What’s driving you crazy?

Darn that ol’ “gotcha” media. What’s “Sarah Saks Pack” to do?  She’s got to manage all this “to do” over $150,000 in clothing and accessories for her and her family at posh stores such as Nieman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, plus trips to that bargain store Macy’s.

Dang it, a hockey mom’s got to look her best on Main Street.  You can’t have Joe the Plumber outdressin’ Sarah Saks Pack. What would they say in Wasilla?

Now all these troubles started with that pesky ol’ Politico (wouldn’tcha know it?).

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Source:  Politico

After all, all of Sarah Saks Pack’s clothes were for Alaska, don’t ya know?  She had to get new duds for her and the first dud dude.

Who hasn’t dropped $75,000 in one day’s shoppin’ at Nieman-Marcus?  It’s so much easier now that the Nieman’s chocolate chip cookie recipe was leaked to internet and we aren’t buyin’ all those expensive cookies.

Sarah Saks Pack turned to the Chicago Tribune for a shoulder to cry on.

“That whole thing is just, bad!” she said. “Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are.

“It’s kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported,” said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven’t even left the belly of her campaign plane.

Sourrce:  Chicago Tribune

Oh, sure, some people will say , “$150,000 worth of clothes and accessories for one week?  Isn’t that a bit excessive?”

Some unthinking folks will say, “Most of them haven’t left the belly of the campaign plane?  Don’tcha think she might have too many then?

“I mean you could sell half of them and get a pretty nice cabin somewheres.”

That’s just what those ol’ terrorists want you to think.

There is no Shoppin’-gate. Someone from the Republican Party sent someone out to buy all these things for Sarah and her family.  Then, someone else told her to wear them.

Like the good “maverick” she is, she did as she was told and didn’t ask questions.  After all, remember that good ol’ sayin’ in The Village - “Questions are a burden to others. Answers are a prison for oneself“.Ya know, I think that’s part of the GOP platform.  If it isn’t it sure oughtta be.  Sarah, you could use that in your speeches.

Now, they are fussin’ that a $13,200 campaign “communications consultant” turned out to be Sarah’s makeup artist, who actually made more than McCain’s makeup artist (You go, girl!  Oops!  Can we say that in this campaign?)  Darn that ol’ Washin’ton Post.  However, that is all old news from last month’s expenditures.

Finally, not that Shoppin’-gate wasn’t enough to put poor Sarah through, the durn ol’ New York Times has to get it’s oar in.  It says that Palin’s makeup artist - Amy Strozzi - got a raise and a new title.

Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”, was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records. The campaign categorized Ms. Strozzi’s payment as “Personnel Svc/Equipment.”

Source:  The New York Times

To top that off, the dang Times says Sarah Saks Pack’s makeup artist was paid more than Sen. McCain’s foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann.

To that, I can only say - “Oh, yeah?  Well, it shows!“