Though this piece seems a tad too sympathetic for my tastes it does introduce some new information that is very interesting.
Here are a few snippets that I found the most interesting:
Friends worried that she appeared anxious and underweight. Her hair had thinned to the point where she needed emergency help from her hairdresser and close friend, Jessica Steele.
“Honestly, I think all of it just broke her heart,” Ms. Steele said in an interview at her beauty parlor in Wasilla, the Beehive.
Many of us have also made note that the Governor looked underweight to the point of illness.
Late last week, as her sport utility vehicle made its way through the town of McGrath, Ms. Palin said in an interview that the seeds of her resignation had been planted the morning Mr. McCain named her as his vice-presidential choice.
“It began when we started really looking at the conditions that had so drastically changed on Aug. 29,” she said. “The hordes of opposition researchers came up here digging for dirt for political reasons, making crap up.”
I have refuted this before but let me do it once again. There was NO opposition researchers up here that I, or any of my fellow bloggers, are aware of. The things that were "dug up" were done so by local bloggers and out of state reporters. The bloggers were trying to reveal the truth about the Governor and the reporters were simply trying to sell papers or magazines. Which Palin helped them to do quite nicely.
As for "making crap up" that task was adequately performed by the Governor herself, who simply could not keep her stories straight to save her political life. (Andrew Sullivan did a great roundup of those lies right here.)
Feuds begat feuds. Ms. Palin alleged in June that Mr. Letterman’s joke that one of her daughters had been “knocked up” by the Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during a recent trip to New York encouraged “sexual exploitation” of younger women.
Her comments then prompted a Republican lawmaker, State Representative Mike Hawker, to accuse Ms. Palin of underfinancing sexual abuse programs. Ms. Palin, in turn, directed public safety officials to give her fodder for a retort, requesting that they put out a statement saying her policies would reduce sexual assaults on minors.
Even Ms. Palin’s supporters came to believe that she was losing focus amid all the fighting.
So you can imagine what her detractors were thinking.
In mid-spring, as the country grew alarmed over the swine flu, Ms. Palin skipped a briefing for administration officials on the outbreak by her chief medical officer, Dr. Jay C. Butler. A spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, noted that the teleconference took place about a month before the first case of the flu was reported in Alaska and that at the time the governor was meeting with top staff on the issue of federal stimulus funds. Since then, the state has had 122 confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu.
Dr. Butler said he resigned his post in June in part because the administration asked one of his highly regarded division heads, the state public health director, Beverly Wooley, to resign. “I felt that it was not a good time to be downsizing,” said Dr. Butler, who is now working on a swine flu vaccination at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Butler said the governor’s office apparently deemed Ms. Wooley insufficiently supportive of the parental consent bill backed by Ms. Palin.
Ms. Leighow would only say, inexplicably, that Ms. Wooley had been terminated by the health department, not the governor.
Woolley was another example of somebody not willing to play ball the way Sarah Palin wants to play ball being thrown under that bus which has ravenously devoured so many other victims of Palin's ego.
John Coale, a Washington trial lawyer and a Democrat who befriended the governor, said that during a political trip to Atlanta in December she expressed concern about her personal finances and complained that whenever she left Alaska “there was tremendous criticism up there.”
To Mr. Coale, the Palins seemed unprepared for the national stage. “I don’t think they got it, that they were in the arena,” he added. Mr. Coale helped Ms. Palin set up a legal defense fund and a political action committee to pay for her political activities. But both caused additional problems.
While the defense fund has raised more than $250,000, according to its trustee, the money cannot be spent pending resolution of an ethics complaint that contends that the contributions could amount to improper gifts.
Well this is interesting news. I wonder how it jives with Margaret Carlson's Thursday report on Countdown that John Coale told her the Defense Fund paid "most" of Sarah" legal bills already?
Does that mean this $250,000 is going to her just for shits and giggles? Or has somebody else paid the bill already and she owes them money from the fund to pay them back? And if this money has not been freed up then WHO has been paying for all of Sarah's air travel to make those public appearance in other states?
Well great now I have more questions then when I started this article!
If anybody has any answers please leave them in the comment section or e-mail them to me. Thanks.
The "Beehive" should now be called the Hornet's Nest.
ReplyDeleteI just watched "Morning Joe" and Nora O'Donnel and Mica are "cooing" over what a fascinating person SP is. One of the reasons they admire her is the five children.
ReplyDeleteIt made me throw up.
Again, poor Sarah. Everything that happened was some one, but anybody, else fault.
ReplyDeleteThe World Health Organization was really, really concerned about Swine Flu. SP diddled over the stimulus package, not talked about. The legislators wanted it, she didn't.
But she could not make a meeting with others to discuss a possible pandemic?
The excuse was that she was so tied up in the frivolous lawsuits. No, this time it was stimulus money.
She cannot do the job. She can give any excuse she wants to. Her administration is rife with inadequate people. Sound like GW Bush? She has a history of turning on people that she does not need anymore, a history of quitting when the going got rough.
I did not know the gov. association sent her help that she blew off. No wonder the higher up republicans don't want her. Saying thanks, but no thanks to help, again. They know she can't fulfill the demands of the job. Too bad the public can't.
So she "won" all the ethics complaints? She has $250,000.00 for legal fees? A smart person would have checked before starting the fund to see if she could use the money when needed. Like she did with the book deal.
Maybe the real reason she quit was because somebody did pay her legal bills. Maybe she can't collect the money and be Gov.
Maybe it really is about the money and not her love for Alaska.
The good news is she takes no advice. The GOP bigwigs tried to make her into a national candidate but she refused to listen.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased with that news.
The air travel is paid by SarahPac. That has nothing to do with the legal defense fund.
ReplyDeleteThis NYTimes article says Bristol was avoiding the limelight and unfairly targets Levi for seeking attention. I call bullsh!t. Bristol's advocate for abstinence appearances on network TV is not the act of some seeking privacy.
ReplyDeleteIt is this kind of inaccuracy that calls into question the veracity of the entire article. The author/s clearly had an agenda and the truth was just not important to them.
The New York Times has reported on another Alaska/Palin issue: the fate of the natural gas pipeline project.
ReplyDeleteObviously the reporters covered a lot of issues while they were up in Alaska -- there may be more to come.
Tick them off:
1) Palin's post-election-defeat behavior and her resignation -- check.
2) One of Palin's few "accomplishments" stalled -- check.
3) ?? (Personal issues?)
It was so handy to have all of the lies in one place (thanks Andrew Sullivan). Now: It would be so handy to have a list of people thrown under the bus - people whose careers have been ruined.
ReplyDeleteAre you up to it Gryphen? There's Walt Monegan, Beverly Wooley, Talis Colberg (?), Wasilla Museum Director - who else?
Now Track is being dragged out, the only child who was left who had not been used. "Track isn't even a Republican" she says, as she tries to get more 'gigs" by saying she will stump for Democrats with the "right" platform.
Here's something interesting from that article, and I quote,
ReplyDelete"Mr. Malek said he told Ms. Palin that 'you have got to set up a mechanism so you can return calls.' 'You are getting a bad rap,' he recalled saying. 'Important people are trying to talk to you.' And she said, ‘What number are they calling?’ She did not know what had been happening.”
------
I call B.S.
The woman carries TWO phones. They will have to PRY them from her cold, dead hand.
And there's a big difference between a bad RAP and a bad REP.
I disagree that the article was 'sympathetic,' but I did think there were a few weaknesses, which I posted on the NYT Web site, as follows.
ReplyDeleteOverall, this article is well done, with a few exceptions:
1. "Lawmakers who had supported her signature effort to develop a natural gas pipeline turned into uncooperative critics."
Read the Alaskan newspapers during the legislative session and you find over and over again that legislators were willing to be open and supportive of an administration agenda, but the administration did not support its own agenda, failed to provide information requested by legislators, and was often obstructionistic.
Labeling legislators as "critics" seems slanted and subjectively dismissive of the legitimacy of criticizing bad policy or non-existent leadership by Palin's administration. Most of these legislators worked constructively on what they could support, but were almost unanimous in opposing what they see as bad policy, such as the stimulus energy fund veto.
The truly uncooperative agent was Palin herself - refusing to meet with legislators; dragging out the appointment of a replacement senator through the entire legislative session.
2. "She was met at the Capitol by a growing pile of ethics complaints filed by opponents..."
"Opponents" is another subjective and 'loaded' term. Citizens would be more accurate and non-biased. Many of these citizens had been Palin supporters (not opponents) who seemingly felt betrayed by their candidate's later actions, but who believed and complied with her earlier charge that she expected the citizenry to hold her accountable.
3. "When a local Democratic blogger accused her of becoming a “walking billboard” by wearing a jacket emblazoned with the logo of Arctic Cat, her husband’s team sponsor at the Iron Dog snowmobile race, she issued a news release titled “Governor Comments on Latest Bogus Ethics Complaint.”
Better reporting would have included the context, which is that Palin wore the clothing of her husband's team sponsor WHILE she was acting in her official capacity of governor, not just participant spouse: "On hand to officially send off the 70 drivers entered in the 2009 Tesoro Iron Dog competition was Gov. Sarah Palin ..." Anchorage Daily News, February 8, 2009.
4. The article, which did a good job of illustrating many of the failures of governance by Palin during the past year, was curiously devoid of any mention of Palin's detachment from the many crises facing her rural constituents: choosing between food or heat this past winter, flood devastation, and declining fish runs coupled with fishing policies that are catastrophic for a population that depends on fishing for both food supply and income.
Poor, poor $arah. Not only has she lost her mind but, she is also losing weight and her hair. And although medical conditons cans cause the hair and weight loss, so can stress. Me thinks that $arah has bitten off more than she can chew and is now choking on it.
ReplyDeleteNow I get it, Sarah Palin is losing hair. She is resigning to have a hair transplant, as well as a face lift and surgery on her wrinkly hands. Sarah Palin is meaningless without her looks. She wouldn't have gotten anywhere without them, nor would anyone give a rat's ass about her if she wasn't extraordinarily photogenic. At 45, she is on the cusp of losing her stock in trade. Recovery from plastic surgery takes a couple of weeks. Mark Sanford proved that a governor just can't disappear without notice. So Sarah is taking some time off to remake herself.
ReplyDeleteamphetamines also cause weight loss and hair loss--along with rapid, garbled speech and erratic behavior.
ReplyDelete"Late last week, as her sport utility vehicle made its way through the town of McGrath, Ms. Palin said in an interview that the seeds of her resignation had been planted the morning Mr. McCain named her as his vice-presidential choice."
ReplyDeleteJust how did she get vehicle to McGrath? NO ROAD CONNECTION?
Midnightcajun....I say "Got Adderall?"
ReplyDeleteSue me!
Now Miss Sarah has turned into a pundit. Via an editorial in the Washington Post. (That was fast !) Definitely cleverly ghostwritten,
ReplyDeleteit is fairly coherent but also has some trademark palinisms.
What is really interesting is the comments. She is polarizing the nation
into the 'elites' vs. the 'normals'. Deja vu all over again . . .