In Office, Palin Hired Friends and Hit Critics

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Source: New York Times

Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?hp

---

Looks like the return of "Heck of a job Brownie"

[Inuca]

1. The dawn of a new era in Washington, indeed n/t

[jjanpundt]

2. Just like Bush - surrounds herself with "yes" men n/t

[depakid]

3. Cronyism and childhood love of cows!

[trthnd4jstc]

4. Is this why the independents are voting more for McCain/Palin than Obama/Biden?

Cronyism and Despotism. Is this what draws the Independent voter to chose McCain/Palin over Obama/Biden? I hate to say it but the true reason that most whites will not vote for Sen. Obama is because they are scared. I have spoken to many upper class, and middle class whites who are either outright racist, or say they are scared that Sen. Obama is a muslim, or that he supports muslims. Geez! I have several muslims as clients. Does that mean I support muslims? I would say, Yes. They are people. They pay. They treat me fairly. All of the Fear is insane.

Gov. Palin has a true weakness with her cronyism and despotism, but I think that we need to find the keys that will get more independent voters backing Sen. Obama over McCain. We keep trying to point out the flaws of Gov. Palin, and I do not think that this will have the effect of getting these independent voters to vote Democratic.

Obama/Biden for President and Vice President. We must strive to win on November 4 for the sake of our nation, our lives, and the future, for our children.

[MidwestTransplant]

5. She is Bush

[tblue37]

6. She probably did a "heckuva job," too. nt

[stoge18]

7. OMG!!!

How can anybody (even repugs) read this and not cringe... She's much, much worse than I ever expected.

[kevinmc]

8. Doing a Heck of a Job, Brownie ...... first thing that comes to my mind .... n/t

[MgtPA]

9. Makes sense to me

Qualifications:
Director of State Division of Agriculture --> loves cows
Vice President of US --> lives next door to Russia

[joefree1]

10. “Their secrecy is off the charts,”

No wonder Rove and Cheney love her.

[blayne]

19. "Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. "

"The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records."

Remind you of anyone?

[Amonester]

23. Lemme guess...

rove, scooter, darth, dumbya, et al.

[Bluestar]

11. This deserves a kick and a rec

Thank God the NY Times is investigating this. Even if the right wingers consider it a "liberal" rag (we know better) this will get the word out faster than anything else.

[RockyMtnGuy]

12. Isn't doesn't stop there, another Palin lie.. she never went to Iraq

It never ends!  I just read this article on CNN, says Palin
never really visited the troups in Iraq and
"indulged" her only oversees trip.  Read it here: 
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/tag/cnns-peter-hamby-and-rebecca-sinderbrand/

[mwb970]

13. Could she possibly be more like bush?

This is getting crazy. I'm amazed they could actually find someone this bad. Wow.

[olddad56]

16. She is so bush-like that it makes me think that something unspeakable will happen to McCain

soon after the election.

[olddad56]

14. Sarah Palin is the Rosie Ruiz of politics...

in case you don't remember Rosie, she is the one that won the 1980 Boston Marathon, but was later disqualified when the officals discovered that she had taken a cab.

[MidwestTransplant]

15. Here are the highlights

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.
____
Ms. Palin chose Talis Colberg, a borough assemblyman from the Matanuska valley, as her attorney general, provoking a bewildered question from the legal community: “Who?” Mr. Colberg, who did not return calls, moved from a one-room building in the valley to one of the most powerful offices in the state, supervising some 500 people.

“I called him and asked, ‘Do you know how to supervise people?’ ” said a family friend, Kathy Wells. “He said, ‘No, but I think I’ll get some help.’ ”

____
In Wasilla, a builder said he complained to Mayor Palin when the city attorney put a stop-work order on his housing project. She responded, he said, by engineering the attorney’s firing.
____
Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that it would cost $468,784 to process his request.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.

“Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said.

___

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.

___

But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book “Daddy’s Roommate” on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.

“Sarah said she didn’t need to read that stuff,” Ms. Chase said. “It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn’t even read it.”

“I’m still proud of Sarah,” she added, “but she scares the bejeebers out of me.”

___

Not deeply versed in policy, Ms. Palin skipped some candidate forums; at others, she flipped through hand-written, color-coded index cards strategically placed behind her nameplate.

Before one forum, Mr. Halcro said he saw aides shovel reports at Ms. Palin as she crammed. Her showman’s instincts rarely failed. She put the pile of reports on the lectern. Asked what she would do about health care policy, she patted the stack and said she would find an answer in the pile of solutions.

___

Many lawmakers contend that Ms. Palin is overly reliant on a small inner circle that leaves her isolated. Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.

At an Alaska Municipal League gathering in Juneau in January, mayors across the political spectrum swapped stories of the governor’s remoteness. How many of you, someone asked, have tried to meet with her? Every hand went up, recalled Mayor Fred Shields of Haines Borough. And how many met with her? Just a few hands rose. Ms. Palin soon walked in, delivered a few remarks and left for an anti-abortion rally.

[Amonester]

25. “I’m still proud of Sarah,” she (the moran) added, ...

"but she scares the bejeebers out of me."

Can someone tell me how it can be possible to be "proud" of such a monster, and be scared shitless of it at the same time?

What kind of sickness is that?? :shrug:

[sattahipdeep]

17. A subpoena Palin aide Ivy Frye

And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?hp



• Kris Perry, a Palin confidant who managed her gubernatorial campaign and now manages her Anchorage office.

• Nicki Neal, state personnel and labor relations director.

• Karen Rehfeld, the governor's budget director.

• Brad Thompson, state risk management director.

• Dianne Kiesel, a state human resources manager.

Palin aide Ivy Frye

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/breaking-news-todd-palin-subpoenaed/

[2Design]

18. mcPush - she is worse then mcsame and mcbush n/t

[SemperEadem]

20. Palin is bush (or worse than bush) with ovaries

[Doctor_J]

21. I can't believe this 3rd-world pisspot might be a heartbeat from

Leader Of The Free World. THe audacity of the GOP to throw her at us is just breathtaking

[Hugin]

22. "cited her childhood love of cows"

I liked money as a child!

Can I be the Treasury Secretary? :bounce:

[varun]

24. Amazingly Bush like

Dumb like him, surrounds herself with like minded yes men.

[Zuiderelle]

26. Resume Strengths: My childhood love of cows.

:wtf:

[Hugin]

28. Uh... Um... If, uh, someone, uh...

Liked drugs as a youth, say.

Would Palin make them the head of the FDA?

:hide:

[crossroads]

27. BUSH With PMS! nt

[judasdisney]

29. Google "Deference" and "Palin"

[bklyncowgirl]

30. Good article, I hope this trickles down to the people who need to see it.

Unfortunately, the people who need to see this the most are not going to read a multi page article in the New York Times. Many will dismiss the Times as the epitomy of the liberal media.

Still, it's good to read and to tell the truth, scares the hell out of me.