*A private attorney is authorized to spend $95,000 of state money to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.

*Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.

*Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska, with some members supporting secession from the United States.

*She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.

McCain's aides rejected suggestions from Democrats that her selection was a hurried, last-minute attempt to shake up the campaign and wrest female voters from Barack Obama. They insisted Palin was a finalist from the start.

But one senior Republican familiar with the search, who requested anonymity because McCain did not authorize the conversation, said Palin had virtually fallen from the radar. Only late in the summer, when McCain asked for more alternatives, was she made a finalist.

As conservatives closed ranks behind their like-minded foe of abortion, former presidential candidate Fred Thompson used his prime-time address to defend Palin on Tuesday.

"Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit," Thompson said.

When she was introduced as McCain's running mate last week, Palin portrayed herself as a political maverick in McCain's mold: "I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies and the good old boy network," she said.

But Alaska's first female governor has at times benefited from Alaska's entrenched political system.