Report: McCain still vetting Palin

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Republicans close to the campaign say John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his U.S. presidential ticket running mate with more haste than his advisers disclosed.

The McCain campaign was calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to more thoroughly examine Palin's background, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The team initially sent to Alaska to vet Palin, Alaska's governor, didn't arrive there until the day before McCain revealed her as his choice for a running mate, the Times reported.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, aides said he knew before it was made public that Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant but the aides were vague Monday on how, when and from whom he learned of the pregnancy, the Times reported.

It also was revealed Monday that Palin has hired a lawyer for an ethics investigation in Alaska regarding her firing of a public safety commissioner and that she was a member in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has considered whether the state should secede, the Times reported.

There was no sign the disclosures would jeopardize her formal nomination this week at the Republican National Convention, the Times reported.