Palin promoted friends and secrecy, targeted critics

[Nambe]

Source: The New York Times

... Palin, 44, walks the national stage as a small-town foe of "good old boys" politics and a champion for ethics reform.

But an examination of the charismatic governor's swift rise and record finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls opponents "haters" — contrasts with her public image.

She has pursued vendettas, fired those who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials. ...

When there was a vacancy for director of the state Division of Agriculture, she appointed high-school classmate Franci Havemeister to the $95,000-a-year job. The former real-estate agent, one of at least five high-school classmates hired by the governor, cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008178167_palin14.html

[TPaine7]

1. She's looking more and more like Bush. On steroids. With ovaries. . . . Ugh! NT

[dennis4868]

2. Holy Fucking Shit....

she's another Cheney!

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!

[Demit]

3. 'charismatic'—good choice of words, with its double meaning.

Alluding not only to her personal magnetism but also reminding us of her Pentecostal faith.


I clicked on the link to read the story, and found two interesting bits (among many):

"...Another confidante: Ivy Frye, 27, a receptionist for Sen. Lyda Green before hitching on to Palin's gubernatorial campaign. Frye now earns $68,664 as a special assistant to the governor. Her frequent interactions with Palin's children have prompted some lawmakers to refer to her as "the baby-sitter," a title Frye disavows.

Like Bailey, she is an effusive cheerleader for her boss. "YOU ARE SO AWESOME!," Frye typed in an e-mail to Palin in March. ..."


—So she's not the wonder woman who can Do It All.


"...Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought e-mails of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block listing the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Steiner that it would cost $468,784 to process his request.

When Steiner obtained the e-mails — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists in fact had agreed that the bears were in trouble, records show. ..."


—Lying is second nature to this woman!

[chat_noir]

4. Former Wasilla museum director, now Hilo resident, criticizes Palin

...

He gave several reasons for his dismissal: a $125 campaign donation to the previous mayor, his political beliefs and an expansion of museum programs that displeased small-government Republicans.

"I don't see her as a reformer. I see her as self-serving. She has a beauty pageant focus in her life," Cooper said. "She really needs adulation. She wanted to be somebody who's admired."

Cooper describes his forced departure as a "casualty of Sarah Palin's rise to political prominence." He said he received obscene phone calls from her "right-winger" allies.


http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080913/BREAKING01/80913063/-1/LOCALNEWSFRONT

[JimDandy]

5. Her lies are simply breathtaking.

What an EXCELLENT article! And what a DISASTER of a person she is!!

She is running the state like how I envision the head of a mafia would run their organization, except the bodies piling up all around her weren't gunned down, they were fired (pun intended).

Because of it's distance from the rest of the U.S., Alaska hasn't been getting the oversight it obviously has needed. If Alaska were geographically where Montana is, I don't think Sarah Palin would have gotten away with as much as she has. Every federal oversight agency that could possibly have investigated her actions would have been all over her long ago.

If she is what her political party calls "a reformer", then they are living in a reality in which the word itself has been reformed.

[tanyev]

6. If you're not for Sarah Palin, then you must be against Sarah Palin.

[husky92]

7. Palintology

She sounds just like Cheney and the others!

[llmart]

8. I'm not a psychotherapist......

but this broad sure fits the description of someone who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. If you do some reading on it, she's a classic case. As a public administrator, I worked for someone like her and she was the worse boss I ever had. Needed constant adulation, attention and approval. People with narcissistic personality disorder often rise to the top because they do not care who they step on or hurt to get there and lies roll off their tongues like butter.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

9. This is now on the MSNBC home page. She is so totally Bush in a dress. nt

[BostonTLover]

10. ugh

that's not always a good policy, hiring people you know. You should try to hire people who are best equipped for the job. From what it seems like, some of the hirings, it wasn't about the resumes or knowledge or experience in that sector.

Also, she was firing people her supporter's objected to, even if the people weren't against her. Yeah, she's rewarding loyalty to her, but that can get inappropriate. Unless you agree with and support her 100%, you have no chance in hell of working there.

and what about lying about saying experts found no ill effects on polar bears and then suing the Fed government? Then when someone tried to access those emails, they told it would cost almost half a million dollars "process his request" not just getting them??? That's ridiculous.

Using personal email accounts for state business, letting a civilian, her husband, be cc'd and active in state business, but not other civilians who want to know as well, and making it extremely hard for mayors around Alaska to talk to her?

Sarah Palin is a Governor of Alaska, she works FOR Alaska and Alaskans, not the other way around. She's accountable to them, not the other way around.

how is that reform? Doing what many others would have done? Lying out the side of your head while preventing people from seeking the truth. Scaring people and harrassing people into quitting and not talking about her, and obstructing people from finding out the truth?