But lest you think Palin had given up McCarthy’s ghost, she also indulged in some more casual red-baiting of Obama.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann can’t seem to remember the truth about her ugly McCarthyism comments, which she uttered on Friday.

By Monday, amnesia had set in.

On a radio show with John McCaslin, she said that it was “absolutely a lie” that she was “calling for members of Congress to be investigated on their anti-American views.”

But on Chris Matthews’s “Hardball” on Friday, she said: “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.”

For the smear charge and the denial, she should get the Joe McCarthy award of the year.

Sarah Palin, for her part, has started to backpedal on her own charges of anti-Americanism.

Last week she praised “these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation.

On CNN on Tuesday, she tried to distance herself from that remark.

“I don't want that misunderstood,” she said. “No, I do not want that misunderstood. You know, when I go to these rallies and we see the patriotism just shining through these people's faces and the Vietnam veterans wearing their hats so proudly and they have tears in their eyes as we sing our national anthem and it is so inspiring and I say that this is true America, you get it, you understand how important it is that in the next four years we have a leader who will fight for you. I certainly don't want that interpreted as one area being more patriotic or more American than another. If that's the way it's come across, I apologize.”

But lest you think Palin had given up McCarthy’s ghost, she also indulged in some more casual red-baiting of Obama.

CNN: Governor, is Barack Obama a socialist?

Palin: I'm not gonna call him a socialist, but, as Joe the plumber had suggested, in fact he came right out and said it sounds like socialism to him and he speaks for so many Americans who are quite concerned now…

Palin doesn’t have in her hands a list. No, she pawns it off on Joe the plumber.