Sarah Palin is the Easter Bunny.
22 07 2009“A thorn in Governor Palin’s side.” That’s how the latest article in Vanity Fair describes Andree McLeod.
In government ethics, you can be on one side or the other – the side of the government, or the side of the people. Governments tend to want to conceal, and the governed tend to want to find out what is being concealed. It’s human nature. Considering the apathy of most people when it comes to holding their government accountable, we should all be raising a glass to Andree McLeod. In many ways, she’s doing our job. That’s not to say that she’s perfect. None of us are. But in a state where government officials tend to sink to the level of the ethics they are permitted to have, it’s nice that someone has decided to try to raise the bar a little.
There’s a piece of common wisdom that tells us we are where we are because the perfect conditions existed to bring it about. If that is true, Alaskans have allowed the perfect conditions to exist to allow a whole lot of political corruption. But, do we really want to pore over documents, park ourselves in front of Gavel to Gavel for 90 days, read the newspaper every day, request public records, enter into dialog with our legislators, curl up at night with a copy of the Alaska State Ethics statutes? Hardly.
But, once in a while, you find someone who actually does it.
If Rod Blagojevich, or George W. Bush, or Mark Sanford had had their very own “thorn” like Andree McLeod, we might all be better off. Being a thorn can sometimes be a thankless job. There are no parades and flowers for the very very few who choose to hold their elected officials accountable.
Let’s face it, there are a lot of people who really want to like Sarah Palin. And if the image she liked to portray was true, heck, I’d almost like her myself. The bottom line is that reality is painful, and when we are faced with evidence that our scrappy “golden girl” from rural Alaska, who took it to the good ol’ boys, and lives and breathes trying to do what’s right for America is actually something far far less… well, it’s sad.
[TOOTH FAIRY/EASTER BUNNY SPOILER ALERT!!]
I remember as a kid when I found out about The Tooth Fairy. I came straight out and asked the big question. And my mom was always one to give a straight answer. “Honey, it’s a beautiful story that parents like to tell their kids because they want them to be happy.” I was floored. Then came the kicker… “Same thing with the Easter Bunny.”
You can imagine a very small me, who had barely wrapped my little mind around the Grand Tooth Fairy Conspiracy, being told that the most magnificent, delightful notion I could dream of; a 4-foot tall brown glossy rabbit, with a blue satin bow around his neck that gazed at me while I slept, and gave me such wonderful treats, was a myth. It was all a lie. I had been so foolish. I had lost something I loved – something that I never had to begin with. I burst into tears, and my poor mother couldn’t quite figure out why the kid who took the tooth fairy news pretty well, would suddenly dissolve. “There is too an Easter Bunny!” I cried. “No, honey, there isn’t,” said my mom with her eyes full of bemused pity. “YES THERE IS!” I ran red-faced into my room and threw myself on the bed.
Such it is with Sarah Palin, and those who love her. Andree McLeod is like my mom. She doesn’t candy-coat it, and she feels compelled to tell the truth, and to give Palin fans a little more information than they can comfortably handle. And then give them more. They’re old enough to take it, and they need to know. It’s easier for them to get mad at her, than to accept the fact that there is no Easter Bunny, there is no “Mrs. Conservative Smith Goes to Washington” in their future. There is no shiny, glossy, uncorruptable Sarah Palin with a blue satin bow to gaze at them and be perfect.
And so, McLeod will continue. She is on a mission, like it or not. Instead of putting all her Easter eggs in the basket of one person, she puts them in the process – the shining perfect ideal of ethics. Is she perfect? No. Neither is the process, nor anyone who will ever be held accountable by it. And we are left to take from it the uncomfortable truth, no matter how much we don’t want to see it.
{The Open Thread is still active for off-topic posts! Thanks.}
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 PM
Andree Mcleod, stand up and take a bow. We applaud your courageous activisim in rooting out the moose sh*t Sarah has been dumping on Alaska and the rest of the lower 48’s. You are a true Alaskan heroine.
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 PM
Oh, no they Diddddddn’t…lol. Did someone float a big fat farter and say they didn’t talk to Sarah about setting it up?!!!! I’m on the floor laughing so hard.
Time for court….let’s call them lies where thems lays (lies?)
I’m gonna have to take my belt off and spank someone…lol
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:36 PM
No Easter bunny? I am so shocked, and Sister Scarah caught in another lie? Where will it all end?
Seriously thanks Mudflats, and Andree for never dropping the ball and keeping us informed.
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:43 PM
Don’t have time to read all the comments, but still want to join with Watching from New Jersey and everyone else in thanking Andree Mcleod. And thank you, AKM, for wrapping the story in that apt metaphor. I hope that those of us who invested our “Easter Bunny” trust in President Obama have an easier letdown when it comes. I don’t mean in the least to imply equivalence, only that avoiding disaster is not salvation. He needs to be cut some slack because he is a politician in the real world, and because he is a politician in the real world, we need to carefully watch how much slack is cut.
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:32 PM
I recall 15 or so years ago I got on the wrong side of Bill Bobrick – yes, one of the VECO scandal convictees – who happened to be one the board of STAR, the Anchorage “Standing Together Against Rape” group who purported to do so well about RAPE in Alaska. While he negotiated with me on my issue (not related) Andree McLeod was testifying to the Anchorage Assembly about the horrific rise of Rape in Anchorage.
I learned then who was real and who was in it for himself.
I have been a fan of Andree McLeod since then, especially when she pisses off the “powers that be.”
I am grateful for Andree’s fearlessness, intestinal fortitude and persistence.
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:38 PM
FWIW
I will *never* stop believing in Santa Claus.
I keep in touch with the fairies, too.
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:26 AM
Yeah? Well MY mom says the Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny AND Santa Claus are REAL.
Where else would all those chocolate bunnies appear from? And the eggs? Who do you think decorates them all? IT’S THE EASTER BUNNY!
AKM’s mom must have been mistaken.
No Easter Bunny? Ridiculous and against all logic.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:23 AM
You know what? I believe that Mz. Palin has run up some credit card debt because she’s addicted to the high end fashion she became accustomed to on the RNC tab while on the McCain campaign trail.
I will bet that is what this is all about. Not her legal fees. Mz. Palin has become a high end shopaholic.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Hi.
I am watching and listening in Canada, and so very glad there are people who are willing to do the right thing. ALL of you are – you (AKM), Shannyn Moore, Andrew Halcro and others, but especially Andree McLeod.
Because you are quite right – it is a thankless job, and whistle blowers end up being the recipients of hate mail, persecution and more. MUCH more, generally, than those they attempt to hold up to scrutiny and make accountable. Especially in Alaska, where it seems that to get on the wrong side of the Palins is to invite a huge amount of grief and potential legal action.
It is particularly galling to me that Governor Palin – whatever happens to her vis a vis the ethics charges and all the other information that will (and HAS) come out – will land on her feet. As usual. There seems little justice in the fact that she stands to make millions for her book deal and speaking engagements. All for being a dishonest, opportunistic, narcissistic so-called “servant of the people” who did not deserve to rise as far as she has. That last is in quotes because I (and most people with brains and the ability to see through the smoke continually being sent up by Palin and her groupies) realized very early on that Sarah Palin serves Sarah Palin. If ordinary Alaskans and hell – let’s just throw it in for good measure, since she seems to want to be on the national stage – ordinary Americans, actually benefit from her actions on behalf of herself, it is a happy accident. Or so it would seem.
I applaud you all for persisting in your goal of making Palin – and hopefully, through example – other politicians accountable. I know it is not done lightly, nor without some degree of harassment to yourselves. And I know, too, that you do it not from spite but from the desire to make people “walk the walk” (as a famous Alaskan is famous for saying).
What business is all this of mine, when I am a Canadian? Do I just like watching train wrecks? No. I will tell you what business it is of mine. It is frustrating to see anyone profit from dishonesty and greed and self-centredness. But it is especially frustrating to see it in elected officials who hold themselves up to be champions of what is ethical and right. We have our own [rather mundane, I will admit] political scandals. As do other countries. But Governor Palin has the dubious distinction of being right up there among the world’s worst and blatantly crooked politicians we have seen in a long time. The global community is a small one; citizens of the global community ignore these things at their peril. But they also, happily, stand to learn much from others’ quest for transparency and decency and honesty.
You have done your fellow Alaskans and people the world round a favour.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to contribute my thoughts on your politics.
Nancy,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
July 23rd, 2009 at 4:16 PM
Celtic has posted an excellent explantion of the ethics process on her blog, sure made things clear for me !!
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:15 PM
Now you’ve done it, AKM! Ruined all future Easter Bunny chocolates by equating a vapid “also too” idjot with a happy set of childhood memories!
Phooey!
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:28 PM
PS: Has Celtic Diva/Linda actually received those $5500+ e-mails???
July 25th, 2009 at 7:59 PM
Utah – USA
Thank you Nancy, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. You nicely said
in your well written article what many of us have wanted to say
for a long time. I salute you for your honesty. May Andree
McLeod continue on with keeping people informed. We need more
people to speak up and fight for honesty and justice. The day will
come when Ms. Palin will have her day in court. Amen!