An examination of Sarah Palin's conversion to the cause of good government suggests more personal motives.
Sarah Palin’s adoption of the mantel of reformer has come at convenient turning points in her career.
She ran for her first term as mayor on a "change" platform, before going on to two terms that turned out to be business as usual, if on a much larger scale: the Washington Post has documented $27 Million in earmarks going to Wasilla during her tenure, a town with an annual budget excluding debt and capital expenses of around $5 Million.
Palin received the Republican nod for governor in 2006 as the "clean government" candidate over then-Governor Frank Murkowski. The fact that her campaign was aided by a last minute endorsement from Senator Ted Stevens, and a television ad in which they appeared together, suggests "reform" was not the ticket’s top priority and ultimate agenda.
In fact, Palin had made an unsuccessful run for Lieutenant Governor in 2002 to run with Frank Murkowski, coming in second. When Frank Murkowski resigned from his senate seat to run for Governor, Palin was widely rumored as a possible replacement. Instead, Murkowski appointed his own daughter, Lisa Murkowski, a state representative, naming Palin to chair the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission as a kind of consolation prize.
This turned out to be a huge mistake for Murkowski. Palin resigned in 2004 and filed formal complaints against the state Republican Party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, two Murkowski allies. Ruedrich, one of her fellow commissioners, was accused of politicking on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating, and subsequently paid a record $12,000 fine.
It’s hard not to see the rage of stymied ambition, and some very astute maneuvering, behind this sudden conversion to the cause of "standing up to special interests" and "fighting against corruption". By 2002 Palin had been in Alaska politics for 10 years, working closely with Alaska’s political establishment, even hiring ex-Ted Stevens aide (and Abramoff employer) Steven Silver to gain huge windfalls for her small Alaskan town in the form of Federal earmarks. She had worked closely with Murkowski, and eagerly aspired to the post of Murkowski’s state-government equivalent of vice-president. She saw no conflict in chairing a key state Commission until, allegedly, suddenly realizing some of her fellow Republicans, particularly Murkowski, "lacked ethics".
If Murkowski had appointed Palin to the Senate, instead of his (I'm sure equally qualified) daughter, it's obvious Murkowski would still be governor today.
For those of you who have read my Dairygate/Mat Maid posts, the rank hypocrisy of Palin’s accusing a fellow Republican of "working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating" should be pungent indeed. While "regulating" the state dairy business, Palin insured that a local dairy farmer, Kyle Beus, ended up with key assets of a failing state-run dairy she claimed to want to save, and helped him obtain a Federal earmark (with Ted Steven's always appreciated help) to get his own nearly identical operation off the ground.
As a result of Palin's "reforms", a few political opponents lost their jobs, but nothing else really changed. Ted Stevens remained the Big Dog of Alaskan politics. His last-minute assist in Palin’s gubernatorial campaign is proof enough that, whatever was retailed to the voters, the state Republican establishment as an institution would have nothing to fear from Palin's election. Endemic corruption would continue to be business as usual. It would just be Palin's friends who would disproportionately benefit instead of Murkowski's.
There is no evidence whatsoever that "reform" has ever been anything more to Sarah Palin than an appealing slogan and a cudgel with which to further her career and beat up less nimble political opponents (and insufficiently grateful mentors). Selling a state plane on eBay is exactly the kind of sound-bite flashiness that makes good press, and good camouflage. But there is nothing in Sarah Palin’s career in local and state politics to suggest she is anything more than another ambitious, well-connected politician willing to do anything to win.
To that extent at least, she and John McCain are truly "soul mates".
I recommend today’s WaPo article on earmarks:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
as well as Sarah Palin’s much-improvedWikipedia page. For my prior posts on Dairygate, go to
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...