Just how much did Palin's pathetic publicity/political bus tour cost American taxpayers?

I don't even want to KNOW what she is trying to get that lobster to do!

From ABC News:

Sarah Palin is set to tour national monuments around the country this summer, and one congressman wants to know how that will affect everyone else.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) sent a letter to the National Park Service today asking how federal resources were used for the northeast leg of Palin’s “One Nation Tour,” which traveled from Washington, D.C. to New Hampshire last week. His concern: press accounts of the tour “which provided personal and political benefits to former Gov. Palin, suggest that National Park Service resources were made available to an extent beyond that which an average American family would receive.”

“I opened my paper this morning to hear about cutbacks in state parks around this country,” Blumenauer told ABC News. “We have a serious backlog of maintenance in the National Park Service. And it looks like Sarah Palin’s little political cavalcade gets this amazing VIP treatment – I’m scratching my head. If it’s a private family vacation, what in the world are we doing getting people in with preferential early admission and having an entourage of public employees? It looks like a political stunt, and Palin Inc. ought to pay for it.”

Palin was surrounded by park rangers and, at times, police officers during her tour stops. Last Wednesday, she and her family were accompanied by approximately 10 authorities as they toured the Statue of Liberty.

I think this is an obvious question for our Representatives to ask.

I mean let's face it, this woman hijacked the park service resources for herself, while stepping all over the other tourists who had the misfortune of planning their vacations at the very same time that Snowdrift Snooki was making her desperate grab for the media spotlight.

Considering that this is a woman who is ALWAYS talking about cutting "unnecessary" services in the public sector, SHE should have to pay for the extra manpower that was needed to protect her family, reroute traffic around her road rage inducing convoy, and provide VIP treatment for her and her  family while viewing various historical sites.

Anybody disagree?