Washington Times: RNC pays some Palin legal bills in exchange for help

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Washington Times chief political writer Ralph Z. Hallow reports that the Republican National Committee is paying some of Sarah Palin's legal fees in exchange for her help raising money for the RNC.

A check for $128,518.85 has been sent to Gov. Palin's attorneys. RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen said Chief Administrative Officer Boyd Rutherford told him the check was in exchange for Gov. Palin's assistance with RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele to raise money for midterm election campaigns.

"The initial payment was for Palin to do several different fundraising events and sign fundraising letters for the RNC," Mr. Pullen said. He said the RNC has committed to sending the Anchorage law firm a second check of an equal amount, which would bring the total to $257,037.70.

Asked about Mrs. Palin's role with the RNC this fall, spokesman Doug Heye declined to say whether her fundraising help was the purpose of the check. He said only that "the disbursement relates to legal fees incurred during the summer and fall of 2008, when Democrats engaged in a partisan witch hunt against Gov. Palin. Based on conversations in 2008, the RNC decided to step in to help."

Other Republican officials have worried about the state of the national party's finances under Mr. Steele, in a midterm election season in which Republicans see huge numbers of Democratic seats in play.

Mrs. Palin reportedly amassed more than $600,000 in legal bills.

[...]

"As far as I am concerned, if they want to pay her or someone else, there is nothing wrong with it," said Mr. Pullen, who is also the elected chairman of the Arizona GOP.

"That was payment for services she was providing, including a couple speeches, a couple fundraising letters and a telephone call," Mr. Pullen said. "There was not a contract so far as I know. It was verbal."

The RNC can use Gov. Palin's help. The Democratic National Committee reportedly out raised the RNC last month $10.9 million to $7.9 million. The Democrats have $13.4 million in the bank compared to the RNC's $4.7 million. The only financial advantage for the RNC over its Democrat counterpart is that the RNC is carrying a lower debt load: less than $1.2 million, compared with the DNC's $8.4 million.

- JP

You do the math...

We have already written about this here, but Patrick S. Adams has posted such a clear, common sense explanation of why Sarah Palin resigned when she did, that we decided to revisit the topic, with Patrick's help. This excerpt is from his blog Liberty's Lamp:

It seems the less intellectually curious among us have taken Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska at face value. They think she quit. But when you dig a little deeper, it becomes more and more apparent that her resignation was probably the most crucial career saving decision of her life. This blogger has now come to accept that Sarah Palin's resignation was a brilliant and fantastic move.

Had Palin stayed on as governor, she would have just spiraled deeper and deeper into debt as the concerted smear campaign against her continued to pile on frivolous ethics complaint after frivolous ethics complaint. She did the math and realized that if she was ever going to be able to participate in leading a nation back to its greatness, she would not be able to do it from the poor house.

Palin could have served two terms as Alaska governor and ended up broke, disillusioned and politically devastated. Any attempts at reaching a national audience would have been viewed with contempt by local detractors and would have resulted in more ethics complaints. Without the ability to speak to the masses of those who yearn for her to take the reigns of the disaster we now call "the federal government," Palin was a lame duck governor in terms of national politics the minute she returned to Anchorage after the 2008 presidential campaign.

And on top of that, she was going broke.

When Sarah Palin sat down and figured out the finances, she realized that $125,000 a year minus $600,000 plus whatever other ethics violations were in the works means that she will end up with a net loss of at least $475,000. That's some fine reward for a great governor isn't it? And that's low balling it.

Since her resignation, here is the cocktail napkin explanation I've been giving to everyone who argues with me or simply asks me about her resignation:

Pro rate it like this:
4 years as Governor $500,000
Current ethics costs -$600,000
Projected new ethics costs -$400,000

Profit/Loss -$500,000

Then take into consideration the hits on her children.
Palin's choice: be Governor of Alaska and run up over $1 million in legal fees while having her children abused ruthlessly in the press or resign and make more than enough money on a book to pay back her debt and embark on a career as a private citizen political activist that would allow her to never quit on the real thing she's after: seeing our country return to greatness again.

You do the math. If you were her, wouldn't you quit, too?

Bravo Zulu, Patrick.

- JP

Palin financial disclosure may explain timing of her resignation

Sarah Palin's financial disclosure, which was publicly released this morning, may help explain the timing of her resignation as governor of Alaska. According to reporting by Sean Cockerham of McClatchy Newspapers, the former governor had to take out a loan to pay her attorneys for legal work in her defense from a series of bogus "ethics" complaints filed by her political enemies:

Palin is also reporting that she took out a home loan from Wells Fargo for "legal fees to fight false allegations while governor." She didn't give a date or amount.

[Editor's Note: This doesn't appear to be correct. See the updates at the bottom of this post - JP]

One of the last of the complaints filed against Palin charges that the legal defense fund which was set up to pay Palin's legal bills is itself not legal under Alaska law. That complaint was filed with the knowledge that the fund would be frozen while it was being investigated, therefore forcing her to pay her lawyers out of her own pocket. The aim of her political opponents has always been to destroy Sarah Palin any way they can. So they staged an all-out assault not only on her character and her family, but on her personal finances as well. 

According to reports, the twenty or so complaints had driven Palin's legal bill over the $600,000 mark. That's a considerable sum of cash for a governor with an annual salary of $125,000 to lay her hands on, so she was forced to borrow the money. Wizbang's Jay Tea (h/t: C4P) explains:

"...she had run up about half a million dollars in legal bills, and pretty much every single complaint had been tossed. In other words, she had incurred debts equal to twice her family's net income and 40% of their net worth for absolutely nothing. And with the latest complaint going after her legal defense fund, it was shaping up to get more and more and more expensive, with no relief in sight. The agenda of her opponents was clear: to use Alaska's flawed ethics laws (the 'flaw' being that no one foresaw a cabal filing an endless chain of worthless complaints purely to drive up the target's legal bills) to bankrupt her and her family." 

"So she took what she saw as the only solution: she resigned. And once she decided that, she saw no reason to drag matters out."

The legal fees  might also explain why Sarah Palin went to work immediately after resigning to write her book and get it finished in as short a period of time as possible. According to her financial disclosure,  she received $1.25 million from her publisher as a retainer for her memoir, which is due out next month. Book advances are usually paid half on signing and half on acceptance of the finished manuscript, with the agent usually taking at least 15% right off the top. If these were the terms of Sarah Palin's deal with HarperCollins, then after her agent --  Washington D.C. lawyer Bob Barnett -- took his cut, she received approximately $500,000 of her advance, which would not have been enough to pay her attorneys in full.

The former governor most certainly was feeling the pressure to complete her manuscript in order to receive the rest of the retainer from HarperCollins. Just speculation on our part, but Sarah Palin doesn't strike us as the type of person who wants to be beholden to anyone, so her goal was apparently to  pay her lawyers ASAP.

Some other details from her financial disclosure:

Palin reported that she received $73,000 in salary and $6,370 in per diem during those final months before resigning as governor.

Todd Palin reported receiving $34,086 during that time as a BP production operator. He also reported $32,260 from his commercial setnet fishing operation in Bristol Bay, under the business name "Toad's Fisheries."

Todd Palin also reported $3,500 in winnings from the Iron Dog snow machine race.

Now that she is no longer the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin will not be required to file any more financial disclosure reports with that state's Public Offices Commission.

First Update: Sarah Palin spokesperson Meg Stapleton e-mailed the following brief statement to Sean Cockerham:

"The Governor has complied with Alaska disclosure law by her filing yesterday. Now, as a private citizen, her business dealings, including her publishing agreement, are confidential."

Second Update: A closer look at the disclosure forms reveals that Cockerham must have blurred the lines between two separate items, the Palins' home loan and the former governor's legal fees. The two do not appear to be related. A h/t to C4P for catching McClatchy's error and another to Shane Vander Hart for bringing it to our attention.

Third Update: We contacted Sean Cockerham, pointed out the discrepancy in his story and asked him to print a correction. He replied that he is trying to contact Sarah Palin's attorneys "to clarify information that's related to this." The reporter says he will correct any "reporting that is in error."

- JP

Bloggers raise money for Palin defense fund

A coalition of bloggers is appealing to supporters of Gov. Sarah Palin for donations in a week-long effort to raise more than $500,000 to help her pay her legal bills.

Spearheaded by web site Conservatives4Palin, the bloggers launched their fundraising webathon Monday in a coordinated effort to help retire the Alaska governor's legal debts.

The webathon is using professional-quality videos which call the ethics complaints filed against the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate "petty politics and frivolous attacks" and a "thermometer" graphic that displays how close the bloggers are to reaching their goal.

The legal fund, called the Alaska Fund Trust was created in April to cover Governor Palin's expenses in defending herself against those allegations.

In a telephone interview with Anchorage television station KTUU Monday, Fund trustee Kristan Cole says the webathon is having an impact:

"Any time the governor is mentioned, the volume goes up tremendously and so the volume -- given this new information going out this morning, and the videos that are on the Web site -- we have seen the volume go up tremendously as we do anytime the governor is mentioned,"

According to the thermometer graphic displayed on the bloggers' websites, $54,645, or about 11 percent of their goal of $500,000, was raised on the first day.

"We are happy to help in any way that we can," Rebecca Mansour, one of the site's main contributors, said. "This is a completely grassroots effort. We are just trying to get the message out just to help them advertise."

Although Cole declined to say how much money has accumulated in the fund so far, she said the fund's first disclosure report, scheduled to be released next month, will reveal that information.

- JP

Attacks on Sarah Palin and what you can do

From a recent RedState.com member diary:

Meet Sondra Tompkins from Anchorage, Alaska..

Now, if you do a quick Google search, you’ll see Tompkins continually described as a “reliably Republican voter”. And a “child disability advocate and mother of a special needs child.”

Seems nice enough. But as we all know, “reliable Republican”, when written in a newspaper, means they are a democrat, have voted mostly democrat, and contributed money to the democrat party.

Tompkins has joined a small group of Palin-haters who have previously filed ten nuisance complaints against Governor Palin for what they contend are ethics violations. Six of the bogus complaints have been dismissed, and several are pending. They force the governor to retain legal counsel, and they have cost her $500,000 in legal fees. This is why an official legal defense fund is being organized to help Palin pay her attorneys.

Tomkin's sham of an eleventh complaint charges that Gov. Palin's recent "partisan" visit to Indiana was "purely to benefit personal interests, had no benefit for the State of Alaska and was in direct conflict with her official duties." It fails on all three points. (1) In Indiana, the governor addressed a right to life dinner, but she devoted a considerable portion of her speech to promoting Alaska and encouraging Americans from the lower 48 to visit there, which would (2) bring tourist dollars to the 49th state. (3) She was only away from Alaska for only 36 hours, during which time the legislature was idle anyway, and her presence was not required.

The diary states the problem:

Governor Palin has had a non-stop assault on her by both the left wing loons and the RINOs in the Republican party since the day the election was over with.

And I do mean non-stop!

So what is my point?

My point is the Republican party needs to learn how to protect it’s own.

The Republican party is whining because the Governor hasn’t brought her star power to help them, but she hasn’t received even the slightest back up from Republicans.

Not one ounce of effort from the party.

And offers a solution:

If the Republican Party is not going to help defend Governor Palin, or other conservative leaders, then I say we stop funding the Republican party!

Perhaps if Palin supporters would redirect their donations which would otherwise go to the GOP to SarahPAC instead (and her official legal defense fund, once it is up and running), the GOP will wake up and smell what's brewing.

Conservatives have been looking for ways to take the Republican Party that Ronald Reagan built for them back from the spineless moderates who have been in control of it since The Gipper left office. This would be a good first step.

Update: Jim Geraghty is another who can't believe the sheer pettiness of this complaint, posting "How Dare Sarah Palin Give a Speech in Indiana!"

- JP