Slate wasted no time in throwing up a "What now?" quorum discussion for the right in the wake of the GOP’s big bruising. Now comes a host of disclosures from the McCain camp itself that Sarah Palin was an accident waiting to happen to the country if their side was victorious.
Newsweek is reporting that Palin’s wardrobe expenditures, paid for by the RNC, were even higher than first estimated:
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
A Palin aide said: "Governor Palin was not directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed, like an expense. Nasty and false accusations following a defeat say more about the person who made them than they do about Governor Palin."
Even granting the Palin aide the benefit of the doubt only shows that McCain’s staff had a bit of a solidarity and loyalty problem brought on by what it saw as a disastrous and ill-conceived choice of a running mate. What sort of interdeparmental leaks and surreptitious backbiting could we have expected to take place in such an administration? Alternatively, if the RNC audits confirm this embarrassing tale, then we’re left with the picture of a classless woman stealing from her own cash-poor campaign. Someone had better check to see if all the original aluminum is still attached to the Straight Talk Express.
More troubling still is the news that Palin thought Africa was a country and didn’t know which countries were in North America. What liberal gotcha media outlet has loosed these vile lies upon a grateful republic? Fox:
Conservative blogs Hot Air and Ace of Spades are already crying foul, and accusing the McCain apparat of "bullshit" and scapegoating. Of course, if these disgruntled wingers thought as strategically as they wish their party had, they’d keep quiet and let this item bombinate in the left-o-sphere, which is currently preoccupied with happier thoughts. Instead, it’s to be recriminations and sour grapes galore.
So here’s a question for that Slate roundtable: What can we do to ensure a comeback in the 2062 midterms?