I know I could/should take a break from the national news (jellyfish infiltrating and shutting down the local nuclear power plant would ordinarily be worth more than a link), but the national news is just too good to resist.
There's serious/depressing financial doings going down with the 3rd quarter forclosure rate that was released today. However, I simply can't keep quiet about Palin's $150,000 shopping spree. Again, it's just too good to resist.
Now, I get it that a candidate needs to look good yada yada yada, but they usually spend their own money for personal appearance. Wardrobe and makeup isn't an ordinary campaign funded expense. Anyhoo, even the RNC is unhappy about it, and McCain's reaction was, well, just a bit lame.
It certainly doesn't match his eloquence of fifteen years ago when he argued against - and changed the law - regarding such hubris in front of Congress, does it?
"Madam President, the amendment before the Senate is a very simple one. It restricts the use of campaign funds for inherently personal purposes. The amendment would restrict individuals from using campaign funds for such things as home mortgage payments, clothing purchases, noncampaign automobile expenses, country club memberships, and vacations or other trips that are noncampaign in nature.
Under House and Senate ethics rules, Members of Congress must use campaign funds for political--not personal--purposes. Yet the commonly accepted definition of a political expenditure has grown so broad and enforcement of the rules has been so lax that congressional campaigns now routinely make purchases that on their face appear to be personal, such as resort vacations, luxury automobiles, expensive meals, apartments, country club memberships, tuxedos, home improvements, baby sitting, and car phones.
If we in Congress learned one thing from President Clinton's $200 haircut last week, it should be that the public does not approve of its elected officials being treated as royalty. We should be no different."
Sigh. Can anyone say - SHOUT - hypocrisy?
(hypocrisy/noun
dissimulation, false virtue, cant, posturing, affectation, speciousness, empty talk, insincerity, falseness, deceit, dishonesty, mendacity, pretense, duplicity; sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, pietism, piousness; informal phoniness, fraud)
I'm almost at a loss for words... except to offer this advice to the McCain/Palin campaign:
If those Needless Markup threads are going to charity, at least donate them to be auctioned off for top dollar on Clothes Off Our Backs. Where the celebrities donate their clothes to charity. (Believe me, Palin's a celebrity. Hollywood's courting her now.)