Palin's calendar shows her office was open to business

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Houston Chronicle

Big business was granted wide access to Sarah Palin's office during her first 20 months as Alaska governor, but she rarely met with labor, environmental or other groups pressing alternative views, her official calendar shows.

On at least three dozen occasions, the Republican vice presidential nominee spoke with executives and lobbyists working for a wide array of energy, mining and tourism enterprises with major investments in Alaska. Among those who visited Palin's Juneau office multiple times were the chief executives of ExxonMobil and Conoco Phillips, as well as several dozen other top oil and gas company officials.

"We have not had problems with access to Gov. Palin or her key department people," said Ashley Reed, a lobbyist who was on a team of natural gas officials who met with Palin in April 2007. Reed was working with Enstar, a gas company seeking to win approval for a natural gas "bullet" pipeline.

Despite that access, however, Palin has cut an independent course on oil and gas issues -- something that has won wide acclaim from Alaskans. She forced the companies to share windfall profits with the state, moved to pull the lucrative leases of those that were not actively exploring for oil and chose a Canadian company to manage a major gas pipeline project.

Still, Palin has held few meetings with groups that presented alternative views.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/6052272.html

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~snip
In an August interview with National Public Radio before being named John McCain's running-mate, Palin declared that, "I've had about two lobbyists, two, maybe three lobbyists, who have snuck in (into her statehouse office) with a group of people. So I can't say they've never been in, but we don't invite lobbyists in."

According to her calendar, however, Palin has met with more than a dozen registered lobbyists since taking office in December 2006.


~snip
Brownies for reporters

In addition to meetings with big business and lobbyists, Palin's calendar indicates that she filled her daily schedules with dozens of media interviews. That access seems a far cry from her recent complaints that the national media has "filtered" her message as a vice presidential candidate.

According to aides, Palin wooed reporters in Juneau with plates of brownies and telephone calls on their birthdays. Courting the Alaska media proved to be a key component of her soaring popularity in the state -- long before she struggled during interviews with national television anchors Katie Couric and Charles Gibson.

"She craved publicity and the poll ratings that came with it," said Larry Persily, an Alaska journalist who went to work for Palin in Alaska's state offices in Washington, D.C.

[knowbody0]

1. she bought her 80% approval rating

with her $1,200 per capita checks

[Dems4me]

2. For a "moral" person (sarcasim) she sure tells alot of lies. n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Lobbyist for TransCanada was put in charge of the Alaska gas pipeline, awarded it to....

TransCanada along with half a billion dollars in cash up front.


That is how eager Palin is to bend over for lobbyists.