Palin Reason For Quitting Appears To Be False

The Plum Line:

One of the chief reasons Sarah Palin has given for resigning as Governor of Alaska is that her state's taxpayers are being forced to spend money defending her government against ethics complaints that would otherwise fund teachers, cops, and road repair.

But in response to our questions, a spokesperson for the Alaska governor's office just gave us new information that casts serious doubt on this assertion. The revelation makes the resignation episode even stranger, and raises fresh questions about the real reasons for her abrupt departure.

Read the whole story: The Plum Line

Comments

[indy girl]

You mean ol' mainstream media people! How dare you question what I say as being anything but the absolute truth! You're as bad as that b!tch katie couric and all her tricky questions about hard reading, like such as a newspaper! AND I have a special need child and was a regulator of OIL and GAS so let's not forget that otherwise! Plus I have to watch Putin's rearin' head until July 25th and so therefore I am very busy and also catching fish in my new waders, too, dontchaknow!!

[AnnfromCA]

Nobody is going to buy this line of bull from Plumline. You kidding me? It's a joke!

[CML96]

Facts are hard to ignore.

Spinning the truth for some people is a game. That is not a quality I want to see in a leader.
Many thinking, intelligent people do additional research before coming to conclusions.
As far back as 1997, Palin has been whining about "people trying to get her". This info is readily available on-line and documented in the Alaskan newspapers.

[Prakosh]

State lawyers are on the state payroll no matter what they are working on and they certainly don't road repair or any of the other things Palin claimed the money going to them was being diverted from. Once again "B" you've demonstrated what a moderate you are!!!!!

[CML96]

From Palin's spokesperson:

" David Murrow, a spokesperson for the Governor, said in an interview that much of this money was budgeted to the lawyers in advance and would have gone to them anyway, even if state lawyers hadn’t been defending against these ethics complaints.

In response to our questions, the Governor’s office provided us with a detailed breakdown of the millions Palin has claimed has gone to defending against ethics complaints. It does list roughly $1.9 million in expenditures.

But Murrow, the spokesperson, acknowledged to our reporter, Amanda Erickson, that this total was arrived at by adding up attorney hours spent on fending off complaints — based on the fixed salaries of lawyers in the governor’s office and the Department of Law. The money would have gone to the lawyers no matter what they were doing. The complaints are “just distracting them from other duties,” Murrow said.

In other words, while these lawyers might have been free to do other legal work for the state, the ethics complaints have apparently not had the real world impact Palin has claimed, and didn’t drain money away from cops, teachers, roads and other things."

[AnnfromCA]

That is an absurd argument. Labor costs are ALWAYS figured in. Face it. The bloggers who hate her just embarassed some of you, yet again. They were saying for days that she was lying, it was only $300,000. Frankly, they were defending this strategy of filing frivolous charges.

Well, it backfired. It DID hurt Alaska. It WAS nothing but dirty politics. And she proved it. You can deny labor doesn't count, but that argument simply doesn't fly with commonsense people.

Of course, it counts.

[lifesucks]

Perhaps SP supporters you should be emailing and writing to Murrow's office and tell him to "take it back."

[HLL]

Something is going on that we've yet to hear about regards Palin's early and hasty retreat from the Governor's office. Another shoe will drop. This being the 21st century, we'll hear about it soon enough because no one can believe a thing she says, so there is more factual information to come.

[AnnfromCA]

Her detracters have been digging for dirt nonstop. There is none. They filed charge after charge, which were dismissed because she did not do anything unethical.

While I understand that the left doesn't like her politics, the continued inability of the left to admit this simple fact has ruined its own credibility.

That, frankly, is what happens when smear campaigns fail. The smearer is the one ruined.

[CML96]

I would not call consistent lying nothing.

[indy girl]

Maybe she just quit because she's a quitter.

Sometimes things are exactly as simple as they appear on the surface.

[MJD NewYork]

Palin lie #32:

Palin lied when she denied that the Alaska Independence Party supports secession and denied that her husband had been a member; in fact, even the McCain campaign noted that the party's very existence is based on secession and that Todd was a member for seven years.

[hortonhearsdawho]

yeah, mccain is ruined...

[serialcoma]

Your insipid comments continue I see...

1) Palin improperly charged the state per diem while living inher own home
2) Palin improperly used private e-mail to conduct state business
3) Palin improperly charged her childrens' travel expenses to the state
4) Palin's husband was innapproriately involved in conducting state business - Troopergate

Get a clue Ann - just because Palin is a woman doesn't make her Mother Teresa - or above the law.

[AnnfromCA]

No, the money that is paid in salary could be spent doing something actually worthwhile for Alaskans rather than frittered away on the constant charges being filed.

This is one ridiculous argument by Plum Line. When calculating costs, salary must be included. I presume the piece is reaching for anything to dissprove Palin because this blog was one pushing the falsehood that the costs were substantially lower than they really are?

[emily00011]

no one really cares what you have to say! take it to twitter where has-been politicians twitter from their basements

[AnnfromCA]

Apparently, you did. :)

[nicole44]

Then why are you on an OPINION blog? You should refrase your comment to say, "unless you are here to be my echoing chamber I am going to put my fingers in my ears and stomp my feet on the ground until you be quiet." Usually people who can't stand an honest opinion of others are very narrow-minded and can't debate intelligently.

[MJD NewYork]

Disproving Palin is the easiest thing in the world to do. But go ahead, keep spinning away.

[MJD NewYork]

Palin lie #31:

Palin lied when she mischaracterized the "$1200 check" given to Alaskans as the permanent fund dividend check; in fact, that fund had yielded $2,069 per person, and she claimed otherwise to obscure the fact that Alaskans also received a $1200 rebate check from a windfall profits tax on oil companies - a tax widely criticized by Republicans.

[MJD NewYork]

Yet another Palin lie:

Palin lied when she repeatedly claimed to have said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere; in fact, she openly campaigned for the federal project when running for governor.

[bogues]

I think it was beneficial to Alaskans to have Sarah Palin either live in the Governor's mansion free of charge or pay her own expenses that she ran up while driving back and forth from her home to the Capitol. I also doubt seriously that the lawyers ignored other Government business or that other Government business suffered or went unattended to while these violations were investigated.

[justobserve]

Well, well! If the ethics complaints are so numerous then that showed Palin needs to be impeached for her numerous unethical actions. The most obvious reason for her to quit is she always quit: from her 5 colleges to get one degree to her chairmanship of an oil commission to her first term governorship. She only needs those titles to have an impressive CV and she fought with whatever means she possessed (winks, blinks,... like a bulldog with lipstick) but she soon found out they are out of her league and quit!

[AnnfromCA]

All charges have been dismissed.

[MJD NewYork]

That's what she says, but, as usual it is NOT the truth. She was forced to pay back the state $8,000 for charging travel inappropriately. That was an ethics violation that was not dismissed, but was judged and she was found to be in violation. So, as usual, the woman lies with impunity and the right just ignores it. Pathetic.

[serialcoma]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/07/09/palin_lying/



Palin is a liar - yet you defend her tooth and nail... Ann, you are hopeless.

[BlueFloyd]

and MJ and OJ were not convicted either.....i am just curious.....do you also feel that both of those guys were totally innocent of ALL worngdoing as you are saying about this dolt?

[euripedes923]

I don't jet ski, fish or hunt, but I'd be happy to go motorboating with Sarah Palin.

[BlueFloyd]

This is from a blogger on the original source page: (I thought it was excellent......i havent verified the info, but if it's true, it's rather hilarious.....and telling)....

WalterNeff | July 8th, 2009 at 04:46 pm
Sarah Palin believes it’s no big deal that she quit in the middle of her first term. Happens all the time, right? As it turns out—no.

On a hunch, I reviewed online lists of all the men and women who’ve been elected governor of their state since 1900. Pored over them for a few hours. Over 1200 politicians have taken that first-term oath of office. Some soon died in office. Many resigned to accept other positions in government, including Spiro Agnew who was “tapped” by Nixon after being the Governor of Maryland for about five minutes. On a handful of occasions, a first-termer was dragged off to the slammer or impeached. One was incapacitated by a nervous breakdown and one left just as impeachment came knocking on his door. So—how many out of over 1200 just up and quit before the end of their term?

Three: Jim McGreevy, Eliot Spitzer and Sarah Palin.

Can anyone say “other shoe?”

[keepemhonest]

Great research!

McGreevy resigned due to extramarital affair with a man.

Spitzer - resigned due to extramarital affair with a woman.

Palin - resigned either a) because she is ignorant or b) another shoe will drop.

2 or 3 wks ago Palin filed a request for Exemption of Financial Disclosure for gifts/income her family received from Arctic Cat

... But 1 wk before Palin's Exemption request - Palin's Personal Personnel Board cleared her of ethics violations regarding Arctic Cat.

Then there is the IRS & Palin's per deims

My guess is Palin is in deep trouble with the IRS & she wants to get out of office so she won't have to disclose how much she TOOK from the "people" of Alaska.

[indy girl]

Palin resigned because she's having a love affair with herself!

[rhondadavis28]

Thanks for this…

Some one posted a ? worth re-posting....

"I have been wondering why the media (that Palin bashes all the time and blames for her demise) keeps using the figures that Palin gave them without any investigative journalism.

Seems it’s up to blogger today to do the investigating.

The media was just tripping over themselves yesterday to go fishin’ with Palin that they forgot to ask her any real questions."

MSNC< CNN get with it.....

Are regualr folks are becoming the tough real reporters now or what ????

[AnnfromCA]

When calculating costs, salaries are always included. At least in the real world.....

[hortonhearsdawho]

join the real world once in awhile, tootse..

[serialcoma]

Too bad you know nothing of the real world.... just your own little fantasy land.

[slarabee]

I think people give her far to much credit for having a depth of intelligence.

Every time I have heard her speak I have been struck that she reminds me of every talentless hack I have ever worked with in business that has manipulated themselves into positions that they are not qualified for.

It may very well be that she got herself in over her head and the stress has finally caught up with her.

Some people her act as if she is some kind of super villain when by all accounts every move she makes blows up in her face.

I doubt many republicans will even want her fund raising for them now. Imagine you are running for office, would you really want a person that cannot handle the jobs they take to be associated with your brand?

I think you can stick a fork in her politically she is all done. And do not even try selling me that most republicans love her business. Very few people even identify them selves as republicans anymore. So the fact that many republicans love her is like saying the least popular losing party is pulling for her, it is meaningless.

[MBLADY]

The truth will come out soon.

[Macready]

and it will be very nasty . . .

[keepemhonest]

The truth won't come out ... partial truths will come out. Palin does not know the difference between truth & fiction ... she lies about the most basic things.

[AnnfromCA]

What truth is coming out is that the fiction is coming from the smear blogs.

[hortonhearsdawho]

think rick perry...

[weatherwaxx]

That headline has a huge DUH factor. What else is new?

[jakiew]

she's always been a pathological li=ar

[barackobama4prez]

Seriously HP, does she have to be the main article???????????????????

[KillgoreTrout43]

She's not.

[barackobama4prez]

On the politics page she is. She could be the main article on the Sarah Palin Big News page but I'm sick of seeing her mugshot everywhere.

ixnay on arahsay!

[somsoc]

Sarah Plain has seen the light, glory be! She will be sla ved. With a book deal worth millions, speaking tours (with instructions and writers to correct her misologistic gaffs) she understands that to be a good rethuglican't she must have the money of a Limbutt and the morals of an Ensign.

[KillgoreTrout43]

slaved?

[somsoc]

That would be a step up for a worshiper of witchdoctors.

[tm68]

I have lost count of this woman's LIES. This is ridiculous! Palin the Pathological Liar.

[keepemhonest]

She is a female Beck