By GottaLaff
Reliable Source: "It's been nearly a year since Sarah Palin's wardrobe flap began -- and the mystery of the missing designer duds still hasn't been solved."Actually, there is no mystery at all. She gave them all to Michele Bachman, who in turn boasted that the hand-me-downs were recycled, allowing her to claim "green" cred. She then donated the recycled duds to all those "education camps" she's been bellowing about, and took a tax deduction.
By GottaLaff
Politico notes a new campaign filing brings the total clothing costs for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) paid for by the RNC "down to about $173,000 and also makes it easier to spot clothing purchases that had previously gone undetected."Only $173,000? She must have shopped at KMart.
"The RNC did not respond to requests for comment about the amended report or the fate of the clothes, which were to have been donated to charity."
By GottaLaff
(click on image to enlarge)
Oh-h-h, suh-nap! No pun. Snerk.So yes, here we are in Alaska, facing massive budget shortfalls, people who can’t afford heat, gas prices the highest in the nation, oil prices plummeting, pipeline prospects crumbling, and where is our dear leader at 11:30am on a work day? At Nordy’s. That old tale of Nero fiddling while Rome burned comes to mind.
And really, if you were Sarah Palin, where is the LAST place you’d want to be caught right now….other than on a turkey farm? Right. Shopping for expensive clothes. And what ever happened to that little consignment shop she loves so dearly? I guess once you’ve got that fashion monkey on your back, it’s hard to shake.
By GottaLaff
Like putting lipstick on a clothes horse.Look for more “campaign accessories” bought on behalf of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in tomorrow’s end-of-cycle financial report filed by the Republican National Committee. [...]
Campaign finance reports for the final weeks of the campaign, covering Oct. 16 to Nov. 24, that are scheduled to be filed with the Federal Election Commission tomorrow will show additional purchases but totaling less than $30,000, Republican officials confirmed. The news was first reported by the National Journal today.
The officials said the clothing is all now in the hands of the R.N.C. and will be turned over to charity.
[...] Ms. Palin said in interviews that the reports of the clothing purchases were overblown and that they were made only for the Republican national convention. [...]
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Ms. Palin said the clothes were “loaned to us during the convention.”
The McCain campaign had said about a third of the clothes were returned after the convention and much of the rest had never been worn.
By GottaLaff
Rick Davis:
“We flew her out from Alaska to Arizona to Ohio to introduce her to the world and take control of her life. She didn’t think ‘dress for the convention’, because it might have just been a nice day trip to Arizona if she didn’t click with John. Very little prep had been done and if it had, we might have gotten picked off by the press. We were under incredible scrutiny."Good thing they lost. Imagine if they'd been dealing with something a tad more dicey like, you know, nukes.
"We were under incredible scrutiny," he added. "We got her a gal from New York and we thought, ‘Let’s get some clothes for her and the family.’ It was a failure of management not to get better control and track of that. "The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing, what it was worth or where it was going. No one knew how much that stuff was worth. It was more our responsibility than hers.”
By GottaLaff
This is so much laughworthy material here. A veritable buffet:
By GottaLaff
Gov. Sarah Palin, campaigning in Florida on Sunday, told a Tampa crowd she has gone back to wearing clothing from home and said stories about the Republican National Committee spending $150,000 on family fashions were “ridiculous.” The McCain camp apparently didn't want her to bring up the clothing in her speeches, but talk show host Elisabeth Hasselbeck did just that in introducing Palin in Tampa. Later Sunday, Palin showed up in blue jeans for a North Carolina campaign event.
Pay no mind to the 150 K that they already blew on them fancy duds, 'cause a pair o' them homespunny jeans'll make you guys and gals forget all about that "ridiculous" story.
By GottaLaff
Ensuring that news of the Republican National Committee's sartorial spending spree will remain in the headlines for at least one more news cycle, Sarah Palin on Sunday sounded off on the $150,000 wardrobe that was purchased for her in September, denouncing the report as "ridiculous" and declaring emphatically: "Those clothes, they are not my property."Bush III: She doesn't learn from her mistakes, does what she wants to do despite the consequences, and is extra crispy stupid about it.A senior adviser to John McCain told CNN's Dana Bash that the comments about her wardrobe "were not the remarks we sent to her plane this morning." Palin did not discuss the wardrobe story at her rally in Kissimmee later in the day.
By GottaLaff
You have 15 seconds to answer the $150,000 question, starting ri-i-i-ight.... NOW! ::tick, tick, tick:: Five seconds...About that wardrobe …
There are still aspects of the Republican National Committee’s shopping sprees on behalf of Gov. Sarah Palin and her family that are murky.
Some of the fashion experts consulted Wednesday, for instance, about the $150,000 in purchases that appeared on Federal Election Commission records were puzzled by where all of that money had gone, given what they had seen of Ms. Palin’s wardrobe.
Consider also the $4,902.45 charge at Atelier New York, a high-end men’s store, presumably for Ms. Palin’s husband, Todd, the famous First Dude.
Karlo Steel, an owner there, said he had gone through the store’s receipts for September, twice, and found no sales that matched that amount, nor any combination of sales that added up to the total. Because the store carries aggressively directional men’s wear, he caters to a small clientèle and knows most of his customers by name, as well as the history of their purchases.
When The Caucus called Mr. Steel back to ask him to also check August sales just in case, Mr. Steel said he found one purchase that came close to the amount in the campaign finance reports but said that he knew who that customer was and it certainly was not Mr. Palin. Neither was it Jeff Larson, the Republican consultant who showed up in campaign finance records as the one who footed the initial bill before being reimbursed by the R.N.C.
The store carries expensive cut-up T-shirts and tricky suits from avant-garde designers, like Raf Simons, Yohji Yamamoto and Ann Demeulemeester, none of whom typically create beltway-appropriate attire.
“We have no recollection of that sale and no idea what they are talking about,” Mr. Steel said.
There was similar confusion when The Caucus spoke with Jon and Wing Witthuhn, owners of Pacifier, a high-end children’s boutique in Minneapolis [...]
“Sounds like somebody is using [the credit card number] for personal use,” Mrs. Witthuhn said.
By GottaLaff
Ambinder said it so well, all that there is left to do is nod in agreement.There is already an attempt to blame the media -- as in, the liberal media would have looked askance at Palin if she wasn't clad in Neiman Marcus, but this won't wash. Republicans, RNC donors and at least one RNC staff member have e-mailed me tonight to share their utter (and not-for-attribution) disgust at the expenditures."With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it's remarkable that we're spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses. It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign." --McCain-Palin spokesperson Tracey Schmitt on this Politico story.
This sort of spending is without precedent -- the closest approximation for any campaign I've ever covered is make-up expenses for television interviews and commercial shoots -- , and Schmitt's weakly defensive response tonight indicates that the campaign is deeply embarrassed by it and has nothing to say in their defense. Spokespeople have clammed up, a sure sign that they're trying to figure out who authorized the expenses and who knew about them. Did Palin wear all of the clothing? Where is it kept?
[T]he heat for this story will come from Republicans who cannot understand how their party would do something this stupid ... particularly (and, it must be said, viewed retroactively) during the collapse of the financial system and the probable beginning of a recession.
By GottaLaff
Let's not forget the young 'un!The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.
“The campaign does not comment on strategic decisions regarding how financial resources available to the campaign are spent,’ she said.
According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.
The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.
The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August. [...]
Spokeswoman Maria Comella declined to answer specific questions about the expenditures, including whether it was necessary to spend that much and whether it amounted to one early investment in Palin or if shopping for the vice presidential nominee was ongoing.
The business of primping and dressing on the campaign trail has become fraught with political risk in recent years as voters increasingly see an elite Washington out of touch with their values and lifestyles. [...] But all the spending by other candidates pales in comparison to the GOP outlay for the Alaska governor whose expensive, designer outfits have been the topic of fashion pages and magazines.
The entries also show a few purchases at Pacifier, a top notch baby store, and Steiniauf & Stroller Inc., suggesting $295 dollars was spent to accommodate the littlest Palen to join the campaign trail.What would Joe the Plumber say?
The investigator conducting a second inquiry into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by firing the state’s public safety commissioner is scheduled to take depositions from her and her husband, Todd, on Friday, the McCain-Palin campaign said this afternoon.She really ought to stick to sterling silver accessories. They go much better with handcuffs.
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