Monday, February 1, 2010

They Think You’re Chumps

So apparently if you donated to Sarah Palin’s “SarahPAC” you basically just put Sarah Palin’s book on the New York Times best-seller list:
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate had her political organization spend more than $63,000 on what her reports describe as "books for fundraising donor fulfillment." The payments went to Harper Collins, her publisher, and in some instances to HSP Direct, a Virginia-based direct mail fundraising firm that serves a number of well-known conservative politicians and pundits.

Sarah PAC spent another $8,000 on colorful bookmarks designed by a Nashville-based event branding firm. And her committee paid her publisher $20,000 for what appears to have been the cost of sending her personal photographer and another aide along on her book tour. Those expenses are listed by the PAC as travel repayment to Harper Collins.

All of the purchases took place in November and December of 2009, the records show.

Oh, there’s always a Nashville connection!

Meanwhile, Salon.com reports:

In the last half of 2009, Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, gave only $43,000 to Republican candidates for federal office. That money was spread over more than a dozen people.
So basically SarahPAC spent more money in two months promoting and publicizing Sarah Palin’s memoir than it did in six months promoting conservative candidates.

Okie dokie.

Meanwhile, we have Judson Phillips’ dubious “for profit” Tea Party convention fleecing people for their hard-earned cash.

Hey, Tea Party folks: someone thinks you’re stupid.