The Caucus has been doing some digging, and gets more questions than answers. It seems that some of the charges to the RNC for clothes, don't match up with receipts at the places where purchases were made:
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.
Then, in some places, it seems that the RNC either had some sloppy bookkeeping, listing a purchase twice, or spent money that's not accounted for correctly:
There was similar confusion when The Caucus spoke with Jon and Wing Witthuhn, owners of Pacifier, a high-end children’s boutique in Minneapolis, where records show two charges of $98, one at Pacifier’s downtown location and another at its store in the northeast part of the city.
Mr. Witthuhn clearly recalled one of the $98 charges because it was the night of Sept....
But as for the other $98 charge, both Mr. Witthuhn and his wife, Wing, were stumped. After going through their receipts, Mrs. Witthuhn found another $98 purchased on Sept. 9 but it was for clothing for a 2-year-old — the Palins do not have a 2-year-old.
The purchase was a little black t-shirt featuring the Ramones, as well as a striped hoodie, a pair of pants with a tiger on it and a pair of cargo pants, all from Tea Collection.
"Sounds like somebody is using it for personal use," Mrs. Witthuhn said.
Well, it sure does, doesn't it? Given the issues the Palins have had in the past with charging the state for their kids' travel, and taking per diems for chillin' at home, is it all that crazy to think maybe someone is making a bit of bank off this whole scheme?
Not much more to say than that, except good for the press for looking into it. I wouldn't expect some major, blockbuster finding, but who knows? If someone is pocketing money like it looks like, it clearly would be illegal, and therefore deserves some scrutiny.