The New York Times had a disturbing piece yesterday, taking a behind-the-scenes look at the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. It seems his campaign staff didn't vet her nearly as well as they'd said.

As for the process itself, it was as many suspected:

Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.

With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain’s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months.

"They didn’t seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before," said a Republican close to the campaign. "This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn’t get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge."

If that didn't do it for you, here's the jaw-dropper:

A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.

Over the weekend, McCain's team performed a classic campaign news dump -- hoping to smuggle revelelations of teen pregnancies, DUI citations, and membership in seccessionist groups behind the wall-to-wall coverage of Hurricane Gustav.

We'll see if it works. None of those items are terribly serious (the Alaskan Independence Party membership will cause a few headaches), but they do make you wonder what else might soon come out. The media and the Obama/Biden campaign are now in every records office in Alaska; if there's something there, they'll surely find it.

What at first appeared a foolish choice -- and then brilliant -- may end up being foolish after all.

UPDATE: The McCain campaign responds to the NYT story. Here's a bit:

The AP quotes Steve Schmidt saying the campaign was prepared to send a "jump team" to the home state of whoever was selected for the second spot. But Bumiller has her own version: "A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice." A Republican with ties to the campaign? How about a Republican on the campaign? It's not as though the leadership of this campaign was unwilling or unable to talk to the New York Times, in fact, they were already on the record answering these questions.