Sarah Palin and the ‘Wasilla Hillbillies’
The story refuses to die.
Newsweek puts out a special election edition, which is full of juicy details about both campaigns. I love this about Sarah Palin's spending habits:
department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While
publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at
what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said
that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the
convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential
nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories
from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According
to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were
bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin
also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit
cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought
reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands"
more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to
buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently
been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla
hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the
truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its
books.
A Palin aide said: "Governor Palin was not
directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and
anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed,
like an expense. Nasty and false accusations following a defeat say
more about the person who made them than they do about Governor Palin."
McCain
himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him
in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they
were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain
at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist
Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.
After wearing jeans in the closing days of the campaign, apparently a rebuttal to the criticism about her wardrobe, it looks as if she resuscitated the fancy stuff for Election Night. Here she is wiping away a tear.
And if you're as tired of her as I am, brace yourself for 2010, when the next election cycle will get going: A top Alaska Republican has apparently registered the URL Palin2012.