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October 28, 2008 3:34 PM
Allies of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are now trying to throw McCain aide Nicolle Wallace under the proverbial bus, and as they do so those in McCain’s circle are wary of the impact on Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., himself.
Since becoming McCain's running mate, there have been a host of issues where Palin publicly challenged decisions made by McCain – withdrawing from competition in Michigan, for instance, or for not attacking Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for his longtime relationship with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (See "McCannibals," from earlier this week.)
But nothing has seemed so resonant as $150,000 in clothes purchased for Palin and her family by the Republican National Committee.
Palin has taken to blaming the entire incident – as well as her introduction to the nation – on her “handlers,” presumably meaning Wallace, who was a key part of the team that handled Palin's successful announcement speech, her successful convention speech, and her interviews with Charlie Gibson, Sean Hannity and Katie Couric.
McCain allies say that Palin allies talked to Fox News commentator Fred Barnes to further throw Wallace under the bus. Barnes yesterday said, “the person who went and bought the clothes and, as I understand it put the clothes on her credit card, went to Saks and Neiman Marcus...the staffer who did that has been a coward” for not coming forward and accepting the blame for the $150,000 shopping spree. Barnes clarified that he was talking about Wallace.
But Wallace didn’t buy the clothes, put the clothes on her credit card, or go to Saks and Neiman Marcus, sources on the McCain campaign say.
And plenty of people on the McCain campaign are mystified as to how the $150,000 charges were racked up.
Moreover, McCain campaign sources say, Palin has developed quite a reputation on the campaign trail for shopping.
During this controversy, McCain insiders were appalled to read a blog account from Nevada noting that the day before Palin held an event in Reno, “Palin's assistant stopped in at the Ann Taylor at the Summit Sierra Mall and bought the skirt suit that she wore during to her speech Tuesday at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. ‘She bought a short, three-quarter sleeve jacket, a skirt and a couple other items,’ store manager Suzette Ludden said.”
All the while, Palin herself has given the wardrobe story more media coverage by denying that she had anything to do with it.
"It is so nice to be back here in the Sunshine State and quite warm which I love and grabbed a jacket this morning to put on not realizing how warm it would be,” she said in Florida. “My own jacket, yes…"
“This whole thing with the wardrobe you know I have tried to just ignore it because it is so ridiculous,” she continued. “Those clothes they are not my property, just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased. I am not taking them with me, I'm back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska.”
At McCain HQ, senior aides rolled their eyes, unable to believe that Palin was continuing to give the story more airtime.
And some Republicans are starting to now say they should have seen this coming, since Palin has a reputation for making friends who can help her and then screwing them over.
The list is long:
* Former Wasilla Mayor John Stein says he mentored Palin during her 1994 run for City Council. Then she decided to challenge him and run for Mayor. “Things got very ugly,’ Naomi Tigner, a friend of the Steins, told Salon.com. “Sarah became very mean-spirited.” Palin allies suggested she would he “Wasilla's first Christian mayor,” even though Stein is Protestant. Palin allies also whispered that Stein and his wife – who hadn’t taken his name - were not legally wed. “We actually had to produce our marriage certificate,’ Stein said. His wife died in 2005 without ever reconciling with Palin. “I had a hand in creating Sarah, but in the end she blew me out of the water,” Stein told Salon. “Sarah's on a mission, she's an opportunist.”
* Former City Councilman Nick Carney also helped mentor Palin in her first city council run. They later had a falling out when Palin accused him of corruptly advocating that the city use his trash hauling business. “The episode might serve as a compelling, if small-bore, example of Palin's reformer instincts,” the New Republic reported. :Except that, according to those who were present, Carney wasn't quite the crooked trash magnate Palin makes him out to be. For one thing, Carney couldn't have proposed the ordinance because he'd recused himself from the matter. The council, in fact, had asked him to appear as a kind of expert witness on the relevant rules and regulations.” Carney endorsed Stein in the 1996 mayoral race against Palin, and news reports say she subsequently as mayor refused to call on him. Carney told Salon that Palin – without council authorization -- spent more than $50,000 in city funds to redecorate her office. “I braced her about it,” he said. “I told her it was against the law to make such a large expenditure without the council taking a vote. She said, 'I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.”
* State Senate President Lyda Green from Wasilla, is a fellow conservative and was an ally of Palin’s throughout the 1990s. “If you had looked at our résumés, as far as being pro-life, pro-N.R.A., pro-family, pro-parental control, saving taxpayer dollars, keeping government out of our lives, we would have been identical,” Green told the New Yorker. “She traces the chill in their relationship to her decision not to endorse Palin in her 2006 gubernatorial primary. (She stayed neutral.)…
“The animosity became public last January, when Palin turned up on an Anchorage shock-jock radio program, ‘The Bob and Mark Show.’ Bob Lester said that he knew Palin believed Green was ‘a bitch’ and ‘a cancer.’ Palin laughed at the comments. ‘Sarah can be heard in the background tittering, hee-heeing,’ Green said, ‘never saying, ‘That’s not appropriate, let’s not talk like that, let’s change the subject,’ or anything.’ Green was devastated. ‘I worked through it,’ she said. ‘The difficult thing about it was when my children read about it online. They were dumbfounded, because they had known Sarah. I had breast cancer in ’97 and had a radical mastectomy. Sarah certainly knew I had breast cancer, because she sent me flowers when I was ill.’”
* Former Gov. Frank Murkowski made Palin the chair of a state commission overseeing oil and gas drilling. Four years later she challenged him – and beat him – for governor.
* Prominent Alaska conservative talk radio host Dan Fagan was a longtime friend. But he found himself on the outs after he criticized her for raising taxes on oil companies. “He found himself branded a ‘hater,’” the New York Times reported. “It is part of a pattern, Mr. Fagan said, in which Ms. Palin characterizes critics as ‘bad people who are anti-Alaska.’”
**
Now, I don’t know what happened with all of these former allies. Certainly Murkowski was much-criticized. And certainly Palin views all these publications as left-leaning and hostile to her views.
But that said, all I can tell you is that some McCain allies are now quite suspect of Palin and worried that Sen. McCain is going to become just the latest Palin ally whom she uses – and then discards -- in her rapid ascendance to power.
-- jpt
October 28, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (312)
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Imagine that Palin criticizing her critics.That would NEVER happen with Obama or Biden.Just ask Joe the Plumber
Posted by: Lynn | Oct 29, 2008 10:59:20 AM
Typical left-wing hit piece.
Ever think about directing a tough question to Obama?
Posted by: Lisa E | Oct 29, 2008 10:59:19 AM
typical liberal hit jobb...when is one of these so-called journalists going to ask Obama another puffball question.18 months and not one tough question asked of him by CBS,NBC,ABC,CNN or MSNBS.
Why have dozens of people testified,liberals and conservatives, to the great honor,integrity and honesty of John McCain yet Obama seems to have noone come forward thats known him for any amount of time?Because if America knew his real friends the charade,and media campaign on his behalf, would be over!
This stuff is disgraceful, and ABC wonders why millions are not watching network news anymore?
Posted by: Bob | Oct 29, 2008 9:55:53 AM
What if the McCain/Palin ticket wins? What will she do with her wardrobe then? Still donate it? Won't she need a good wardrobe to be the VP? Sounds to me like the donation comment was really a statement of expected defeat.
Posted by: Rick | Oct 29, 2008 9:33:13 AM
That's what they get for not vetting her. I found out everything you listed below the weekend after she was selected. If the McCain camp had vetted her properly... they would have known this was bound to happen. But McCain wanted a "Maverick" who would "take on her own party" (which apparantly included him)... and he's gotten EXACTLY what he wanted.
Posted by: Tina | Oct 29, 2008 9:19:09 AM
Sarah, release your medical records. What are you hiding? A fake pregnacy? You betcha!
Posted by: bubear | Oct 29, 2008 9:06:38 AM
the question beckons: how well would ms palin "do" if she were not somewhat attractive? the golly gee, gomer pyle routine has grown very thin, so has the relentless fraudulant attacks on obamas character. here is hoping that we have seen the last of ms palin if the dems win, she is indeed an cancer on america, an ugly cancer.
Posted by: pete | Oct 29, 2008 9:00:40 AM
I can guarantee Sarah Palin has been doing this her entire life and getting by with it. We all went to high school with those bitchy girls who were able to get boys and less attractive, less popular girls to do anything for them with the promise of friendship as their "reward." Sarah, Sarah, Sarah you are so transparent. One of these times you will slip up badly enough and hopefully it will involve jail time. In there your looks will be to your disadvantage.
Posted by: Jean | Oct 29, 2008 8:56:31 AM
Oh and yes, Sarah Palin calls Obama a socialist??? What about spreading collective wealth in Alaska with those kick backs from oil companies???
Posted by: J | Oct 29, 2008 8:46:30 AM
She is a strong woman. I think she is great. A perfect role model for all young women. I tell my daughters to be as strong as she is. Go Sarah!
Posted by: JESSICA | Oct 29, 2008 8:23:48 AM
Palain reminds me of a bright undergraduate student who can't be bothered learning any facts so resorts to bravado. She treats politics as a game, it doesn't matter if what you say is true of not if you say it then it in some way becomes the truth. The vile in many of her comments is there to destroy the opposition because she is now unable to combine the real world with this political reality that exists only in her head.
The pain of it all is not in what she says but the people's lives that are damaged by what she says and how she says it.
she also seems totally absorbed by self interest, the only reason she now speaks up for special needs children is because there is one in her family, if you think this is going to far look at her budget cuts in Alaska.
Posted by: bdscot | Oct 29, 2008 8:09:18 AM
When Palin was in Philadelphia it was reported in the Inquirer that an aid was sent to Leehe Fahi, a high end boutique to buy jeans. There was a Macy's nearby.
Also, someone should look into why they don't travel with a car seat for that baby. It often sits on the nanny's lap.
Posted by: Ann | Oct 29, 2008 6:48:23 AM
Why has she not released her medical records.
Posted by: Fizziwig | Oct 29, 2008 4:16:09 AM
@willstanton:
ABC waited until it was too late to make their decision because they didn't want to break up their primetime hour long shows, and when they finally decided to go for it, Obama said no.
Posted by: failure2palinate | Oct 29, 2008 4:13:45 AM
Nicole Wallace didn't purchase the clothes for Palin. They were purchased by Jeff Larson, Karl Roves protege and the guy behind the McCain robocalls we're all enjoying so much.
The Atlantic broke this story on 10/22.
Posted by: failure2palinate | Oct 29, 2008 4:08:06 AM
Sarah Palin can be forgiven for what she does not know. The problem is she displays a certain arrogance that reveals a big character flaw. She believes that she can wing it. She has no intellectual curiosity, doesn't have any desire to read and grow. This was an observation made by Colin Powell that got me to think and understand why he could not support McCain.
The Palin choice will be seen as one of the greatest mistakes ever made by a Presidential contender. History will not be kind.
Posted by: Ramón Morales | Oct 29, 2008 3:28:58 AM
As a bargain-shopping woman who doesn't spend more than $20 per item, even I know the price of Valentino jacket, a real Louie Vuitton handbag (which I severely doubt will really be "returned"), or Manolo-type shoes. PLEASE. Labels are on clothing. Women know this stuff. If she was really so disgusted, she would have protested in the beginning, "Get these aristocratic elitist garments out of my face! I'm marching to H&M right this minute to start a $35 fashion war with Michelle O!"
What's more, her little "consignment shop" in Anchorage she calls her favorite store is no thrift store of the type we normal peeps might imagine. They sell HIGH-high end stuff, i.e. Versace. In other words, they sell the kinds of clothes she's been wearing. Although I will admit that her "before" photos often show her in funky clothes. But that's not the point. The point is that she very well knew what kind of money was being spent for her wardrobe and seemed to be clearly enjoying parading around middle America in sexy skirts (to her 40-something year-old credit) and red heels--which I guess would be okay if she wasn't self-righteously blaming someone else for the crazy spending. Actually, it's not even the clothes on stage that make her sound so hypocritical. It's the pointless accessories. You can get a perfectly classy handbag for $40. The Louis Vuitton is the result of a spree, I tell ya. PLEASE, Sarah. Spare us the self-righteousness!
Posted by: gwa | Oct 29, 2008 2:25:38 AM
Does Fred Barnes know how rediculous he looks getting angry discussing... clothes. Calling a staffer who was sent to buy clothes a coward? I hope in a year or two somebody shows this tape to Barnes so he can feel embarrassed.
Fred, GM is about to ask the Federal Gov to Bail them out like they did AIG and you're talking about clothes.
All you Republiholics need a nice long time out to sort out your issues, while Barack Obama and the grown ups of the Demcratic Party see if they can save the nation from the damage that's been done by your party.
Posted by: Seth | Oct 29, 2008 2:06:16 AM
If there's anybody I want to be deceived by it would be Nicolle Wallace. Compared to other campaign phonies trying to get their talking points out it's Nicolle, quick on her feet and with a smile on her face, throwing a joyful counter-punch. Makes me wonder why - if it was all about choosing a woman for the ticket - why she's not on it. I'd have more trust in her intellectual abilities as I have seen so far from Gov. Palin.
Posted by: Red Roses for Nicolle | Oct 29, 2008 1:49:05 AM
I think it's the height of hypocrisy for Ms Palin to continue claimin' she is going to "clean up" Washington when it seems she has a dirty house herself, a house filled with clothes bought with other peoples' money also. That, and her big fat LIE about how she was cleared of all corruption and abuse of power in that investigation up there, ya know, also. We can read, Sarah. Can you? Also?
Posted by: Homeowner | Oct 29, 2008 1:46:42 AM
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