More detail on why Sarah Palin parted is supplied by an ace political reporter. John Fund's WSJ piece today fills out the picture of what harassment did to her ability to govern. If in 9 months since being nominated for VP, Governor Palin was hit with 150 FOIA requests and 15 bogus ethics complaints costing her $500k to date (1 or 2 more are pending), in the remaining 18 months of her term, using simple arithmetic, by staying in office Governor Palin would face 300 more FOIA and at least 30 more ethics complaints costing her at least $1M of money not reimbursed by the state. Now factor in that Palin must pay with after-tax income and that she will be in the top bracket of Obama Tax Land.
Alaska law does not pick up the tab even when the complaint is baseless and the target exonerated. Add to that insults directed at even her pre-teen children and you get the picture. As Fund notes, Palin had been considering resigning for months due to the ethics harassment, even curtailing public appearances because they would trigger harassment. Palin herself is, of course, fair game, but would Letterman have gotten away describing any Democratic female as having that "slutty flight attendant look"?
Bottom Line. Governors need not commit financial or familial reputational suicide to stay in office.
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