Sarah Palin: A Towering Sense of Entitlement
Revelations the last couple of days on Sarah Palin's expenditures of Alaska public funds for her children's travel and the whopping $150,000 spent by the GOP on clothing and accessories for the Palin family reveal a towering sense of entitlement that to me embodies everything that has gone wrong with America under Republican rule.
It is nothing short of astonishing to me that a public official would feel herself entitled to regularly take her children on five-star vacation trips at the expense of taxpayers, or to expect that places be made for her family members at any event to which she is invited and for which other people are paying. Palin seems to have regarded Alaska as her own personal family fiefdom, as I suppose she would regard the entire United States were she to become vice-president or, God help us, president.
It is equally astonishing that the McCain/Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee would feel entitled to spend $150,000 of money contributed by hardworking Republican voters like Joe the Plumber on clothing and accessories for Palin and her family; and that Palin would feel entitled to accept goods like the Louis Vuitton handbag little Piper Palin was photographed carrying across an airport tarmac. If this is how John McCain and Sarah Palin manage their campaign funds, how would they manage the federal treasury? Would American taxpayers be footing the bill for all the extended Palin family to take African safaris and shopping excursions to the fashion capitals of "socialist" Europe? Would Todd and Levi be measuring for menswear on Savile Row at your and my expense?
Of course, Sarah Palin has shown nothing but a towering sense of entitlement since becoming the GOP's vice-presidential nominee: entitlement to power, despite her utter lack of qualification for it; entitlement to throw all manner of lies, innuendo, and insult at two opponents who have treated her with graciousness and respect; entitlement to say who is a "real American" and who is not; entitlement if elected to assume powers the vice-presidency is not even granted by the constitution, such as that of being "in charge of the Senate." As governor of Alaska, Palin felt entitled to use her office to carry out personal vendettas and reward personal loyalty at state expense, just as she felt entitled to use state funds to take her kids on expensive vacation trips. Sarah Palin is all about entitlement.
I am reminded by Palin's actions and attitude of a story I once read about former Republican congressman Tom Delay (aka "The Hammer"): Lighting up a cigar in a restaurant on federal property in Washington DC, Delay was asked to put it out and told that smoking at that location was a violation of federal government regulations. Delay's reply: "I am the federal government!" Now that's a towering sense of entitlement.
I don't think, however, that even The Hammer's towering sense of entitlement can keep up with the Hockey Mom from Wasilla's. The more I see and hear of Palin, the more firmly I am convinced that she should never be allowed within 100 miles of the Oval Office, much less a heartbeat away.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
If you consider the fact that she also spent $50,000 redecorating the her office as Mayor of Wasilla... let me say that again... she spent $50,000 redecorating her office as Mayor of Wasilla, a town of 8,000 people (I wonder how much the building the office was in was worth?).
She hired a lobbyist that brought in over $21 million in federal funds for a sports/ice arena for Wasilla.
She fired the old police chief and hired a new, more 'loyal' one that changed the policy of the Wasilla police department budget to include having victims of rape pay for their own rape kits. This in the state of Alaska where the rape per capita is one of the highest in the country (this was later stopped by the previous governor passing a law against charging rape victims for the kits).
This also coming from a woman who says she does not approve of abortion under any circumstances including rape and incest and believes in abstinence only sex education.
Sarah Palin's priorities are really don't make any sense to me.
October 23, 2008 4:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Forgot to add that she left the town in debt and with some legal issues to resolve around the sports arena... when she left to be governor.
And apparently she had some of the same contractors working on her house that were to build the sports arena??
October 23, 2008 4:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
First, when you donate, you don't get to say how the money is spent. If you don't like how it is spent, you don't donate the next time.
Second, do you have any stats on how much the average "hardworking Republican voters" gave the RNCC? This is hyperbolic faux-indignation -- and not even about a group of people you care about to boot!
Your argument would have more meat in it if you didn't put in so much filler.
October 23, 2008 4:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree. I think the argument is plenty meaty. Saying that you don't have anything to say about how your donations are spent is technically true. Of course one can always withhold next time around, but you are wrong when you say that donors don't get pissed off when they see that their money is being ill-spent.
When you are self-defined as the voice of Joe Six-Pack and Hockey Moms everywhere, you are poking your base in the eye with this kind of frivolous spending.
Too bad Obama will only campaign honorably. I would love it if he would get up there and ask voters what THEY would do if they had $150,000 to spend in 6 weeks -- "Would you spend it on make-up and designer clothes? I didn't THINK so -- You'd spend it on paying down your debts, or on your kids' college, or home expenses...and if you had some left over you might splurge and go to a family restaurant on a Friday night. But then, when was the last time you got a free pass to spend whatever you wanted at Neiman Marcus? And if you did, would you run the bill up that high? Of course not!
"Who do you think the Palin's were thinking of when they were buying all that stuff for themselves -- you, the voter? If that is what you think, I have a Bridge to Nowhere on sale. It is yet one more example of the Governor's greediness and bad judgement."
October 23, 2008 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's true. But you know it's not his way.
October 23, 2008 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not Obama's way, true enough. But I'd love to see Joe "Commuter Train" Biden unleashed on this one. It would be something for the ages.
October 23, 2008 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Recall that Daniel Webster (born 226 years ago today), as defense attorney for Jabez Stone, was about to launch into an incendiary rant in his closing, then saw the trap and instead spoke of hope.
Yeah, it's a story, but an inspiring one and worth reading or re-reading.
October 24, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Watching one of Obama's early campaign speeches I thought of that play, of our long stay in the Reagan/Bush/Bush inferno, and how this person, like Daniel Webster, was reminding of what it used to be like, back when we walked the earth and could see the sky.
Overdramatic? Sue me.
October 24, 2008 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The issue is hypocrisy, Mr. "Balance" who always manages to defend the Repuublicans.
The outrage isn't fake: there are doubtless Alaskans who go to bed hungry. And this bitch, and her party, have no sense of proportion -- which is why REPUBLICANS are bitching about the OBVIOUS misallocation of funds: she has sufficient income as governor -- especially when on adds in all the charges to the taxpayers for non-gov't avtivities -- to buy suitable clothes for much less than 150,000. And if she doesn't, McLame can sell one of his 10 houses and clothe her; I'm sure the contributors -- they ARE bitching -- didn't intend that the money be WASTED dressing the bitch a three times the cost "necessary" while there are down-ticket Republicans in need of campaign funds.
Don't get me wrong: I have no problem with Republicans WASTING Republican campaign funds on stupidities. Especially as it reflects badly on them. But I do care that such greedy hypocrites are via to run the country.
October 23, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
An excellent title. Well pulled together. Fits the facts.
Kudos! Rec'd.
October 23, 2008 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
One line to sum up: A $150,000 wardrobe topped by a $0.10 head.
October 23, 2008 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great read, but you left out the other entitlement issue: working from home a majority of the year and then turning around and billing a per diem to the State. Although, technically, not illegal nor improper, it doesn't bode well to be billing the State for working out of your home when you're running as a maverick reformer
October 23, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Especially when you were working from home because it was what you and your family preferred -- so much so that the First Dude was lobbying lawmakers to move the capital from Juneau to Anchorage to be more convenient for you.
October 23, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
As Jon Stewart said last night, the Palins are a bunch of grifters!
October 23, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, Jon Stewart is exactly right. They are passengers on the public service gravy train.
The joke is on John McCain and the state of Alaska.
And, please, we all know $150,000 isn't that much in the course of a presidential campaign. But remember: this all would have been avoided if they just would have bought her clothes at Ann Taylor or Macy's. Instead, they chose to buy designer clothes from expensive retailers. May her tongue burn if the word 'elite' comes across it again.
October 23, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Todd and Sarah are nothing but grifters. On Nov 5th they'll be moving on to their next scam.
And BTW, if Sarah wears her "borrowed clothes" to the deposition on Friday then they should absolutely be subject to taxation as she would be enjoying those "employer provided tools" for personal use.
October 23, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
She'll have her own TV show by spring.
October 24, 2008 1:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Many of Sarah Palin's behaviors meet the 9 diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder. Spending $150,000 of other people's money on clothes is yet another disturbing reference point. This woman scares me. This WaPo article sheds a little light on what she is about:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/10/09/ST2008100903556.html
She does not know what the Vice President does, yet she hired a PR firm to lobby for the job. Ambition first.
October 23, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also, via, the New Yorker, the $37,000 she spent on a public relations firm to advertise Alaska and its new reform-minded governor.
October 23, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post, Mark.
It is a total mystery to me why the red-meat wing of the republican party still finds Sarah "the grifter" Palin, appealing.
I heard her say (in so many words) in her interview with Brian Williams that "elite" wasn't a geographical construct, it was when people think they are better than the common folk. Tell me this woman doesn't, in her heart, consider herself is WAY better than the people she wishes to govern.
Just as the heading of your excellent post puts it, Palin feels entitled.
October 23, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh for God's sake. Obama's about to spend $2 million on his election night party. And how much money did his campaign spend on that little stop off in Germany?
NEWS FLASH - Campaigns spend money on window dressing!
Quit having hissy fits over inane garbage like this and keep your eye on the ball.
October 23, 2008 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, my, it's the hypocrisy, honey. The real America hockey mom shopping at elitist shops in two of the most liberal cities in the good old US of A.
October 23, 2008 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
The post was not about hypocrisy. It was about a sense of entitlement. Two entirely different takes on the issue.
October 23, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, that's a good point. Sarah isn't rich enough to be entitled. Dubya is entitled. Cindy and John McCain are entitled. Sarah is just a trailer trash social climber being used by the plutocrats to do a con job on the rubes.
October 23, 2008 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh, I think I missed something. Obama went on a shopping spree in Germany?
October 24, 2008 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can see it now, the ads from Barneys,
Neieman-Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue:
NOW YOU, TOO
CAN HAVE THAT PRO-AMERICAN
STYLISH “SOCCER MOM” LOOK ...
FOR ONLY ... $150,000!
(Layaway Plans Available)
October 23, 2008 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post and GREAT photo!
October 23, 2008 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Stevens said the business formalities are "not the Alaska way." How many times during his trial will he refer to something as "the Alaska way"?
They live off federal largess. In general, blue states subsidize red states. I hear that from little brother in Calif. all the time. It is true.
I catch grief being from West By God Virginia, and Sen. Byrd proudly calling himself the King of Pork. Alaska has us beat.
For all the tough back-to-the land Mother-Earth types in Alaska, there are is the "How much is the oil check this year?" other group.
October 23, 2008 9:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"hardworking Republican voters like Joe the Plumber"
Other than the line above, beautifully put. Well said. Excellent! Thank you...
October 23, 2008 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really hope there's a big fat jet rental debit on Barack's personal credit card account to cover this personal trip to visit his Tutu. Surely the campaign wouldn't trip over something so obvious.
October 23, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
The plane exists to get Barack from point A to point B in good shape -- being able to work and also to sleep. Taking the red-eye back from Hawaii would not be a good move for our candidate. Get a life.
Buying the hockey mom some short skirts and designer jackets and tons of makeup are all window dressing, which is all she is anyway, so why pay extra for it?
October 24, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm already hearing rumblings of Palin returning in 2012. If this woman is allowed back on the national stage, let alone gets any measure of support, I'm actually at a loss for words to describe how that would make me feel. Incredulous perhaps?
Right-wingers are already talking about McCain in the past tense, but they light up discussing Palin. God help us all.
Thankfully, Obama will have no problem winning re-election. But then she'll "rear her head" again in 2016. This woman must be stopped.
On another note, it was announced this evening that Mr. and Mrs. Palin are going to Alaska on Friday for their sworn deposition on the Troopergate scandal. I realize the clothing expenditure is in all the headlines, but I'm surprised no one is mentioning this.
October 24, 2008 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
She's apparently very good at mobilizing an army of idiots to vote the interests of plutocrats, and since all other demographics seem to be deserting the R party in droves, I think we can expect tons of money to keep coming her way.
October 24, 2008 6:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've heard that Michael Savage is talking about starting a new party...wonder if she'll be their standard bearer?
October 24, 2008 1:09 AM | Reply | Permalink