GOP Official Who Emailed With Palin Moments Before Decision, Explains Her Move

The head of the Republican Governor's Association said on Friday that in emails sent to him moments before she announced her resignation as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin discussed expanding the role she played in the Republican Party.

"Part of her decision is she wants to spend more time campaigning for candidates," Nick Ayers, the executive director of the RGA, told Fox News.

"She felt like she needed to make her colleagues around the country aware, so she had given us a brief heads up," Ayers said of getting the emails. "We have known for a couple of days she was considering not running for re-election but it was news today that she had gone ahead and made the decision to fully step down and resign."

In relaying his conversation with Palin, Ayers provided one of the most direct, on the record explanations for what exactly drove the Alaska Governor's decision to step aside. Palin's announcement seemed to come as a complete surprise to officials in the state as well as those close to her. Her brother said he had no clue what she was planning prior to the mid-day press conference. The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, one of Palin's strongest backers, said he initially felt shock and bewilderment at the Governor's decision to step down from her post at the end of July. Moments later, however, he was playing up the move as, perhaps, the opening move in the 2012 Republican primary - and a sage one at that.

"Haven't conservatives been lamenting the lack of a national leader?" he asked, in a post on the Standard's site. "Well, now she'll try to be that."

While Ayers may have had a direct heads up as to Palin's intentions, he wasn't entirely on cue with the Governor's talking points. Asked why Palin was stepping down as opposed to finishing her term (which ends in 2010), the RGA header cited pesky bloggers and activists as the reason. Palin had insisted she didn't want to put Alaskans through two years of a lame-duck governorship.

"I don't think this is buckling to pressure," said Ayers. "I think this is her coming to the realization that the legislature in Alaska and that some bloggers and activists in Alaska are going to do everything they can to stymie her progress. This is a governor who didn't run for the office because she wanted a title. She wanted to make significant change in the state. She realized that that was no longer going to be able to happen, because things had become so partisan there."

Comments

[MilitantlyPassive]

I guess this makes her Sarah Failin.

[kesmarn]

Have also heard her referred to as Para Sailin'.

[BennyW]

This is a reply to the person shieldvulf -- Kristol and his pals are nauseating­... truly....
but what's with the "schoolgirlish" remark? Want to define that?

[shieldvulf]

I don't know what fight you think you're picking, friend, but, as the context might suggest, I meant that Kristol is DEVOTED to Palin in the uncomplicated, adoring, squealing way one sees in schoolgirls admiring their idols and examples.

I don't know what else to say to you. Anyway, I'm not getting paid here, and these are the InterWebs, so why am I the ONE person held to some unspoken standard for my choice of words?

If YOU are a schoolgirl and took offense, I encourage you to explore the difference between rhetoric and expressive language on the one hand, and mincing literalism on the other. You'll see then my remark was only about Wild Bill and not at all about you.

Now, would you care to explain what you mean by "nauseated?" And "his pals?"

[farmgirl10]

WTF??? Come on people. Political correctness is what got us George Bush AND Ronald Reagan.

[pageleft]

I tried to agree with you regarding Kristol but my comment is pending and since I doubt it'll clear let me say, if this is okay with the post police, that I just finished the VF article. Interesting that Purdom had this to say regarding the future of Palin and the Republican brand:

It is, at the moment, a party in which the loudest and most singular voices, not burdened by responsibility, wield disproportionate power. She may decide that she does not need office in order to have great influence—any more than Rush Limbaugh does.

[rampage]

Kristol is a li
ar and a chickenhawk.

[NewYorker6699]

The only thing she did to bring significant change to Alaska was to increase the national perception that the people of Alaska don't have the ability to evaluate the competence of people they elect to public office.
The best thing she can do for the American people is to disappear quietly into the night, raise her children to avoid making additional contributions to the deterioration of the human gene pool, and leave the rest of us to live in peace, secure in the knowledge that she won't be around to bother us any more.

[k6007]

Hear, hear.

[roshni]

Indeed!

[ppp1604]

Palin is nothing more than an extreme right winged religious fanatic. Her supporters are the same people who rail against the religious extremist in Iraq and Iran. Christian religious extremist or Muslim religious extremist, it is all the same.

If there is any take away from the Middle East, it should be the danger of religious extremism. The USA should always be on guard.

[Prakosh]

Sorry to disappoint but her resignation had nothing to do with bloggers.

Here is the latest from Brad Blog:

"I've now been able to get independent information from multiple sources that all of this precedes what are said to be possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin's house and the Wasilla Sports Complex, built during her tenure as Mayor. Both structures, it is said, feature the "same windows, same wood, same products." Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7280 (he has pictures of the house in question)

This story first appeared in the Village Voice October 8, 2008. The most startling thing about this story for me is that the national media, those reporters who make the big bucks all were told that Todd Palin built this 2 million dollar home in three months with some help from his friends and they believed him. The only person in the media who didn't was William Barrett and after spending two weeks in Wasilla was able to write a story that the rest of the public evidently ignored or didn't even hear about.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-08/news/the-book-of-sarah/1

[privategirl]

If Sanford with all his skeletons-­in-the-clo­set confessional is not stepping down. Then I cannot see any reason outside of a "Madoff" type crime that would have Sarah Palin giving up her seat as a Governor so early. I was under the impression that the Repubs were above reproach because their stance on family values and Christianity.

[Roninfbn47]

the repubs are above nothing nowadays, they just keep digging that hole deeper.

[ebanks84]

Did Sanford get his home built with the same materials as Palin? That seems to be the question here.

[gentlewomanfarmer]

If there is fire causing the SBS smoke, then the single difference between Sanford and Palin is that the latter is in legal trouble. The high-pitched, panicky delivery of her seemingly endless rant of non sequitors suggests to me that she is finally hearing what her attorneys have been saying.

[gentlewomanfarmer]

Send lawyers, guns, and money.

[buggedabouttheus]

Devastating article.

[BikeFreak]

I think Palin would be a wonderful campaign tool for the GOP.

Everywhere she goes things get messed up for those she comes into contact with...a republican with Palin on their side will never be elected to anything!

[Glenmoredoc1]

Wonder when she will be starting her "GOP Nail In The C_o_f_f_i_n" campaign tour?

[Glenmoredoc1]

Wonder when she will be starting her "GOP Nail In The Coffin" campaign tour?

[ebanks84]

Comment so good you had to say it twice, hun? :)

[Glenmoredoc1]

Went 'pending' the first time ! The m_o_ds and scrubbers are really busy today. ;-)

[shieldvulf]

My favorite feature of the Palin celebrity is Kristol's infatuation. That he leaps into the babble about this capitulation and call it "shrewd" is hilariously schoolgirlish in its devotion. He makes a career of being wrong and never blinking, but this! It's like finding the guy bent urgently over pictures of the governor. So creepish that laughing hurts!

Who quits an elective office because there are politics -politics! - involved?
Palin is typical of an inward-turning, anti-intellectual movement in conservative culture we communist socialist Muslim Democrats ought to exploit. She, like her admirers, prefers the pictures in her head to the world around her, and mistakes that simple-minded preference for idealism. Whenever she is confronted with the contention, ambiguity, and practical demands of reality, they object the world is not behaving.

These folks, the governor included, want everybody ELSE to make the world be what they expect, to stop being other things. They couch this complaint as an appeal to a better time for better people who didn't simply know their place - they LIKED their place just fine you betcha.

That past never happened, of course. The variety of human action and thought has always been with us, including stupid presidents and sexually adventurous presidents. And free-thinkers, independent women, organized workers, and others who speak corrosive truth to power. The past that Palin's camp are nostalgic for never was. That is my definition of "sentimentality" - nostalgia for what never was.

[helenwheels]

Well said!

[GrandGuignol]

He once said she reminded him of FDR.

For a man that was once a professor of political philosophy, you have to wonder...

[beac]

What he didn't explain is that by "FDR" he meant "Female Dream Robot"--- his own personal fant_asy of the ideal woman.

[ebanks84]

Pray tell if you didn't hit that nail squarely on the head!

[ZimboChick]

Why isnt this a HuffPo pick?

[Scoot2711]

Excellent points!!

[trisha08]

This shouldn't surprise anyone. This is the real Sarah Pali----- who has a history of quitting.

How many colleges did she quit before getting her BA? How many careers has she had? How many GOP functions did she back out of--after agreeing to attend?

Look at her behavior since the election. It's been erratic. She is a trainwreck.

[numbnuts]

I would love to see comprehensive list of all those quit and runs that she has had throughout her career.
I think you are on to something.
Great point!

[ebanks84]

I could care less about her history of quitting. I care only about her history of LYING!

[kesmarn]

You're right about the pattern of quitting. Hadn't thought of that. I wonder if she bails every time she can't control every single aspect of her surroundings, including all the humans involved?

[CherokeeGirl]

Oh, is that now the story? Because of the bloggers? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

[helenwheels]

Yeah if that's the case, I HELPED!

[whatthel]

One person can make a difference.

[Dynamohum]

Just like "Shake and Bake" I helped!! lol

[roshni]

Me
too!

[Peets101]

This is nonsense. She is giving up an influential position (currently held by a Republican) so she can use her now diminished influence and no bully-pulpit to help put other Republicans into office?? She will have no money and no platform. Or does she imagine that the press will continue to swarm around her just because she is Sarah?

This also conflicts with the "I want to spend more time with my family" excuse. And it conflicts with the statements about needing to pay her legal bills -- Who would quit a good job in this economy because they have too many bills?

The only thing that makes sense to me is that she is trying to duck an indictment. It’s even conceivable that she has cut a deal to avoid an indictment by stepping down. It could be wishful thinking, but nothing else makes any sense to me.

[lonecrone]

Too true. And if she says she wants to spend more time with her family, how does that jive with her plan to travel around backing GOP candidates? The whole speech is very confusing.

[Prakosh]

It's not wishful thinking it is a fact. She is gone. When one is indicted for embezzlement of government funds one's political career is generally over. And she is apparently going to indicted soon for the free house that was built with materials from the Stadium project that was her one accomplishment besides running up the debt of the 7,000 person berg 22 million dollars during her tenure. The good part is she got the money for the stadium project/home construction project from the Federal Government (all that lobbying money she brought home--literally) so this is a federal offense.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7280 (he has pictures of the house in question)

The original story that appeared on this in the Village Voice, October 8, 2008 can be read here:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-08/news/the-book-of-sarah/1

Her and her husband thought they were smart, they eliminated all building codes before the began construction so there wouldn't be any paperwork linking the construction to a contractor and their wouldn't need to be any messy inspections or discussion with the builders. Then they claimed that Todd had built the house himself in three months with the help of a couple of his friends and the reporters from the national media said wow, that Todd's some dude!!!

HAHAHAHAHA­HAHAHAHAHA­HAHA

[Peets101]

My partner has another explanation which is just a likely as mine -- She is joining FOX. But even this belies what she said because FOX is at the heart of the "dirty politics" she says she is running from.

[den1953]

The party of NO turns out to be the party of you have the right to remain silent!!!

[roshni]

Fanned!

[Rumplestiltskin]

Happy Fourth folks

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

[GypsyRose]

And to you, musically, to get in the spirit of the day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghz4_kikLkE

[Rumplestiltskin]

Thank you very much. Saw Ray years ago. Sweet America. Perfect.

[adamfox]

"This is a governor who didn't run for the office because she wanted a title. She wanted to make significant change in the state." Her history would say otherwise - beauty queen, champion basketball, et al, & Todd as well. Interesting no one discusses this as a saga of power. Perhaps because American still aren't use to talking about power and woman in the same conversation. If she does crumble completely, she will be martyred. it is a win-win for her, really.

[lonecrone]

Martyred? Oh please! She's just a whining quitter who can't stand up in a storm.

[Prakosh]

This is much more than a storm--she is in the middle of Katrina in a rowboat without a paddle. And this happened long before she was chosen as a VP candidate. She is going down!