McCain's Mrs. Right (ethics, Republican, Attorney, Reed)

[sanrene]

McCain’s Mrs. Right | Newsweek Politics: Conventions | Newsweek.com (http://www.newsweek.com/id/156472 - broken link)

Palin is an American original. She calls herself a "hockey mom" and manages to juggle the lives of her five children (the last, born with Down syndrome, is less than 5 months old) while running the state of Alaska and routinely antagonizing the powers that be. Last fall a NEWSWEEK reporter visited her office in Anchorage. The governor's office overlooks the sparkling Cook Inlet, ringed by mountains, except right smack in the view is a skyscraper adorned with the name CONOCO PHILLIPS in giant letters, a reminder of the prominence of Big Oil in the state capital. The throw rug on her couch is the skin of a grizzly bear shot by her father, a retired teacher turned "nuisance-control specialist" (varmint hunter for hire) whose pickup truck bears the sticker VEGETARIAN—OLD INDIAN WORD FOR "BAD HUNTER." (Palin herself is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association; for years, she or her husband caught all the fish or shot all the meat that her family eats.) As she spoke to the reporter, she juggled two BlackBerrys and a cell phone, with one always buzzing. She seemed unfazed, indeed to be having fun. As strands of hair fell from her librarian's bun she deftly executed an intricate "don't drop the BlackBerry while fixing the bobby pin" maneuver, several times.

It was in this job that Palin had her true political awakening. She says she was shocked by the corruption she saw. She left after less than a year, but not before she had blown the whistle on another commissioner, Randy Ruedrich, for doing party business on state time. Ruedrich, who also happened to be the Republican state chairman, agreed to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking state ethics laws (he's still in the job). She and others then lodged an ethics complaint against state Attorney General Gregg Ranks, who had been an adviser to Murkowski. Murkowski reprimanded Ranks, and Ranks resigned. Then she turned on Murkowski, who was running for re-election as governor, and beat him by almost 2-1 in 2006.

All those who are curious about Palin should read this great article from newsweek.



Can you imagine this "throw" on Mareen Dowd's couch?