Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home

By James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official “duty station” is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor’s daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show. …

She wrote some form of “Lodging — own residence” or “Lodging — Wasilla residence” more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 — Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin’s daughters’ expenses and $19,000 for her husband’s. …

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won. …

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

“It was quite the little scandal,” said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. “I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam — you pay yourself to live at home,” he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could “count on one hand” the number of times his children accompanied him.

“And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state,” he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor’s office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin’s chief of staff.

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home

Another Democrat for McCain? Really? I wonder who these Democrats supported before Obama got the nomination. I can’t think of any Democrat other than Lieberman who is like McCain. What kind of Democrat switches from some hard-to-imagine Democratic candidate to McSame Failin’? A so-called Raygun Democrat? A so-called Southern Democrat?

Understand, it’s still mostly a free country — in spite of BushCo’s best efforts (finally, their incompetence shows a benefit). You’re welcome to support whomever. And you’re welcome to call yourself whatever. But, a Democrat for McCain? That’s like Caribou for Palin. peace, mjh

Lipstick pig’ row hits Obama – Americas, World – The Independent

“Enough!” Senator Obama said yesterday, interrupting a speech he was giving on education. “I don’t care what they say about me but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phoney outrage and Swift Boat politics. Enough is enough.”

The controversy had begun when Mr Obama engaged in a lively attack on the Republicans’ newly-minted mantra of bringing “change” to Washington politics. He likened it to trying to put lipstick on a pig. “It’s still a pig,” he said to loud applause from members of the audience who may have assumed he was referring to Governor Palin.

Last week Mrs Palin electrified the Republican convention by improvising a joke about being a hockey mom: “What’s the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom? Lipstick.”

Lipstick pig’ row hits Obama – Americas, World – The Independent

BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama rejects ‘lipstick’ charge 

“The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phoney and foolish diversions than about the future,” the Illinois senator said. Republicans may well try to keep the controversy going, although one difficulty for them is that John McCain has himself used the offending phrase, our Washington correspondent says. Mr McCain had used the same analogy to criticise a health care plan presented by former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton last year.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama rejects ‘lipstick’ charge

Putting Lipstick On A Pig : NPR 

Election 2008 Putting Lipstick On A Pig [3 min 29 sec]

The phrase “lipstick on a pig” is commonly employed by politicians including Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, Vice President Dick Cheney and Rep. Charles Rangel. Joel Salatin, a farmer from Swoope, Va., talks about what actually happens when one attempts to put lipstick on a pig.

Putting Lipstick On A Pig : NPR

The Associated Press: Obama rebukes Palin on earmarks

“Don’t be fooled,” Obama told the crowd surrounding him in a large barn. “John McCain’s party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge” for nearly eight years. [mjh: At least 1994 to 2006, or 1980 to 2008 minus two pairs of years. ENOUGH!]

“I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she’s change, and that’s great,” Obama said. “She’s a skillful politician. But, you know, when you’ve been taking all these earmarks when it’s convenient, and then suddenly you’re the champion anti-earmark person, that’s not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can’t just make stuff up.”

McCain has vowed to wipe out earmarks, which are targeted funding for specific projects that lawmakers put into spending bills. As governor, Palin originally supported earmarks for a controversial project dubbed the “bridge to nowhere.” But she dropped her support after the state’s likely share of the cost rose. She hung onto $27 million to build the approach road to the bridge.

Until Saturday, Obama had refrained from criticizing Palin directly, saying only that she, like McCain, would continue the Bush administration’s policies.

Democrats have debated how to deal with Palin. They want to avoid charges of sexism but find ways to highlight what they see as her political weaknesses.

Obama delivered some of his most withering criticisms yet of McCain, although he did so with chuckles and an air of mock disbelief. McCain has acknowledged voting with President Bush 90 percent of the time in Congress, Obama said.

“And suddenly he’s the change agent? Ha. He says, ‘I’m going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.’ Who is he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman, who’s one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager, who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington?”

“I mean, come on, they must think you’re stupid,” Obama said as the crowd laughed and cheered.

The Associated Press: Obama rebukes Palin on earmarks

Barack Obama’s Nomination Acceptance Speech – Wikisource

It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.

For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy?—?give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is that you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. You’re on your own. No health care? The market will fix it. You’re on your own. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps?—?even if you don’t have boots. You are on your own.

Well it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States.

Barack Obama’s Nomination Acceptance Speech – Wikisource

Four more years of small change.

Talk about celebrity. Read this overblown madness:

Now we know why liberals hate, fear Sarah Palin
“Sarah Palin is the next Ronald Reagan”

(Manassas, Virginia) With her acceptance speech, “Now we know why liberal Democrats hate and fear Sarah Palin,” Richard A. Viguerie said.

“A week ago, conservatives and most Republicans were down-in-the-dumps, listless, unengaged. That lack of enthusiasm is a thing of the past. Tonight, thanks to Senator McCain and Governor Palin, conservatives and Republicans are fired up as they have not been since Ronald Reagan was president,” he said.

“Sarah Palin is the next Ronald Reagan,” Viguerie, the Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said.

“In less than a week, Governor Sarah has captured the heart and soul of this convention, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement. She brings together social conservatives, and economic conservatives and libertarians, and people who are fed up with the Culture of Corruption that infests our nation’s politics,” he said.

“From this moment forward, there’s no limit on where Sarah Palin might go,” Viguerie concluded.
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Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called “one of the creators of the modern conservative movement” (The Nation magazine), one of the “conservatives of the century” (The Washington Times), and one of 2008’s “top 25 influencers” among Republicans (NewsMax magazine). His latest book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.