Palin to event organizers: Wait, what invitation?

Once again, there’s serious confusion surrounding an event whose organizers thought they had booked Sarah Palin.

For weeks, the Alaska Family Council has been touting Sarah Palin as the keynote speaker at a fundraiser tonight in Anchorage. Apparently, Palin never got the memo. Via the Ancorage Daily News:

Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said Wednesday, in response to inquiries from the Daily News about tonight’s event, that “this is the first we have ever heard of a speech.” She said Palin is out of state and won’t be there.

The organizers of the event say they booked the former governor’s apperance through “Palin contacts.” Alaska Lt. Gov. Loren Leman even sent out a recorded telephone message asking Anchorage residents to come out and see the conservative star.

This would be the fourth time Palin’s people denied being invited to an event whose organizers thought she was on board, including high profile scheduling flubs at a Republican fundraiser in DC and an appearance at the Reagan library in California.

The head of the family council declined to get specific about how screwed the pooch on this one:

“All we can do is take people at their word that we’ve worked with in the past,” Minnery said. “We’ve been working for several weeks on the event, promoting it very heavily. It would be a grave disappointment if she doesn’t show up but the show will still go on.”

He declined to say who the organizers had been speaking to. “I’d just prefer to keep it kind of anonymous right now, especially since you’re hearing something that’s opposite of what we’ve been hearing.”

At this point, one has to wonder if there’s a con man out there pretending to be Sarah Palin’s scheduler, excepting booking fees, then dropping off the radar.