Lawmakers puzzled by last minute SarahPAC donations. "Uh, thanks?" Update!

"Dear (fill in the blank), thank you for being a common sense patriot, that ignores silly distractions like logic or facts. Here's some money."

Courtesy of The Hill:

The 13 lawmakers who received campaign donations from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) have one thing in common — none of them got advance notice the checks were coming.

Palin distributed $65,000 to candidates during the first half of this year, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing this month by Sarah PAC, Palin's political action committee.

But the lawmakers who received donations said they never heard from the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee — and possible 2012 presidential candidate — or her representatives about the money.

"The check showed up; there was no discussion ahead of time," said a spokesman for the campaign of Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), one of 11 House Republicans and two GOP senators to receive donations.
The contributions were unsolicited and unheralded, according to the lawmakers who received the donations and their campaign committees.

Palin doled out the maximum $5,000 to 13 incumbent Republicans: Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) both received donations, as did Reps. Lou Barletta (Pa.), Larry Bucshon (Ind.), Ann Marie Buerkle (N.Y.), Francisco "Quico" Canseco (Texas), Mike Coffman (Colo.), Sean Duffy (Wis.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.), Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Martha Roby (Ala.), Allen West (Fla.) and Hartzler.

The contributions were all made on the penultimate day of the second quarter, June 29, with the exception of one sent to Coffman, which was a debt retirement check sent Jan. 31.

You know I hate to be negative, but it KIND of seems that the super sharp accountants running SarahPAC were completely caught off guard by the fact that it was the end of the quarter, and time to quickly dole out some money to politicians in order to continue the facade that they are a political action committee, and not just a tax free pool of readily available money that Sarah Palin can use for things like bus tours, baby nannies, road kill inspired fright wigs, and of course monetary gifts for those who troll the internet leaving nasty remarks on liberal blogs on Palin's behalf. (You don't expect Bristol, Willow, and Piper to get real jobs do you?)

And what makes me think it was last minute?

In the cases of Corker and Wicker, Palin's contributions are especially head-scratching for political observers because of the ire both members have drawn from the right. Wicker has long been known as an advocate of so-called pork projects, and conservatives bristled at Corker's work with then-Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) last year on Wall Street reform legislation. (Corker eventually bailed from talks.)

"Wicker and Corker in particular make exciting prospects for the Tea Party movement," wrote Erick Erickson, the head of the influential conservative blog RedState, the day after last fall's election.

Hmm, it sort of looks like WHOEVER made the decision as to which lawmakers were to receive this $65,000 did their research by simply visiting Redstate and reading that old article, and did not bother to find out if the individuals named were STILL embracing teabagger ideals.  Doesn't it?

Well perhaps I am being too much of a cynic (I do that sometimes), surely the people of SarahPAC would be happy to clear this up.

A spokesman for Sarah PAC did not respond to emails seeking an explanation as to the former governor's contributions.

Or then again, perhaps not. 

You know maybe if the little SarahPAC elves were to follow their Queen's example, and write on their hands that they needed to make a few political donations BEFORE the end of the quarter, they might not look like such complete amateurs.

No your eyes are not deceiving you, the moron is STILL writing notes on her hand.

After all, look how intelligent it makes her appear!

Update: Just to rub salt in this wound, I now have learned that many of the lawmakers who received donations from SarahPAC also voted to RAISE THE DEBT CEILING.


Sens. Bob Corker Tennessee and Roger Wicker of Mississippi both voted for the compromise and had already received $5,000 donations from SarahPAC this year. So did Reps. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania, Larry Bucshon of Indiana, Francisco "Quico" Canseco of Texas, Mike Coffman of Colorado (whose check was not designated for his 2012 race, but was instead donated to help retire his 2008 debt), Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Allen West of Florida.

If you will excuse me I think I will try to be a little helpful for a change, make a call to Sears, and put a new refrigerator on layaway for the Palins.  Somehow I think they are going to need one.

SarahPAC paid $13,708 to decorate Sarah's bus so she could go on a five day vacation. How is that fiscal conservative BS working for ya? Update!

Courtesy of The Note:

Sarah Palin spent almost $14,000 to adorn her “One Nation” tour bus with larger-than-life renditions of the Constitution, Liberty Bell, and her signature.

That’s one of hundreds of expenditures listed in SarahPAC’s semi-annual FEC report, which was filed online today. The former Alaska governor’s political action committee paid $13,708.44 to the Tennessee company Fast Signs for “Bus Wrap” on May 26, three days before her tour of the northeast kicked off.

Unbelievable that the poor, undereducated paint chip eaters that are still dreaming of a Sarah Palin Presidency, spent almost $14,000 to decorate a bus so that their idol (And the only family member that could stand her) could visit tourist attractions for five days, while continuing to play the political prick tease in order to attract the publicity that she so desperately craves.

That is almost $3000 a day!  And what did the Palin-bots GET for their hard earned money?

This:



And of course this. Not to mention this. And really who could forget this? Which of course inevitably led to this.

Well gee that was such a good investment I wonder what else Palin spent her supporter's retirement savings on?

SarahPAC raised $1,658,897 during the first six months of 2011 and spent $1,591,520. The PAC has $1,402,368 cash on hand. In a statement, SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford told ABC News that the group “more than doubled the amount we raised as compared to the same time period in 2009. We received more than 36,700 contributions from over 24,000 contributors.”

Among SarahPAC’s other noteworthy disbursements:

-- $26,295.47 to a Visa/BankCard payment center in Dallas, Tex. for “Air Fare, Lodging, Car Rental, Wireless.” The date of disbursement is June 2, the day she visited Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 
Presumably, the sum accounts for some of the cost of her “One Nation” tour. 


So besides the $14,000 she wasted on this "bus tour" she also spent an additional $26,000 on air fare, lodging, and "CAR RENTAL!"  What the hell for? She had a bus with $14,000 worth of decorations on it that she could both live in AND use for transportation!


-- $5,794 to Israel’s Sar-El Tours and Travel for a“Tour of Holy Land.” Palin visited Israel in March and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Oh yeah, that trip ALSO turned out well.

-- $18,700 to Young America’s Foundation, a conservative outreach organization aimed at students.

Is that how much the brain washing of young people costs these days? How much do you want to bet she could not get HER kids to attend if she duct taped them to the top of her car and drove their ass there?

-- $10,000 to Peter Schweizer for “Research Consulting.” Schweizer is a conservative author based in Florida who Palin hired as her foreign policy adviser in May.

I wonder if part of his advice was for Palin to hide in her room for two days while visiting India in order to avoid the locals?

-- $5,416.66 to Anchorage, Alaska’s True North L'Attitudes for scheduling.

-- $683 to the Nashville, Tenn. store Nico & LaLa for bookmarks.

There is in fact much more in these filings, which you can find here.

I have a feeling that this is just the beginning and that we will learn much more about how Sarah wastes her supporters money in the days, and weeks ahead.

You know some days I feel bad for the people who are so besotted with Sarah Palin that they will allow her to take such advantage of them.  Today is not one of those days.

You people are idiots, and she's a fraud, move on!

Update: It looks like the Washington Post has uncovered evidence that Palin's bus tour might actually have cost even MORE than we thought. Seriously?

But the total for the trip is likely much more, because many bills came in after the June 30 filing deadline, Sarah PAC treasurer Tim Crawford said in an interview. In addition, many other expenses associated with the trip, such as photography, videography, Internet fundraising and airfare, are more difficult to account for. (One item in the report describes $6,999 paid to an air charter company called Republican Presidential Travel on June 9, at the tail end of “One Nation.”)

Wait, what?  There is a such thing as a "Republican Presidential Travel" airline?  I have never heard of that.

And by the way neither have the folks over at Talking Points Memo. But they did learn THIS:


Doug Garrett, the former owner of Moby Dick Airways, told TPM that Republican Presidential Travel is headquartered in Alaska and under an agreement with the new owner of Moby Dick Airways only does charters in Alaska. He referred questions specifically about the services his company provided to Palin to SarahPAC.

Okay by a show of hands, does ANYBODY have any doubt that this airline is somehow ONLY providing flights to a certain half-term governor?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

With a donation of $25 or more to President Obama's reelection campaign, this can be yours.

Courtesy of the LA Times:

A fundraising e-mail sent to supporters Wednesday morning offers up—for the donation of $25 or more—a “Made in the USA” T-shirt , featuring a picture of the president on the front and an image of his recently released long-form birth certificate on the back—a tweak at those who think Obama was not born in the United States and therefore not eligible to be president.

“Last year, the president said, ‘I can't spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead,’” writes deputy campaign manager Julianna Smoot. “This is about as close as we can get.”

I don't know about all of you, but I am getting me one of those shirts!

And so can you, by clicking right here.