City of Wasillla attempts to sell the "Mayor Mobile," Sarah Palin's vehicle while she was mayor of the city, on E-bay. Any takers?

Photo courtesy of the City of Wasilla website.

Courtesy of the Frontiersman: 

Would you pay the Kelley Blue Book value of $2,318 for a 1999 Ford Expedition in excellent condition? If it had fewer than 75,000 miles, would you pay more? How much would that sport utility vehicle be worth if you knew it had been driven by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin? 

The city of Wasilla hopes the answer to that last question is at least $10,000. That’s the minimum bid the city has set in an eBay.com ad for the city vehicle Palin drove while she was Wasilla mayor. The 5.4-liter Expedition XLT model, gold in color, was purchased new in 1999 and was Palin’s official vehicle until she left office in 2002. 

Cashing in on Palin’s cachet is absolutely the idea behind the online ad, Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright said. 

“This was her mayor-mobile,” Rupright said. “Sarah had that for the rest of the time she was mayor, so we look at it this way. When you stop and think of who drove that, … why not get the biggest bang for the dollar for the city? Who knows, maybe some rich somebody from somewhere wants (Palin’s former vehicle). She does have a great following and there are a lot of people who may want it.” 

“Hey, if Elvis’ Cadillacs can go for $1 million apiece, who knows?” he said. “Since it is a surplus vehicle, it’s got more intrinsic value to the city in terms of dollars than just some piece of machinery. The bigger dollar we can get, the better. The trick is to replenish the vehicle replacement fund for the city without having to dip into the tax dollars.” 

To help potential buyers visualize the vehicle’s former driver, a cardboard cutout of Palin sits behind the wheel in the photo accompanying the ad on eBay and on the city’s website, cityofwasilla.com. 

That was just a bit of fun, Rupright said. But trying to get top dollar for the city is not.

Sure $10,000.00 may SEEM like a reasonable price for a vehicle once driven by a woman who has single-handedly pushed the women's movement back 100 years, embarrassed the great state of Alaska, and had the same effect on politics that the black plague had on Europe, but once you pay to have it exorcised by a priest, blessed by a shaman, and  dipped in holy water if could REALLY cost you.

AKMuckraker just posted her take on the Palin e-mail trial (which includes some very ineresting photographs) up on Huffington Post.

Huffington Post:

The trial of the infamous Sarah Palin email hacker is underway.

The defendant, David Kernell, managed to figure out Sarah Palin's super dooper top secret question that allowed the password on her personal Yahoo! email account (where she conducted government business), to be reset. One can only imagine the long hours of pacing, and brain straining it took to come up with the answer to.... "Where did you meet your spouse?" Google reveals all.

On Wednesday's witness list were then Governor Palin's designated attack dog Ivy Frye, top aide and keeper of the secrets Frank Bailey, and daughter Bristol, who has apparently taken lessons from Dear Ol' Mom about how to play the victim card to its maximum dramatic potential.

For more Huffington Post/Mudflats goodness just click the link at the top.

There are SOME people who were really counting on winning that dinner with Sarah.

That may be the funniest Hitler parody thus far!

It figures. A Palin-bot won the e-bay dinner with Sarah.

A true fan of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is paying $63,500 to have dinner with her.

Cathy Maples of Huntsville won the dinner today in an Internet auction, which was a benefit for a charity that aids wounded veterans. Maples says she fully supports the military and the men and women fighting for this nation. Maples, who owns a defense contracting company, also says she's a "big advocate" for Palin, and would love to see her as president.

Well this is disappointing. And the worst part? It was fixed!

Apparently writer Joe McGinniss was "un-approved" at the last minute and no longer allowed to participate after it was revealed that he was Palin critic. (AKMuckraker has more of the story over at Huffington Post.)

Poor Sarah could not take the chance that her charity dinner might have turned out to be an uncomfortable meal. (Yeah like she is not used to having THOSE with her very own family!)

I doubt this will come as a surprise to most people but the top bidder for "Dinner with Sarah" is an outspoken critic.

(Joe) McGinniss is the author of "Pipe Dreams", an article in Portfolio Magazine which documented Sarah Palin's failure to deliver a gas pipeline in Alaska. As Danny Shea reported for these pages back on March 17, the original subhed read: "Forget "Drill, baby, drill." Sarah Palin says she's building a $40 billion gas pipeline, which even President Obama wants. The only problem: It isn't there. And it's her fault."

McGinniss' cited $59,999.99 bid was briefly topped this morning by another bidder who offered a dollar more, but McGinniss has upped his ante to $60,100.00 and is in the lead with just over four hours to go in the auction. And McGinniss seems pretty determined. His only concern, according to Woodham, is that he might have to break some promises to friends: "I've already promised at least 40 people that if I win I'll bring them with me."

This was always going to be a circus the only question is whether Palin will refuse to sit down with the winner if he turns out to be somebody that she does not want to break bread with.

All I know is I would love to be a fly on the wall to witness this uncomfortable meal if McGinnis actually brings in the highest bid. Sarah will be twitching so much she probably won't be able to keep the food on her fork long enough to reach her mouth.

As of this posting the bidding is only open for a little more then an hour. Tick tock Sarah.

Well it looks liek the bidding has ended with a bid of $63,500.00 going to Ride 2 Recovery. Not an enormous sum but better than nothing.

It also looks like Joe McGinniss did not get his wish to dine with our former Governor. I have no idea who DID win this enchanted evening with Palin, but considering how many hoops she set up for the winner to jump through it will probably be some moneyed conservative who will simply sit across from her drowning in the pool of that one wonky eye of hers.