(I added more information about her financial reporting "extension.")
Per Friday's WaPo:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has made a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda, has accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state, a review of state records shows.
The 41 gifts Palin accepted during her 20 months as governor include honorific tributes, expensive artwork and free travel for a family member. They also include more than $2,500 in personal items from Calista, a large Alaska native corporation with a variety of pending state regulatory and budgetary issues, and a gold-nugget pin valued at $1,200 from the city of Nome, which lobbies on municipal, local and capital budget matters, documents show.
(more below the fold)
Hmmmm...could this be why she postponed her financial records release until a day after her debate with Joe Biden, who released 10 years worth?
The Republican vice-presidential candidate received a four-day extension today from the Federal Election Commission.
The federal financial disclosure report was initially due Monday. Now Palin has until Oct. 3, the day after her debate in St. Louis with Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
(It also mentions how Biden's 10-years worth of records shows that he makes considerably less than a number of his fellow Senators.)
So what does the McCain Campaign's "Truth Hit Squad"...the folks who've taken over the Alaska State Government, making state workers direct any calls to them from anyone who even breathes the name "Palin"...have to say about this?
In response to e-mailed questions, Meghan Stapleton, who is based in Alaska for the McCain-Palin campaign, wrote: "Throughout her career Governor Palin has stood for the highest standards of ethics. She spearheaded new ethics reforms in Alaska and took on her own party and entrenched interests to return Alaska's government to its people."
Yeah...OK...and yet the WaPo finds that's not necessarily true about Sarah Palin as things apply to...Sarah Palin!
Records show that 23 of the gifts were offered during Palin's early months in office, when she was pushing the legislature to address a state corruption scandal by passing a package of ethics reforms. She accepted 18 gifts after the law passed in July 2007. Among other provisions, the law forbade executive branch officials from taking gifts from lobbyists or from interests with pending state business.
Wait...let me repeat that in case Meghan Stapleton, Ed O'Callaghan, radio talk-show host Eddie Burke, or any other Palin-aid drinkers missed it:
Among other provisions, the law forbade executive branch officials from taking gifts from lobbyists or from interests with pending state business.
But wait, Todd Palin's unusual participation in his wife's Gubernatorial business seems to also apply to her gifts and tributes:
Palin has also reported as gifts two fact-finding trips that mining companies sponsored for her husband, Todd. The trips were among several sponsored by mining companies for state officials.
Todd Palin accepted an $805 charter flight from Barrick Gold and a $200 flight from Red Dog Mines. Both companies are clients of Chamberlain, a top lobbyist with Legislative Consultants, which led the state in lobbying income last year.
I'm not sure which is more disturbing...the fact that he got the use of those trips or the fact that he was basically playing a "state official."
Can someone please show me where his name was on the ballot?
So, this information puts many of the activities of the last several days in a new light. The media seemed to think (as I did) that much of the drama behind McCain's behavior was driven by Palins multiple failures in her latest interview with Katie Couric as well as some answers she gave to reporters in New York. Now, the knowledge that WaPo would be releasing this story PLUS her failures could easily provide enough motivation to sabotage a financial negotiation in Washington to delay a debate with Obama on Friday so that it could then be rescheduled for next week...the night she was supposed to debate Biden.
I can't imagine how McCain can keep her on the Campaign any longer.