It is a common trick corrupt politicians in the Third World use. Often they do not buy expensive big ticket items. They don’t even accept them as gifts. It often happens that the car they are driving belongs to a businessman that needed a favor – the politician is simply storing it for the businessman. Sometimes furniture in the house they live in may belong to another person as well. The furniture is not a gift – it is there because the owner of the furniture needed a place to put it. It is all very innocent, they say.
Last week, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska testified at his trial. I chuckled when I heard about his testimony. It was very familiar:
Stevens has said he never sought gifts and wouldn’t even accept a free lunch, much less expensive remodeling services. But prosecutors say he had a history of accepting gifts — including an expensive massage chair from a friend — and omitting them from the financial disclosure forms.
He said he considered that chair a loan.
"And the chair is still at your house?" prosecutor Brenda Morris asked.
"Yes," Stevens said.
"How is that not a gift?"
"He bought that chair as a gift, but I refused it as a gift," Stevens said. "He put it there and said it was my chair. I told him I would not accept it as a gift. We have lots of things in our house that don’t belong to us."
Playing to the jury, Morris appeared confused.
"So, if you say it’s not a gift, it’s not a gift?" she said.
"I refused it as a gift," Stevens replied. "I let him put it in our basement at his request."
Senator Stevens would fit right in as a Third World politician. The trick is to never accept it as your own. When discovered, you simply give the item back since it never was a gift and never belonged to you.
Today Sarah Palin spoke out on her $150,000 shopping spree. She declared, "Those clothes, they are not my property." The clothes belong to the RNC, and apparently she was just holding them. She said that she is not taking them with her after the campaign:
"This whole thing with the wardrobe, you know I have tried to just ignore it because it is so ridiculous, but I am glad now that Elisabeth brought it up, cause it gives me an opportunity without the filter of the media to get to tell you the whole clothes thing," she said.
"Those clothes, they are not my property. Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I’m not taking them with me. I am back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska. You’d think — not that I would even have to address the issue because, as Elisabeth is suggesting, the double standard here it’s — gosh, we don’t even want to waste our time."
Like Ted Stevens, Sarah Palin seems entirely comfortable using things that do not belong to her. When exposed, she can always return them. She fits right into the corrupt Alaska political culture she claims she is reforming.
Her words and deeds would make Third World politicians smile.
Best article of this crazy election season. It sums up Palins political pandering perfectly!
I am a teacher and I work three jobs after school and weekends…I would love to have $150,000 to pay off my hospital bills and other bills plus meds. I thought Ms. Palin said that we needed to stop wasting money…how come it doesn’t apply to her? If the clothes are NOT hers, then who? Wasted money! It should have gone to the people who lost their homes and don’t have enough to eat…what a shame. What’s wrong with purchasing clothes at Wal Mart, Target or JC Penny?
I pray this woman would never get in the white house. ..
I wonder how much money the RNC will make when it auctions off her used underwear.
Stay classy, Repubs!
How much you want to bet that the RNC sells them to that favorite consignment store in Alaska, where Palin’s able to buy them at a tiny fraction of their original cost (remember, they’re used)?
And is she REALLY back to wearing her own original clothes? Is anyone actually watching what the outfits ARE? It would be fun to catch her wearing one of the RNC outfits, now that she’s made that statement….
PALIN IN ’09 (from VP to President!) AND 2012 “legit”
It’s true that Sarah Palin does have the most executive experience
of all the candidates in this election. This experience includes
“spreading the wealth” (see: Alaska’s Windfall Profits Tax),
“abuse of power” (see: Troopergate), “questionable expenditures”
(see: Family travel expenses, hair and wardrobe costs).
But let us not get caught up in the here and now.
Let us journey through the past darkly:
From Lil’ Sarah Palin’s 4th Grade portfolio:
DEMOCRATS = DEMOCRACY
As in “the democratically elected government of…”
REPUBLICANS = REPUBLIC
As in The People’s Republic of China
The People’s Republic of Cuba
I hope to grow up to: Live in a FREE Alaska and marry Joe Vogel,
the leader of the Alaskan Independence Party.
Okay, Mash you have drawn a very shaky line from Ted Stephens to Palin’s wardrobe. Sadly, I must once again defend the costuming expenses that the RNC incurred to put lipstick on their pitbull.
But I digress.
So much of politics is like Division One athletics – the football star – the basketball star – attending a state school on a scholarship driving a Hummer and carrying a bankroll we all might envy.
I must return to my whisky now, else I sob uncontrollably.
Red, I was just making an observation that the two Alaska politicians (and as we know, Palin supported Stevens) seem to have similar strategies to receiving gifts. I am not saying she is corrupt, I am just sayin’ 🙂
It looks like Josh Marshall has now had a similar thought as well. I am surprised others have not commented on it yet.
I suspect however this will change now. Ted Stevens has been convicted on all counts. His so called non-gifts will now be more front and center. Given Palin’s comment, I will be surprised if the similarities escape the MSM.
Remember, you heard it here first 🙂