When Sarah Palin resigned on July 3, I thought some dark cloud was about to emerge that would obliterate her chances on the national stage. I thought she had abandoned her dreams of sitting in the oval office.
In at least three interviews broadcoast this morning, attired in rubber waders, gloves, and boots, Sarah Palin makes it clear that she does believe her July 3rd announcement was a launching pad to something bigger, and she made it clear that it is not a job as a TV talk show host.
Interview with CNN
Drew Griffen: ...Sudden, abrupt, she cashes in and quits. Is that how it really was?
Sarah Palin: No. It was a long and deliberative internal process, deciding how best will our state progress. Everything changed August 29 in Alaska, the day that I was tapped to run for VP. That was obvious. A new political bloodsport came into being in our state and when I returned from the campaign trail I'm trying for those months to not allow the distractions to stymie or paralyze our administration, and yet, conditions, pretty tough, in terms of the opposition that had bombarded Alaska and never let up over all these months, so puttin' a lot of effort into continiuing to set the record straight and answer FOIAs (she pronounces it "foyuhs") and lawsuits and frivolous ethics charges, one after the other. That was all quite distracting for Alaska and understanding that our state was not going to reach her potential and progress, reach her destiny, which is to provide energy independence and security for our nation.
So, she says, she decided the best thing was not to run again. Griffen pointed out that she could have waited until after next June's legislative session to announce she was not running without being a lame duck.
Palin: Seeing these continued millions of dollars in state resources spent in this political bloodsport that some people are choosing to play right now, this game of, specifically the ethics violations that have been charged, that we win, we win against, deciding no, that's not in Alaska's best interest.
...I want to go help Alaska in different venues, in, on a different level. Nothing was gonna change, nothing was gonna change. See, well, it doesn't cost the critics antyhing to file frivolous lawsuits or ethics violation charges. It costs our state such a great deal, thousands of state staff hours and millions of dollars in public resources that aren't going to things it shhould be going to, like soldiers' benefits and safer roads and teachers and troopers.
Griffen: When I first met your dad, the one thing he told me about you was how tough you were, and no matter what was coming down the pike Sarah could handle it. Did this prove toughter than you thought?
Palin: No, what has proven tough has been this making this decision...it was prayerful consideration before I made the decision. And it's tough to take a tougher road, a less comfortable road. The comfortable road for most politicis is eh, you just hang in there, go with the flow, especially through a lame duck session, yeah, you know, you're not going to get anything done, but hey, you take advantage of it, you go do what you wanna do your final year. Tough has been, no I'm not going to take that comfortable path, I'm gonna take the right path for the state, I'm gonna let the state progress, and then I'm gonna be out there and help people and help effect change in our state and in our nation...and I don't need a title to do that.
Palin: I'm certainly not a quitter, I'm a fighter, and that's why I'm doing this--to go out there and fight for what is right...Ask anyone in Alaska, we, of course our administration has been paralyzed; we spend most of our day fending off frivolous lawsuits.
Clearly, Palin's meme is to focus on all the "frivolous" ethics charges and tie them to the phrase "millions if dollars" in state resources. Some of these really are not baseless. The most costly one was one Palin filed against herself when running for VP after the state legislature determined she had behaved unethically: whether she fired the department of safety comissioner for refusing to fire her brother.
Others included whether she took family members on trips at state expense to functions they were not invited to (she subsequently reimbursed the state); claiming per diems for staying at home (she did pay taxes on them belatedly but is still facing charges they are not ethical); appearing in state-sponsored brochures; and using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business.
She told Fox News all the ethics charges were "bull crap." The only reason many were dismissed is because the panel reviewing them is stocked with Palin appointees and cronies. The "independent" lawyer who investigated Troopergate also has personal ties to the Palins.
Palin set up a fund to raise money for her personal legal fees, meaning political donors will be paying those $500k legal bills. She also has a reputed $11 million book advance. Perhaps someone should remind her of the millions of dollars in legal fees the Clinton's owed at the end of his second term?
As for not getting state work done, she has found multiple opportunities to leave the state for publicity opportunities, bashing David Letterman, and campaigning (not to mention she had no problem leaving for several months to campaign for VP).
Asked if she is running for president, Palin said:
As I said, I do not need a title, nobody needs a title to effect change.
I can't see me being totally out of public service, because that is within me, it is the way I am wired.
All options are going to keep on continuing to be on the table...I'm not going to close any door that may be open for me out there.
In an interview with CBS, she noted that she could not predict the next fish run so she certainly could not predict what would happen in 2012.
It is clear Palin did not think her announcement was going to be treated as a negative, and one has to wonder if she is having some regrets about her decision. In the ABC interview, she repeated her mantra about "not politics as usual."
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Sadly, it looks like it may not be the end of our exposure to Sarah Palin.
UPDATE, via Huffington Post:
Palin believes, as president, the "Department of Law" would protect her from lawsuits:
Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.
"I think on a national level your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.
First, there is no "department of law." Second, the Justice Department has no ability to dismiss cases they feel are meritless that are filed against the president in Federal Court. Only the judges can do that. Third, the Department of Justice does not operate out of the White House and is independent of the White House. I guess Palin is thinking of a Bush-like Justice Department.
UPDATE II:
Rian Fike has more information from a Palin interview with Fox this morning, in which she takes the Republican Party to task. Is she considering going rogue?