A: Tell John McCain "no" when he calls and asks you to be his running mate.

B: Run an ethical administration in the first place.

Oops, too late!

Just like the stories that trees cause air pollution, that Saddam Hussein has weapons that can strike the United States on short notice, that Bill Clinton sold nuclear secrets to the Chinese (when he wasn't busy burying all the people he killed at his secret drug-running airstrip) and that George Bush is a real he-man because he cuts brush.

When you point out stuff like this, the people speaking it or repeating it act as if you had just told a room full of toddlers that Santa won't be coming this year because he ate his reindeer. The issue to them is not the truth, it's that it made such a good story and you're being a spoilsport by deflating it.

Anyway, the GOP during the Clinton Administration taught us that being accused of misconduct is the same as having done it.

If there are no negative consequences Palin has no reason not to lie. It's not like actual right and wrong matter; perception is the only thing.

By Palin's logic, it cost the state of Alaska a ton of money because its lawyers had to spend some of their (salaried) time on ethics complaints filed against the governor, rather than on other matters.

Using that same logic, how much did it cost the state of Alaska because Palin was running around the country, campaigning for vice president, rather than on governing?

I'd sure like to know Palin's salary as governor, divided by, say, 40 hours a week, times the number of hours she was on the stump in the Lower 48 instead of attending to her job in Alaska!

By engaging in questionable behavior that merited an investigation, it is Sarah Palin who has cost the state money, no one else. Is her argument that we shouldn't hold politicians accountable because it is too expensive to do so?

I hate it when the attacks on somebody get so over the top and petty that I find myself defending them even though I really don't like anything about them. This is one of those times, though. You're taking an insignificant aspect of Palin's resignation speech and trying to make it a scandal. Of course the lawyers were on retainer. But they could have been dealing with other cases and even if they would have been sitting and knitting then investigations usually result in at least a few outside expenses or overtime. But who flipping cares? Palin is a right wingnut and there are so many things to attack her on that it is petty to pick apart her speech to find small flaws.

Sarah Palin has made a point that will be repeated ad nauseum until it becomes true to the people who want to believe it.

As Glenn Greenwald constantly points out, most mainstream journalists are actually stenographers, so I won't hold my breath waiting for stories calling out the governor or fact-checking her statements.

Sad, but true.

But Alex, how would it have served her purposes to tell the truth? The woman has a narrative to tell ,and if the facts aren't going to comply with the story that needs to be told, then screw the facts.

The fact is that this woman was *being investigated,* that is the basis for the entire use of taxpayer money. If you are above suspicion, if you live and govern ethically, chances are you are not going to be investigated. She is to blame for all of this.

Where is the logic here? Why do we allow Palin and her cronies to continue to frame this issue? She must have done *something* to warrant investigation to begin with. This is not a person I would ever elect to public office. Take some G.D. responsibility (but that is not the republican party's choice, ever).

I am sick of her, her blaming everyone else for her failings as an intellectual and as a politician, and I am ready for some relief from this daily bombardment of her image and name and misdeeds.

I guess we shouldn't expect tax and spend liberals to understand the concept of "cost avoidance!"

We don't pay state income taxes in Alaska, so the only "taxpayers" who have been stiffed are the oil companies, who do pay more taxes now thanks to Palin.

It shouldn't really bother her anyway, since she told Sean Hannity on June 8 that she was glad that oil isn't at $140 a barrel: "The fewer dollars the state of Alaska government has, the fewer dollars we spend, and that's good for our families and the private sector."