The Official Vice President Thread

[Prebe]

Heh! Once again the eternally relevant:

Whatever became of Hubert,
we miss you so tell us please:
Are you sad? Are you cross?
Are you gathering moss?
While you wait for the boss to sneeze?

[wayfriend]

Re the bit about GOP stirring up their crowds -- I meant to post this last week and got distracted.

... "Think about how you'll feel on November 5 if you wake up in the morning and see the news, that Barack Obama -- that Barack Hussein Obama -- is the president-elect of the United States," Platt said. The audience at the Lehigh University arena booed at the thought of it. ...

Thank's for the link, Ali. It seems that on the face of it their denying culpability, but off camera their out there going as close to the line as they can to stir up racial and religious ferment.

[Avatar]

Ha, all politics seems to be about plausible deniability.

--A

[Kinslaughterer]

Again, Palin is not helping McCain...

$150,000 shopping sprees (at all the best "elitist" shops, no less), on the Republican National Committee tab.

$21,012 worth of free flights for her daughters, charged to the state.

All this, when she already makes $125,000 a year as governor and pockets an extra $22,883 in energy extraction royalties.

Sarah Palin is a chisler supreme.

All of which makes the fact that she charged $16,951 in expenses charged to the state, including 312 per diem allowances for staying in her own home just that much more amazing.

[aliantha]

Yeah, I heard about that this morning, Kins. I've seen plenty of flaps about Hillary's hair stylist and Nancy Reagan's White House china purchases, tho, so I was gonna keep my mouth shut...

[Lord Mhoram]

To be fair, ali, neither Hillary Clinton nor Nancy Reagan are self-professed "hockey moms." I think that's the difference.

[aliantha]

I see what you're saying, LM -- that for somebody who portrays herself as a regular gal, it seems a tad excessive to drop $150,000 at Neiman-Marcus and Nordstrom (I think those were the two stores mentioned). Tho one could make the argument that if one is going to be on the national stage, one can't show up in a sweatshirt and jeans. Which is why I wasn't going to say anything.

The travel for her kids is somewhat more troubling. Part of that was for one of the girls to tag along with Mom to a convention in NYC -- which rightfully the family should have paid for, I think. The most troubling thing of all is that Palin amended the expense reports later to say the kids were on official business. Here's a link.

[Kinslaughterer]

She is spending RNC money, not her own.

[Cail]

The travel for her kids is somewhat more troubling. Part of that was for one of the girls to tag along with Mom to a convention in NYC -- which rightfully the family should have paid for, I think. The most troubling thing of all is that Palin amended the expense reports later to say the kids were on official business. Here's a link.

I fail to see the issue here. She did nothing illegal. It's common practice to see the First Family at various functions (do you think the Clintons paid to shuttle Hillary and Chelsea all over the place during the '90s?).

[Kinslaughterer]

ANCHORAGE - Governor Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and she later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old daughter Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children, but allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business. State Finance Director Kim Garnero told The Associated Press she has not reviewed the Palins' travel expense forms, so could not say whether the daughters' travel with their mother would meet the definition of official business.

Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters - Bristol, 14-year-old Willow, and 7-year-old Piper - by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor's schedule. After she was picked by John McCain as his running mate and reporters asked for the records, Palin ordered changes to previously filed expense reports. In the amended reports, Palin added phrases such as "First Family attending" and "First Family invited" to explain the girls' attendance.

But some organizers of the events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend. Several other organizers said the children accompanied their mother and did not participate

www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/artic ... to_travel/

[Cail]

Again, what's the issue? She didn't break the law, and she offers an explanation as to why she amended the reports in Ali's link.

[Lord Mhoram]

Cail,

It's most definitely not an issue of legality. I don't think anyone has alleged that. The shopping spree just seems rather inconsistent with her projected image. Hockey moms and everywomen just don't spend that much money on clothes.

The Washington Post has picked up the story.

[Lord Mhoram]

Also, Sarah Palin does not seem to know what the Constitutional role of the vice-presidency is.

[Cail]

It's most definitely not an issue of legality. I don't think anyone has alleged that. The shopping spree just seems rather inconsistent with her projected image. Hockey moms and everywomen just don't spend that much money on clothes.

We're mixing up stories. I was talking about the travel thing.

But the clothes thing isn't that much of a deal either. Like Ali said, you can't show up at a political fundraiser wearing stretch pants and an Old Navy sweatshirt.

[finn]

The travel for her kids is somewhat more troubling. Part of that was for one of the girls to tag along with Mom to a convention in NYC -- which rightfully the family should have paid for, I think. The most troubling thing of all is that Palin amended the expense reports later to say the kids were on official business. Here's a link.

I fail to see the issue here. She did nothing illegal. It's common practice to see the First Family at various functions (do you think the Clintons paid to shuttle Hillary and Chelsea all over the place during the '90s?).

But surely there's a difference between doing the job and doing the interview?

[Cail]

This is stuff she did while she had the job of governor.

[Brother Charn]

I think I'm with Cail and Ali on this one. If the RNC wants to make sure their candidate is sartorially swanky in front of millions, I don't see the issue.
However, I also recognize and agree that Palin flying her kids around to uninvited venues on the state dime, while not illegal in the least, does seem inconsistent with the 'Jane VP / hockey-mom' image of her that the RNC puts forth (but in Neiman Marcus clothes) and wants us to just take at face value.
I would not go so far as to call it hypocrisy - she's just putting her best ice-skate forward - but I think it spoils a great deal of the marketing impact of the "government reform / fiscal responsibility" RNC platform message, when you stop to think about it. Especially when you combine it with the fact-checking on the whole E-bay jet, and the 'Bridge to Nowhere' which has been spun way out of proportion by both sides.
It is just more political positioning to support the core campaign message, spun up to enhance its effect. Take it for the spin it is.
Is it possible that a lot of our states' accounting rules for official travel were written at a time when women with kids weren't governor - and at a time where the vast majority of governors' travel was intrastate?
In other words, are the rules loosely written on purpose, or are they simply outdated for modern times?

dw

[Vain]

Talk about throwing bananas to monkeys

Funny how the Obama campaign goes ballistic over any issues surrounding Obama and cite their well rehearsed lines that nobody cares about anything other then the economy, but it seems everybody cares about clothes

[Cail]

I'm not sure that it's that big of a deal BC. Again, did Bill Clinton pay out of pocket to take Hillary and Chelsea around when he was POTUS? The woman's got a basketball team worth of kids, why is it inappropriate that they travel with her?

[Avatar]

Can't say it particularly bothers me, (except maybe changing the records), as long as they don't all suddenly start driving BMW's and drawing a salary as VP staff. (I mean...you should see what happens in Africa... )

--A