The jaw-dropping news that Sarah Palin would be the inaugural “Lessons For Leaders” speaker at Five Points Washington hatches a snake’s nest of questions.
First, that old conservative standby: “How much will this cost?” Ms. Palin’s speaking fee for an event in Iowa last year was $100,000. And that was before she gave a lesson in leadership (“When you want to, just quit.”) by resigning from her Alaska governor’s job, leaving her constituents bereft, in order to become a Fox-y lady under the bright lights. So, how big a bill will Washington taxpapers have to pay? What about police overtime, extra Five Points staffing, catering costs?
Second, because the $5,000-per-couple ducat to meet the lady backstage for a grip-and-grin is tax-deductible as a “donation” to the Washington Area Community Center Inc., that means 90 percent, $4,500 can be written off. Such a deal!
Residents who are appalled by Ms. Palin’s woeful unreadiness for any office higher than the one she suddenly divorced are ponying up just so the hammier burghers of the city can hang a photo of themselves\with the You Betcha Girl right next to the one of dad with Spiro T. Agnew.
Finally, this blatant use of a publically funded facility to promote a shamefully inadequate politician (a quick read through “Seconds in Command,” Ch. 22 in Game Change, the Heilemann-Halperin bestseller on the 2008 election is a stunning catalog of just how unready Palin was) is wasteful, silly and vainglorious.
We’re boycotting this tea party, but hey! I can see Five Points from my house!
Mike Foster
Metamora
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The jaw-dropping news that Sarah Palin would be the inaugural “Lessons For Leaders” speaker at Five Points Washington hatches a snake’s nest of questions.
First, that old conservative standby: “How much will this cost?” Ms. Palin’s speaking fee for an event in Iowa last year was $100,000. And that was before she gave a lesson in leadership (“When you want to, just quit.”) by resigning from her Alaska governor’s job, leaving her constituents bereft, in order to become a Fox-y lady under the bright lights. So, how big a bill will Washington taxpapers have to pay? What about police overtime, extra Five Points staffing, catering costs?
Second, because the $5,000-per-couple ducat to meet the lady backstage for a grip-and-grin is tax-deductible as a “donation” to the Washington Area Community Center Inc., that means 90 percent, $4,500 can be written off. Such a deal!
Residents who are appalled by Ms. Palin’s woeful unreadiness for any office higher than the one she suddenly divorced are ponying up just so the hammier burghers of the city can hang a photo of themselves\with the You Betcha Girl right next to the one of dad with Spiro T. Agnew.
Finally, this blatant use of a publically funded facility to promote a shamefully inadequate politician (a quick read through “Seconds in Command,” Ch. 22 in Game Change, the Heilemann-Halperin bestseller on the 2008 election is a stunning catalog of just how unready Palin was) is wasteful, silly and vainglorious.
We’re boycotting this tea party, but hey! I can see Five Points from my house!
Mike Foster
Metamora
