The Final Word on the Palin in Des Moines “Controversy”

By Shane Vander Hart, Caffeinated Thoughts

She’s not coming, but would like to in the future.  She’d also come for free.  Bryan English at the Iowa Family Policy Center just sent the following press release:

10/30/09 Pleasant Hill, IA - Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION received word this morning that Governor Sarah Palin is unable to accept our speaking invitation due to her book tour contractual commitments, which cannot be changed.

We extended our invitation knowing she would be in the middle of her book tour and the chances of her being able to accept any invitations were extremely slim.

She has asked if she could speak at a future mutually agreeable date. She will not accept any fees for her appearance.

That seems to put the controversy created by Politico’s Jonathan Martin yesterday to bed.  Speaking of the asinine article that Jonathan Martin wrote, Emily Geiger at The Iowa Republican notes some background on those who talked with Jonathan Martin:

And, Jonny had lots of completely impartial sources who were happy to comment and help him “cobble together” an eleven-hundred word story.

Oh, those sources… they were so shocked at this (unconfirmed) unprecedented occurrence. How dare political operatives get paid obscene amounts of money. And speaking of politicos getting paid obscene amounts of money, Jonny went to a very knowledgeable source on that particular issue, Ed Failor, Jr., of Iowans for Tax Relief fame.

Hey Ed, how much were you paid by the Pataki campaign only to end up submarining it when you had a change of heart and decided McCain was your man? Oh well, at least Ed refrained from calling Palin a jackbooted Nazi, so he did show some self-restraint.

Jonny also got some inside info from David Kochel, who was a top aide to former (and future) presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

Hey Dave, didn’t I just read a story about how Mitt Romney tried to buy off the Iowa Christian Alliance? I heard you helped facilitate that little scheme. And somehow you are shocked at the thought of a well-known political figure (who very likely isn’t running for president) getting paid a speaker’s fee for (gasp) a public speaking appearance?

Another of Jonny’s sources was the Iowa Christian Alliance’s Steve Scheffler, who is totally impartial given that he runs a competing organization which is dealing with its own scandal.

And then we’ve got Tim Albrecht quoted. He was the Iowa spokesman for Romney’s 2008 caucus campaign.

Hmmm… Between Kochel and Albrecht, this sounds suspiciously like yet another case of former Romney staffers “going rogue” and badmouthing their meal ticket’s perceived competition.

I’m sure that it was completely coincidental.

Updates can be found here.

Shane Vander Hart is the editor of Caffeinated Thoughts.  Feel free to follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

New York post doesn't understand speaking engagements... it seems.

by Upinak
www.thepalination.com

When you know you are in a losing streak, you take out your opponent via the knees right?


Well the New York Post, a liberal rag of mindless entertainment, decided to write a “I Hate Palin because I don’t think she can sell herself and I think she is dumb” article again. I think that the New York Post and their writers are scared that they are losing money… and have to print this drivel to get some money in.

What cracks me up is how the NY Post is just frothing at the mouth concerning the speaking circuit and the amount of one hundred thousand (100,000) per speaking engagement, which if you think about it really isn’t that much.

Per NY Post:

Palin's bookers are said to be asking for $100,000 per speech, but an industry expert tells Page Six: "The big lecture buyers in the US are paralyzed with fear about booking her, basically because they think she is a blithering idiot."

Now, seeing this, we all understand that speaking engagements are going to “cost”. But if you book a building, with around 1500 seats would be about 67.00 a piece. BUT since you have to have money to rent the building which could be 25,000 for a day, which would cost in the amount of 17.00, I don’t see how this would be a problem? People pull out 100 dollars for just about anything anymore. So charging 100 to 150 dollars per speaking engagement, per person really isn’t that bad.

Also, let us talk about Speaking Engagements that include a nice dinner. Everyone knows you buy the plate before hand for whatever speaking engagement it is. So let’s say you want to hear Sarah at one of these. It is all priced out via the building it would be in, the price of employees, food and set up as well as the strip down and the speakers cost as well as the commission. Well we have all seen these types of dinners where you can pay up and including ten thousand (10,000) dollars per plate! So a room for 500 people. You have 100,000 for speaker, 50,000 for food and service, 15,000 to rent facility. So round it up to 200,000 thousand for cost of all and the cost of the plate for the Dinner Speaking Engagement is a whopping 500.00 dollars per person!

Whoa. I think the New York Post should have thought this through before they typed their smear article out.