The Palins Meet Mrs. McCain

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Lots of people are talking about Jane Mayer’s description of how some horny neocons took a cruise to Alaska and discovered Sarah Palin there. But that’s by no means the best part of the article.

The best part is the last paragraph:

Palin initially provided the McCain campaign with a boost, but polls now suggest that she has become a liability. A top Republican close to the campaign said that McCain’s aides have largely kept faith with Palin. They have been impressed by her work ethic, and by what a quick study she is. According to the Republican close to the campaign, she has sometimes discomfited advisers by travelling with a big family entourage. "It kind of changes the dynamic of a meeting to have them all in the room," he told me. John McCain’s comfort level with Palin is harder to gauge. In the view of the longtime McCain friend, "John’s personal comfort level is low with everyone right now. He’s angry. But it was his choice."

Update: Ut oh. Apparently the McCain campaign is not alone in its surprise at having to deal with the extended Palin family.

As governor, Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters – Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7 – by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor’s schedule.

But some organizers of these events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend.

In case you’re wondering, this includes Bristol Palin’s trip to NYC on the Alaksa taxpayer’s dime.

In October 2007, Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York for a women’s leadership conference. Plane tickets from Anchorage to La Guardia Airport for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, records show, and mother and daughter shared a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park.

The event’s organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter.

91 replies
  1. WilliamOckham says:

    They have been impressed by her work ethic, and by what a quick study she is.

    McCain’s aides are easily impressed.

  3. DeadLast says:

    For years, “she’s had D.C. in mind.” He added, “She’s not interested in being on the junior-varsity team.”

    So being mayor and govenor are junior varsity? So how does being on the JV mean you are qualified to be President? Can I assume being a U.S. Senator would be considered “Varsity”?

  4. perris says:

    As governor, Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters – Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7 – by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor’s schedule.

    But some organizers of these events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend.

    that sounds like tax evasion AND fraud to me

  5. tbsa says:

    What do you the taxpayers in Alaksa think of footing the bill for Mcpalin to drag her children all over? Shouldn’t they be in school. Doesn’t seem like education is a priority for the palin family. Does anyone know if Todd graduated from High School?

  7. eCAHNomics says:

    As TheraP said, she doesn’t know the border between professional life & private life. That’s why she uses her children as campaign props.

  8. Teddy Partridge says:

    Palin family values: host right-wing pundits on the public’s dime to launch her career, carry her children around on the public dime to reinforce her public image, bring her kids on the Flyers ice to insulate herself from fans’ boos, carry Twig around like a sack of potatoes so everybody remembers she’s a “special needs kid” mom.

    Props. Everything, and everyone, in her life is props for her beautiful story. I ask you: Haven’t we had enough sociopathy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the last eight years?

  9. dakine01 says:

    Well, as a responsible parent, Sarah wanted to make sure that Track and Bristol weren’t off doing drugs and having pre-marital sex or anything.

    Oh. Wait a minute…

    Never Mind

  10. GregB says:

    There’s a magic in the early morning we found,
    When the sun rise smiles on everything around.
    It’s a portrait of the happiness that we feel and always will,
    For eight is enough to fill our lives with love.

    Oh we spend our days like bright and shiny new dimes.
    If we’re ever puzzled by the changing times.
    There’s a plate of homemade wishes on the kitchen window sill,
    And eight is enought to fill our lives with love.

    -G

  12. LS says:

    Heh, heh…interview with Palin on the Situation Room with Palin just now aired…

    Palin says she has more executive experience than Barack Obama…because.. Obama only worked for 400 days…and just “cause” doggoneit…

    • kdh22 says:

      He’s been a big ‘L’ his entire life. He blew millions of my parents’ tax dollars wrecking perfectly good planes. Entitlement is such a joy!

  15. allan says:

    I certainly hope that the NSA makes good recordings
    of the recriminations in the Victory Suite in Phoenix on Nov. 4.
    Selling the CDs will go a long way to paying down the national debt.

  16. AZ Matt says:

    Palin kids on state expense is getting great play right now. She will have to retire to Alaska soon as her world keeps going upin flames.

    Great vetting McCain!

  17. Frank33 says:

    “John’s personal comfort level is low with everyone right now. He’s angry.”

    Crazy and angry with a low comfort level. Plus Obama was hurtful to him. How many people are losing their homes every day? How many people are being killed in his many wars? How many people will be killed if he gets his hundred years war?

    Then Todd is always around, so Sarah is off limits. It is enough to make angels cry.

    • kdh22 says:

      McCain can’t wait to get back to the compound in AZ. He’s the fucking king there. He truly is Bush.

  18. wwroda says:

    Damnit, I hate having a job – by the time I catch up with the comments, the threads are dead. For the record – I love VAWA.

  20. LS says:

    West Virginia voting machines switching Dem votes to Puke votes…but no problem..just “human” error…and that they probably weren’t calibrated properly…WTF??

    Fasten your seatbelts…this is gonna be a mess…

  21. scribe says:

    Slightly OT, but you put the Beverly Hillbillies clip up.

    Back in the heyday of Reagan – 1984, I think – Miss Jane from the Hillbillies, Nancy Kulp, decided she would run for Congress from one of Central Pennsylvania’s redder districts. She was from Harrisburg and, IIRC living in Gettysburg at the time. She ran against “Dirty Water” Bud Shuster, and lost. For some reason now lost in the sands of time, Buddy Ebsen made a radio ad against her and in favor of Shuster. Ebsen claimed she was exploiting her celebrity status and didn’t know the issues. Shuster defeated Kulp with 67% of the vote.

    For what it’s worth, let’s hope Palin’s electoral fate matches Miss Jane’s.

  24. hackworth says:

    Angry as Col. Jessup. Not as smart or serious. McCain was the Navy equivalent of a frat boy during pledge week.

  25. dosido says:

    Chuck Todd just now saying you have to work real hard to become a bigger drag on the McCain ticket than Bush (about Palin).

  27. MsAnnaNOLA says:

    Here is hoping there is an impeachment waiting for her in Alaska when she returns from the campaign trail.

  28. CTMET says:

    I think there are alot more nasty things about Palin then her having her kids tag along at Govt expense.

  29. MadDog says:

    My apologies to the author of the Bevely Hillbillies Theme Song:

    Come and listen to a story about a family named Palin
    A poor snomobiler, always kept his family bailin’,
    Then one day he was shootin at some food,
    And up through the ground came a bubblin boob.

    Sarah that is, Fool’s gold, Alaska Free.

    Well the first thing you know ol Sarah’s shot a polar bear,
    Kinfolk said “Sarah move away from there”
    Said “Sedona is the place you ought to be”
    So they loaded up the truck and moved to Arizony.

    Hidden Valley, that is. Swimmin pools, brewery stars.

    Well now its time to say good by to Sarah and all her kin.
    And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin in.
    You’re all invited back a gain to this locality
    To have a heapin helpin of their hospitality

    Hillybilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.

    Y’all come back now, y’hear?.

    Shorter Cindy: “Jeebus John, they won’t friggin’ leave!”

  33. masaccio says:

    Politico reports RNC is buying clothes for Palin and family: $150,000. I wouldn’t mind it if they spent it on her, after all, running requires real clothes for lots of settings. But the kids? Isn’t that a bit much?

    • prostratedragon says:

      A very big and welcome story in Chicago —check out the treatment the Sun-Times is giving it for a small hint of the national catharsis we could all experience at the first hint of accountabiliity for our Hague problem.

      Birge is thought to have been involved in the station house torture of at least several dozen arrestees over decades. He was fired from the CPD iin 1993, but through various evasions he’d beat just about all charges and statutes of limitations until the (apparently quite blatant) lies in last year’s civil suit, which resulted in a victory for him.

      Just after that, I recall that Fitz announced that he was checking out the falsehood allegations. Looks like victory on the horizon at last.

      • bmaz says:

        It was a horrendous and long term deal. Really bad. I had a pretty huge false confession case going in the early 90s, and was very aware of the Burge matter, i had one expert witness out of Chicago that was heavily involved in the the original unraveling of it. Just horrid. People need to hear this; nobody understands just how much of this kind of stuff does really go on and just how bad it really is.

        • prostratedragon says:

          This might seem hard to believe, but I’d actually forgot just how disgusting and outrageous this case was till today’s reminder. You’re absolutely right though, this is our dark underside that more people need to pay attention to. More Melville and less Whitman for a while, nome sain?

  37. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    Piffle — aren’t you a fussbudget for details ;-))

    I thought that Bachmann was unhinged on MSNBC the other night, but good heavens — but listening to Heather Wilson tonight is just jaw-dropping. Anyone interested in watching a robotic display of GOP blindness ought to catch this:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21…..5#27311181

    Heather Wilson’s thought process seems to assume that whatever Palin wants to spend on her clothing is none of our business and we have no right to question her because we probably don’t live in ‘real America’, and we are therefore not ‘real Americans’; OTOH, if William Ayers spends a nickel, presumably that would be a criminal act, even if it is spent on pencils for school kids.

    The absolutely rigid inability to see any shade of grey in Heather Wilson’s thought process is worrying. I suppose if you think the world is being overtaken by ‘unAmericans’, then nice clothes would be some kind of comfort.

    Weird….
    And massacio @70 — Atelier sounds a little too… ‘Frenchy’ for the First Dude if you follow my drift. Next thing you know, he’ll stop eating his Freedom Fries.

    • Hmmm says:

      If there were shades of grey to consider, then it wouldn’t be possible to be a vigorous and prim authoritarian follower. Violates the ol’ prime directive, don’tcha know (wink!).

  39. bmaz says:

    This is an infamous case that has been roiling in one fashion or another since the very early 1990s. Right around the end of the 90s/beginning of new century, one of the subjects that had been tortured long ago convinced authorities to reopen his case on the basis of false confession. He, as I recall, finally convinced everybody by describing carvings of some nature he had made into the physical facility back when he was being tortured, and they were actually able to go back and corroborate his story. Others then came to be believed with similar stories, but the statute of limitations had run. Civil rights suits under Section 1983 were litigated, and the current false statements/perjury came out of that. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this case is solely about that particular squad of the Chicago PD and is all about very old stuff, as opposed to something that in any way relates to the general stuff you are familiar with here. This isn’t Rezko or anything sexy politically; but it is very heinous stuff and I am glad Fitz is going after these bad cops.

  40. kspena says:

    OT – Ken Adelman is voting for Obama…

    http://www.newyorker.com/onlin…..colin.html

    In email exchange with George Packard:

    “Why so, since my views align a lot more with McCain’s than with Obama’s? And since I truly dread the notion of a Democratic president, Democratic House, and hugely Democratic Senate?

    Primarily for two reasons, those of temperament and of judgment.

    When the economic crisis broke, I found John McCain bouncing all over the place. In those first few crisis days, he was impetuous, inconsistent, and imprudent; ending up just plain weird. Having worked with Ronald Reagan for seven years, and been with him in his critical three summits with Gorbachev, I’ve concluded that that’s no way a president can act under pressure.

    Second is judgment. The most important decision John McCain made in his long campaign was deciding on a running mate.

    That decision showed appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office—I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign—Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick.”

  41. prostratedragon says:

    A most exemplary correction:

    The source who told us last week about Michelle Obama getting lobster and caviar delivered to her room at the Waldorf-Astoria must have been under the influence of a mind-altering drug. She was not even staying at the Waldorf. We regret the mistake, and our former source is going to regret it, too. Bread and water would be too good for such disinformation.

  42. Neil says:

    Bill Bennett & Rick Davis opine on what bothers liberal feminists about Sarah Palin. I think you’ll agree they get it wrong.

    Think about the sophistry involved in discrediting reasonable criticism of Sarah Palin as a candidate for national office at this time. Rick & Bill think everybody hates liberal feminists, so they act as the stand in for everyone who has a substantive criticism of Palin’s flawed candidacy.

    Davis is working hard to keep Palin viable. It sure looks like they’re looking past ‘08.

    VIDEO 1 min.

  46. Leen says:

    When McCain announced Palin as his running mate in Dayton Ohio his face told it all. He looked far more uncomfortable that day than ever before. As she spoke in Dayton that day and every time that he is standing behind her those nerves in his cheeks and neck twitch more than ever. His forced smile becomes even more noticeable and I swear he has to hold back rolling his eyes every time she speaks remembering that she is part of his team.

    McCain knows he blew it…he knows.
    ———————————————-
    Chris Matthews ripped up Palin again last night.
    Palin’s statement to the second and third graders in regard to the responsibilities of the V.P.
    Palin to the second and third graders “They’re (the V.P.) in charge of the United States Senate if they really want to they can get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes that make life better”

    When Pat Buchanan tried to make light of her statements by saying that she was talking to second and third graders Matthews responded “she is talking LIKE a second grader”

    Chris Matthews also had Bill Maher on to discuss the Bachman, Palin “anti-American” politics.

    Bill Maher on Matthews interview with Palin last Friday “I love it when you give enough rope to dumb people to hang themselves”
    Maher referred to the Palin/Bachman politics as “being pulled out of Joe the Plumbers crack”

    If you did not watch Hardball last night sure worth it

    I did feel that Matthews missed the opportunity to pound on Cheney and the “barnacle” branch that he has been illegally operating out of. Wonder how many times Palin has met with Cheney? Where did she get those ideas about just what the responsibilities of the V.P. are? I guess those ideas could have been from that boat load of “horny neo-cons” Or from the way she has operated as the Governor of Alaska.

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