JUNEAU — In the final months before she resigned as Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin displayed growing frustration over deteriorating relationships with state lawmakers and outrage over ethics complaints that she felt frivolously targeted her and prompted her to write: “I can’t take it anymore.”
The details are included in more than 17,000 records released Thursday by state officials — nearly 3 1/2 years after citizens and news organizations, including The Associated Press, first requested Palin’s emails. The emails, most from Palin’s final 10 months in office, illustrate what Palin has said all along: The intense scrutiny of her family and work was a financial and emotional drain that forced her to step down as governor.
In a March 19, 2009, email to spokeswoman Sharon Leighow and aide Kris Perry, she complained that more than 150 freedom of information requests had cost the state more than $1 million, adding: “and who knows what all the bogus ethics charges have cost the state.”
She expressed anger at having to pay for her own defense, with a bill that at that point totaled more than $500,000, saying her husband had to go back to work on the North Slope because of it.
“We’ve all had to pay for our OWN legal defense in this political bloodsport — it’s horrendous — why do you think Todd is on the slope today?” Palin wrote. “I am paying to defend in my capacity as GOVERNOR — actions taken in my official position. This is unheard of anywhere else.”
She added that she had been the target of “many frivolous suits and charges since the DAY I became VP candidate. I can’t afford this job.”
Palin expressed frustration with the media in an April 11, 2009, email: “If there were any other way I could speak to Alaskans without going through some of these reporters, I sure would.” Palin currently works as a commentator for Fox News.
By the spring of 2009, the emails show, Palin was regularly butting heads with lawmakers of both parties over her absences from the Capitol. She asked her aides to tally how many days she was out of Alaska in 2008. The staff came up with 94 days, but 10 less if you count travel days when she was in the state part of the day, The absences included all of October and most of September while she was on the campaign trail as the GOP vice presidential candidate.
“It’s unacceptable, and there must be push back on their attempts to lame duck this administration,” Palin wrote to her top aides on April 9.
Citizens and news organizations, including the AP, first requested Palin’s emails in September 2008, as part of her vetting as the Republican vice presidential nominee. The state released a batch of the emails last June, a lag of nearly three years that was attributed to the sheer volume of the records and the flood of requests stemming from Palin’s tenure.
The 24,199 pages of emails that were released last year ended in September 2008, as she was campaigning with GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Thursday’s release includes 17,736 records, or 34,820 pages, generally spanning from October 2008 until Palin’s resignation as Alaska governor, in July 2009.
Tim Crawford, treasurer of Sarah Palin’s political action committee, on Thursday encouraged everyone to read the emails. “They show a governor hard at work for her state,” he said.
Several media organizations, including msnbc.com, said they were not informed of Thursday’s release.
Leighow, now a spokeswoman for the current governor, Sean Parnell, said records in the governor’s office indicated that msnbc.com did not request the second group of emails but she said a CD containing the documents was being sent to their offices because it contained emails inadvertently omitted from the first release.
Palin’s frustration over a series of ethics complaints filed against her, one of the issues she cited when stepping down, emerges in an April 2009 email in which she commiserated over a story indicating another ethics complaint was to be filed: “Unflippinbelievable... I’m sending this because you can relate to the bullcrap continuation of the hell these people put the family through,” she wrote to aides Ivy Frye and Frank Bailey.
Later that day, in an email to her husband and two top aides, on the issue, she said: “I can’t take it anymore.”
Earlier, after a Feb. 18, 2009, Washington Post story titled, “Back Home in Alaska, Palin finds cold comfort,” was pointed out to her, she emailed her husband. “Would you pray for our strength. And for God to totally turn things around... Enough is enough. May we see victories and feel His hand of mercy and grace.” He replies, “I did.”
In a Sept. 26, 2007, email to Perry and her husband Todd, titled “Marital Problems,” Palin writes: “So speaking of... If we, er, when we get a divorce, does that quell “conflict of interest” accusations about BP?” Her husband was a former BP employee on the North Slope.
Comments (33)
Add commentDidnt she want to President?
So as a Governor, she couldnt handle all the questions but yet somehow she thinks it would be easier if she were President? Look at what any President goes through on a daily basis. What she experienced as Governor was nothing. She is thin-skinned and has no business ever being in public office again. Cry me a river, Sarah.
Fame has it's price.
You loved attention. Be careful what you wish for.
What a joke. Was that FOIA
What a joke. Was that FOIA request worth the $1 million? Too bad the state can't get the witch hunters to pay for their empty well......
Palin emails: Panties in huge wad
The e-mails are just more proof that she can dish it out but can't take it.
That's why Game Change will be a great success- and why Palin is having her current and former aides attack it even though they haven't seen it. They know Game Change will be the final nail in the coffin for Palin's fantasy and their collective delusion that she would be coronated at the "brokered convention" that she has been promoting for transparently self-serving reasons.
In keeping with the "ethics" of the Palin regime, it's no surprise that Politico is reporting that one of these aides (Jason Recher) who was part of the effort this week to discredit Game Change told the screenwriter in an email last year that he could “confidentially consult” on the movie and suggested a “formal agreement” for his help.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73236.html
The grifter's scam failed. There was no agreement, and therefore no dough, so the would be "consultant" is now a critic of a movie he has not seen.
What a pathetic bunch.
Emails are on line
http://palinemail.msnbc.msn.com/palin2011/allList.html#top
The emails are online in searchable form less than 24 hours after being released. They were put there by msnbc, which as noted above was deliberately omitted from the release despite having requested the emails in 2008.
This is something that the Palin-Parnell regime could have done if they didn't want to drag their feet for over 3 years. In fact, one or more of the software companies offered to give the state their software, so the emails could have been released ages ago- and the many redactions done electronically and quickly.
Stalkers like ratfish and
Stalkers like ratfish and MSNBC cost the state way more than $1 million dollars and your implication that the state was dragging their feet is BS. I suppose that software included a virtual attorney general's office that could've combed through a 100,000 emails?
I don't understand why the lefties are so obsessed with the best governor we've had in a long time. Even the commies around here grudging aggree that she was better than Parnell has been and there's no question she was better than Murky and the oil shill Knowles didn't come up with ACES.....Okay Egan was pretty good and George Washington was a great president......jeesh . Get your own panties unwound......
I have to admit...
...that in retrospect I have a little bit of sympathy for her.
Not for the VP candidate Palin who morphed into a hideous caricature of a conservative and Alaskan, but as the governor of the state. Like her or not, she was in a tough position.
And truth be told, I'd swap Sean Parnell for her in a New York minute. At least she wasn't a lackey of the oil companies.
"Grudgingly agree that she
"Grudgingly agree that she was better than Parnell".....
That's not saying much. Translation: She sucked slightly less than he sucks now.
I'm in agreement L58. Sarah
I'm in agreement L58. Sarah getting chosen as a running mate for McCain ruined her governorship. Aside from a few misjudgements like Troopergate, I thought Sarah was doing a good job. She was doing an excellent job if one compares her to what we have now and what we had before her. People need to not forget Murkowski strutting around like the state was his private fiefdom.
Nonetheless, I think that this proves beyond a doubt that Sarah would be in way over her head if she ran for national office. I don't think that makes her a bad person, it just is what it is.
@Rough Cut
I wouldnt be worrying about Palin too much. It seems like she landed on her feet just fine.
republican
See what happens when Alaskans vote republican?
Frank Murkowski.
Palin.
Parnell.
Will we ever learn?
Vote ANYTHING but republipuke next time, please! Alaska depends on it.
@latitude
To my friend latitude,
I respectfully disagree. All of her problems were her fault. I have no sympathy for her.
Her unending narcissism/vindictiveness caused Juneau to be without representation when Kim Elton stepped down. We could have had Beth Kerttula in the Senate, but Sarah was playing games. Sarah did not have Alaska's best interest at heart, she had her own interests at heart, otherwise she would have appointed Kerttula. No wonder Juneau hates her.
She saw the $potlight and she took it. I can't blame her for that though. As such, she's crying all the way to the bank.
ALL Governors of all states are in tough positions. They are lightning rods for all kinds of scrutiny, accusations and such. It comes with the job. It's an incurred risk. The fact that she likely never considered how tough it would be shows just how stupid she is.
But, I would agree with you as well regarding trading Parnell for her. I'd take her over Parnell any day. As Kara alluded above, although they both suck at the job, she sucks less than he does at job performance.
Sarah for Congress.....she
Sarah for Congress.....she would be a massive improvement over Mafia Don, Murky, or Backitch her first day on the job......
Good point, Jo
When it came to Juneau, she was nasty and vindictive. Pretty unforgivable.
Note I said I only had a tiny bit of sympathy for her. Just a flicker. Almost none, really. OK - none.
But I would still trade Parnell for her.
And Kiki, not sure she landed on her feet. More like, she landed on a big cushion of $100 bills. It was a soft landing.
@Lat
lol OK, I stand corrected. At least Todd doesnt have to work now. Plenty of time to go ride those snow machine thingies and win lotsa races.
One of my friends who lives
One of my friends who lives in Wasilla was complaining the other day about all the snow they've had this year. I bet Todd has been having a rippin' good time riding his "snow machines." With all the bucks Sarah has from her ghost-written books I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Todd got a new "snow machine" for Christmas. I bet he was dancing around like Peter Griffin.
existing laws
This entire mess could have been minimized early on; well before Palin took office. It not a new decision to require the release on any and all public documents. And email as public information cases had worked their way through courts prior to Palin became governor.
I would have been and would still be a simply programing step to have all emails going to or from the governors office entered into a data base instantly. The data could be reviewed constantly and the contents used to determine a classification of the communication. Some email might need further scrutiny, but some is not all like the case of every email in this Palin email controversy. Yet we find that even today the Parnell administration is in no better position to provide emails to the public under the required public information provisions.
So whose fooling who on how difficult a task this was to put all these emails into the public? The folks in the offices who just want to keep the process as complicated and draw out as possible.
what is wrong with riding snowmobiles!!!!!?
If he was playing pinocle or bridge or monopoly you would be complaining about that! Destiny help us if Beth Kertula ever was Governor! She's a good orator (Like Barack), but GOVERNOR??? No Way! We would have a state income tax in a minute; AND, we would be paying $6 or more a gallon in gas taxes. I would have Sarah back as GOVERNOR in a minute! There is a price to pay for fame - whatever it is for. Sarah, suck it up! You are blessed. You may be martyred. Hang in there!
Palin?
I'm just thankful she is gone, as soon as she was offered a ton of money in the book deal she had to put that as priority number one. Her self center'd greed told us who she really is and I thank her for that.
@hellojuneau
I dont remember saying anything is wrong with the snow thingamajiggers. Just said he has plenty of time to ride them now that he doesnt have to work, that was a concern of Sarah's in her e:mails afterall. If he wants to play monopoly, I say go for it however monopoly is a little cheaper to play and you dont need them fancy-schmancy snow suits. But hey, whatever blows his hair back.
kiki, I think they might have
kiki,
I think they might have been getting their panties in a wad about my post about Todd's "snow machines." I don't think I said anything overly derogatory either. However, we must remember that some people come onto this forum looking for a fight and that there are a number of insecure right-wingers out there in Cyberland.
Snow Machine Getaways
I would take any chance I could to jump on the snow machine, the lucky bugger, well wait a minute he is still married to Sarah which means he only gets to go if she lets him. Probably doesn't get to go very often poor bugger.
Don't the Palins...
...live in AZ now? Not much snow machining around those parts I reckon.
Todd and Sarah still live in
Todd and Sarah still live in Wasilla. It was Bristol who moved to Arizona. Anyway, with their bucks they can live pretty much wherever they jolly well please.
The only thing that would satisfy Ms. Palin is absolute power
and absolute deference. Her fatal personality defect is that she can't accept that, in politics, she is never anything but one voice among many, one view among many, and that she isn't entitled to any more special dispensations for her flaws than anyone else is for theirs.
She was never the victim of unfair treatment.
She was never persecuted.
Her family was never persecuted.
She never had any justification for her spite or paranoia at all.
All that ever happened was that she received the same treatment that the media and the political types give to everybody else. And she can't accept that she should have had to.
This is why she is now in the political wilderness, and likely to stay there for years to come.
In the end, she was never anything but Nixon in a miniskirt(sorry for the nightmarish visual, but there was no other way to say it).
"All that ever happened was
"All that ever happened was that she received the same treatment that the media and the political types give to everybody else. And she can't accept that she should have had to."
I call [filtered word].....
Oh, and John Galt was an imaginary architect
Like everything else Ayn Rand wrote, he was fiction. Citing her novels as economic and social prophecy is like quoting J.R.R.Tolkien on medieval history.
My point stands. Sarah never had any reason to feel singled out at all. She was treated like every other candidate. Why is that so hard for some people to accept?
Palin by comparison
Like a surfer, Palin has shown an uncanny ability to ride the wave at a point that gives the fastest, most thrilling ride with the least amount of effort! It was hard on her, but I'm sure it was all worth the money!
I heard that's what she said
I heard that's what she said to Todd and that's why there was talk of them splitting up.