Sarah Palin Skeletons: Cronyism, Vendetta, High-Paying Jobs for High School Buddies

<p>Being reported in the New York Times article that extensively details her tenure as governor. I don't know how McCain is going to try to lie his way out of these reports, but the reports are detailed with many quotes from people on record.</p>

<p>And this woman is going to help reform Washington?</p>

<p>Here's the beginning of the very long article:</p>

<p>
[quote]
WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal. </p>

<p>So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.</p>

<p>Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages. </p>

<p>When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This woman is supposed to be a change from the way Bush turned government competence into an ideological cronyism machine? Note, too, that when she was mayor and someone said she could be governor, she said she wanted to be president. Isn't that the kind of ambition that McCain's campaign is supposedly against?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Since the media's fed up with McCain's lies and is finally calling him on it, the narrative about Palin being some kind of "I am not like those corrupt guys in Washington" reformer lying narrative is going to be destroyed. I would be shocked if this gets swept under the rug -- or if it can be.</p>

<p>Wow, just wow:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Dan Fagan, a prominent conservative radio host and longtime friend of Ms. Palin, urged his listeners to vote for her in 2006. But when he took her to task for raising taxes on oil companies, he said, he found himself branded a “hater.” </p>

<p>It is part of a pattern, Mr. Fagan said, in which Ms. Palin characterizes critics as “bad people who are anti-Alaska.” </p>

<p>As Ms. Palin’s star ascends, the McCain campaign, as often happens in national races, is controlling the words of those who know her well. Her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, has been asked not to speak to reporters, and aides sit in on interviews with old friends. </p>

<p>At a recent lunch gathering, an official with the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce asked its members to refer all calls from reporters to the governor’s office. Diane Woodruff, a city councilwoman, shook her head.</p>

<p>“I was thinking, I don’t remember giving up my First Amendment rights,” Ms. Woodruff said. “Just because you’re not going gaga over Sarah doesn’t mean you can’t speak your mind.”

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is about as bad as I suspected...</p>

<p>This notion of someone being bad, evil, a hater, anti-Alaska, anti-US is EXACTLY what made me queasy when I was watching her handle the "Task from God" comments during the Gibson interview. I went back and looked at the video of her in her church and there was one really clear case where she was talking about the pipeline she was working for being god's work and that those against it were, by implication, godless.</p>

<p>We don't need this again in the White House, or close to it. This sounds too much like Bush, perhaps even worse...</p>

<p>Bedhead - I know the topic off the Gibson interview was foreign policy, but was also disappointed that Gibson didn't pursue the "task from god" conversation to include the pipeline. I was very curious as to how she'd explain it (without quoting Lincoln again).</p>

<p>
[quote]
I don't know how McCain is going to try to lie his way out of these reports.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The way he's done it his entire campaign. Pretend like the exact opposite happened, and then blame Obama for something similar, just like he did for earmarks.</p>

<p>McCain's Alzheimer is settling in all ready. He's down for change. lmfao.</p>

<p>why is palin so polarizing?</p>

<p>Commentary</a> Blog Archive Is This It? Really?
What a stupid article.</p>

<p>Ha ha ha, PugFug.</p>

<p>"Dat's stupid!"</p>

<p>"Obama wants to teach kindergarteners about sex!"</p>