Here's an interesting bit from mudflats.com, an Alaskan blog, in reference to those ethics probes. Once again, she gets the information wrong (grossly
overstates what it cost the taxpayers) plus, the one that cost the most money, is the one she herself initiated.
Did she not expect this? Is this "tough cookie" not able to handle the scrutiny?
The only bit of scrutiny that I think was absolutely off-base and disgusting was when people speculated that her youngest child was actually her grandchild. Now, some of you say that this talk goes on to this day, but the vast majority of news agencies, even MSNBC and Olbermann, dropped it after a day or two. It isn't still an issue that is in the public eye, unlike some of the other issues like the ethics probes.
Look at Hillary Clinton, of whom I am not a fan in case you're wondering. There are people who openly speculated that she had Vince Foster murdered. That she's a lesbian. She was publicly, world wide, when her husband confessed to having a sexual relationship with an intern. I would say that Hillary has been lambasted, probed, investigated, criticized, you name it, a great deal more than Palin, and yet she was a U.S. Senator, a Presidential candidate, and now the Secretary of State.
If Palin doesn't have the stomach for national politics, and believe me, I wouldn't blame her if she doesn't, then she needs to stay the hell out of it. I get so tired of hearing how poor Sarah has been so unfairly targeted for criticism and scrutiny. She hasn't been. Her problem is that she was unable to defend against so much of it because she was wholly unprepared to be VPOTUS.
Numbers Shmumbers…Every governor has political enemies. Everybody in the upper echelons of public office has enemies that will do anything to make them look bad and bring them down. Sarah Palin is not all alone in this. She is unique in that she went from being the Governor of a state that is pretty much out of the national public eye, as opposed to Governors from say NY or California, to being a candidate for VPOTUS, so the level of scrutiny and attention she received magnified by about a thousand overnight.
2
07
2009
"In the past two years, the state of Alaska has spent millions of dollars processing ethics complaints, public records requests, and related lawsuits."
That was the claim coming from the office of Governor Sarah Palin, who likes to use the phrase "frivolous ethics complaints." That was nine days ago.
Today, we learn that "millions of dollars" is in fact, actually $296,000, as far as ethics complaints go. Numbers shmumbers.
The complete breakdown is not yet available, but we do know this about the three spendiest ones:
$187,797 stemmed from the Troopergate investigation, a good chunk of which Palin initiated herself. We'll get back to that.
$43,028 stemmed from a complaint by Andree McLeod which resulted in a recommendation that a state employee undergo ethics training for a series of "troubling emails."
$29,962 most likely came from the "travel gate" investigation in which Palin reimbursed almost $10,000 for expenses billed to the state for her children's travel expenses.
That's the top three, none of which sound particularly "frivolous." So once we crunch the numbers, it's highly likely that the most expensive investigation brought about by an individual, is Palin's investigation of herself. And let's just review that one more time.
The Legislature found enough evidence to approve $100,000 to investigate Palin's firing of the Commissioner of Public Safety, in light of accusations that he was dismissed for not firing her ex-brother-in-law with whom there was bad blood. They spent $75,000 of the money allocated, and the bipartisan Legislative Council (composed of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats) voted unanimously to go forward. An independent investigation by someone that they all agreed to found that Palin violated the Executive Branch Ethics Act. They unanimously voted to release that decision to the public.
As a counter-measure, and a panicked move to look good during the campaign, Palin (with the advice from the McCain cadre of lawyers headed up by Ed O'Callaghan who had no license to practice law in the State of Alaska) initiated her own ethics complaint against herself, knowing that the outcome would be decided by a friendly panel of governor-appointed people who report to her. Guess what? They found her innocent, and refused to even investigate the matter of testimony from Palin that went completely against testimony from the former commissioner. Frivolous ethics complaint? No….a calculated one that the state paid for.
What did the legislature do about their own $75,000 investigation that found the governor in violation of the Ethics Act? Nothing. So, why did we, as a state, pay that $75,000? What did we get for that money? Maybe that's the question we should be asking.
Speaking of not knowing what you get for your money…
Palin herself reportedly has incurred over $600,000 in personal legal bills defending against complaints, although she won't provide a breakdown of the expenses or what cases they were for. Palin friends and supporters set up a legal defense fund and are soliciting contributions for her legal bills.
Did she not expect this? Is this "tough cookie" not able to handle the scrutiny?
The only bit of scrutiny that I think was absolutely off-base and disgusting was when people speculated that her youngest child was actually her grandchild. Now, some of you say that this talk goes on to this day, but the vast majority of news agencies, even MSNBC and Olbermann, dropped it after a day or two. It isn't still an issue that is in the public eye, unlike some of the other issues like the ethics probes.
Look at Hillary Clinton, of whom I am not a fan in case you're wondering. There are people who openly speculated that she had Vince Foster murdered. That she's a lesbian. She was publicly, world wide, when her husband confessed to having a sexual relationship with an intern. I would say that Hillary has been lambasted, probed, investigated, criticized, you name it, a great deal more than Palin, and yet she was a U.S. Senator, a Presidential candidate, and now the Secretary of State.
If Palin doesn't have the stomach for national politics, and believe me, I wouldn't blame her if she doesn't, then she needs to stay the hell out of it. I get so tired of hearing how poor Sarah has been so unfairly targeted for criticism and scrutiny. She hasn't been. Her problem is that she was unable to defend against so much of it because she was wholly unprepared to be VPOTUS.
