Palin Faces Ethics Questions

JNS-You left out who got in this particular pickle. And it wasn't some DFH Alaskan blogger.

It was none other than greta van susteren's husband John Coale who start helping Palin after Greta developed her girl crush on Palin. Totally inappropriate actions by Gerta but Greta is a media star so we are supposed to find nothing to see here. Right?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/business/media/25greta.html?ref=business

That was supposed to be "who got Palin into this particular pickle."

It's not quite the other shoe everyone was waiting to drop
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What exactly is that supposed to mean? It's difficult to read that as anything other than "everyone" (i.e., Palin's foes in the Beltway establishment) hoping for another shoe. It's always the dumb ones that give the game away, isn't it?

BTW, where did Sarah Palin get $500,000 of her own money to spend?

Avast - just wha' I be needin' - a Sarah Palin fluff story t' be takin' me mind off th' screwin' I be undergoin' a' th' hands o' th' Congress an' th' President wi' health care "reform", wi' a huge assist fr'm th' media, natch'rally!

Makes it so much less painful fer a wench t' bend o'er an' take it, t' be able t' distracted by thinkin' o' poor Sarah losin' $500,000 o' er' own dear money! Mercy bu' tha' must be hurtin' 'er!

YARR!

Interesting--a sitting governor is hounded out of office by the cost of unmeritorious ethics complaints . . . . and the Swampland "political" Blog doesn't wonder about the effect on democracy. Whether or not you like Sarah Palin or not, the bottom line is that Alaskans do and have said so at the ballot box. One would think that JNS and others would stop to think about the effect on democracy here.
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Of course, back to the real world and real ethics issues, here's another Dem with issues:
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http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/07/024103.php
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mmmmmmm, having an organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood pay your bills? Can't have Swampland asking questions about that, now can we.
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Oh, JNS, it really is just you who thinks that the rest of the world's carbon emissions are controlled by Kyoto. Perhaps you noticed India's rejection of Hillary's meddling in India's affairs the other day.

Thanks, Jay! You rock. In a warped twisty way I'll miss Lovely Sarah after she's gone to Fox or elsewhere. What else can I rant about after this weekend, health care? Jay, I'm presuming you've been contacting the besieged Alaskan bloggers for the skinny, including mudflats and Shannyn Moore? Don't forget the recent ethics violations allegations du jour of not claiming gifts – http://www.themudflats.net/2009/07/20/new-ethics-complaint-filed-against-sarah-palin/ Does Sarah have rented storage units filled with unclaimed gifts? So many items, so little time left. Jay, you could've taken a “working vacation” up there after Sarah's interview, caught salmon, watched birds and bears, drunk yourself silly into wee hours with the bloggers, and dug up enough stuff for a levity-filled entire don't-save-the-trees TIME issue. Maybe not newsworthy, but sales could get you lots of face time – and pay to send KT after award-winning HC stories, thanks! Also check out vanity fair – http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/07/palin-speech-edit-200907?currentPage=1

Amazing, all of the libs in here love the tactics used against Sarah Palin, but are completely agnostic about the ethics issues of Rangel, Conyers, Obama et alia.

Ethics complaints filed against legislators in Alaska are automatically dismissed if they are made public to prevent unfairly tarnishing officials ahead of elections.

Sounds like "Incumbent Protection" to me.

Did they feel the need for this because politics in general is so rough at election time or because the incumbents needed cover for keeping the dirty linen hidden long enough to ge re-elected?

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjFkMzk0ZjEwZTFlOWQ1NDI2NmQxMzVlMTNjNjQwNDM=
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Gee, another Obama statement with an expiration date--remember the "shovel ready" pledge.
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I hope this "email" is NOT real….

From: Sarah Palin
To: Meg Stapletongue
Subject: re: Meg, please for the love of God take care of these already!

Meg girl,
I thought you and my lawyers had sued EVERY blog her on the internets already to make these travail ethics violations claims go away as! My Alaska Fun Trust is perfectly above bored, tell the liberal media that NOW! And bring me another mocha with whipped cream then meet me at the Wasilla Storage Complex, we gotta get those units filled with unclaimed unopened gifts moved NOT from that stupid unfounded ethics claims thingy again but the storage manager says some items in my units are starting to smell and the other tenants are whining, are they blogging about me to??? I'm heading out to the storage units right now, love you!

Sarah

It will be hard for Palin to tweet her way out of this one, mindlessly slamming this new ethics development as some sort of personal vendetta against her. The real deal?

http://www.political-buzz.com/

And I'm sure Matt, you think that Conyers should resign, right?

One would be more reassured by the dismissals of all these complaints if the boards dismissing them didn't consist of members appointed by the governor.

it would be nice if, rather than the daily dose of ratings building Palin propaganda, we could see more of the Republican grassroots in action. For example:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/21/castle-townhall/

Also, JNS, you evaded the key issue: Palin will be recompensed by Alaska for her expenditure on ethics complaints.

"It's cheaper for the people of the state of Alaska to have the bills paid for through the trust fund," Van Flein said. "But if that can't be done, then it looks like the state of Alaska could pay."

Until the figure of 500,000 dollars is verified by an independent body, it is pretty silly to trust Palin's own claims. We already know that her claims about how much Alaska spent on this issue simply don't add up. Most of the 1.9 million dollars that she alleges the claims cost the State of Alaska is for staff time of state attorneys and other salaried state employees, who would have been paid anyway.

Sorry, pinto. When youre spending $787BB, a few projects here and there, don't really get it done. By the way, didn't Obama say about a month ago that the "stimulus" had done its job. (That was before 9.5% unemployment.)

They should have just cut CG taxes for certain types of investment.
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Deconstructiva, Conyers coerced staffers to do go-fer duties for him. He never declared that income on his income tax returns. Why aren't you calling for him to resign. Oh, that's right, he has a (D) after his name.

Gunny: I think the point of Jay's clumsily-worded post is that SP has racked up $500K in expenses, and the PAC she formed to pay off these bills runs afoul of the "personal gain" statute.

I think the point you're making is whether SP has "spent" $500K as JNS says, or has been billed / owes $500K. Fact checking would be kinda, y'know, cool.

BTW: The $2M in Alaskan state costs meme <a href="http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/key-reason-palin-gave-for-quitting-appears-to-be-false/" has already been shot down (link) but keeps getting repeated by the MSM. Saying that payroll costs of state employees is a reason for leaving office...(handface).

I was terrified when the possibility of Palin as VP existed, and it continues to be painfully obvious she's not qualified for higher office. She has obviously cut corners, and in many cases done ethically questionable (at best) things during her public career. Having said that, give me a break! There are plenty of corrupt politicians with far more power than Palin to report about. Why not begin with members of congress who are currently driving health care reform into the ground because they are so far up the a$$es of corporate lobbyists they can't see sunlight? I'm seriously sick of the diversion from the serious corruption being committed, due to obsession over a woman from Alaska who spent too much money on clothes, travel and remodeling her home. It's either blatant sexism, or just a reason to keep her name in the headlines because any press is good press, right JNS?

pinto, gimme a break. You point to a few projects here and there. Come on. Obama sold this thing as using the shovel-ready nature of this thing to get the economy moving, And then he goes on with Couric and talks about how long infrastructure takes.
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Dude, I get nuance. But that just shows Obama to be a fundamentally dishonest guy.

Terrified of Palin, but not of Slow Joe Biden?

http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjA2Y2YyZmMxMWNiMGYyNzk5NTMxNmZiYjU5YjFmMTM=
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Enjoy.

[...] Jay Newton-Small in Swampland: An independent report commissioned by the state’s Personnel Board found that she may have violated a law that prohibits Alaskan elected officials from using their offices for “personal gain.” Palin, who has an annual salary of $125,000, has over the last eight months spent more than $500,000 of her own money to defend against the 20 complaints since it is state policy not to pay to defend politicians. Thus far 13 of the complaints have been dismissed without any finding of wrongdoing. Palin paid the state back $8,100 for travel taken by her family to resolve another complaint. Five of the complaints were filed after she announced her intention to resign three weeks ago. [...]

What AC says above--ignore the colossal failure of JNS' industry to do its job, to hold our gov't accountable. A gov't without a shred of vision or leadership (either f'ing party mind you). Ignore the gaping abyss that awaits all of us. Focus, please, on the sexy nitwit, the Paris Hilton of politics, as if Jay's banal prose can invest substance in a turd. Help Jay to bury your head in the sand.

$500,000 is alot of money to come up with. I hope Sarah isn't having yardsales with all those clothes from the campaign. On the other hand, I'm sure some rednecks would pay a small fortune if she put some of her unwashed panties up for bid on e-bay.

What dunedweller said @1:41.

About the $500,000, I believe the Palins were worth more than a million before the election. I don't remember the specific figure but I do remember thinking she was very rich for someone who is supposedly a representative of the working-class.