Buried within last weekend's explosive NY Times story on Sarah Palin was a much-overlooked tidbit:
Ms. Palin ordered city employees not to talk to the press. And she used city money to buy a white Suburban for the mayor’s use — employees sarcastically called it the mayor-mobile.
The MSRP for a 1997 Chevy Suburban was about $24,000. For a town with only 6,000 residents, that's a LOT of money. It comes out to $4/person, which is the equivalent of Rudy Giuliani purchasing a $24,000,000 private jet while mayor of NYC. And that's not including insurance, registration, maintenance and gas money.
And as DemocraticLuntz points out in the comments, that $24,000 could have covered the costs of up to 80 RAPE KITS.
I've heard of big city mayors driving city-owned vehicles (though some, like Buffalo NY, are cutting back), but in a very small town like Wasilla this is a ridiculous abuse of taxpayer money.
We are starting to see a pattern here. We know that as governor, Sarah Palin has exploited an Alaska state loophole to bilk taxpayers $16,951 in "per diem" for nights she spent at home. A former governor of Alaska has called this a "scam".
We also know that she has charged taxpayers $43,490 for travel expenses for her husband and daughters, mostly because she refuses to live at the taxpayer-provided mansion in Juneau (which, of course, Alaskan taxpayers are still paying for).
And thanks to Al Giordano and Bill Conroy, we know that she has forced Alaskan taxpayers to upgrade her governor's mansion with a tanning bed. She may have paid for the bed herself, but electrical upgrades and installation are on the taxpayer's dime.
On earmarks, she has become a symbol of greed and excess. As mayor of Wasilla, she hired an Abramoff-linked lobbyist to secure $27 million in taxpayer funds for her town. Yet despite this influx of cash, she left Wasilla with a $20 million debt. Where did the money go? Well, we know much of it went to a scandal-plagued ice-skating rink. And yes, some of it went to Palin's white Chevy Suburban, the "mayor-mobile".
As governor, Gov. Palin has requested $451 million in earmarks over two years, far more per capita than any other state. No wonder she has 80% popularity -- she sends yearly checks of $3200 to each and every Alaska resident.
Yet despite the generous influx of money from the lower 48, she's catered to an extremist Alaska Independence Party that wants to secede from the union. Her husband Todd was a member of the party until 2002, when she had to clean up her image to run for statewide office.
Finally, Gov. Palin has showered her friends and cronies with high paying jobs. She's hired at least five high school classmates with minimal managerial experience to run some of Alaska's top agencies.
It's become clear that Sarah Palin has complete disregard for U.S. taxpayers. She is a corrupt and unqualified Bush-McCain Republican, and has no business running on themes of "change" or "reform".
[Crossposted at Old Man McCain]