RAGGEDY PALIN

Today Sarah Palin spoke out in defense of the $250,000 wardrobe the Republican Party had so generously bestowed on her. She stood at the microphone, feisty as hell, and told the adoring crowd how she was glad to be able to clear the air concerning this ridiculous news story. Palin then preceded to let everyone know that the clothes she was wearing were from a small thrift shop in Alaska, then started a lovely soliloquy about her wedding ring, which her husband had in his pocket because it sometimes hurt when she was shaking hands with her admirers. It cost her $35 and she bought it herself. She figured it wasn't the ring but the love it symbolized that mattered. It was a three hanky performance if I ever heard one. But that story, as touching and lovely as it was, never explained the $250,000 worth of stuff the Republican Party gave her and her family.

Everyone who's asked about Palin's expensive new wardrobe acts annoyed, and says, "It's all going to charity." That's not an explanation. Why was the stuff given to her in the first place? And if Palin preferred her respectable Republican cloth coat why didn't she say so when they were delivering all those boxes to her hotel room, or when the hair stylist and professional makeup people came knocking? And who did the shopping? I was intrigued when a top McCain aide said a third of the items were already returned because they were the wrong size. Palin isn't that ignorant. She knows her own dress size. Who was sifting through the racks on her behalf? It wasn't McCain, he's dressed for monotony. Could it be that standing beside Cindy McCain, who's always stylishly, and expensively dressed and coiffed, made Palin look a little like, well, Joe The Plumber? Perhaps Cindy McCain tried to help Raggedy Palin out by shopping for her? Ugrade her style? Palin should feel insulted. This should make her realize that the party she belongs to isn't interested in Joe The Plumbers, they just need their votes. The Republican Party looks down on common people, they despise the Democrats for actally caring about them. Republicans think they're aristocrats, and Palin will shrug off the insult, because they've made her feel she's been adopted by royalty. She's their little princess now, and there's no doubt in anybody's mind that she means to be Queen.