WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Federal Election Commission dismissed a complaint on Tuesday against the Republican Party for funding a $150,000 designer wardrobe for then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group that filed complaint, argued that political candidates aren't allowed to spend campaign donations on personal items like clothing. But the FEC dismissed the case on Tuesday, saying that the purchases were "coordinated party expenditures" because the Republican National Committee spent its own money alone on her wardrobe, and did not use donations made to the McCain-Palin campaign.
In the original complaint, CREW targeted over $150,000 spent at high-end stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus to outfit Palin and her family after she was picked as McCain's vice presidential nominee.
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"besides this, she's getting $5-7 million for her book"
And yet all the GOPer-base types complaining about how their taxes are spent will still donate their after-tax income on donating to her "defense fund."
Palin loves her country.
Michelle not so much.
@felonious monk
We do have someone unqualified in the White House and you are absolutely correct, it is scary. Scary as Hell.
Not just CREW ( although this complaint redefines petty and pathetic ), but these liberal rantings about Sarah Palin are so pathetic.
She's extremely bright, motivated, in-touch with things Americans are dealing with and I will be pleased to see her continuing strength in national government.
I think it's pretty telling that here was Sarah, a sitting govenor, who didn't ALREADY have an appropriate/proffesional wadrobe. I guess the RNC was afraid she'd emarrass them with her "hockey-mom" clothes. What they should have been more concerned about was the embarrassment factor every time she opened her mouth.
Who cares about Palin anymore, she's last months trash.
Until Palin takes her clothes off, anything about her is a non-story. Possibly with the exception of her being a contestant on 'Are you smarter than a 5th grader'. Who cares about SP, enough already!
@ Matt, who said "So exactly who is buying all of Michelle Obama's designer clothes? Ohh thats right they were donations. "
A. She buys her own...the DNC and campaign did not buy them for her. Remember: Obama made a ton of money writing his OWN books. I tend to doubt Ms. Sarah will be doing much more than providing crayola-scribbled notes on napkins for her ghost writer.
B. If a designer hands you a $40,000 piece of clothing and says "here, you can have this if you wear it...I love free advertising"...you generally don't refuse AND it has nothign to do with campaigning.
Still trying to make her look bad. We Republicans do not have to make Joe Biden look bad, he does pretty well on his own. Can you imagine the press if he were a Republican Veep?
So, where did those Republican party funds come from?
This complaint should have been dismissed many months ago.
I equate nice clothes on Palin as this. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.
@ LIZ, who said "Did she wear $550 Italian sneakers to a food bank like our Democratic First Lady did?"
Nope...she wore $1,000 boots while riling crowds of GOPers into racist, xenophobic, misinformed partisan frenzies until they screamed fairly horrifying things.
Do we really need to take a poll to figure out which of the two is a legit contribution to society?
CNN should quit picking on this poor lady. Sarah Palin scared us independents away from the Republican party and, I hope the Republicans don't think that we independents will forget 4 years from now that this woman actually believed that because she could see Russia from Alaska that had given her forgein policy experience.
If the Republians nominate Sarah Palin in 4 years. We independents will still be wondering if she believed that the dinosaurs roamed the earth 3,000 years ago
Well, let this be a $150,000 lesson to the RNC. You can dress up trailer trash, and she's still trailer trash. I don't really care who spent what in the RNC. If they want to toss their money away like this, more power to them. That's less money for them to spend on actual serious campaigning. Not that they would know what that actually is. It is absolutely hilarious that someone in the RNC thought a new suit of clothes or two would actually fool intelligent people into voting for Palin.
Lipstick on a pig doesn't begin to describe the foolishness that went on there. And the Republicans wonder why they're in so much trouble. Utter foolishness.
Really, bloggers-you can do better than this pile of nonsense commentary. Are you children trying to impress each other with how petty you can all be while hiding behind a userid?
Pretty pathetic behavior, isn't it?
Looking at her makes me sick to my stomach.
Ahhh...Republicans spent $150K to dress up Sarah, but the Democrats are going to spend twice as much making Michelle's hair look straight. Hey Dems, you can save us taxpayers some money if Michelle would just start looking more like a black woman...you know, stick with the 'FRO!!! Sorry but I just had to throw that in! LOL
Ron Paul 2012!!!
Look at it this way. They didn't spend any money that helped them win. So, who cares if the Senator's and Congressmen could have used it in their campaigns? Sarah said NO, just like everyone else in their party. I have to admit, though, she did look good. Even if she sounded like a...um...well...I don't know. But she sounded like it.
I thought due to complaints about her actions she donated all the clothing?
We should lead the way in reduction of nuclear weapons. We could drop a few small ones on the afghan/pakistan border, 2 or 3 on korea, and a couple on iran. That should show both the potential destructive power of nukes and our willingness to reduce our stockpile.
Obama Victim, I suspect you were a victim long before Obama came along.
To: Dutch/Bad News, VA.
Yes, and you can try to educate a pig but it's still a pig and knows nothing.
Lots of people on this board are like this.
At least Palin is extremely intelligent, and even if she wears Gucci, she is STILL EXTREMELY INTELLIGENT, a great deal smarter than some people on this board.
Your comment about Palin is disgraceful, shameless, distasteful and crude............not unlike a pig.
wow, mention Palin and all the people for Hope, Change and Uniting the Country sure show what they are really about. Talk about a bunch of hate mongers.
@ Ren from Baltimore, who said "Are you children trying to impress each other with how petty you can all be while hiding behind a userid? "
Hint: Parenting on a blog/commentary section is pretty pathetic too.
Let us have our funz!