The Reaction: Yeah... but was she a good tipper?

By J. Thomas Duffy

Boy, you might except something like this from a Congressman, or even a low-life City Councilor, but the Governor of a state?

Palin Bilked Alaskan Taxpayers $16,941 ‘Per Diem’ To Stay Home At Her House

Maverick small-government conservative Sarah Palin charged Alaskan taxpayers $16,941 to spend 312 nights of her first 19 months as governor at her own house in Wasilla. Governor Palin has an official mansion in the capital, Juneau, but she's happier making Alaska's citizens pay her $54.33 a night to sleep in her own bed.

Christ, think of the cost, should the sky fall and and pigs fly (and, yes, a pig with lipstick!), and Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain gets the secret code on how to steal votes and actually wins this thing...

The per diem cost to have Mommy Moose working the VP office from her home up there in Alaska will be astronomical!

Jane Hamsher (who beat me to the punch on the title), over at Firedoglake, has more.

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Palin Paid Herself To Live At Home

The media narrative is that Palin cut back wasteful government spending in Alaska and took on her own party to do so. But that becomes less compelling when you factor in that she paid herself $16,951 to live at home. And it's not like she can toss her hair and say that "this is just the way things are done in Alaska":

In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

Palin and her husband both make six-figure incomes. They don't need to be chiseling the state for this money to live, and she sure isn't entitled to be running on fiscal responsibility when she's pocketing cash in a way that has a history of being regarded in Alaska as a "scam."

Hmmm...

In the "Original Mavericks Handbook for Dummies," do they have a section in there for scamming petty per diems from your office?

Oh boy!

Yes, cue up "Que Sera Sera"...

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Bonus Per Diem Riffs

John Cole: Kind Of Crazy

Steve Benen: THAT'S NOT FISCAL RESTRAINT WE CAN BELIEVE IN...

TBogg: The Palin Bunch Go To Brunch

Chris in Paris: McCain vetting missed another problem: Palin billed Alaska for sleeping in her own home

The Jed Report: Palin Billed State For Nights Spent In Her Own Home

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Bonus Bonus

Here's To You, Jane Hamsher!

Billie Holiday-Nice Work if You Can Get It (Live)