Sarah Palin Charged State of Alaska Per Diem for Nights Spent at Home

Since being announced as John McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has proven to be a quick study in her short year and a half as Governor of the 48th most populous state. Since arriving in the state capitol of Juneau as Governor after her stint as Mayor of tiny Wasilla, AK, a town of around 7,000, Sarah Palin quickly learned to play old-style politics with the best of them in the Last Frontier.

While Sarah Palin and John McCain describe Palin as a "reformer" and a "maverick" out on the stump, apparently McCain and Palin's handlers don't trust Palin to be on her own as she has so far not left McCain's side on the campaign trail and is not available to the press, Sarah Palin's "reforms" appear to consist of hiding the fact that she supported the "bridge to nowhere" for a long time, among other misrepresentations.

If John Kerry can be characterized as a "flip-flopper" for his famous statement that he "supported that before I voted against it", what about Sarah Palin and the infamous bridge? At one time, Palin bristled at politicians referring to the proposed bridge by that term. Now, ever since her introduction to the American public two weeks ago, Palin brags that she "said thanks, but no thanks" to Congress on the bridge. What Sarah Palin didn't tell us is that the state of Alaska kept the money earmarked for the bridge.

There is an ongoing investigation in Alaska into Palin's firing of the state's head of the state police for his refusal to fire Palin's former brother-in-law. There have been charges of abuse of power and questions about Sarah Palin's ties to Alaska's indicted Senator Ted Stevens.

It's not a "witch hunt" or a personal attack or sexism for the press to ask questions about Sarah Palin's qualifications. If Palin were a man with the same resume, there would have been just as much of an uproar in the press and from opponents. One might even describe Palin as "Dan Quayle with lipstick", but even the doofus running mate of George H.W. Bush had better credentials in 1988 and '92 than Sarah Palin possesses in 2008.

Speaking of earmarks, Palin supposedly is against all forms of "pork-barrel" politics, but sought many earmarks for the town of Wasilla when she was Mayor. Sarah Palin bragged in her acceptance last week at the GOP convention of putting the state airplane up for sale on Ebay without mentioning the fact that the plane did not sell on Ebay and was sold to a businessman for a $600,000 loss.

Now, comes the word in an article in the Washinton Post that Sarah Palin, Queen of the "reformers", if she is to be believed, charged the state of Alaska a per diem for 312 nights spent in her own home. Does that sound like "reform" or just the same old politics as usual? Sounds like Sarah Palin would fit right in in Washington D.C., is what it sounds like to me.

Now, the McCain camp is trying to spin Barack Obama's use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" in a speech about John McCain and Sarah Palin's policies as raging sexism. It's kind of ironic since John McCain used the same phrase in describing Hillary Clinton's health care plan in the 90's.

One of the more curious aspects of Sarah Palin's meteoric rise in the political ranks is that McCain hired a shady "black op" political dirty trickster by the name of Tucker Eskew to "babysit" Palin and shield her from the press, which John McCain has worked for so long to court. Palin is strictly off limits to the press thus far, which is probably unprecedented for a Vice Presdential candidate. Not even bumbling Dan Quayle, the aforementioned candidate in '88 and '92 who famously couldn't spell 'potato', was shielded to that extent.

While part of the press hails her as some kind of moose-hunting "Wonder Woman", another faction describes Palin as some sort of book-burning "she-devil". I suspect the truth is somewhere in between the two extremes, but let's not pretend Sarah Palin is a reformer and will single-handledly turn the tables on all the "good ol' boys" in the Nation's capitol.