Sarah Palin: Just Another Republican Hypocrite

Death by Palin – Demand for Private Jet Bankrupts Republican Campaign

Back in the day, when Sarah Palin was running for governor, one of her big talking points had to do with the extravagance of then Governor Frank Murkowski.  You see, he bought a big fancy private jet (which citizens of Alaska dubbed The Bald Ego).  Murkowski got a little too big for his britches with that fancy jet, said the good people of Alaska.

And Sarah Palin, who was just regular people like you and me, decided she’d have none of that.  Wild indulgences like a 2 million dollar jet just didn’t mesh with her “commomsenseconservative” values. Why, she even bought her own clothes at a consignment store for crying out loud!

She campaigned hard against the jet, and even mentioned how she’d put it on eBay during that famous speech when she was tapped to be John McCain’s running mate in 2008.  She didn’t mention that nobody actually bought it after four tries, and she ended up selling it at a loss, but hey.  It’s the thought that counts.

Well, our down home gal has come a long way since then.  Recently she went down to Georgia to campaign for Karen Handel in her Republican runoff election with Nathan Deal in the governor’s race.  And it’s a little visit that the Handel campaign won’t soon forget.  Why?

…because they are still literally paying for Palin’s visit. Palin’s demand of a $92,000 private jet and a $13,000 hotel room left the campaign $83,000 in debt.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “Handel’s campaign paid an Ohio jet charter service nearly $92,000 and her latest campaign finance report shows it was for the Palin event. Handel also paid an additional $13,000 in expenses to the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead for the event. Handel’s quarterly report shows her campaign committee to be $28,000 in debt, with another $55,000 in outstanding expenses.”

Palin’s newly changed feelings about private jets aside, here’s the point of note:

Handel lost. Sarah Palin bilked the Handel campaign out of over $100,000 and left them defeated and in debt. In a race that Handel lost by only 2,579 votes, do you think the campaign is second guessing their decision to spend six figures on a jet and hotel rooms for Sarah Palin?

That money could have been used to aid the get out the vote effort on Election Day instead of meeting Sarah Palin’s need to be treated like an A-lister?

The big question is why didn’t SarahPAC pay for this? Why did Palin force the Handel campaign to foot the bill? She was campaigning for a Republican candidate, which is exactly the kind of expense that a PAC can legally pay for.

The answer is that Palin didn’t want to pay the bill because then she could not get the first class treatment that she feels entitled to. She did not want private jet and expensive hotel to be on SarahPAC’s disclosure report, so like any good crook, she ENRONed it up, and moved her elitist tastes off her books.