Alaska Paper Digs Deeper Into Our Story About Palin’s Dissembling
The indispensable Anchorage Daily News has now picked up our story on the big fib Sarah Palin told when justifying her decision to quit. And the Alaska paper’s big piece this morning on this added some more fun detail on the almost comic dissembling at the heart of this story.
As we did yesterday, the ADN got a spokesperson for Palin’s office to concede that the “millions” of dollars that funded efforts to fend off ethics complaints against her administration would have gone to state lawyers anyway, and was not drained away from cops, schools, road repair and sea research, as Palin asserted as a chief reason for quitting.
But ADN took it further. The paper asked the governor’s office to square that fact with Palin’s claim that the money would otherwise have gone to other municipal services. Here’s the reply from Palin spokesperson Sharon Leighow:
Asked about that, Leighow said staffers from multiple state agencies had to set aside their normal duties. State lawyers were also pulled off cases, she said.
“Important legal issues involving the state’s interests were delayed in order to respond to these complaints. That means lost value to the state, which is measurable in dollars,” she said.
Really? Staffers that would otherwise have contributed to police work, road repair, education, and sea research were pulled in to help the governor’s office deal with the legal ins and outs of ethics complaints? That’s the official explanation for Palin’s claim now? Interesting…
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The paper is named the Anchorage Daily News.
I love how Palin defenders don’t even try to mention her abilities or qualifications. They don’t care about her lies or her capabilities because she is “authentic.” They are utterly delusional if they think Palin can win anything after quitting her only job that qualifies her for politics.
Greg, I must say, you never miss a beat.
I hope that they gave you a little plug in their article as well.. you deserve it.
I don’t pretend to know the real reason for Palin’s resignation but this is yet another case of “either you’re ignorant or you’re lying”. Based on her earlier performances, I’m going with ignorant.
Really it’s lies upon lies. I’m sure what she’ll do next is travel around the country raising money for her PAC and attack the Obama administration at every possible venue.
As with almost every single GOP based story, all it really takes is a decent journalist or two willing to dig just under the blatently bogus surface layer.
Let’s hope one of the traditional media outlets actually asks her a straightforward, tough, question on these facts.
heh.
heh.
hah.
LOL!
More **** from her aides. Don’t they realize the irony of pulling in all those staffers from other agencies means sarah & her minions were panicking and didn’t know **** how to respond to those ethics complaints ?
You people are hilarious, it is obvious that money spent defending the governor against frivolous leftist attacks is money that would be spent for othere purposes. if the lawyers were working on projects more beneficial to Alaskans then Sarah is accurate in stating that this is detrimental to Alaskan’s overall. Why don’t you just get off her back, concentrate on making sure Barrack backs up all of his promises made during the campaign about transparency, closing Guantanamo, etc…since most of those are falling by the wayside.
I would say its time for a directed question. Sarah Palin’s spokesperson should be ask what specific projects would these people have been working on but for the complaints and the FOI requests. And when they can’t come up with any they should be called out for their bullsh*t. Besides that nobody has asked her about the veto override that is coming on her Stimulus veto which will be a resounding rebuke of her administration. That to me is one area that is being underplayed.
As far as her own personal lawyer bills go, why did she bother hiring a personal lawyer? She did not NEED one, the state is responsible for defending the Governor on ethics complaints so she did not need to hire her own lawyer.
Matt, your attempt a smokescreen is hee-haw hilarious. Here’s the quote that started the whole thing: “During her resignation speech last week, Palin presented herself as a heroic defender of the taxpayer. She said that money being spent on government lawyers to defend against these frivolous ethics violations could be going to things that are very important, like troopers and roads and teachers and fish research.” Plumline confirmed that this is a lie. The money in question is already budgeted to the lawyers: it cannot be used for roads or teachers or cops. Whatever “good” the lawyers may do, they won’t be repairing roads or teaching kids or doing fishery studies.It was a direct quote from Palin. She either lied or she doesn’t understand how her own budget works. Admit it. Or follow the example of your heroine and just quit.
Dean
.
Matt is a wingnut, that means he is oblivious to facts.
I think you must have a thing for her with all this coverage. She doesn’t sell well on the national stage. She may make some money off a book deal, or a speaking tour… but as a viable candidate? All I can say is let her waste her time & money.
The day is coming soon when Sarah Palin won’t have any kind of hold over the executive branch in Alaska. I think at that point the shoes might start dropping.
Frivolous leftist attacks!! Of Course, never thought of that one LOL And to any Republican, because they only defend themselves with money, it gets expensive! Con equivalent to an “ejector seat” when shot down. She was probably tired, incompetent, and sick of being in the wrong party.
Wait a minute – since when does a state pay lawyers to represent the governor who is charged with PERSONAL ethics violations? Why does Sarah have her own defense fund? Why did James Dobson send her defense fund 5 figures?
I have never known a state AG’s office to go to bat for personal illegalities the governor may have committed.
Nothing about this story makes sense. Nothing.
The more you all talk about her, and the more you try to find dirt on her, the more you all are digging the grave for your so-called “cause”. Keep it up, you’re pissing off the wrong people.
“The more you all talk about her, and the more you try to find dirt on her, the more you all are digging the grave for your so-called “cause”. Keep it up, you’re pissing off the wrong people.”
ROFLMAO!!!!!! After I fell out of the chair sideways, laughing.
OOoooo – I’m so scared of the loony 15% of the country who thinks this woman is qualified to do anything other than run around in a “Proud to be Trailer Trash” tee shirt and long earrings and toenail decals.
Yeah I’m terrified of the Alaskan Tonya Harding. Uh huh.
Dude, you are beyond deluded.
You do realize that the state runs the prosecution, right? That is, state money would be spent PROSECUTING Palin. Do you not see how the state’s resources are spent on a court case even when the defendant is covering their own defense entirely?
Don’t get me wrong – I can’t stand Palin. But you’re just being ridiculous. You don’t have to be ridiculous to talk about how lame Palin is. There’s plenty of legit things to write about.
Ms. Palin should be given the opportunity to correct her remarks. She should be asked whether she a) did not know that funding allocations to legal could not be used for roads, fisheries, etc. or b) she deliberately lied about that budget allocation for personal gain. If ‘a’, then is incompetence a reason to step down? If ‘b”, then shouldn’t she apologize to the media and Alaska residents?
don’t
mind
me.
just
testing.
2/3 of the $296K cost to Alaska of ethics complaints were related to the complaint Palin herself filed. So, setting that one aside, we’re talkin’ less than $100K, or about as much money as Palin grabbed for stay-at-home per diems and family travel on the state’s budget.
All the Palins had to do to end speculation about the Housegate issue was simply release the names of the anonymous contractor “buddies” who built their half-million-dollar lakeside house down the road from the Wasilla Sports Complex worksite.
SBS, a major arena contractor, also sponsors Todd’s racing team.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/the-house-that-todd-built/
The problem with all this is the loony toon fundelmentalist want to make this a religious state like Iran. No diffeence between Jerry Falwell and one of the mulahs in Iran. Fishlady is a joke and for the repubs to pick her as VP shocked. I have given up my Republican roots and now I am clearly an Independant or swing voter who definitely will not swing to Palin. This is a person who belives the world is 10,000 years old. The diamond ring on her finger is several million years old. No, this swing voter will not swing. At least the Demo’s have a plan and change is what I voted for. Not to change America, but to change it back!
RE: “Really? Staffers that would otherwise have contributed to police work, road repair, education, and sea research were pulled in to help the governor’s office deal with the legal ins and outs of ethics complaints??”
No, generally policeman, road workers, teachers, etc don’t do legal. That takes lawyers. Lawyers who would have otherwise been working on other state matters. They aren’t just sitting there tapping their fingers waiting for the next ethics complaint. And lawyers make pretty good money last I checked. And they probably have to confer with and take depositions from those in other governent agencies named in the complaints. I see no conflict. If the lawyers stay busy with these baseless leftist “ethics” complaints, you eventually have to hire more lawyers to fill in the gaps everywhere else. Other responsibilities don’t just go away magically. And that takes money. Money that COULD be better spent. On police, education, or snow blowers.
This is perhaps the weakest argument I’ve seen recently.
It should be noted that Palin supported and signed the very ethics legislation that is now repeatedly being used against her in an organized effort. So far, 15 complaints have been filed against her and all 15 found to be baseless and dismissed….after much legal wrangling.
BTW, can you name any other unsuccessful VP candidate that remains in the news 7 months after an election?
The reason the radical left continues to pull the Alinsky Attack model on her is because she is seen as a viable threat. Same ol same…Identify the valuable target, isolate, and attack relentlessly to accomplish “change”. It’s become fashionable to call that “community organizing” these days. Lord help us all.
If I were Governor in her position, I’d probably say “screw this’ too. And I probably couldn’t make a clean classy exit without flying at least one “one finger salute” on my way out.
Now have fun dissecting each of my words, isolating them out of context, and attacking them ad nauseum. That’s what the radical left does best. Straight out of “Rules For Radicals”
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