"Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home"

"Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel"

As part of their never ending quest to dig up some dirt on Sarah Palin, the Washington Post has dug up some scandalous news about her:
As Governor, she sometimes charged the state for her...travel expenses! And, horror of horrors: Per diems! For those who bothered to wade through this tempest in a teapot, at the bottom of the second page of a three page article was this gem:

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

She spends $370,000 a year less in travel than her predecessor, recoups more than Two MILLION dollars on a Plane to Nowhere, and the Post wants to bust her chops for sometimes taking her kids along with her at state expense?

Real Pork busters there at the Post!

As David Bernstein notes (and John Miller notes below), if you read the story carefully you learn that the per diem's she's sought are explicitly provided for under state law, she sought less reimbursement than she's entitled to, she sought less than her predecessor, and she also eliminated other expenses that her predecessor imposed on Alaska's taxpayers (e.g. a personal chef at the Governor's mansion). -Jonathan Adler

A little more for comparison:

... the governor's staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski's wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

via Jonah Goldberg

Hat tip The Corner
Cross Posted at Say Anything