Friday, July 10, 2009

Sarah Palin's Legal Bills: It's No Lie

Liberals have been crowing that Sarah Palin lied about one of the main reasons she's quitting politics: that defending herself against a variety of bogus ethics complaints is draining her personal and the state's coffers, when the money could better be spent elsewhere.

You won't see moonbat sites quoting this story, though, since it notes Palin's explanation is--or, at least, could be--correct.

Palin says her family has racked up more than $500,000 in legal fees and the state has poured about $2 million of taxpayer money into investigating the complaints...

But the Palins have other assets and financial prospects: Their home is valued at $500,000 to $1 million, she has a book deal that could easily be in the millions, and Palin can make millions more with speaking tours and media opportunities.

She can also tap her immense popularity among the Republican base and raise tens of thousands of dollars to pay off legal bills with very little effort. An Internet campaign raised $130,000 from supporters in just two weeks.

Yes, Palin could mortgage her home, finish her book and then go on the speaker's circuit (I'm sure she'd then be accused of "whoring" around), but I have to ask how much should an individual who is not the Vice President have to pay to defend against frivilous ethical violations? Because it's fairly obvious that Democrats wanting to ruin Palin would continue to file charges regardless of their baseless nature.

This reminds me a little of SLAPP suits, which are designed to silence criticism by making such speech too costly. As noted earlier, Sarah Palin is the designated Hate Receptacle, and as long as she is in the public light, she will be attacked, along with her family, friends, city, state, religion and affiliations.