Buchanan smears Palin?

I don’t know whether Palin ever supported Buchanan, but what about this?

A meme is developing out there among liberals that Gov. Sarah Palin was a supporter of Pat Buchanan in the 1990s, a charge that the McCain-Palin campaign strongly denies.

Palin denies having been a Buchanan brigadista, as does the McCain campaign. Buchanan, however, claims otherwise to Chris Matthews:

Buchanan told Chris Matthews yesterday that Palin “was a brigader in 1996 as was her husband, Chris, they were at a fundraiser for me, she’s a terrific gal, she’s a rebel reformer.”

They were “at a fundraiser”? Even Code Pink members have managed to show up at GOP fundraisers, so I’m not sure that constitutes proof. Nor does the McCain campaign:

McCain-Palin campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb writes: “Governor Palin has never worked for any effort to elect Pat Buchanan — that assertion is completely false. As Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin did attend an event with Mr. Buchanan in her home town where reports described her wearing a Buchanan for President button. She wore the button as a courtesy to Mr. Buchanan and in an effort to make him feel welcome during his visit, but immediately sent a letter to the editor of her local paper clarifying that the button should not have been interpreted as an endorsement of any kind.”
Buchanan of course has a long history of quite questionable comments, particularly about Jews.

I have to say that of all the arguments that have come up against Palin, this one would make me the most nervous, if it were true.
Is it?
The JTA has looked into the claim and come up dry. There’s no evidence that she supported Buchanan in any material way, other than sporting the button, which she says she did out of courtesy:

Wexler’s comments appear based on a 1999 report that Palin wore a Buchanan button during Buchanan’s visit to Wasilla, the town she then led as mayor. At that time, however, Palin had written a letter to the local paper explaining that she wore campaign buttons as a matter of courtesy when candidates came to visit the town.
Palin was an official of the campaign of Steve Forbes, who like Buchanan was contending for the Republican presidential nomination.
Buchanan said he recalls meeting Palin at a 1996 fund-raiser in Alaska, but no record of her donating or supporting Buchanan at that time has surfaced.

(Buchanan did win the 1996 GOP primary in Alaska, so wearing the button in ’99 may also have been a smart political move on her part, even though she appears to have been a Forbes supporter.)
Palin’s Wiki entry makes no mention of Buchanan, and I’m coming up dry where it comes to hard proof.
From what I can see so far, what we have is Buchanan’s word against hers, and the left takes Buchanan at his word. Certainly, he’s not helping her by claiming she was a brigader, so the question becomes why would he do that?
Certainly not to help McCain.
Not if this piece reflects his current views.
Or this:

Pretty unfriendly stuff.
Frankly, unless there was a showing of genuine repentance, I doubt McCain would pick a Buchanan brigader to be his running mate.