Palin Report Overstates Costs Of Ethics Complaints: $30,000 An Hour Attorney?

McClatchy:

There's some double counting and other problems with a spreadsheet outlining $1.9 million in state costs for ethics complaints, public records requests and lawsuits directed at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[drdubski]

EVERYONE, please post your comments here, a major firearms/right wing forum has taken over the comments: http://www.whatobamameanstome.com/

[gbee]

Sorry, that site should just be taken down by it's owners if they are not going to police it themselves. The paranoia and ugliness that ONE black man can stir up in these folks should be very instructive to ALL of us. This country still has a LONG way to go in even learning how to disagree agreeably. They are entitled to their opinions, but these folks have embraced hatred on a genetic level. They are beyond discussion. All you can do is protect yourself and anyone you see beginning to lean in that direction from joining them. These folks are lost to a degree that they will only be helped by THEMSELVES, if ever.

[demomntgirl]

"Overstated"

AKA

LIED.....again.

Sarah Surrender.
The quitter that can't $peak the truth!
$he bailed out on Ala$ka...
and it'$ people...
to fill her pocket$
with PAC money and book deal$!!

$HE $OLD OUT the VOTER$ THAT $UPPORTED HER!!

[lobear00]

Criminals and their dirty little deeds will at some point come home to roost.!

[avshanbh]

Has anyone checked Palin's closet? She probably went on a shopping spree again.

[Martha12]

Dave Jones represents the Governor’s Office as part (if not all) of his job. Here again, he would be paid the same amount regardless of how many ethics complaints there were, or if there were none. By listing their time on this cost breakdown, the Governor’s Office is implying that they were doing something unusual or special that required all these extra funds that could have been spent elsewhere, which is flatly untrue. They were simply doing their assigned job, much like an attorney in the environmental section would represent the DEC if something happened that caused a flood of litigation against it, and therefore “increased” bills.

So, if the “millions of dollars” is given as a reason, then debunked, then spun by the administration and then debunked again, we are left with the same question we had while we stared slackjawed last week watching the governor announce she was going to quit her job.

Why really?

http://www.themudflats.net/

[DASChicago]

You see, it's one of those "Thanks, but no Thanks, but thanks...sara morbid statements.

[Martha12]

The sifting in the case of ethics complaints was handled on a volunteer basis by attorneys from various sections within the Department of Law, who were otherwise slow. In other words, the attorneys who were doing the public records requests would have been paid the same amount of money to sit around looking for stuff to do, had they not been working on the records requests. The only difference is that instead of the amount being billed to another department, it was billed to the Governor’s Office. So far there have been no indications that any attorney stayed late or worked a weekend because of the public records requests, or where something else wasn’t properly handled because of the public records requests. Presumably, if the sifters had anything more important to be doing, they wouldn’t have volunteered.

And interestingly, page 2 of the .pdf document lists the time and costs for Assistant Attorneys General Bockmon and Jones. Judy Bockmon is the state’s ethics attorney. Handling ethics inquiries is her JOB. So, by working on these ethics issues, she was not doing anything outside of her normal job description, and again, she would have been paid the SAME amount regardless of whether there were 15 complaints filed, or if there were none.

http://www.themudflats.net/

[myfatherschild]

Palin seems too dumb to realise how dumb she really is. Did she and her crew not realise that people would catch and call them out on their mathematically challenged speadsheet?

[trying-to-be-objective]

Palin has no relationship with truth. She can't recognize truth, outside of herself or within herself. Come to think of it, she can't see much of anything beyond herself and her narcissistic needs.

[laocoon]

and Putin's head of course.

[damasview]

Another lie, exaggeration, overstatement, whatever you want to call it... What's worse is that Palin is incapable of correcting her stupid comments even when she is proven wrong (time & time again) Her answer to everything "the media elite" "this kind of reporting only applies to me" "I'm being attacked for speaking the truth" lol that's my favorite one. Her supporters don't care about the truth, hello that group voted for Bush's twice! They care about the message & Palin is message (we hate Obama ) & no substance.

[breakingnews3]

Someone posted an article here the other day that was from an Alaska newspaper, written in Palins first term as Mayor of Wasilla. In the article, Palin was crying about the media smearing her and how she could not get any work done because of them.

It's her pattern, blame shift when anyone questions her ability to lead.

[laocoon]

as someone who does not qualify in her eyes as a real american i have been unable to work because of all her criticism.

[Shawn0965]

I think what this article highlights is something far more scary than how unintelligent Sarah Palin is, which we already knew. It highlights that Palin likes to surround herself with people just as unintelligent.

This isn't "fuzzy" math, this is stupidity. Why in the world would you release crap like this to the media without checking it, unless you didn't know the difference. I would think that the Office of Administration knows the rates the states lawyers are paid, apparently they didn't know. If they did there should have been red flags all over this "report".

From everything else that has been reported, Palin likes to surround herself with people she knows, not people who are competant. Apparently she doesn't know anyone who is competant.

[breakingnews3]

The right is so used to having their blatant li.es swallowed whole by the media, that they seem unable or unwilling to to tell the truth anymore.

[alwqb]

AnnfromCA needs to go back to Fox Nation. She won't get any Palin support here. And she brought up Whitewater that was 15 years ago because why? If you want to go back Ann, let's start with Nixon!

[Martha12]

I find that there are MANY similarities between Palin and Nixon.

The paranoid, self grandiose attributes are just for starters.

Overreacting to minor and perceived slights, with a agenda of vengeance is another.

The idea that because they hold the office they do, means that whatever they do is not illegal.

Self deluded and bitter , because, as Peggy Noonan pointed out:

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool.

She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them.

She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything.

She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity.

She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it.

She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough.

Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

The base barely knew who she was. It was the elites, from party operatives to public intellectuals, who advanced her and attacked those who said she lacked heft.

She is a complete elite confection.

She might as well have been a bonbon.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html

[alwqb]

Sarah's legal problems where all taken care of by staff lawyers, people who would be getting paid no matter what they were working on. She had to quit because she is writing a book. Can you imagine the time it will take for Sarah to write a book? I wouldn't want to be her editor, Sarah knows best after all!

[OlHippie]

Well, see, Sarah had to try five different colleges before finally graduating from the 511th ranked university in the country with a degree in communications/journalism; and someone is surprised she can't do math?

[timberdoodle]

Palin is the poster child for the need for the United States to put more of an emphasis on education and get out of the bible thumping business.

[Strywever]

Considering the relatively small amounts involved in the errors McClatchey says the report contains, the header is a bit hyperbolic, isn't it?

[maxfax]

Not everyone is good at math.

: P