Turns out Palin bought (but not paid for) the clothes ,not the RNC as she claimed .

[Swede]

I'm editing this. Palin did not pay for the clothes,she is the one that went on the shopping spree. It's in the article.


On Wednesday, two top McCain campaign advisers said that the clothing purchases for Ms. Palin and her family were a particular source of outrage for them. As they portrayed it, Ms. Palin had been advised by Nicolle Wallace, a senior McCain aide, that she should buy three new suits for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September and three additional suits for the fall campaign. The budget for the clothes was anticipated to be from $20,000 to $25,000, the officials said.

Instead, in a public relations debacle undermining Ms. Palin’s image as an everywoman “hockey mom,” bills came in to the Republican National Committee for about $150,000, including charges of $75,062 at Neiman Marcus and $49,425 at Saks Fifth Avenue. The bills included clothing for Ms. Palin’s family and purchases of shoes, luggage and jewelry, the advisers said.
The advisers described the McCain campaign as incredulous about the shopping spree and said Republican National Committee lawyers were likely to go to Alaska to conduct an inventory and try to account for all that was spent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

[non sociopath skin]

1. Family values?

:evilgrin:

The Skin

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. She says that NOW, when she would otherwise have to give them up

I still want to see the receipts.

[ogneopasno]

3. She bought them with the understanding that she would be reimbursed; to me that means the RNC or the

McCain campaign was going to buy them.

[Swede]

6. She never PAID for them,she was the person going on the shopping spree.

It was on some Republican donor's credit card.

[tosh]

12. Exactly. At her rallies after the story had grown, she "implied"

(liberal use of that word) that the "campaign" had done the actual shopping, that she was an innocent bystander. This was when she started wearing her own clothes from the "consignment shop".

That was not the truth. She (and family) did the actual shopping - chose the stores, made the selections, etc.

[snooper2]

8. She bought them with the campaign credit card

jeez...

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. The freepers were all about how "sassy" she looked in those red shoes.

It was a pretty "sassy" move to spend 150,000+ on that shit without permission.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. What everyone, including the media, seems to be missing in all these stories

is that the purchase of clothing is specifically addressed in McCain Feingold and it is illegal. All the initial stories said it was billed to one particular donor who was then outraged at the amount. The issue is that it happened at all.

Now they are trying to finesse it by saying that the clothes were always a "loan" to Palin and would then be donated to charity. To me, that is a fine point that signifies nothing. Who cares if the clothes were given to Sarah personally or to the RNC - they are still an ILLEGAL political contribution. Fortunately, I think that CREW filed an official complaint anout this and it will have to be formally addressed.

And actually, all the new reporting says that the amount was actually far higher.

[crickets]

11. I didn't know about the illegality, although it makes sense.

Why in the world should campaign contributions pay for personal items like clothing? Thank you for bringing that up. Wow, Palin is such a pip, isn't she?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. See post #7. Nancy Reagan had issues along these same lines

She was famous for "borrowing" designer gowns and then forgetting to return them. Google this if you have never heard of it. I think a Time magazine article comes up with some good detail.

[CitizenPatriot]

7. exactly

I posted this in another thread:

"In what has to be one of the most embarrassing turn of events for the McCain campaign thus far, it appears that in purchasing $150,000 worth of clothes for Sarah Palin and her family, McCain and his campaign and/or the RNC have violated the 2002 McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. A link to the entire text of the law and the relevant text are below. Only a lawyer would know for sure if this constitutes a breach of the law but the spirit of the law was definitely broken by the RNC, Palin and the McCain campaign:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/McCain-Campaign-Violat...

for starters:

SEC. 313. USE OF CONTRIBUTED AMOUNTS FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES.
(a) PERMITTED USES-

...
(b) PROHIBITED USE-

(1) IN GENERAL- A contribution or donation described in subsection (a) shall not be converted by any person to personal use.

(2) CONVERSION- For the purposes of paragraph (1), a contribution or donation shall be considered to be converted to personal use if the contribution or amount is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate's election campaign or individual's duties as a holder of Federal office, including--

(A) a home mortgage, rent, or utility payment;
(B) a clothing purchase;
(C) a noncampaign-related automobile expense;
(D) a country club membership;
(E) a vacation or other noncampaign-related trip;
(F) a household food item;
(G) a tuition payment;
(H) admission to a sporting event, concert, theater, or other form of entertainment not associated with an election campaign; and
(I) dues, fees, and other payments to a health club or recreational facility.'

.more

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h107-...

[tosh]

13. And the key word here is McCain.....

2002 McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act.

[CitizenPatriot]

15. oh, the irony of it all. nt

[gratuitous]

9. She's very frugal, you know

At least with her own money. But when someone else is ponying up for the tab, the sky's the limit! Lesson to be learned: Don't let Sarah Palin handle the purse strings.

[KansDem]

10. The Party of Fiscal Responsibility

I can't decide if they're lying sacks of shit or shitty sacks of liars...

[earth mom]

16. This entire designer-gate thing makes all the rethugs look really really bad.

Palin for being so gawd damned greedy to spend so much

And the rethugs who paid for it who are now throwing Palin under the bus about it.

They are all proving themselves to be greedy small minded a$$holes. :eyes: