What do you think about this?
[QUOTE]ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. [/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088.html[/url]
FWIW, the article also harps on her for charging the state to tote around her family, but I honestly don't have much of a problem with that -- having the whole family appear at government functions is part and parcel of the deal, I think, and I don't know that it's fair to expect her to foot the bill for that. Going to give her the benefit of the doubt that this was travel related to state business.
Taking a travel allowance to stay at your own home, though? That's a little sketchy. Equally troubling, though, is the fact that she was at her own place [B]312 nights[/B] in the first 19 months -- doing the math, that's over 50% of the time. And by the way, take a look at a map -- it isn't like when she's home, she's a couple of hours away or something. Wasilla is about the same distance from Juneau as Washington DC is from Crawford, TX, if you catch my drift. I realize that when you're an executive level official, you can basically do your job from anywhere, but working from home more than 50% of the time [B]and[/B] charging the state for the privilege? Pretty sweet deal, IMO.