MCCAIN: Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there. I know the town. I know– I know what a lot of these elitists are. The ones that she never went to a cocktail party with in Georgetown. I'll be very frank with you. Who think that they can dictate what they believe to America rather than let Americans decide for themselves
“The Republican National Committee has 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. 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.…September payments were also made to Barney’s New York ($789.72) and Bloomingdale’s New York ($5,102.71).—Jeanne Cummings on Politico
When it come to voting at the ballot box, the Republican ticket has little use for New York or New Yorkers (and vice versa). But, sometimes people vote with their checkbooks or their feet, and on those measures the Republican Party has done just fine by New York City merchants, with large purchases for Sarah Palin’s wardrobe (including shoes for those feet) courtesy of the RNC. While the purchases on Fifth Avenue have yet to make up for the multi-millions Republican policies have cost us in lost wealth on Wall Street, it is comforting to know that while robbing us blind they are still kind enough to drop a few coins in our tin cup.
The whole effort to put lipstick on this pig by dressing it in a Chanel gown lacks cognizance of the fact that you can take the girl out of Wasilla, but not Wasilla out of the girl; it reeks of Henry Higgins without the speech lessons. In the end though, Sarah Palin may become Pret a Porter, but no matter hw many times she visits NYC, she’ll always remain a Not Ready For Prime Time Player. Satire may be what closes on a Saturday Night, but Sarah Palin will hopefully close on a not too distant Tuesday.
In this case though, Sachs Fifth Avenue is actually a two way street, with New York not only grabbing the gelt, but supplying the idea, for the whole incident is a true product of a New York State of Mind.
Back in the waning days of the Pataki administration, the scandal of State Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s (a Democrat) using his payroll to give his ailing wife a fulltime $75,000 a year Chauffer/Personal Assistant led former NYC Councilman Ken (Bklynpol???) Fisher to compare Hevesi’s crime against the penal code to the NYS Republican’ State Committee’s allocating $50,000 a year of its funds to provide our Republican First Lady, Libby Pataki, with a Personal Assistant/Maid:
“Govenor Pataki, I am sure, can't help but feel compassion for Alan Hevesi. After all, if Hevesi had only followed the Pataki model and arranged to put Mrs. Hevesi's driver on the state party payroll…here's the URL for the Times story in which the Governor conceded that the Republican Party was paying $50,000 for his wife's personal assistant.
Note also that once again, a woman getting paid less than a man for similar assignments.”
Annoyed, I responded thusly:
“A Chief Fiscal Officer violating his fiduciary obligation (and a public trust) for the purposes of personal enrichment (or at least offsetting a potential threat to his fiscal health), to the detriment of those who funds are being absconded with, is quite different from the titular head of a private political organization misusing that organization's funds with the express permission of those who are legally charged with determining that organization's priorities. Both are unseemly, but the former is much, much more.
Former Councilman Ken…is a smart lawyer who clearly grasped this distinction before he chose to ignore it. His pithy post shows both his level of cleverness, and his clear belief that other people are not similarly equipped.”
This in turn provoked a response from Cranky Independent (Larry Littlefield???):
“I dunno Gate. Few people make campaign contributions for nothing. We know that Mrs. Hevesi's aide cost us the cost of one aide. What did Mrs. Pataki's aide cost us?
Of course, the same may be said of Hevesi's contributors.”
To which I replied:
“Cranky: Contributions to the Republican State Committee buy "access" no matter what the money is spent on. That evil remains the same regardless. And since most of the donors got what they bought, they were not cheated. But my taxes were not spent on what I thought I was buying, so I was robbed.
That Pataki misused these ill-gotten funds does not really concern me; in fact, to the extent the funds were wasted, they were not used to elect more Republicans. Therefore, I am very pleased. Let's get the woman a few more servants!”
I feel much the same way about Palin; better the money be spent on clothes than on "Get Out The Vote" operations (or do I mean "Suppress The Vote" operations?). Please guys, get the woman a few more threads!
The only real difference in between Pataki and Palin is that some of those who contributed to the RNC gave them money because they sincerely believed it would be used to advance a principled conservative agenda, while no sane conservative (perhaps an oxymoron) could possibly have given to the NYS Republican Party with the same expectations.
Nonetheless, I doubt one could find more than a half a dozen raving Neanderthals who gave money to the RNC because they thought it was committed to repealing the laws of evolution who are now angry that the Republicans instead used it to play Queer Eye to their heroine, Former Future Vice President Dipstick.
This may or may not be a felony violation of McCain (LOL!)-Feingold, but if this was a crime, please tell me, who was the victim?