The Political left and its trained media flea circus have their knickers in a double twist over some of the terms of Sarah Palin's Washington Speakers Bureau contract for speaking engagements. "Progressive" bloggers are practically screaming "Diva! Diva!"
Student Dumpster Divers Against Palin claim that they found some pages among the pizza crusts and coffee grounds in a dumpster which appear to be from the contract between WSB on Palin's behalf and the foundation which agreed to bring her to the Stanislaus campus of California State University to speak.
To clear the air, we thought it might be instructive for some of our liberal friends to compare the travel demands of private citizen Sarah Palin and speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, obtained documents from the Air Force detailing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of United States Air Force aircraft for Congressional Delegations (CODELs), and these documents are a rich resource as a teaching aid to make such a comparison.
New Flight Charters provided additional information about passenger jet aircraft and estimates of how much it costs to use them for travel.
According to Judicial Watch, San Fran Nan’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol.
Travel:
Nancy Pelosi demands the Air Force C-37A, military version of the large-cabin Gulfstream V, at least when she can't get a C-32, which is a milspec Boeing 757 airliner. Cost per hour of C-37A, $5,200 - $7,600 (involuntarily paid by taxpayers). We not sure what it cost the Air Force to operate the big C-32, but charter rates for the 757 commercial version start at about $10,000 an hour.
Speaker Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. The average cost of an international CODEL is $228,563.33. Of the 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations (CODEL), 31 trips included members of the House Speaker’s family.
Sarah Palin demands 2 business or first class commercial airline seats, or medium-sized private jets for longer trips out of Anchorage -- Lear 60 for West Coast Events, and Hawker 800 for East Coast Events. Cost per hour of Lear 60 or Hawker 800, $2,650 - $3,300 (voluntarily paid by event promoter).
Beverages:
Nancy Pelosi: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.
Sarah Palin: Two unopened bottles of still water and bendable straws.
Any event organizer who doesn't like the terms of Sarah Palin's contract is free to choose not to sign her up, but scarcely a week goes by that multiple Palin bookings aren't announced. Unfortunately for the American taxpayer, however, we have no say in the matter of Speaker Pelosi's extravagant travel demands, even though we have to pick up the check for them.
That makes limousine liberal San Fran Nan without question the Queen of all Divas.
Updates:
Danette Gamble of the Kansas City Star comments:
Dem dirt-fishers have reached a new low and have resorted to dumpster diving for Palin trash.Stacy Drake opines via The Cypress Times:
[...]
So tell me, if she’s such a small fish in such a big pond, why bother?
I tell you why--like her or not, Sarah Barracuda is a star fish.
[...]
When California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that he is going to investigate the California State University Stanislaus Foundation "regarding allegations of how the nonprofit organization violated the law in not disclosing Palin’s full contract," I shook my head. California is bankrupt. They are deeper in red than the Alabama Crimson Tide marching band attempting a crossing of the Red Sea. You know who is going to pay for this “investigation?” The taxpayers of California.
This whole thing insults the intelligence of anyone they are selling it to. Do they honestly expect us to believe that there is some big campus conspiracy to cover up the fact that Governor Palin drinks water from a straw? On a California campus no less! Or is it that fee she is being paid by private donors they (who is “they” anyway) were trying to cover up? This is just stupid. But by all means, gubernatorial candidate, SEIU tool, and democratic political hack Attorney General Moonbeam, launch an investigation with our money. Go ahead and prove the utter corruption and stupidity of this state’s government for all the country to see.Tammy Bruce is shocked:
In the end, Yee and Brown are just looking to disclose that fee that Governor Palin is to receive to take a political shot her. It’s that long standing narrative the left uses against her to try and drive a wedge between her and her base. The one that doesn’t work but they just keep using it anyway. It’s been going on since the RNC wardrobe smear and by using the courts and launching official investigations, along with their friends in the press, It will continue on to the next dollar Sarah Palin makes.
"Strawgate. Who knew?"Allahpundit weighs in:
"So she’ll fly commercial unless you want to hook her up with a particular private jet. In fact, she’ll actually fly coach, which ABC doesn’t tell you, under certain circumstances: Read the rider [PDF] and you’ll see that it’s only for flights to or from Anchorage that first-class is mandatory. If she’s traveling within the lower 48, riding in the back with the hoi polloi is fine. (For international flights to the lower 48, she asks for business class.) Actually, there’s no ironclad proof that the contract is even hers: Her name is never mentioned, but given where it was found, the fact that it comes from her speaker bureau, and the fact that it refers to travel from Alaska, the inference is made. Frankly, I’m amazed that she’s willing to fly commercial at all. Considering the intense loathing she inspires in some quarters, I assumed she’d long since passed the point of needing a security detail when she’s out in public. Is it really just her and Todd (or an assistant) crammed back there in coach among lefties who feel queasy at the thought of her? Good lord."- JP
The leftist loons are literally grasping at straws these days, whether its bendy straws or straw polls bought and paid for by Romney and Paul.
ReplyDeleteThey are also now attacking her on SarahPAC. The "DIVA" meme they are pushing is that she spent more on de-icing her private jet than on contributions to candidates. They won't point out these comparative facts though:
ReplyDelete1) For the 2009 calendar year, SarahPAC raised $2,132,119 and gave $45,500 to candidates. For that same time period, Romney's PAC raised $3,565,311 and gave $58,200 to candidates. So Romney raised $1.4 million more than Sarah but contributed only $12,700 more to candidates! Her ratio of contributions to revenue is better than Romney's (0.021 for Sarah vs. 0.016 for Romney).
2)I can't find Romney's March results yet on the FEC web site. Only the first two months (Jan and Feb. of 2010) are available. For those two months he raised $673,750 and gave exactly zero, nothing, zilch, nada, to candidates. For the first three months, Sarah raised $400,481 and gave $9,500 to candidates.
So again the DOUBLE standard in reporting on Sarah. I hope someone will do a detailed comparative analysis of Romney's, Pawlenty's and Sarah's financials once Romney's March numbers are out. By the way, if you look at the contributors detail you will see that Romney and Pawlenty get a lot of their money from people contributing $2,500 to $5,000 each - unlike Sarah who mainly relys on small contributors. In fact, in one case four family member (mom, dad, and two kids - listed as students)with the same last name living at the same address in Minnesota gave $5,000 each for a total of $20,000 to Pawlenty. Imagine, students giving $5,000 to a PAC! Obviously, one of his big donors for Governor.
Finally, Huckabee's first quarter numbers are not out yet. It will be interesting to see what he was up to. He didn't do much for all last year raising only $824,021 and contributing $20,000 to candidates (a ratio of 0.024 to Sarah's 0.021) - both better than Romney!
Nice work, Rusty.
ReplyDelete- JP
Just as a follow up to my previous comment. In 2009 Pawlenty raised $1,279,906 and made contributions of $16,800 for a contribution to revenue ratio of 0.013 - the lowest of the four candidates.
ReplyDeleteTo sum up the contributions/revenue/ratio for the four major candidates in 2009, from best to worse is as follows:
1) Huckabee: $20,000/$824,021/0.024
2) Palin: $45,500/$2,132,119/0.021
3) Romney: $58,200/3,565,311/0.016
4) Pawlenty: $16,800/$1,279,906/0.013
The first quarter reports for 2010 are not yet available on the FEC web site for Pawlenty and Huckabee, and the March report for Romney is not yet available - but the data available is:
1) Palin: $9,500/$400,481/0.024
2) Romney (Jan&Feb): $0/$673,750/0.000
So while the press belittles the $9,500 contribution from SarahPAC - proportionately speaking it is the highest of any of the four candidates!