Sarah Palin and family

[doug]

NYT: Palin's route to resignation
Seemingly relentless string of professional, personal woes led to decision

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin last week at a signing event in the village of McGrath, Alaska.
By Jim Rutenberg and Serge F. Kovaleski
The New York Times
This article was reported by Jim Rutenberg from New York and Serge F. Kovaleski from Wasilla and Anchorage, Alaska. Jo Becker reported from New York and Kim Severson and William Yardley from Wasilla and Anchorage.
ANCHORAGE - In late March, a senior official from the Republican Governors Association headed for Alaska on a secret mission. Sarah Palin was beset by such political and personal turmoil that some powerful supporters determined an intervention was needed to pull her governorship, and her national future, back from the brink.

The official, the association’s executive director, Nick Ayers, arrived with a memorandum containing firm counsel, according to several people who know its details: Make a long-term schedule and stick to it, have staff members set aside ample and inviolable family time to replenish your spirits, and build a coherent home-state agenda that creates jobs and ensures re-election.

Like so much of the advice sent Ms. Palin’s way by influential supporters, it appeared to be happily received and then largely discarded, barely slowing what was, in retrospect, an inexorable march toward the resignation she announced 10 days ago.

Ms. Palin had returned to her home state from the presidential campaign as one of the hopeful prospects in her struggling party, even if she had much to prove to her detractors. Standing before the Legislature in January, she vowed to retake her office with “optimism and collaboration and hard work to get the job done.”

But interviews in Alaska and in Washington show that a seemingly relentless string of professional and personal troubles quickly put that goal out of reach.

Almost as soon as she returned home, the once-popular governor was isolated from an increasingly critical Legislature. Lawmakers who had supported her signature effort to develop a natural gas pipeline turned into uncooperative critics.

Ethics complaints mounted, and legal bills followed. At home Ms. Palin was dealing with a teenage daughter who had given birth to a son and broken up with the infant’s father, a baby of her own with special needs and a national news media that was eager to cover it all.

Friends worried that she appeared anxious and underweight. Her hair had thinned to the point where she needed emergency help from her hairdresser and close friend, Jessica Steele.

“Honestly, I think all of it just broke her heart,” Ms. Steele said in an interview at her beauty parlor in Wasilla, the Beehive.


Yet to the dismay of some advisers, Ms. Palin dived into the fray, seeming to relish the tabloid-ready fights that consumed her as the work of the state at times went undone.

Her public feud with David Letterman over a tasteless sexual joke he made about one of her daughters spun into a broader fight at home with a fellow Republican over state efforts to combat sexual abuse.

She had a political aide issue a news release condemning Levi Johnston, the teenage father of her daughter Bristol’s newborn, for his assertion that Ms. Palin had known the unwed high-schoolers were having sex all along.


It was the sort of intermingling between her personal and public agendas that had drawn ethics complaints against her even before Senator John McCain tapped her as his running mate in August.

But now, Ms. Palin had fewer defenders to lend support. Her husband, Todd, her most trusted adviser, was spending less time at her side both because they needed money from his oil industry job, friends say, and because questions had been raised about whether he had been too involved at the Capitol.

Her growing list of detractors quickly signaled that they were not impressed with her celebrity status.

“We had business to do,” said State Representative Nancy Dahlstrom, a Republican who had worked on Ms. Palin’s 2006 race for governor. “It’s not all about adoration.”

Late last week, as her sport utility vehicle made its way through the town of McGrath, Ms. Palin said in an interview that the seeds of her resignation had been planted the morning Mr. McCain named her as his vice-presidential choice.

“It began when we started really looking at the conditions that had so drastically changed on Aug. 29,” she said. “The hordes of opposition researchers came up here digging for dirt for political reasons, making crap up.”

Troubles await back home
When Ms. Palin made it back to Alaska in November, the state that had once given her an 83 percent approval rating was no longer so enchanted.

Democrats who had been crucial to her governing coalition now saw her as a foe. Republican leaders who had previously lost fights with her smelled weakness. An abortion bill she supported requiring parental consent stalled, the Legislature rejected her choice for attorney general and lawmakers became skeptical of the natural gas pipeline effort.

“It’s like, ‘Ooh,’ ” Ms. Palin said in the interview, “ ‘not so good anymore, because it’s got Sarah’s name on it.’ ”

Martin Buser, a champion dog musher who is close to the Palins, said: “When she came back it was pretty clear it was not a trip with any light at the end of the tunnel. It was a spelunking trip that had no light and no end.”

She was met at the Capitol by a growing pile of ethics complaints filed by opponents that, under Alaska state law, had to be investigated.

During the campaign, an investigation by the Republican-dominated Legislature found that Ms. Palin had abused her office by leaning on subordinates to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper. She was forced to pay back taxes after it was disclosed that she had billed the state for thousands of dollars in per diem expenses meant to cover travel costs while staying in Wasilla. Still, of the 19 ethics complaints filed against her, most have been dismissed.

“We spend most of our day, my staff, a lot of the members of the Department of Law and myself, dealing with things that have nothing to do with policy or governance,” Ms. Palin said in the interview. “It has to do with setting the record straight in this game that’s being played right now.”

By all accounts, Ms. Palin became consumed with the complaints, no matter how small-bore — which many were — or where they came from.

When a local Democratic blogger accused her of becoming a “walking billboard” by wearing a jacket emblazoned with the logo of Arctic Cat, her husband’s team sponsor at the Iron Dog snowmobile race, she issued a news release titled “Governor Comments on Latest Bogus Ethics Complaint.”

“Yes, I wore Arctic Cat snow gear at an outdoor event, because it was cold outside,” her statement read. A follow-up release was triumphantly titled “Ethics Complaint on Governor’s Apparel Dismissed.”

Feuds begat feuds. Ms. Palin alleged in June that Mr. Letterman’s joke that one of her daughters had been “knocked up” by the Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during a recent trip to New York encouraged “sexual exploitation” of younger women.

Her comments then prompted a Republican lawmaker, State Representative Mike Hawker, to accuse Ms. Palin of underfinancing sexual abuse programs. Ms. Palin, in turn, directed public safety officials to give her fodder for a retort, requesting that they put out a statement saying her policies would reduce sexual assaults on minors.

Even Ms. Palin’s supporters came to believe that she was losing focus amid all the fighting.

“It was very relentless,” said State Representative John Coghill, a Republican. “My only criticism of her was she probably paid too much attention to it.”

In mid-spring, as the country grew alarmed over the swine flu, Ms. Palin skipped a briefing for administration officials on the outbreak by her chief medical officer, Dr. Jay C. Butler. A spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, noted that the teleconference took place about a month before the first case of the flu was reported in Alaska and that at the time the governor was meeting with top staff on the issue of federal stimulus funds. Since then, the state has had 122 confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu.

Dr. Butler said he resigned his post in June in part because the administration asked one of his highly regarded division heads, the state public health director, Beverly Wooley, to resign. “I felt that it was not a good time to be downsizing,” said Dr. Butler, who is now working on a swine flu vaccination at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Butler said the governor’s office apparently deemed Ms. Wooley insufficiently supportive of the parental consent bill backed by Ms. Palin.

Ms. Leighow would only say, inexplicably, that Ms. Wooley had been terminated by the health department, not the governor.


Amid all the turmoil, Ms. Palin’s enthusiasm for the job itself seemed to be waning, her office appointment books from January 2007 through this May indicate. Since her return from the national campaign her days have typically started later and ended earlier, and the number of meetings with local legislators and mayors has declined. The calendars were provided to The New York Times by Andree McLeod, who obtained them through a public records request and has filed ethics complaints against Ms. Palin.

Things on the home front were equally strained. Paparazzi regularly stalked the family, once ambushing Bristol Palin when she arrived with her newborn and her father at the Beehive beauty salon. Mr. Palin was forced to wait for her in the car with Bristol’s baby, Tripp, whose image was fetching a particularly high tabloid bounty.

If Bristol Palin was avoiding the limelight, her estranged boyfriend was seeking it. Mr. Johnston appeared bare-chested in GQ magazine holding Tripp. He told the talk show host Tyra Banks that he was certain Ms. Palin knew his relationship with her teenage daughter had been sexual.

Ms. Palin’s top political aide cranked out another news release: “We’re disappointed that Levi and his family, in a quest for fame, attention and fortune, are engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration and even distortion of their relationship.”

Appeal outside Alaska
Despite Ms. Palin’s travails in Alaska, she continued to have national cachet.

Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey’s producer called with interview requests. She fielded lucrative book deals, ultimately accepting one estimated to be in the millions of dollars. A veteran television producer proposed a “West Wing” meets “Northern Exposure” reality show about her. Out-of-state political trips were flashbacks to the presidential campaign. Crowds chanted, “Run, Sarah, Run!”

In January, Fred V. Malek, a longtime Republican kingmaker, held a dinner to introduce Ms. Palin to some of the party’s biggest names, prompted partly by what he saw as shabby treatment by the McCain campaign. Mr. Malek said she charmed former Vice President Dick Cheney at the dinner and bonded with Mr. Cheney’s daughter Liz over both raising five children.

The night was a highpoint. But already, Ms. Palin was having trouble reconciling the gravitational pull of her national support with the stresses of Alaska.

John Coale, a Washington trial lawyer and a Democrat who befriended the governor, said that during a political trip to Atlanta in December she expressed concern about her personal finances and complained that whenever she left Alaska “there was tremendous criticism up there.”

To Mr. Coale, the Palins seemed unprepared for the national stage. “I don’t think they got it, that they were in the arena,” he added. Mr. Coale helped Ms. Palin set up a legal defense fund and a political action committee to pay for her political activities. But both caused additional problems.

While the defense fund has raised more than $250,000, according to its trustee, the money cannot be spent pending resolution of an ethics complaint that contends that the contributions could amount to improper gifts.


The political action committee, named SarahPAC, was intended to help Ms. Palin steer clear of state ethics laws prohibiting the mixing of official duties and political activities. But according to people who dealt with it, a disconnect emerged between Ms. Palin’s political and official operations, resulting in embarrassing blunders.

After the Conservative Political Action Conference, a meeting of the Republican Party’s evangelical base, announced that the governor would have a coveted speaking role at its annual gathering in February, she canceled, citing scheduling conflicts. Then, organizers of one of the most important Republican Congressional fund-raisers of the year said they had been assured by a political aide to Ms. Palin that she would be their headliner, only to have her Anchorage office announce that she knew nothing about it.

Allies like Mr. Malek chalked up the confusion to Ms. Palin’s reliance on one aide to juggle the PAC’s demands. Mr. Malek said he urged Mr. Ayers, the governors’ association official, to write his memorandum and head to Alaska to get Ms. Palin’s operation in order.

Mr. Malek said he told Ms. Palin that “you have got to set up a mechanism so you can return calls.”

“You are getting a bad rap,” he recalled saying. “Important people are trying to talk to you. And she said, ‘What number are they calling?’ She did not know what had been happening.”

Tugs, pulls and pressures
Hope for the intervention’s success soon faded. Despite advice to stick close to home and focus on an Alaska agenda, the governor accepted an invitation to attend an anti-abortion dinner in Indiana in April, even though the state budget was hanging in the balance in the Legislature.

When Tom Wright, chief of staff for the speaker of the Alaska House, suggested that the governor would catch heat for leaving, Ms. Palin stormed into his office and, according to a person familiar with the conversation, “proceeded to ream him out.”

In early June, when Ms. Palin visited Mr. Malek in Washington, “My sense was she was very unhappy with the multiple tugs, pulls and pressures in her life, that her family life was not even close to what she regarded as acceptable,” he said, adding, “she just had a dissatisfaction with the way the job had developed.”

When she announced on July 3 that she was leaving the job, the national political establishment speculated that it was part of a scheme to position herself for a White House run.

Ms. Palin scoffed at the notion. “There’s no ulterior motive,” she said in the interview. She said the lieutenant governor who will succeed her on July 26, Sean R. Parnell, will pursue “the same agenda as mine — minus the distractions.”

In her hometown area at least, people take her at her word, but they doubt she is out of the game for good.

“She’s very young and she has a long time to be a potential candidate and to mature and develop a thicker skin,” said Janet Kincaid, a supporter in Palmer. “In politics, you’ve got to just let it roll or it will eat you alive.”

At the governor’s Anchorage office, staff members are struggling to roll with Ms. Palin’s surprise announcement. Last week, a clock on the wall continued its countdown. Under a “Time to Make a Difference” placard, the clock ticks away the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the scheduled end to Ms. Palin’s term. As of Friday, it had 513 days left.

“I don’t know how to reset the darn thing,” David Murrow, a spokesman for the governor, said earlier in the week.

This article, "Pain's Route to Resignation: Missteps and Ignored Advice," first appeared in The New York Times.

More on Sarah Palin


Copyright © 2009 The New York Times

[doug]

Palin's resignation day arrives
She faces ethics probes, mounting legal bills and dwindling popularity

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin jokes as she serves burgers at the governor's picnic in Anchorage, Alaska Saturday, July 25. Several thousand people attended the event, ahead of Palin's Sunday resignation as Alaska's governor.
The Associated Press
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin steps down Sunday with her political future clouded by ethics probes, mounting legal bills and dwindling popularity.

Palin has said little of what her life will be like as a private citizen. She is scheduled to speak Aug. 8 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, and has said she plans to write a book, campaign for political candidates from coast to coast and build a right-of-center coalition.

She also plans to continue speaking her mind on the social networking site Twitter.

"Wrapped up Anch Gov's Picnic, awesome," she wrote in a message posted Saturday. "Now road trip to Fairbanks for farewell speech/changing of the guard. Camper full of kids & coffee."

Friend and foe alike have speculated that Palin may host a radio or TV show, or launch a lucrative speaking career. Her political action committee, SarahPAC, has raised more than $1 million, said Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the committee and the Palin family.

'There is absolutely no plan'
Stapleton disputed the notion that Palin is running for president or has media deals lined up.

"I cannot express enough there is no plan after July 26. There is absolutely no plan," she told The Associated Press. "The decision (to quit) was made in the vacuum of what was best for Alaska, and now I'm accepting all the options, but there is nothing planned."

Palin's surprise announcement July 3 that she was stepping down as Alaska governor 17 months before the end of her first term pushed her favorability rating down to 40 percent, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll. Fifty-three percent of those polled gave her an unfavorable rating.

Last summer, almost six in 10 Americans viewed her favorably.

Palin will hand over the governor's office to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell at a Sunday afternoon picnic at a Fairbanks park. Parnell, 46, of Anchorage, has promised to push many of Palin's initiatives, including controversial terms to build a natural gas pipeline.

"Sean knows he has big high heels to fill," said Mark Lewis, moderator of a farewell picnic hosted by Palin on Saturday in Anchorage, the state's largest city.

Parnell acknowledged he is likely to draw less attention than Palin, whose near celebrity status threatened at times to overwhelm her administration. He called Palin "a good, honorable and decent human being who loves Alaska."

Critics cite lack of attention
Critics have accused Palin of failing to pay attention to the details of governing and say she has aggrandized herself at the state's expense.

Supporters — and there are many in the state and throughout the country — defend Palin as an outstanding leader with a strong Christian faith and unquestioned devotion to family.

Wilson Villanueva, 38, of Palmer, Alaska, attended one of Palin's farewell picnics in her hometown of Wasilla and disputed the idea that she was quitting because she was bored or unhappy in her job. He thinks she is stepping down for a "a greater purpose — to save taxpayers the burden" of defending herself against nearly 20 ethics complaints, including allegations she traded on her position as she sought money for lawyer fees.

Palin cited the financial toll of the investigations for quitting before the end of her term.

"She's not a quitter; she's a fighter. She wants to fight for the Alaskan people and for the greater good nationally," Villanueva said.


'I just don't think it's fair'
Randy Jedlicka, 31 of Anchorage, was less impressed.

He held up a sign at the Anchorage picnic asking why, if Palin can quit before her terms ends, soldiers in Iraq cannot do the same.

"I just don't think it's fair," said Jedlicka, a former sailor who served in the Persian Gulf in the mid-1990s. "A lot of vets want to quit, but they can't."

Alaska's first female governor arrived at the state Capitol in December 2006 on an ethics reform platform after defeating two former governors in the primary and general elections. Her prior political experience consisted of terms as Wasilla's mayor and councilwoman and a stint as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Target of talk-show jokes
Unknown on the national stage until Republican John McCain tapped her as his running mate, Palin infused excitement into the Republican's presidential bid. But she also became the butt of talk-show jokes and Democratic criticism, targeted at news that the Republican Party had spent $150,000 or more on a designer wardrobe and what some considered poor performances by the Alaska governor in television interviews.

Former state House Speaker John Harris, a Republican with sometimes chilly relations with Palin, said he respects her decision to resign.

"I think she decided out of respect for her family — and especially her children — the attacks were not going to end until she left office," Harris said.

Palin's future "is whatever she wants it to be," Harris added. "She's going to a spokeswoman for ideals and ideas that she believes in — more conservative government, natural resource development — and she's going to focus her energy on promoting candidates with similar ideas."


Harris, who is seeking to challenge Parnell for governor, said he thinks Palin will run for president in 2012, but said he has no inside information.

Stapleton said the answer will emerge in the coming weeks.

On Monday, "we'll sit down and say, 'OK, here are your options. How do you now want to effect that positive change for Alaska from outside the role as governor?'" Stapleton said.


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 9:40 p.m. ET Aug. 31, 2009
Levi Johnston writes about Sarah Palin for Vanity Fair
By Courtney Hazlett
When he’s not busy hunting, showing up on red carpets in Los Angeles, and fathering Tripp, his son with Bristol Palin, Levi Johnston is writing for Vanity Fair. Apparently.

The magazine released an image of its October cover, which teases the story “Me and Sarah Palin, by Levi Johnston.” And while details beyond the headline are scant, rest assured it’s not a joke.

“Yes, Levi really did write the piece,” said one Vanity Fair staffer who couldn’t offer up any other intel on the piece.

It does help explain Johnston’s late-July appearance at Monkey Bar, the exclusive restaurant owned by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. At the time, New Yorkers in the know reacted to Johnston’s night at Monkey Bar as if they’d heard that unicorns just stepped off the studio elevators at 30 Rock; now it makes more sense. The new issue of Vanity Fair is available in New York and L.A. Sept. 2; nationwide on Sept. 8.

© 2009 msnbc.com

[doug]

updated 2:03 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2009
Television
Oprah nabs exclusive interview with Palin
Former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee promoting new book

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announces that she is stepping down from her position as Governor in Wasilla, Alaska on Friday July 3, 2009. The former Republican vice presidential candidate made the surprise announcement, saying she would step down July 26 but didn't announce her plans.
The Associated Press
CHICAGO - Sarah Palin is going to sit down with Oprah Winfrey.

Harpo Productions announced Tuesday that the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate will appear on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Monday, Nov. 16.

According to Harpo, the interview will be Palin’s first about her new book, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” and it will be the first time Palin and Winfrey will meet.

Palin’s book was No. 4 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list on Tuesday. It’s slated to be released Tuesday, Nov. 17, the day after Palin’s interview with Winfrey.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Levi 'Is Part of the Family,' Palin Tells Oprah
11-12-2009
Levi Johnston "is a part of the family," and he "is loved," Sarah Palin says. But does that mean he's invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Palins? (Not so far, says his spokesman.)< br />
In an interview with the former Alaska govenor that will air on the Oprah Winfrey show Monday, Winfrey asks Palin if Johnston, the 19-year-old father of her grandson, will be invited to the house for dinner.

"You know, that's a great question," Palin replies. "And it's lovely to think that he would ever even consider such a thing. Because, of course, you want -- he is a part of the family and you want to bring him in the fold and kind of under your wing. And he needs that, too, Oprah. I think he needs to know that he is loved and he has the most beautiful child and this can all work out for good. It really can."

In her chat with Winfrey, Palin also talks about her 2008 interview with Katie Couric, which most viewers thought she bombed.

Palin admitted it was a bad performance, but said it wasn't a defining moment for the campaign.
In fact, John M cCain's staff told her she'd done fine. "The campaign said, ! 'Right o n. Good. You're showing your independence. This is what America needs to see and it was a good interview.' And, of course, I'm thinking, 'If you thought that was a good interview, I don't know what a bad interview is,' because I knew it was a bad interview."

In a video teaser of the the upcoming interview, Winfrey's own performance is lackluster. "Governor Palin just left and it was really an interesting interview," says Winfrey, talking directly into an eye-level camera, giving the video a very web cam-esque feel with a dash of "Blair Witch Project" and a side of "Paranormal Activity."
The queen of daytime goes on to say that "lots of people," Palin supporters included, didn't want the rogue-ish maverick-in-training to appear on the show. Memories of Palin's disastrous interviews with Charles Gibson (remember the Bush Doctrine?) linger. The newscaster's name probably gets the Lord Voldemort treatment in the Palin household.

Yet Winfrey claims nothing was off limits. "We talked about everything," she said, ticking off a list of topics that sounded more insipid than juicy. "We talked about Bristol, the pregnancy. We talked about Trig, ah, her baby. We talked about ah, um, um Levi Johnston," a name Winfrey underlines with her now signature forced alto (I call it the falto). Just close your eyes and imagine how Oprah will introduce the former Republican candidate for vice president. "Sarah PayhLUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!"

More than a year after her unsuccessful bid for the White House, just four months since announcing her temporary retreat from pub lic office and a few days before her memoir is released, Palin's decision to go on "Oprah," which pulls in about 7 million viewers, might actually go in the W column. The problem is: who's keeping score? With Tina Fey racking up Emmys without the wig and Elisabeth Hasselbeck keeping her 2012 views to herself (for now), it's doubtful that this interview does more for Palin's star power or poll rankings. Maybe Gibson will come out of retirement and heckle the governor from the front row of Oprah's studio audience. Now that's must-see TV.
(from aol.com)

[doug]

updated 9:10 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2009
Scoop: Levi strikes risque pose for Playgirl
According to a source at Levi Johnston's Playgirl shoot, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson posed nude with only a hockey stick.
By Courtney Hazlett
The Scoop
msnbc.com
Until Sarah Palin’s book comes out next week, it's Bristol’s ex-boyfriend, Levi Johnston, who remains firmly planted at center stage of the Palin family spotlight. Or maybe we should say center ice.

Johnston, in New York this week to collect a sex award and pose for Playgirl, has been coy about whether he’d bare all for the shoot. But according to a source at the photo shoot, Johnston is wearing nothing but a hockey stick.

“We have confirmation from the set of Levi’s Playgirl shoot that he has just posed naked with a hockey stick,” Gawker reported. (They also included an additional personal detail, but it’s not something I want to be responsible for searing into your brain.)

The topic of Johnston came up during Palin’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, which airs next Tuesday. Winfrey asked the former Alaska governor whether the father of her baby grandson would be invited to Thanksgiving dinner.

“You know, that's a great question,” Palin answered. “And it's lovely to think that he would ever even consider such a thing. Because of course you want — he is a part of the family and you want to bring him in the fold and kind of under your wing. And he needs that, too, Oprah.”

© 2009 msnbc.com

[doug]

Palin's popularity lead-up to presidential bid?
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 12/2/2009 7:15:00 AM
An author and conservative commentator says former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's successful book tour is likely a precursor to a presidential run in 2012.

Former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue has sold a million copies in two weeks. The original print run for Palin's memoir was 1.5 million. That number was increased to 2.5 million and has again been bumped up to a printing of 2.8 million copies.

Matthew Continetti, author of The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star, says the former governor still clearly has a strong appeal with middle America.

"I think when people look at Sarah Palin, they see someone who reminds them of them. [They see someone] who faces the same struggles they do in their daily life and who has the same values," the author notes.

"And as I write in The Persecution of Sarah Palin, I'm not the only one who thinks that. It was none other than Bill Clinton who said about the same thing when [she] arrived on the scene in the fall of 2008. He said, 'Listen, Democrats are toeing a dangerous line by going after her because people see a lot of themselves when they look at Sarah Palin.' So, I'll take Bill Clinton's word at that and agree with him there."

Continetti says that although Palin is continually underestimated by her critics and opponents, she "always seems to have the last laugh." He predicts Palin will run for President in 2012, even though she herself may not know it yet.

[doug]

updated 10:09 p.m. ET Dec. 5, 2009
Palin joshes herself at journalists' dinner
‘I could see the Russian embassy,’ she jokes at Gridiron Club
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin poked fun at herself in a speech to journalists Saturday night, drawing laughter when she announced she "came down from my hotel room and I could see the Russian embassy."

The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate also joked that she had orginally thought of titling her book "How To Look Like a Million Bucks For Only $150,000" before settling on "Going Rogue." In one of the controversies surrounding her candidacy, the campaign spent about $150,000 on her wardrobe.

Palin was the Republican speaker at the winter dinner of the Gridiron Club, an organization of Washington-based journalists.

Rep Barney Frank of Massachusetts represented the Democrats.

Palin targeted her hosts, Democrats and Sen. John McCain's campaign staff, as well as herself.

If the election had turned out differently, she said, "I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks and Vice President Biden could be on the road selling his book, 'Going Rogaine.'" Biden has sparse hair.

The crack about seeing the Russian embassy from her hotel referred to Palin having told an interviewer during last year's campaign that her qualifications for high office included that "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska."

As for her hosts, she said she was glad to be appearing before an elite audience of leading intellectuals, "or as I like to call it, a death panel."

McCain's campaign staff also came in for a barb from the former Alaska governor when she said she is touring the country by bus as she sells her book.

"The view is so much better from inside the bus than under it," she said, referring to the poisonous relations between her and some of the McCain campaign staff.


Focusing on criticism she has received from Steve Schmidt, a senior strategist in McCain's presidential campaign, she said, "If I need a bald campaign manager I guess I'm left with James Carville," a Democrat.

In her book, she wrote that Schmidt felt she wasn't prepared enough on policy matters and even wondered if she was suffering from postpartum depression following the April 2008 birth of her son Trig, who has Down syndrome.

Palin, who resigned as governor following her vice presidential campaign, is a potential contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

In his remarks, Frank poked fun at new media like Twitter and said he hoped for newspapers to make a recovery.

"Maybe I lack intellectual curiosity, but I'm not that interested in what Claire McCaskill has for lunch," said Frank.

McCaskill is one of the most avid users of Twitter in Congress.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 12:07 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2010
Records: Palin hasn't paid tax for cabins
Structures not noted in assessments of former Alaska governor's properties
The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Records show that Sarah Palin hasn't paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two backcountry plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.

There are no tax assessments for the two-story, house-sized cabins, a workshop and a sauna spotted Thursday in an aerial survey. Property taxes totaling $156.13 were paid on the land in 2009 — but that bill did not include anything for the structures because the local assessor didn't know about the new construction nearly 100 miles north of Anchorage.

The issue has attracted the attention of local tax officials who conducted the scheduled aerial survey of properties in the area on Thursday. The area is accessible only by floatplane, snowmobile or four-wheeler.

Dave Dunivan, the assessor for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, said such a survey had not been done there in five years, before construction started on the cabins.

Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land.

"It is the borough's job," he said in an e-mail. "The property taxes on this parcel are fully paid and have never been delinquent."

Omissions often not noted
Dunivan, however, said owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments. Often, the borough learns of new structures in remote areas when neighbors report them. Dunivan said no one has called the borough on the Palin lots, among many in the region to add structures, the flyover survey found.

"Typically, if there are errors, we hear from owners," he said. "If there are omissions, we don't. Every once in a while we do have someone call us about omissions, but not often."

The properties are located along Safari Lake — an undeveloped area located near Denali State Park — and owned by Palin, her husband Todd and a family friend, Scott Richter. According to borough records, the tax assessments are sent to Richter's post office box in Big Lake.

There is no phone listing in Alaska for Richter and he could not be reached Thursday.

The matter first appeared Wednesday on an Alaska political blog site, Mudflats, which has been critical of Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate. Palin resigned as governor last summer and has since written a best-selling memoir. She signed on as a Fox News commentator last month.

"This is another blatant attempt to manufacture a story about the Palins following more defamatory swipes," Palin's spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Dunivan said a photo of a large cabin posted on the Mudflats site — and later reported on the Huffington Post Web site — is one of the structures spotted in the flyover.

Van Flein said work is still being done on the cabins, but both are usable. He said construction began on one of the cabins in 2006, but he didn't know when construction started on the second one.

The size of large homes
The two parcels of land, separated by one lot, total 25 acres and had a combined value of $30,000 in 2007 through 2009, according to assessment records. Dunivan said the data collected in Thursday's survey will be calculated into 2010 assessment notices being mailed out at the end of the month.

It's too soon to estimate how much the structures will increase the taxes due, Dunivan said.

The cabins are the size of large homes rather than the average backcountry cabin, but square footage estimates were not immediately available.

Local real estate broker, Claus Steigler, said most cabins in the area are closer to the 500-square-foot range. Because they are in a hard to reach area, they generally sell for only $40,000 to $60,000, including the land.

One large log cabin reachable by road is listed at $229,000, but it's still on the market after two years, Steigler said.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 10:17 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2010
Politics
Palin e-mail reveals a powerful ‘first dude’
In Sarah Palin administration, her spouse was active in state business

Nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails that the first gentleman, Todd Palin, exchanged with state officials draw a picture of his influence on policy in the Sarah Palin administration. Other e-mails are still being withheld by the state of Alaska.
By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter
msnbc.com
Officially he was the first gentleman of Alaska. More people called him the "first dude." But newly released e-mails show that Todd Palin was busy doing more than snow machine driving and salmon fishing during Sarah Palin's two and a half years as governor and vice presidential candidate.

Nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails that Todd Palin exchanged with state officials, which were released to msnbc.com and NBC News by the state of Alaska under its public records law, draw a picture of a Palin administration where the governor's husband got involved in a judicial appointment, monitored contract negotiations with public employee unions, received background checks on a corporate CEO, added his approval or disapproval to state board appointments and passed financial information marked "confidential" from his oil company employer to a state attorney.

While 1,200 separate e-mails were released this week, 243 others were withheld by the state under a claim that executive privilege extends to Todd Palin as an unpaid adviser to the government. Still, just the subject lines of those e-mails provide a glimpse of the ways the Palins divvied up their responsibilities when she became governor in December 2006, less than two years before Republican Sen. John McCain pulled her onto the national political stage by nominating her as his vice presidential candidate.

The still-secret e-mails between Todd Palin and senior officials reach into countless areas of state government and politics: potential board appointees, constituent complaints, use of the state jet, oil and gas production, marine regulation, gas pipeline bids, postsecondary education, wildfires, native Alaskan issues, the state effort to save the Matanuska Maid dairy, budget planning, potential budget vetoes, oil shale leasing, "strategy for responding to media allegations," staffing at the mansion, pier diem payments to the governor for travel, "strategy for responding to questions about pregnancy," potential cuts to the governor's staff, "confidentiality issues," Bureau of Land Management land transfers and trespass issues and requests to the U.S. transportation secretary.

Also withheld: a discussion of how to reply to "media questions about Todd Palin's work and potential conflict of interests."

'That gossip crap bugs me'
The e-mails that were released open a curtain on the behind-the-scenes preoccupations of the Palins, particularly the flash points of family and the media, personal finances and state finances.

The governor coached her staff on how to disguise the amount of electrical work needed at the mansion to hook up her new tanning bed.

Palin and her staff stewed over the refusal of the state Public Safety Department to provide a plane so the children could fly to Todd's family's home in Dillingham; after all, they were going to attend a bill signing, so the travel requests could be justified. Sarah Palin called the decision "outrageous," and an aide said it provides "a great excuse to privatize" the governor's jet service.

The manager of the Palins' travel schedule searched for a public event to use as justification ("I just need one") to charge the state for an airplane flight for Palin's daughter, Willow, who made the trip but had missed the event given as its justification.

When Sarah Palin complained that the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner wrote a critical editorial after she did them the favor of meeting with the editorial board, Todd Palin advised the press chief to "take the news miner off the press release address list for a few days, see how long it takes them to realize their not on the list."
"Man, that gossip crap bugs me," Sarah Palin wrote after the Anchorage Daily News wrote about mansion repairs in its Alaska Ear political column. "Any time it has anything to do with home or family, it's irritating." A press aide apologized, saying the columnist did not to call check out stories before publishing. The residence director added, "Reminds me of junior high school, where hormonal teenagers are always looking for the drama. ... I'll do my best to avoid giving them any news nuggets."

Private e-mail accounts
Many of these e-mails on public policy issues were written using private e-mail accounts on Yahoo and other services. The governor and her top aides set up accounts outside the state system, supposedly outside the reach of the public records laws. Outside accounts also helped avoid any violation of the state law against using public resources for campaigning.

Todd Palin's e-mail address at that time was named for his hobby as a four-time champion driver in the 1,971-mile Iron Dog snow machine races: fek9wnr@yahoo.com, or Iron Dog winner.

The governor wrote mostly from gov.sarah@yahoo.com and sometimes from gov.palin@yahoo.com, until that account was cracked in September 2008 by an anonymous Internet user, who boasted that he figured out the answers to her Yahoo security questions by browsing her Wikipedia page. A 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee, David C. Kernell, was indicted and is awaiting trial; he was an Obama supporter and the son of a Democratic state legislator.

Few of the e-mails to and from the Palins twin Blackberrys show Todd Palin performing the traditional ceremonial duties of a governor's spouse, though he did judge the Miss Alaska competition, and he held a tea to honor former first ladies.

Several e-mails deal with purely personal matters, as the governor juggled a new job, a family that grew from four children to five soon after she became governor, the 574-mile trip from her office in Juneau to her home in Wasilla and a husband whose work took him away for weeks at a time to the North Slope and snow machine races.

At one point, Sarah Palin sent her husband instructions to stock up on "fresh fruit and veggies" for the kids, and "as little processed foods as possible."

Todd Palin tried repeatedly over a period of three months to get a staff aide to remove Todd's photo from the National Governors Association Web site, because it showed him in a T-shirt.

In another e-mail, the couple discussed a rare opportunity to enjoy a date night out without the kids; they saw "Juno," the film about a teenager with an unplanned pregnancy, on March 7, 2008, just short of 10 months before their unmarried 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, gave birth to a son.

Redacted
Of the e-mails released this week, dozens have information redacted, or blanked out, sometimes leaving little more than a subject line.

One example:

Sarah Palin's head of boards and commissions, political aide Ivy Frye, wrote to Todd Palin on June 26, 2007, asking about a member of a state commission on domestic violence, an appointee of her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski.

"Hey, Todd, Do you know Kim Williams from Dillingham? She has a term expiring on the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Board and I wanted to see what you knew about her. Thanks."

Dillingham is Todd Palin's hometown.

His reply the next day is completely deleted in the documents released this week, with the word "Redacted" in its place.

But the public can see Frye's reply, "Thank you. That was very helpful."

At her home in Dillingham on Thursday, Williams told msnbc.com that she was not re-appointed, and was never told why. But she didn't sound upset.

"Todd and I grew up together. I guess this summer I'll have to ask Todd what he said about me," she said with a laugh.

She said she wouldn't be surprised if the governor bounced a lot of subjects off of her spouse. "It's the first time we've ever had a first dude, right? I think he was more of a sounding board for her."


'A proper advisor'
When e-mails were withheld entirely, the state usually cited the "deliberative process privilege," referring to a portion of the state public records law exempting documents about the discussion of policy. The goal of the policy, courts have held, is to allow government officials to make well-informed decisions without being impeded by making public every possible course of action discussed.

Alaska Republican Andrée McLeod has filed a lawsuit against the state on this issue. In it, she argues that if one private citizen in the state of Alaska can be privy to all these e-mails about the workings of state government, then the state has waived the privilege.

"If one citizen can see them, Todd Palin, then why can't every citizen see them?" McLeod said.

Palin's chief of staff, Michael Nizich, rejected that argument in a denial letter to McLeod's attorney. Nizich said that Todd Palin was not a third-party outsider, but an insider, "an invited advisor and participant in the actual decision-making protected by the privilege." It doesn't matter, the state argues, that Todd Palin's advice wasn't paid for; it was still solicited.

"Mr. Palin is a proper advisor to the governor," Nizich wrote. "There is nothing inappropriate about the spouse of a chief executive playing such a role. The governor is absolutely entitled to involve him in policy matters as an advisor as she sees fit."

A controversial appointment
Often the governor wasn't included on Todd Palin's e-mails at all. The staff went straight to him, or he went straight to the staff.

On a Saturday afternoon, June 23, 2007, for example, Todd Palin wrote to Sarah Palin's political aide, Ivy Frye, asking about a state judge to be appointed from the city of Soldotna. The name is omitted from the e-mail.

"I'm getting calls from Soldotna about the next judge appointment," Todd Palin wrote. "Is (redacted) on the list, I'm getting calls from folks hoping he's not selected. Let me know what's happening so I can put to rest some of the rumors."

Frye replies, "(Redacted) was nominated alond [sic] with 3 other guys-just received the names last wk. I've heard the same feedback as you. Gov has 45 days to make appt. Will interview in about 2-3 wks."

Todd Palin replied, "Thanks, Ivy."

That entire thread was actually in reply to a different topic, in which Frye passed on to Todd Palin detailed information about the Labor Department having wage and hour claims against a company whose owner had served on Todd Palin's "Disaster Cabinet." The e-mail describes the company's back payments in detail, including what the company's lawyer told the state about the owner's debts.

Similarly, when Sarah Palin's staff was engineering a rescue or takeover of the state-run Matanuska Maid dairy, Todd Palin requested information on the former CEO, Terry Clark, and he got it. Background information on the former CEO was sent to Todd Palin by political aide Frank Bailey, the state director of boards and commissions.

Confidential information
Todd Palin also often served as a conduit for information to flow from one part of state government to another. When a friend or campaign aide's spouse got a state job, he was often notified. At other times, he notified the governor's office.

Sometimes information from outside flowed through him to the government. In one instance, the e-mails show, Todd Palin sent confidential financial information from his longtime employer, the oil and gas company BP, to a lawyer for the state, which does a lot of business with BP. The e-mail of financial results, written by Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., was marked "confidential"; it told BP staff about financial results and the levels of annual bonuses to be received. Todd Palin received that e-mail from Glenn Trimmer, the secretary-treasurer of the United Steelworkers local where he was working while on a leave from BP. Palin forwarded the e-mail from his work account to his personal account, then forwarded it again from his personal account to an attorney for the state, along with financial details for a second year.

BP did not reply to a request for comment sent Thursday to the company's press contact.

The Palins did not reply to a message sent to their spokeswoman and another to the company that manages Sarah Palin's speaking engagements. Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak Saturday evening at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, where her bio describes her as a champion of "ethics reform and transparency in government," themes of her campaign for governor. (MSNBC TV, a partner of msnbc.com, and other networks will broadcast her speech live at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday.)

'Shadow Governor'
Todd Palin's frequent presence in the governor's office led some in Juneau to call him the "Shadow Governor." But it had never been clear, at least to the public, what roles he played.

He did receive scrutiny for his role in the so-called Troopergate case, in which he and the governor were accused of seeking to have her former brother-in-law fired from the state police force.

Todd Palin found a small lever to use with that department at 7:30 one morning in the classified ads of the Anchorage Daily News. The Department of Public Safety wanted to buy an airplane.

"Hey Randy," he wrote on July 16, 2008, to Randall Ruaro, Sarah Palin's deputy chief of staff. "DPS is running an add in the daily news looking to purchase a Super Cub, is this purchase in their budget."

Ruaro replied an hour later, saying he would check on it. He added a note about the new DPS commissioner, Chuck Kopp: "I will also be in Anchorage tomorrow to meet with Commissioner Kopp and review issues. I think we can start making progress pretty quickly."

"Sounds great," Todd Palin replied.

Nine days later, Kopp resigned.

Backstory
When msnbc.com, other news organizations and citizens of Alaska sought Palin e-mail records after she was named the Republican vice presidential running mate in August 2008, the state initially quoted a cost as high as $15 million for state technicians to find the e-mails, for state interns to print out the e-mails one at a time, for state lawyers to read them to determine what information could be withheld, and for a print shop to photocopy them.

That's still the laborious approach the state has taken, at what it says is a cost of more than $500,000 in staff time, but the prices it is charging have come down considerably. The state charged msnbc.com only $323.58 for the records released this week.

State officials said they could not figure out how to electronically search or distribute the e-mails. But such work is the bread and butter of firms like Crivella West, a Pittsburgh company which offered to do that work for the state for free. After the state ignored its offer, msnbc.com contacted the company, which agreed to scan in the photocopies to turn them back into searchable text, and to set up the documents in a public archive.


State law specifies that staff should respond to public records requests within 10 days, but it took Alaska much longer than that to produce the e-mails: The original request for these new e-mails was made in September 2008 by Aram Roston, an investigative producer for NBC News. He left NBC at the end of that year, and Palin left the governor's post the next July, but the request ground on without them.

A broader request by msnbc.com and other news organizations for all e-mails sent and received by the governor and about 50 top officials -- about 25,000 in all -- is still pending. Last week, Sarah Palin's former staff, now working for Gov. Sean Parnell, requested additional time, as required by the public records law, to respond.

Disclosure of private e-mails from government officials has been a legal issue in many states. For example, this week in North Carolina, news organizations are pursing a lawsuit to see the e-mails of the former Democratic governor, Mike Easley, who used a private, secret e-mail account to conduct state business.


State courts usually rule that correspondence between government officials, about government business, are public records, whether they use their government e-mail accounts or private ones.

In a second Palin case filed by McLeod, the Alaska resident seeking access to her e-mails, a state judge in Alaska ruled last month that it's not necessarily a violation of the public records law for public officials to use personal e-mail accounts. Those e-mails may be public records, but only if the state agency decides to preserve them. The state has indeed preserved thousands of such records, and someday we'll expect to see more of them from the Palin administration.

© 2010 msnbc.com

[doug]

updated 3:16 a.m. ET Feb. 7, 2010
It’s revolution time, Palin says
Former Alaska governor slams president's handling of economy, security

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin addresses attendees at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)
The Associated Press
Video: Palin: America ready for ‘another revolution’

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Sarah Palin declared "America is ready for another revolution" and repeatedly assailed President Barack Obama on Saturday before adoring "tea party" activists. They make up a seemingly natural constituency should she run for president.

"This movement is about the people," the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee said as the crowd roared. "Government is supposed to be working for the people."

Palin noted Democrats' electoral losses since Obama took office a year ago with talk of hope and promises of change and asked: "How's that hope-y, change-y stuff workin' out for you?"

Her audience waved flags and erupted in cheers during multiple standing ovations as Palin gave the keynote address at the first national convention of the "tea party" coalition. It's an anti-establishment, grass-roots network motivated by anger over the growth of government, budget-busting spending and Obama's policies.

Filled with Palin's trademark folksy jokes, the speech amounted to a 45-minute pep talk for the coalition and promotion of its principles. The speech also was rife with criticism for Obama and Democrats who control Congress, but delivered with a light touch. But, aside from broad conservative principles like lower taxes and a strong national defense, the speech was short on Palin's own policy ideas that typically indicate someone is seriously laying the groundwork to run for the White House.

Indeed, Republican observers say she's seemingly done more lately to establish herself as a political celebrity focused on publicity rather than a political candidate focused on policy.

'Fresh, young and fragile'
Catering to her crowd, Palin talked of limited government, strict adherence to the Constitution, and the "God-given right" of freedom. She said the "fresh, young and fragile" movement is the future of American politics because it's "a ground-up call to action" to both major political parties to change how they do business. "You've got both party machines running scared," she said.

Palin suggested that the party should remain leaderless and cautioned against allowing the movement to be defined by any one person. "This is about the people" and "it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter," she said, jabbing at Obama.

"Let us not get bogged down in the small squabbles. Let us get caught up in the big ideas," she said, though she offered few of her own.

The former Alaska governor, who resigned from office last summer before completing her first term, didn't indicate whether her political future would extend beyond cable news punditry and paid speeches to an actual presidential candidacy.

All she offered was a smile when a moderator asking her questions used the phrase "President Palin." That prompted most in the audience to stand up and chant "Run, Sarah, run!"

But, given the plethora of attacks that Palin leveled at Obama, she seemed like she was already running against him. And, perhaps, as an independent.


She talked little about the Republican Party, going so far as to suggest that she should apologize to the party for her inability to get her husband to register with the GOP. She also encouraged "tea party"-aligned candidates to compete in GOP primaries, saying: "Contested primaries aren't civil war; they're democracy at work and that's beautiful."


'Running out of time'
Palin criticized Obama for continuing to blame George W. Bush for the country's woes instead of blaming what she called the Democrat's own big-government, big-spending agenda that has made the country less secure. She called his policies out of date and said they were "running out of time," suggesting big GOP wins in the fall mid-term elections.

She also ribbed him for Democratic losses in New Jersey and Virginia governor's races last fall and in a Massachusetts Senate race last month, saying: "When you're 0-3 you'd better stop lecturing and start listening."

On foreign policy and national security, Palin said he had "misguided thinking" and a pre-Sept. 11 mindset, saying: "We need a commander in chief" not a professor of law.

"Foreign policy can't be managed through the politics of personality," she said.

She assailed the $787 billion stimulus plan — "Did you feel very stimulated?" she asked — and said the administration's deficit spending was "immoral" and "generational theft."


Her fee was $100,000 for the appearance at the for-profit event. But she said she would not keep the money, instead giving it back to "the cause." She didn't elaborate.

Admission was $549 for access to the entire three-day gathering or $349 just to hear Palin's speech after a dinner of lobster and steak at the sprawling Gaylord Opryland resort. The cost led to criticism from even some activists that it runs counter to the coalition's image and could preclude people from attending.

It's just one of several "tea party" appearances Palin plans in the coming weeks. She will speak at a rally in Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nev., to kick off the Tea Party Express III tour. In April, she heads to Boston for "tea party" gathering there around the one-year anniversary of the coalition that began last spring.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 10:40 a.m. ET Feb. 23, 2010
Television
Bristol Palin to appear on ‘American Teenager’
19-year-old to play herself in episode on consequences of teen pregnancy
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol will make her acting debut on the ABC Family drama series, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."

The network says the 19-year-old will play herself in an episode scheduled to shoot and air this summer. It will deal with the consequences of teen pregnancy.

The network calls Bristol Palin the most famous teenage mother in America. She was pregnant as her mother campaigned for vice president. Bristol Palin gave birth to her son, Tripp, in December 2008.

The TV series focuses on the relationships between families and friends and how they deal with teenage issues. It premiered two years ago, and its cast includes Molly Ringwald and Mark Derwin.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 7:37 p.m. ET March 5, 2010
Television
Palin’s show to highlight Alaska and its quirks
‘It’s a love letter ... there’s nothing political about it,’ source reveals
By Lynette Rice
Entertainment Weekly
Video: Palin shopping reality TV show?
As Sarah Palin makes the rounds in Hollywood, more information has surfaced about the show she’s pitching. EW, which first reported the story earlier this week, has learned it’s a travelogue-type documentary from uber-producer Mark Burnett ("Survivor") in which the former vice presidential candidate gives viewers an intimate look at her home state of Alaska.

Palin is expected to participate in the show — which is designed to run for at most eight episodes — and present stories about Alaska’s quirky denizens and traditions like the Iditarod. At least for now, it doesn’t look like her family will participate.

“It’s a love letter, like Palin’s Alaska,” said one executive familiar with her pitch. “There’s nothing political about it.”

Palin and Burnett have already made stops at ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox and scheduled meetings with cable nets like the History Channel and A&E. Though Burnett’s participation all but assured that everyone would hear the pitch, it doesn’t seem likely that one of the Big Four will order the series (The Wrap, in fact, already reported that ABC passed on the project).

Palin certainly has a following; her memoir, “Going Rogue,” was a huge bestseller and her appearance on “The Tonight Show” March 2 attracted 5.8 million viewers, Jay Leno’s second biggest audience this week since returning to the franchise on Monday. But she definitely comes with a price: a network wouldn’t want to deal with the ramifications of giving Palin a platform — even for what’s being billed as an apolitical show — if she announced her intent to run for president in 2012 during the show’s limited run.

Still, there’s some belief that Palin will find a buyer for her show — just not on a network that carries, say, sitcoms or procedural dramas. “It feels more like Discovery,” says the exec.

© 2010 MSNBC.com

[doug]

updated 5:05 p.m. ET March 26, 2010
Decision 2010
McCain enlists Palin in 2010 Senate fight
Former GOP presidential candidate faces primary challenge from right
By JONATHAN J. COOPER
The Associated Press
PHOENIX - John McCain helped Sarah Palin launch her national political career two years ago. Now, she's trying to help McCain save his.

Campaigning with her 2008 running mate on Friday for the first time since the failed 2008 campaign, the former vice presidential candidate urged Arizonans to "send this maverick back the United States Senate."

"He's never been a company man," Palin said of McCain, touting his willingness to "buck the political machine."

McCain is fighting for his political life. Fending off a primary challenge from the right, the four-term Arizona senator is facing the toughest re-election campaign of his Senate career.

Former congressman and conservative talk-radio host JD Hayworth says McCain is too moderate for Arizona Republicans. He points to McCain's reputation for working with Democrats on key issues such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and restricting campaign donations.

But, while acknowledging the Republican party's emphasis on "new blood" and grassroots activists — those being heavily targeted by Hayworth — Palin said that the party also needs "statesmen and heroes like John McCain."

Palin was a first-term governor of Alaska when McCain plucked her from relative obscurity to be his running mate. She went on to become a conservative star and a key Republican critic of President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

Palin will help McCain tout his conservative credentials at rallies in Tucson on Friday and the Phoenix suburb of Mesa on Saturday. They'll hold a fundraiser on Friday at the same Phoenix hotel where they conceded the presidential election on Nov. 4, 2008.

Hayworth has tried to define himself as "the consistent conservative" in contrast to the "maverick" McCain.

Before Hayworth left his radio show to officially enter the race, he used the airwaves to attack McCain's congressional record, most notably his work with the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on a bill that would have created a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Now, Hayworth is hoping to topple one of the Republican Party's best-known figures by reaching out to conservative activists.


Hayworth said Palin is repaying McCain for launching her national political career.

"We look forward to having Gov. Palin's support following the primary," Hayworth said. "But we welcome her and we understand why she's in the state stumping for McCain."

Palin's popularity and fundraising power is largely unmatched on the right. But she's also been berated as a lightweight not prepared for national office, and she was criticized last year for resigning as Alaska governor before her term was up.

Palin has admonished McCain's presidential campaign since their loss, saying in her book "Going Rogue" that there was substantial tension between her advisers and McCain's. She said she was kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign and was prevented from delivering a concession speech in Phoenix on Election Night.

Palin hasn't criticized McCain himself, however, and the senator has stood by his decision to choose her as his running mate, saying he was proud of the campaign and predicting she would be a "major player" in the Republican Party.


Palin took heat this week when she released a list of 20 U.S. House of Representatives seats she said conservatives should target in the upcoming midterm elections. The list, posted on her Facebook page, featured a U.S. map with circles and cross hairs over the 20 districts.

Critics said it was inappropriate to use gun imagery, especially as a handful of Democrats who supported the health care overhaul reported receiving threats of violence.

McCain defended Palin, saying it was common practice and "part of the lexicon" to refer to targeted congressional districts.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 5:54 p.m. ET March 27, 2010
Palin to tea party rally: Dump the Dems
‘You're fired,’ she says of Senate leader Harry Reid in his hometown

Oscar Murdock from Temecula, Calif., holds signs before the start of a tea party rally in Searchlight, Nev., on Saturday.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
SEARCHLIGHT, Nev. - Sarah Palin exhorted thousands of conservative tea party activists assembled in the Nevada desert Saturday to "fire" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats from Congress in the upcoming national election.

The wind whipped U.S. flags behind the former Alaska governor as she stood on a makeshift stage, holding a microphone and her notes as she spoke to the cheering crowd in Reid's hometown. She told them Reid, fighting for re-election, is "gambling away our future."

"Someone needs to tell him, this is not a crapshoot," Palin said.

About 7,000 people streamed into tiny Searchlight, a former mining town 60 miles south of Las Vegas, bringing American flags, "Don't Tread on Me" signs and outspoken anger toward Reid, President Barack Obama and the health care overhaul.

Palin told them the big-government, big-debt spending spree of the Senate majority leader, Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over.

"You're fired!" Palin said.

A string of polls has shown Reid is vulnerable in politically moderate Nevada after pushing Obama's agenda in Congress. His standing has also been hurt by Nevada's double-digit unemployment and record foreclosure and bankruptcy rates.

The Searchlight native responded with sarcasm to the large crowd gathered in the hardscrabble town of about 1,000 he grew up in.

"I'm happy so many people came to see my hometown of Searchlight and spend their out-of-state money, especially in these tough economic times," Reid said Saturday in a statement released through his Senate campaign. "This election will be decided by Nevadans, not people from other states who parachuted in for one day to have a tea party."

Traffc jam
Traffic on a highway leading into the town was backed up more than two miles Saturday afternoon as people gathered for the rally, which kicks off a 42-city bus tour that ends in Washington on April 15, tax day.

It's been called a conservative Woodstock, and takes place just days after the historic health care vote that ushered in near-universal medical coverage and divided Congress and the nation. The vote was followed by reports of threats and vandalism aimed at some Washington lawmakers, mostly Democrats who supported the new law.

Conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart disputed accounts that tea party activists in Washington shouted racial epithets at black members of Congress amid the health care debate, although he didn't provide any evidence.

"I know you're not a racist group," he told the crowd.


Video: Hecklers disrupt Palin's speech


Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, appeared after spending Friday and Saturday morning campaigning for Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who led the 2008 ticket. McCain is seeking re-election but faces a Republican primary challenge from the right by former congressman and radio talk show host JD Hayworth.

At a campaign stop Saturday morning in Mesa, Palin urged McCain supporters to help put government "back on the side of the people" and praised McCain as a hero "who can lead us to a brighter future."

Her speech was disrupted twice by hecklers who were forcibly removed from the room. "Young man, stick around and listen to what we’re going to say. Maybe you’ll learn something," she told the first heckler.

Now a Fox News analyst and potential 2012 presidential candidate, Palin faced criticism after posting a map on her Facebook page that had circles and cross hairs over 20 Democratic districts. She also sent a tweet saying, "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!"

She said Saturday she wasn't inciting violence, just trying to inspire people to get involved.

"We're not going to sit down and shut up. Thank you for standing up," Palin said.

Peaceful rally
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sent officers to patrol the crowd, but aside from a report of fistfight that officers didn't see, the event appeared peaceful. Officer Jay Rivera said there had been no arrests.

The tea party movement is a far-flung coalition of conservative groups angered by Washington spending, rising taxes and the growth and reach of government. It takes its name from the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when colonists dumped tea off English ships to protest what they considered unfair taxation by the British crown.

"Some of you are registered Republicans. Some of you are ... what we used to call Reagan Democrats," Palin said. "And some of you are like so many of my friends and my family, including my own husband, just independent, not registered in any party.

The rally was a festival of all things conservative, as well as a political call-to-arms. Protesters dressed as Colonial soldiers with three-corner hats and marched through the crowd beating drums. There were Ronald Reagan masks, plenty of camouflage, and American flags fashioned into every manner of dress. Placards danced in the wind: "Stop the Obama Nation"; "Change It Back"; "No Taxation Without Representation."


'Silent majority'
Donna and Jim McGeachy, both 63 and Republicans, held a "Don't Tread on Me Flag," and said the government has stopped listening.

"We are talking to you, but you turned a deaf ear," Donna McGeachy said.

"We're kind of what you call the silent majority," her husband said. "I think it's about time to change."

Organizers had said up to 10,000 people might come; around 1 p.m., police estimated the crowd was about 7,000.

Leonard Grimes, a 70-year-old retired logger, said the nation is drifting toward socialism, and he's not convinced Obama is eligible to be president.

"I'd like him to prove he's an American citizen," said Grimes, a registered independent who is originally from Michigan but now lives in Golden Valley, Ariz.

He called the health care bill "a joke, just another way to enslave the American public."

Reid supporters set up a hospitality tent Saturday in the parking lot of a Searchlight casino, about a mile from the tea party rally. The Senate leader planned to spend part of the day at a new shooting range in Las Vegas with National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

Luis Salvador, 55, an unemployed fire sprinkler fitter, drove down from Las Vegas to support Reid, who he said has done a lot for the state and doesn't deserve the protest brought to his hometown.

"You don't come to a man's house and start creating a ruckus," said Salvador, a registered independent. He and several others taped signs saying "Nevada Needs Harry Reid" to the side of a truck near the highway that runs through town.

Another Reid supporter, Judy Hill, 62, said she doesn't understand the hatred of Reid. The longtime Democrat from Searchlight said she thinks people just don't know the man she calls a friend.

"They listen to the rhetoric. I think he's very misunderstood and under-appreciated," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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