Sean Parnell’s role as a faithful Sarah Palin loyalist is underscored in the Palin emails released last week, which show him feeding her information about a critic, praying for her and defending the oil tax increase he’s now trying to roll back.

Parnell, now Alaska’s governor, was always publicly supportive of Palin when he was her lieutenant governor. The released Palin emails only reinforce that, showing him supporting her behind the scenes, and checking with her before he made speeches. Like all lieutenant governors, he was eager to be included as a part of the governor’s decision-making.

On the evening of Aug. 29, 2007 Palin sent Parnell an email with the subject line “Pray for wisdom…”

“For us, for the team... And may God's will be done with His resources,” Palin emailed from her blackberry.

Parnell emailed her back 10 minutes later.

“I just pulled into my driveway after having prayed for wisdom for you in this . Thankful we serve the same Creator. Also, thank you for including me in the discussion. It meant a lot to be able to participate.”

The email string doesn’t say what issue they were discussing. But the next day Palin announced the beleaguered state-owned Matanuska Maid dairy would be offered for sale after losing nearly $300,000 the previous month. Palin had acted earlier in the summer to stop the creamery board from selling the operation, citing concerns for what that would do to dairy farmers.

In February 2008, Parnell emailed Palin information about Andrew Halcro, who on his blog had been sharply critical of Palin about the Mat-Maid issue, oil taxes, and other subjects.

“I don 't know how I missed it but I'm told Halcro's brother-in-law is this high ranking exec at BP (thought you might like to know how he must get some of his information),” Parnell wrote her.

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