Sarah Palin Underweight, Anxious, Needed "Emergency Help" For Thinning Hair: New York Times

Update: Sarah Palin's hairdresser speaks! 9 days after the Times pondered the possible reasons for Sarah Palin's sudden withdrawal from the Alaskan governorship, at least one thing has become clear: it wasn't really a hair emergency. "It wasn't like I did an intervention,'' Jessica Steele, Palin's long time friend and hairdresser, told the Boston Globe in a phone interview from her Wasilla beauty parlor, the Beehive. "I think the combination of traveling and just being down there in the lower 48... We needed to get her back to shiny.''

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The New York Times has a lengthy story on Sarah Palin in Monday's edition, examining the personal and political pressures that may have driven her to resign her governorship.

The article, like many others before it, describes Palin's political operation as largely dysfunctional, to the point that prominent Republican adviser Fred Malek felt the need to personally urge her to have someone "set up a mechanism so you can return calls."

"You are getting a bad rap," he recalled saying. "Important people are trying to talk to you. And she said, 'What number are they calling?' She did not know what had been happening."

The piece describes Palin as obsessed with her critics, and under severe strain from souring relationships with Alaska legislators and encounters with the national media and paparazzi. Perhaps the strangest details of the story come from accounts from Palin's friends about her physical deterioration:

Friends worried that she appeared anxious and underweight. Her hair had thinned to the point where she needed emergency help from her hairdresser and close friend, Jessica Steele.

Read the full story here.

Comments

[benne]

Less on Sarah, and more on the impeachable offenses of Cheney. Where is the outrage and move to prosecute and impeach Cheney for ordering that the illegal wiretapping be kept from Congress.

[aero56]

Yes indeed.

[Bude]

Someone actually agreed with your Cheney comment?

[laminators]

I wonder if Cheney makes a comment this week

[Bude]

Hit tip #1. If this story was about Cheney, we'd be talking about him, not Palin

[Tkevan]

Hit tip #2. Don't try to use words you don't understand the meaning of. Impeachment is the the first step of removal of someone STILL IN OFFICE. Last time I checked, Cheney is now a private citizen.

[LauraD]

"Impeachment is the the first step of removal of someone STILL IN OFFICE."

No, impeachment is the process by which charges are brought against someone who is in public office when the offenses with which they are charged took place while they were in office. The process of removing someone from office is seperate from impeachment.

The House acts like a grand jury handing down an indictment, and it is the House which impeaches, as they bring charges on an elected official to the Senate. They require only a simple majority to bring impeachment. The Senate acts as a judge and jury, and either convicts or acquits the charged official based on the evidence presented in the general format of a trial, with witnesses, evidence, cross-examinations, etc. They require a 2/3 majority to convict. If they are convicted, they are removed from office. If they acquitted they are not. This is why, though Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were both impeached, neither was removed from office - the House saw enough evidence to bring charges (thus they were impeached), but the Senate acquitted, so they held office and have no criminal record.

Similar to our standard legal process, the indictment is not a guilty verdict, and the person charged is still "innocent until proven guilty."

Otherwise, you're correct - if Cheney (or any member of the previous administration) is brought on charges, it won't require impeachment because he's no longer in office.

[mikerobjohn]

Another Republican wimp who likes to talk the talk but can't walk the walk.

Another Republican who can't take the heat.

Republicans need to admit that the Democratic Party is the American Party. The ideal party for all of America.

President Obama has really destroyed the Republican Party.

[zkazan]

The Republican Party destroyed itself. Obama can't be given the credit or blame for that one.
Their implosion began before Obama.

[jrfunkenstein]

'Their implosion began before Obama.'

But was completed with his arrival.

[DonTampa58]

President Obama hasn't destroyed the Republican Party. They've done that quite effectively all on their own.

[Annette truth teller08]

Please tell the MSM that.

Because they somehow seem to think that this is some type of shared Presidency and Administration.

You would never know that the Republicans were out of power the way they parade them around on tv and spew their talking points.

[Tkevan]

You're kidding, right? It's called having both opinions represented, and it's what the media is supposed to do. Unlike what they did during the election.

[ThinkAgen]

So she was scared st**less and unable to cope with the pressure of being in the big time. I don't blame her, she was plucked out of her small simple world in Alaska, long before she was ready to deal with national scrutiny, and ripped to shreds. She may have some noble principles and values, but she most likely will never be capable of being president (Even if Americans are dumb enough to vote her in)

[OfficialA]

Kinda like democracy. It's difficult to impose from outside and best when allowed to bubble up, develop organically, and mature naturally. SP might -- might -- have been viable nationally had she been allowed to evolve into the role and not been the victim of McCain's not-so-intelligent design.

[MadHeart]

Co-sign!

[stateretiree]

She could only handle being President if everything was peachy-keen. She would have quit after 1 month during this crisis.

[Buddy McCue]

I don't think anyone twisted her arm.

She could have refused the nomination.

[Anthro]

And wouldn't any sane person with a newborn special-needs child, a pregnant teenaged daughter and a son about to depart for Iraq have put family first and said "thanks, but no thanks--my plate is already full".

[Skyeblue]

Wow! Just imagine her as our president!

[KO4Pres]

~Shudder~

[aero56]

No!!

[laminators]

cringe