Rogue Palin

by digby

She is way off the reservation:

Ensuring that news of the Republican National Committee’s sartorial spending spree will remain in the headlines for at least one more news cycle, Sarah Palin on Sunday sounded off on the $150,000 wardrobe that was purchased for her in September, denouncing the report as “ridiculous” and declaring emphatically: “Those clothes, they are not my property.”

A senior adviser to John McCain told CNN’s Dana Bash that the comments about her wardrobe “were not the remarks we sent to her plane this morning.” Palin did not discuss the wardrobe story at her rally in Kissimmee later in the day.

At this point, the McCain campaign consultants are trying to keep from being sued for political malpractice. After Palin made the kind of mistake she made yesterday by keeping that story alive, they have to cover their asses. I saw it as it happened and could hardly believe my ears:

But in Tampa, Palin happily broached the clothing issue after being introduced by “The View” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who accused Palin’s opponents of being “fixated on her wardrobe” and “deliberately sexist.”

That opened the door for Palin to weigh in on a topic that has frustrated the candidate and her advisers since the story first broke five days ago.

“This whole thing with the wardrobe, you know I have tried to just ignore it because it is so ridiculous, but I am glad now that Elisabeth brought it up, cause it gives me an opportunity without the filter of the media to get to tell you the whole clothes thing,” she said.

“Those clothes, they are not my property. Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I’m not taking them with me. I am back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska. You’d think — not that I would even have to address the issue because, as Elisabeth is suggesting, the double standard here it’s — gosh, we don’t even want to waste our time.”

Palin, however, forged on.

“I am glad, though, that she brought up accessories also. Let me tell you a little bit about a couple of accessories, didn’t think that we would be talking about it, but my earrings — I see a Native Americans for Palin poster,” she said. “These are beaded earrings from Todd’s mom who is a Yupik Eskimo up in Alaska, Native American, Native Alaskan.

“And my wedding ring, it’s in Todd’s pocket, ’cause it hurts sometimes when I shake hands and it gets squished,” she continued. “A $35 wedding ring from Hawaii that I bought myself and ’cause I always thought with my ring it’s not what it’s made of, it’s what it represents, and 20 years later, happy to wear it. And then finally the other accessory, you bet I’m a gold — I’m a blue star mom. I’m wearing this in honor of my son who is fighting over in Iraq right now defending all of you.”

After spending four minutes on the shopping escapade, Palin switched gears and trained her sights on Barack Obama, who, she said, is prematurely measuring the White House drapes.

“Barack Obama and I, we both have spent quite some time on the basketball court,” she said. “But where I come from, you have to win the game before you start cutting down the nets.”

Palin accused the Democrat of renting a stadium for a victory party on November 4.

That’s actually not the case — Obama’s rally on election night will be held outdoors in Grant Park in downtown Chicago.

She’s just letting it all hang out now.

And on a slightly amusing sidenote, Palin told the press last Friday that she was very frugal and shopped at a store called “Out of the Closet” in Anchorage. Anyone who lives in LA must have chuckled at that one because “Out of the Closet” is a major thrift store chain that benefits HIVAids patients. (I thought that it might have even been the same chain.) It’s not the kind of place Sarah W’s base would feel “comfortable” having their darling shop.

Well, it turns out that Sarah W has also caused her favorite little resale shop some trouble:

AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s flagship ‘Out of the Closet’ fundraising thrift store in the heart of Hollywood also offers free HIV testing and has an AHF
Pharmacy on site which is open to everyone, but offers clients specific
expertise in HIV/AIDS medications. Governor Sarah Palin recently made headlines
stating that another ‘Out of the Closet’ resale store in Alaska is her family’s
favorite store. AHF will pursue trademark protection for its registered federal
trademark for ‘Out of the Closet,’ which AHF first opened in 1990.

And then there’s this:

Retailer Christos Garkinos recently hosted the owners of the Alaskan store at Decadestwo, the designer resale store he co-owns with Cameron Silver in Los Angeles. “I was saying that Alaska’s been in the news a lot, and they said that Palin shops at their store all the time,” he said. The Out of the Closet owners ended up “buying a ton of stuff,” but the L.A. retailer — a staunch Sen. Barack Obama supporter who recently married his longtime partner — said he was so skeeved out at the thought of Palin wearing clothes bought from his store, he donated 100% of the sales to the Obama campaign.

Ouch.

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