Sarah Palin's Designer Duds and Milk Duds...by Sybil Adelman Sage

To dress Sarah Palin and the Palinettes for campaign stops, the Republican party has spent over $150,000. In September $49,425.74 went to Saks Fifth Avenue with $75,062.63 dropped at Barney’s and Bloomingdale’s in New York and Macy’s in Minneapolis. Hair and make-up ran an additional $4,716.49. Whose hair stylist did they use anyway? John Edwards'?

Didn't this woman own clothes? What did she wear when Putin was flying over her house? Tina Fey could have lent her the red jacket she needs only on Saturday nights. Don’t the Republicans know what you can save at Century 21, Daffy’s and Loehmann’s? Why didn't the governor show them how to use e-bay? This party spends $150,000 to clothe someone for three months and wants us to trust them to restore the country's economy? They'd buy something new just to declare bankruptcy!

The "show, but don't tell" policy -- dressing up Sarah Palin so she can refuse to answer questions -- reflects the cynicism and insecurities of the party as well as our country's obsession with glamour. McCain proudly introduced his arm candy vice-president, and instead of having her briefed on the job description, allowed her to misstate the VP's responsibilities not once, but four times. Did they think that putting her in different designer duds and sexy pumps would obscure that after six weeks of campaigning, she still has no concept of what the VP does?

Fashiongate may not have been generated by Palin, but it coincides with the disclosure that the governor charged Alaska $21,012 for having her children accompany her to events where they hadn’t been invited, later amending the paperwork to show this was for official business. The charges included hotel and commercial flights for three daughters who joined her to watch Todd in a snowmobile race and a trip to New York, where she and Bristol spent four nights in a luxury hotel though she attended only one five-hour conference.

Alaskan law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children. Palin justified having the state pick up the tab by claiming the girls had been invited, which has been disputed by organizers saying they were surprised when the children showed up uninvited or that they'd agreed to a request by the governor to let the children attend.

Do Alaskan tax payers have the right to know how many Milk Duds these kids took out of mini-bars?