MSNBC claims Palin got zero support for her idea, only it wasn't hers, and others supported it

Gov. Sarah Palin "got precisely zero support for her call for Alaska's Democratic Senator Mark Begich to resign because Ted Stevens' corruption conviction was overturned."

Rachel Maddow on Monday, April 6th, 2009 in an episode of her MSNBC show.

... But the idea was pushed by Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican chairman who first proposed it, and it was backed by conservative blogs. ConservativeHQ.com, for example, sent out an e-mail alert saying, "The people of Alaska, and all Americans, must rise up and demand that Mark Begich resign."

But Wev Shea, a former U.S. attorney now in private practice in Anchorage, did not specifically call on Begich to resign but he endorsed the idea of a special election and told the New York Times, "There’s a groundswell all over the state for a special election."

So Maddow left her viewers with two incorrect impressions -- that Palin had initiated the idea for Begich's resignation, and that no one else supported her. In fact, it wasn't Palin's idea, and she wasn't particularly wedded to it, and others supported it. We find Maddow's claim False.

[The fear, and so drumbeat, continues...]

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