GOP Mad at Palin Spending Spree
If Sarah Palin wants to bilk the RNC’s donors out of tens of thousands of dollars in designer clothes, that’s her business as far as I’m concerned. It does, however, certainly further complicate efforts to portray a woman with a six figure household income and a personal airplane as a simple country gal with working class tastes. Marc Ambinder reports that Republicans are none-too-happy with this turn:
There is already an attempt to blame the media — as in, the liberal media would have looked askance at Palin if she wasn’t clad in Neiman Marcus, but this won’t wash. Republicans, RNC donors and at least one RNC staff member have e-mailed me tonight to share their utter (and not-for-attribution) disgust at the expenditures.
This sort of spending is without precedent — the closest approximation for any campaign I’ve ever covered is make-up expenses for television interviews and commercial shoots — , and Schmitt’s weakly defensive response tonight indicates that the campaign is deeply embarrassed by it and has nothing to say in their defense. Spokespeople have clammed up, a sure sign that they’re trying to figure out who authorized the expenses and who knew about them. Did Palin wear all of the clothing? Where is it kept?
It seems like it shouldn’t be too hard to assess who authorized the expenses. Don’t people keep records of that kind of thing?
58 Responses to “GOP Mad at Palin Spending Spree”
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October 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am
All you need to know is that she can field-dress a moose and took on a member of her own party (i.e., ran in a primary). Everything else is liberal media bias.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 am
Can anyone say Imelda Marcos?
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 am
well, maybe they should have stuck the people of Alaska with the bill….
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
Palin has always looked at public office as a route to private profit and comfort: that’s the common element in everything we’ve seen recently, from larcenous per diems for living in her own house, to payment for family vacations (you’re now seeing why she sold the state plane: flying commercial gave her better options for making money), to Troopergate. And I can understand how it happens: she’s a person of no particular merit, who has experienced unmerited success, so why shouldn’t she take that as a sign that anything goes?
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
So, how long before we hear about the expensive haircut?
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
Best political scandal of the season!
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
It’s almost as if they gave McCain his own Barbie Doll®.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am
Kidding aside we’re likely to soon see the campaign say Palin planned all along to make remittance on the items. It was just easier to initially fund the purchases from the general election account, blah, blah…… Look, over there, isn’t that Michelle Obama eating a Syrian fruit salad!!!???
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
The Lord has richly blessed Sarah Palin, in this case with a six-figure wardrope. Hallelujah.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:44 am
Right, Steve. The real money for Mattel was always in the Barbie® accessories.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
Note how Marc preemptively announces that, “The Democrats are going to have a lot more fun with this than is prudent” Gotta have BALANCE!
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Why should we be surprised about this? This is a woman who bilked Alaska out of plane travel for her children and a per diem for staying at home; it looks very likely that she got her house built by the contractors she awarded the multimillion dollar sports complex contract to. That she bilks the RNC for ridiculously expensive designer clothes is just par for the course.
Whose idea was this? I bet it was Sarah’s.
Of course, now the Republicans are the ones who got cheated instead of the government or private contractors; this has got to sting.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
Or, if you prefer song, Evita.
[Eva's dressers:]
Eyes, hair, mouth, figure
Dress, voice, style, movement
Hands, magic, rings, glamour
Face, diamonds, excitement, image
[Eva:]
I came from the people, they need to adore me
So Christian Dior me from my head to my toes
I need to be dazzling, I want to be Rainbow High
They must have excitement, and so must I
[Eva's dressers:]
Eyes, hair, mouth, figure
Dress, voice, style, image
[Eva:]
I’m their product, it’s vital you sell me
So Machiavell me, make an Argentine Rose
I need to be thrilling, I want to be Rainbow High
They need their escape, and so do I
etc. etc.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:58 am
Forget the “field” in “field-dress a moose.” Some of this is for her moose.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 am
It seems like it shouldn’t be too hard to assess who authorized the expenses. Don’t people keep records of that kind of thing?
No!! Don’t you remember the former treasurer of the RCCC bilking them out of a few million? Keeping records are “libruls”.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
Man, just think of all the robo-smears the campaign could have funded with that money! No wonder Ambinder’s readers are pissed.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
The expenditure may also be illegal:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/a_legal_issue_with_palin_coutu.php
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
Some of this is for her moose.
JohnH wins the thread. Well done. And very funny.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am
I will put a stop to people making reckless clothing expenditures with campaign cash! You will know their names and I will make them famous!
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
Records? Mavericks don’t need records!
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
Check out this 1996 Anchorage Daily News story about Palin and Ivana Trump. It seems Sarah was lusting after high couture way back before she became the simple country gal sneering at those city folks:
http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/513604.html
Alaskans line up for a whiff of Ivana (April 3, 1996)
By Tom Bell / Anchorage Daily News
Editor’s note: This story was originally published April 3, 1996
Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana.
And there, at J.C. Penney’s cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist.
”We want to see Ivana,” said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, ”because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.’
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
This may be a small point, but how many TV ads could that $150,000 buy? I’m sure it depends on the market, and I’ll bet the answer in any area is “not many.” Still, considering how strapped for cash the McCain campaign is, an ad campaign would seem a better use of money than a shopping spree.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
It’s interesting, in a way, that Republicans thrash and wail about “socialism,” but it’s pretty obvious they universally see government service as a means to stick their hand into the till, whether like Mooselini and her wardrobe or the ones who become lobbyists after they leave. Hm.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
This is fun, but can be defused with a promise to donate the clothes to charity after the campaign is over (its probably illegal for her to keep the clothes anyway). This is a two day story.
I’m now curious where more established female politicians get their clothes.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
Unfortunately they have a point on that one. Anyone remember Diane Sawyer’s appalling interview with Judith Steinberg Dean…The Joker, done up in a designer evening dress, was flashed on the screen as Diane gently asked Mrs. Dean how she imagined she could ever compare to such magnificence.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
…The Joker, done up in a designer evening dress, was flashed on the screen as Diane gently asked Mrs. Dean how she imagined she could ever compare to such magnificence.
Not to mention that the Joker was wearing something that looked like a bridesmaid dress chosen by a bride as revenge for some years-old perceived slight.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
… which is to say, The Village doesn’t even have good fashion sense, despite demanding a sort of vicious conformity to their tasteless standards.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 am
considering how strapped for cash the McCain campaign is
This was RNC funds, which aren’t capped, which is why the RNC and the McCain campaign are running joint ads. Still, it’s not exactly great publicity for the only people who are able to raise donations (in an indirect way) for the presidential campaign: “your donation of $50 will stem the creeping tide of socialism by paying for one of the buttons on Sarah Palin’s jacket.”
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
This may be a small point, but how many TV ads could that $150,000 buy
Ambinder: “That’s one good week of television time in Colorado.”
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 am
“This sort of spending is without precedent”
Really? I find that hard to believe. Maybe the scale, but I’d be amazed if no pol had bought a suit with campaign funds.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
$150,000 probably isn’t that significant an amount, considering the total expenditures of a campaign. But it’s a great example of the extreme tone-deafness of the McCain campaign. He can’t get a single thing straight: Does experience matter, or not? Does he care about a washed-up terrorist, or not? Should we talk tough about Iran, but speak softly to Pakistan?
The problem with this clothing expenditure is that it completely destroys the McCain brand of anti-celebrity, Joe Sixpack down-to-earthiness. And it will push a few more undecisive voters into concluding that Palin really is no more than window dressing…the unserious candidate. Like putting Prada on a pig.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
i think this is a great. i do think the GOP got their money’s worth in this case. look at palin’s son-in-law to be. it would have hurt them more for him to keep his dirty hair and adolescent facial hair than for them to spend a couple thousand dollars on a nice suit and a bath.
but i have a bigger question…who pays for all the fancy suits and fancy dresses and fancy jewelry for the first family? what is the annual first family budget when it comes to clothing and was there a difference between the bushes and the clintons? can anyone find out these answers for me?
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
Thanks, pseduonymous. Very helpful.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
I hope liberals attack Palin for behavior not befitting of a reformer and not for being inauthentically blue collar, because 9 out of 10 blue collar moms would TOTALLY go on a shopping spree at Neiman Marcus on someone else’s dime if they had the chance.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
I’m sure she bought a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I’d always tell her she’d look good in anything.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I believe that would be zero.
I remember hearing that Washington agreed to serve just for unspecified expenses incurred with no salary. The expenses were so high, Congress changed it to a salary and specified expenses for his second term.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
What you all don’t understand is that it is not the clothes per se which are expensive. It is the witch-proofing spray.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
People here have rightly compared this to media overkill on Edwards’s haircut. But I also just think it’s a shame that back then no one in the media had the guts just to say, look, it’s an election campaign. They spend lots of money on appearance. You did hear excuses from Edwards’s people, such as the obvious cost of getting the barber onto the airplane with him. Still, it was a blip in comparison to Palin’s outrage here because it wasn’t all that much of an outrage in the first place.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
What y’all have got to understand is that while the Democrats may be the party of the socialists, the Republicans are the party of the socialites.
Ergo, it would make sense for one of them to blow $150,000 on clothes if given the chance.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
She should have used the money for a TUTOR, to learn about the Constitution and the responsibilities of a Vice president….oops that would have taken even MORE money .
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I just want to hear someone explain how John Edwards $400 haircut is still much, much worse. Harnessing the energy from the spin could be a big step on the road to energy independence.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I have read everyones comments. I would like to comment that we are spending a lot of time and energy on Palin’s wardrobe expense instead of the qualification to run in office. When people do not like someone they quickly look for anything to pick on. We live in America where we have freedom of choice. There is something for everyone. If she wants to were expensive clothes let her. I am more concern of her qualification to make change in the white house. She has sure gotten all of your attention on hairstyle and clothing. Which means to me she is making waves and isn’t that what we won’t in the office…. change!
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Dastuto, I was going to give you credit for writing in a second language, but your comment is so thoughtless and shallow that you don’t deserve it. In fact, I don’t think you can be convinced: you’re either an incompetent troll or an utter fool.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Sounds elitist to be shopping at Needless Markup
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I just feel for Saturday Night Live and Tina Fey. How do they keep up with the Palin Fashions? I didn’t realize the knock offs had this years fashions.
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:41 am
I’m certainly no fan of Palin, but this doesn’t bother me.
It’s a fake issue, just as Edwards’ haircut was a fake issue.
I wouldn’t want it to become an unwritten rule that parties can’t help women candidates with their wardrobe. Next time it could hurt a democrat.
Sometimes I think we make things a little too hard on those who seek public office. By all means, go after her on real issues.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:08 am
The only thing that could make this story better (or worse?) is if some of that money was spent on lipstick
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