. He’s got a perfect record in that department.