Like Tom Levenson I sincerely hope that the hard right fringe wins the battle to make Sarah Palin the charismatic face of conservatism in America. Unfortunately as with all unrealistic dreams (in weaker moments I visualize what would happen to Pam Geller if we had a black president with a muslim name) I fear that I am setting myself up for disappointment. By the time Republicans finish counting the tab that she ran up on their dime, those cries for Palin ’12 might quiet down a notch.
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported…One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards.
In other words, the RNC’s $150,000 clothes bill was only the beginning. Sarah Palin ran up separate tabs with a wealthy donor, the campaign and even her own staffers’ credit cards.
Granted, that is pretty bad, but at least she did not run run around behind her running mate’s back like a petty criminal.
The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement….McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended.
At least she did not soak her twenty-something aides for far more than the average recent college grad can possibly afford.
One aide estimated that she spent “tens of thousands” more than the reported $150,000,…
huh. The clothes were for her?
…and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband.
There has to be one extra little insult-to-injury that Palin could squeeze in now that she has soaked her friends for the price of a two-bedroom suburban ranch.
Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost.
Something tells me that if the GOP runs Sarah Palin anywhere it will be on a rail.
horatius
Hugetits’ face on the PJTV ad.
Priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will Danz
Not to mention this weirdness, from the same NEWSWEEK story:
Dave
Are you kidding? You think Kristol and the other neo-cons are going to let something like this get in their way? They’ll spin it as sour grapes. Palin is their true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool crazy ass, theo-con empty vessel and there is no way they’ll let her go quietly into the night.
Besides, who are they going to jerk it to without Palin around? K-Lo?
JubJub
post election drinking game: do a shot every time CNN’s John King says "excuse me for stepping across" when he’s working the magic screen.
do a shot for every time a commentator says something to the extent of "now that Obama is elected, he shouldn’t execute the change campaigned on."
chopper
hah! oh, it is truly wonderful. more popcorn!
frogspawn
This ought to be fun.
Plus, bonus gun-jumping:
edit: dunno why the second b-quote is bold
jake 4 that 1
In the Palindrone dictionary, ‘frugal’ means never spending your own money. Verily, she is the living embodiment of current GOP ideals.
@Will Danz: See. They’re so frugal they don’t buy bathrobes?
Someone go check on Rich Lowry. He’ll need to be scraped off the walls when he reads about Governor Two Towels.
Edit: Frogspawn, you need to put Paragraph tags around the quote as well.
Notorious P.A.T.
Right now some moron talking-head and DEmocratic strategist are talking about how Sarah Palin is "authentic".
Warren Terra
On the subject, more or less, of the Wasilla Wingnut, or more properly of her selection by McCain, a beautiful observation by August Pollak:
justme
Bleahhh.
I hope she’s back for ’12. Do you really think that an ego like that, once given a look at the top job, could possibly just fade away? Oh, no. I seriously doubt she’ll make it more than a couple of months into primary season, but being the little buzzsaw of hate that she is, she’ll shred great big bleeding holes in all of the other candidates.
Me? I’ll laugh.
Comrade Darkness
I do.
You added p tags to the first, inside the blockquotes. Basically, bold is standard for blockquotes, but the p tag overrides that.
Eh, forget the rest, the preview lied.
frogspawn
@jake 4–
thanks
jake 4 that 1
@Notorious P.A.T.: Well, there are fake dog turds. It’s important to be able to tell the real deal from imitators.
But RealAmericans(R) also like to dress up Caribou Barbie though. But!
Man, if GOP staffers sue her for the money I will need to be scraped off the walls.
Here’s hoping they do and she spends a lot of time in front of the cameras whining about how mean everyone is also too though however but.
Shygetz
From that Newsweek story you linked, I was stunned when I saw the list of things that McCain vetoed as being too over-the-top. Calling him a terrorist sympathizer Marxist black supremacist is okay, but we can’t show him dancing with Ellen DeGeneres–that would be beyond the pale.
Mike
Of course he would; that kind of spending is reserved for beer heiresses.
Svensker
…
Pammy sees herself as Jeffersonian? Talk about lack of ability to self-reflect.
Comrade Darkness
I’m busily saving every picture of her from the concession speech. She was the epitome of world ending distraught. Since she put me into that state for months, I plan to enjoy the reverse for at least as long.
Comrade Stuck
Hey, That’s just Sarah being Sarah.
From AP investigation
eyeball
Geez, Tim. Pls don’t link to that crackpot ever again. I’d never seen that site before and now I’m f**king blind and 20 percent more stupid.
Svensker
It’s interesting that the FBI found that BOTH campaigns had their secure networks hacked this summer, and that odds were it was by a foreign government. The article speculates that it was Russia or China, but my bet is neither of these, but rather a supposedly friendly government. And I also speculate that we won’t hear any more about it.
NonyNony
That whole Newsweek article smells like a "rehabilitate our friend John’s image" bit. They’re going for the "he didn’t know what was going on and got swept up by events" narrative. Palin is being cast as the evil woman who was going rogue behind his back. The campaign staff as the gung-ho hero worshipers who just didn’t want to tell their idol about all of the bad stuff that was going on, etc.
Notice that the bad stuff is all tied to Palin – she gets the blame for riling up the crowds with the racist sentiment that has the Secret Service worried about Obama, she gets the blame for the clothes that John "knew nothing about", she gets the blame for trotting out the Bill Ayers attacks before the campaign was ready to use them, etc. Meanwhile the campaign staff gets off as blameless dupes who just didn’t realize what a rogue element she was.
I’m not a Palin defender by any stretch of the imagination, but this is clearly a hit piece on Palin and an apology for McCain, Schmidt, Davis and the rest of the campaign. It may just be the Newsweek folks wanting to help their buddies, or it may be that they’ve picked a side in the Republican Faction War that is brewing (the "not crazy" side, obviously), but whatever – it’s just too lopsided in apportioning blame for me to believe it.
Comrade Darkness
I just figured it out. She’s Princess Palin. Just born in the wrong place and time, is all. Sad.
She sure does know how to live high on someone else’s dime. I thought that took some learnin’. Apparently she’s been learnin’ herself well on the Alaska public fund’s dime.
Sarah ~ Palin’ around with your checkbook
Jon H
"the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books."
Yeah, maybe. They’ve had some trouble with their books, lately.
eyeball
Palin-Bachmann in ’12!
jibeaux
It’s not nice to mock the colorblind.
Ugh. Sister *did* need some new duds.
GSD
Sarah Palin is the GOP’s Katherine Harris of this election cycle. Now that her services are no longer needed by the national party, she’ll meet the same ignominious fate..reviled, rejected, repudiated.
-GSD
ninerdave
I don’t get how you spend so much money on clothes. If I pay more than $30 for a pair of chucks, $50 for a pair of jeans, and $10 for a black t-shirt, I’m pissed.
Delia
I still sort of think McCain is a very, um, erratic man these days. Remember what his campaign was like before the Rove clones took over. That’s when he junked whatever sense of honor he has and started playing dirty. He also took on La Palin, whom I’ve variously read was the pet of the the brilliant Bill Kristol crowd or the bright idea of Schmidt. In any case nobody bothered to check out what kind of a sociopath she really is, or else by the time you get that far to the right it doesn’t actually register because most people over there are already sociopaths. It’s not that I don’t hold McCain responsible for the total clusterf@ck of his campaign or that I feel sorry for him. But I think that "My fellow prisoners" slip was utterly Freudian. This Newsweek article shows how little control he had over his campaign and especially Palin. I mean, she’s acting more like a mobster’s mistress than a candidate for the second highest office in the land.
You couldn’t write this stuff. It’s just surreal.
Tsulagi
I loved that part of the Newsweek article. As I just commented on the thread below, I’m guessing more clothes will find themselves in that unfortunate “lost” condition. And if McCain’s people were smart, they’d check her luggage before she goes back to Alaska and for anything else not bolted and welded down that might also be “lost.”
Sarah Palin, continuing and upholding the finest traditions of fiscal conservatism, personal responsibility and accountability epitomized in the Party of Bush. You betcha.
Halteclere
@ninerdave:
But you are spending YOUR money.
Jess
Can you imagine what she would have done to the US treasury if she had been given the chance? We’re already on the road to becoming one of those corrupt, embezzling third-world dictatorships we like to imagine we’re so superior to–Palin would have finished the job and put a bow on top. Alaska appears to already be there. Totally shameless, just like President Mobuto of Zaire (for who the term "kleptocracy" was invented).
kate r
That McCain staffer got it wrong. They’re not hillbillies, they’re grifters.
Jess
for WHOM, dammit! (edit function not working in either the site or my brain…)
Halteclere
@Tsulagi:
And anything made of copper or anything else that has looting value.
Steve V
I am curious to know what Palin’s biggest fans, including Hannity, will say about these revelations.
Notorious P.A.T.
Yikes. Multiply that $20 million boondoggle she bought as mayor by–what, 100 million?
jake 4 that 1
@NonyNony: Good point and I know there will be a good deal of "Wicked sexy woman made me do bad things," but this does not reflect well on McCain. This is a guy who got angry when people suggested he hadn’t vetted Palin beyond checking her stats.
The "rogue lady moose pit bull" thing damages him because the bobbleheads will spend the next century comparing the campaign of the guy with all the experience to the campaign of the guy the guy with all the experience said wasn’t experienced enough to be president. By McCain’s own standards he FAILS.
I don’t know. I guess enough people will be content with the naughty babe thing, but as a polititian, he’s toast.
Zifnab
I’ll go with… Nothing?
Yeah, we dodged a rather large and scary looking bullet in Palin. GW managed to escape Impeachment by roping in dopey Dems early on and playing the "I’ll take you down with me card". I don’t think a President Palin would be so savy.
That said, she’s a wingnut hero now and she’ll go down like heroes before her – G. Gordin Liddy, Oliver North, Tom DeLay – all regularly dragged out as voices to the party’s crazy base. I have no reason to think we’ve seen the last of her in a propaganda capacity. Someone might be crazy enough to run her again, but I can’t see her doing better than 9/11ani.
Ash Can
She’s a two-bit crook. (Or, for those of you familiar with local politics in my neck of the woods, she’s Betty Loren Maltese with a face lift.) She’d make a good mob operative if she ever learned how to cover her tracks, but I don’t get the impression she’s that quick a study.
I do think it would be entertaining to see idiots like her and Michele Bachmann involved in a real, honest-to-goodness big-league Republican power struggle. Given their typically neo-con inflexibility and blind devotion to their causes and tribes, they could end up as little more than cannon fodder if they choose (remain on?) what turns out to be the wrong side. I know that Palin has succeeded, if ham-handedly, in Alaska state knife fights (which were more like ambushes if you ask me), but I wouldn’t consider that much of a proving ground for a national-level rumble.
Joshau Norton
She’ll have to up the ante to at least grand larceny to become a Republican worthy of consideration. In fact I think it’s a requirement in Alaska.
demimondian
@kate r: Yes. They’re grifters — sociopathic bunko artists who steal things from some patsy, blow the dough, and move on to the next.
–demi "FDDD is from hillbilly stock, damn it!" mondian
Adam
ROFL
NonyNony
@jake 4 that 1:
Well, no, it doesn’t reflect well on McCain at all. But of the narratives that could possibly come out, this is the one that is least bad for McCain and the bag of FAIL known as his campaign staff.
I mean, everyone knows at this point that McCain’s campaign dove right into the muck and started flinging it about. But a behind the scenes report on the smears that McCain himself vetoed makes McCain look slightly better than if you don’t hear about them and just assume that he used whatever he could. Making Palin out to be a rogue agent who couldn’t be controlled gives some "plausible deniability" to McCain who can just shrug and say "I should have done a better job of vetting her".
Sure it makes him look incompetent – but his entire campaign has already done that. If they can move the spiteful, horrible, muckdragging elements off of his image and onto Palin’s then they score a two-fer – McCain comes across as looking like a doddering fool BUT someone who can still be associated with at the cocktail parties AND they keep Sarah Palin and her crazy-base folks out of the running in ’12. Win-win for them.
Joshau Norton
Oh, how I wish he had said that. I would have died happily at that moment. Brian Williams is such an overpaid, empty suit.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Yeah, Pammy’s a bit upset. She’s ready to strap on…..errr…. put on her battle gear and get busy doing….. something or other.
As to her post: as J. Peterman once said on "Seinfeld": "My, that certainly is a lot of words".
Jeff
The one thing Steve Schmidt should be lauded for:
I can just imagine her announcing her plan to run in 2012.
Don McArthur
I’m surprised that the media hasn’t noticed that they woman has all the clinical symptoms of being a psychopath. Her weird relationship with the truth, the lack of guilt or shame, her immediate impulse to theft once elected or selected and presented with access to other people’s money, the superficial charm…it’s quite clear, really.
libarbarian
Sadly, Palin is not over by a long shot.
I dont like her either but you’re fooling yourself if you think she’s "done" by any means.
She’s the Killer Rabbit, you all are King Arthur and his court, and I’m the crazy Scottish git making odd facial gestures. Don’t throw away the Holy Hand Grenade just yet – you may still need it.
libarbarian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg
for reference (and laughs)
Joshau Norton
Hell, she acted like she won on "The Price is Right" instead of winning the VP nom.
Jeff
You wonder if we’ll ever find out who the large donor is.
Comrade Darkness
Not sure if I saw it commented here or elsewhere, but it bears repeating: Being governor of Alaska is like being governor of Disneyland.
I got your "executive experience" right here, baby. Executive in Charge of Charging Things to Other People’s Expense Accounts.
NonyNony
@Don McArthur:
You just described W. And they didn’t realize what he was for a good 7 years either – not until the rest of the country figured it out first.
dr. bloor
I’m not, and the most recent previous example of their clinical blindness is George W. Bush, the guy everybody wanted to have a beer with. The media traditionally have been blind to anyone with personality disorders in the narcissistic, borderline and sociopathic spectra. Reasonable people can disagree as to whether it is because most of them exhibit similar character pathology.
Comrade Darkness
Either she disappears and we can take satisfaction in her knowing how far she’s down, or she doesn’t and she continues to marginalize her party. Win Win.
slammin' sammy
keep an eye on Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.
Alpwalker
Linking to Geller only drives up her hits and lowers our nation’s collective IQ. Can there really be people dumber than her readers? Oh wait, there is the Corner.
The Palin’s would have invaded DC like Huns. Their backwoods corruption would have provided the only source of comic relief from a McCain administration. The Clinton White House Travel Office "scandal" would have been ant feed in comparison. McCain would have had to put a restraining order on Todd. Makes me wish I could view the whole thing unfold from a safe distance in a parallel universe.
Palin may be reduced to working as a Tina Fey impersonator at birthday parties. On the other hand, her base also believes that Benny Hinn actually uses their love offerings for charity even after watching video of him doing something far different. It’s that darned mainstream, First Amendment trashing, elitist media!
So now we wait for the lid to come off in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan while the economy really hits the shyt can. You just know things have been patched together with bailing wire to allow the Cheney/Rove administration to hand the whole mess over and shift the blame when their inevitable perfect cluster f*ck occurs.
Punchy
That’s Pam Geller, as unhinged as one could be. Yikes.
MikeL
The lastest from Palin:
"Right now I cannot even imagine running for national office in 2012," she told CNN’s Dana Bash.
So many jokes… please don’t make me choose just one…
Jeff
@Punchy: Did she just declare war on the US government? If a leftie had said that about Bush, wingnuts would call it a threat and want charges brought up for treason.
Dan
Palin and her husband are like gypsies or Travellers. Bet they steal the hubcaps off the Straight Talk Express before they head back to Alaska.
crf
She’s a rotweiler with a bit of a toilet training problem. So she goes through a lot of clothes.
Comrade Stuck
@slammin’ sammy:
He might thinks it’s Teh Evil Eye, and Exorcise yer ass.
jake 4 that 1
@NonyNony: True. Still, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Palin won’t sit quietly while people trash her.
Popcorn?
Fulcanelli
@Jeff: I take it you’re assuming "large" means wealthy, no?
"Palin may be reduced to working as a Tina Fey impersonator at birthday parties." – WIN!
Shygetz
@Comrade Stuck: You beat me to it, Comrade. Unless his running mate is Father Merrin, I’m not too concerned with Bobby Jindal.
gypsy howell
She’ll secretly sell the clothes on eBay. And pocket the cash, of course.
demimondian
@Jeff: I would say so. I looked at the posting, though, and didn’t see any direct threats against any person. So it’s certainly protected speech.
I would, however, suggest that Ms. Juggs…err, I mean, Shrugs…ought to get out in the sun more. She seems, for instance, to have forgotten that Real Life(TM) has True Permadeath(R).
binzinerator
Her nomination was kind of like she’d won something as if it was a game show or the lottery. There was something American Idol-ish about the way people responded — they thought it was a fucking game show too.
An ignorant incurious redneck plucked from BFE and given a shot at being the leader of the free world. Every ignorant redneck in trailer parks around the nation lived vicariously and loved imaging that they too had what it takes to become president if only McCain had picked them instead. It’s just like a game show, all that needs to happen is for the MC to pick you out of the audience. Stardom and wealth can follow.
forked tongue
Oh, now that’s just CNN fucking with us. Even she doesn’t really talk like that now that the pressure’s off, does she?
DonnaInMichigan
Hmmm..
I wonder if Sam-Joe T. Plumber tried getting a hold of John McCain today, and found out that the number’s he had, all have been disconnected?
After all, he’s broke and unemployed……
Bwwwaaahhhhaaaaa…..
Bill Arnold
You probably didn’t read the comments to her post. OMG.
The first order of business for Republicans and Conservatives is to purge their collective hivemind of the more egregiously nonsensical talking points and conspiracy theories. They must do this themselves, willingly.
Jeff
Even sites/blogs I had considered slightly right of center previous to the election have gone full wingnut. You either went for Obama, none of the above, or full wingnut with every talking point and conspiracy theory. It will take a while for them to get off the ledge with so many folks pulling them closer to crazy.
Chris Johnson
Wow. From Atlas Shrugs-
Wait… what?
We’re the most industrially productive people around, so we should go on intellectual strike and outsource all of our jobs, ALL of them, to Mexico and India. For the good of the nation.
I’m a little startled by this astonishing idea, but on the bright side that guy can’t possibly employ anybody. Elsewhere in that thread someone put forth grand ideas of outright revolution and said, "We can do this job from our couches". mmmmkay. go for it dude. Can I get you a cheeto?
I run a very small American small business, and thankfully this guy hasn’t got the power to fire me, and in fact I bring in money from outside the country as I have very nice international sales (my link is just art, the day job is making audio-processing plugins for sound engineers at airwindows.com). I can’t be outsourced unless I fled the country. And I voted for Obama- who won. Looks like it’s not time to give up on this country quite yet ;)
But those other guys can give up if they want. I suggest Argentina ;)
dr. bloor
Too late. Administration officials have already cornered the market on available real estate.
"Intellectual strike." Really. I’d pay them a living wage to stop doing whatever it is that they think passes for thinking.
Jeff
Yeah because Silicon Valley is screaming for wingnuts. That’s why Google, Apple, etc were publicly against prop 8. I’d laugh, if it were not so pathetic. Also, how many of her commenters are trolls she takes seriously and agrees with.
tigrismus
After complaining about "limousine liberals" and "pointy-headed academics/eggheads/intellectuals" for years, painting lefties as out-of-touch with "real Americans" what with our ritzy lifestyles and snooty post-graduate educations! And here I’d thought wingnuts didn’t do comedy!
Dennis - SGMM
We have the intellectual power-base and we have the money, we have the Cheetos and we have the basement.
Fixt.
Josh Hueco
@Chris Johnson:
I’m hearing virtually the same thing down here in Texas. All the Beautiful Job Creators are threatening to retreat to Galt’s Gulch and leave civilization to burn because Obama’s going to raise their taxes one zillion percent and spend it all on fried chicken and free gas for people on welfare. I keep telling them that if they quit some other entrepreneur will take their place, but I get shouted down with YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! One told me that "I got mine" and that he’s got his plane ticket to Panama/Costa Rica. I’m just like, Go dude. Godspeed.
Dennis - SGMM
Right on! Our average IQ will go up ten points if they follow through with their threats.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@tigrismus: We have the intellectual power-base….
snk
splutter
BWAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA
jake 4 that 1
@Chris Johnson: I am sitting at work doing my best hyena impression and the cleaning crew is giving me the hairy eyeball. Oh God please let them "go militant" by sitting on their asses all day. That will be such a startling change from their normal activities.
If they want to waddle across the border to Mexico I will personally erect ten miles of fence. Who’s with me?
Catsy
Palin’s presence in the campaign made it feel like some twisted Fox reality show. You know, "Extreme Makeover: Election Year Edition", or some such.
My advice for the ’08 presidential election postmortem: buy stock in microwave popcorn. Then go get some, because watching the Right tear Palin apart is going to be glorious. If she weren’t such a vicious creature who deserves every minute of what her former supporters are about to do to her, I’d almost feel sorry for her.
And if by some miracle the Baby Jeebus likes me and convinces the GOP that they need to make Palin their standard bearer, I think we may actually achieve Peak Pony. Nothing could make me happier than to watch the implosion that would occur as every remaining conservative with a functioning brain either joins the Democrats or defects to form their own party.
Harley
Carl Cameron happily piled on over at Fox. Apparently Governor Palin thought Africa was a country. You know, as in "Hey, guys, who’s the President of Africa?"