In a story about how, while Sarah Palin was mayor of the town, Wasilla, Alaska billed rape victims for needed evidence-gathering medical examinations. A Palin spokeswoman said that the governor "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test." "Gov. Palin's position could not be more clear," she said. "To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice." But, whether she "believed" in it or not, the Wasilla policy when she was mayor was to bill rape victims between $500 and $1200 for the needed exams. Some members of the Alaska state legislature were appropriately mortified, and the state passed a law forbidding it (given that it gained the attention of the state legislature, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that Mayor Sarah Palin didn't know about the policy that even her own state government was decrying, especially since the policy was initiated on her watch). In addition, her appointed police chief in fact decried the new law, calling it a "burden put on the taxpayer." So Palin's policy is exactly what her spokesman says it is. Palin does not "believe" that rape victims should have to pay for evidence gathering. But as mayor, her town had a policy that rape victims had to pay for evidence gathering, and her police chief complained when the state prevented the town from continuing the practice. A conflict of realities? Of course not -- since Palin doesn't "believe" in doing what she, in actual fact, did, that makes it all OK. In addition to being just another example of the McCain/Palin campaign lying about issue after issue -- in the full knowledge that everybody knows they're lying. Of course, it's something a bit more flagrant than even an lie -- it's a dismissal of facts that everyone can see, plainly, right in front of them. An Orwellian belief that denials of plain fact will create "new facts" that people will have to believe in, instead of the old. Add another lie to the pile, for a campaign that has been already called out extensively for all their other lies -- but doesn't care. Whatever happened to that guy John McCain?
Bevo I - the difference with your analogy is that as Mayor, Palin had the authority to promote a policy whereby the city paid for the investigative cost of the rape kit for women. The POTUS has no direct power over abortions. Even though the POTUS might not perform it, that does not prevent others from access. You analogy is off because the issue is about funding, not having a rape kit administered or not. Also, Wasilla under mayor Palin was either the only town or one of a couple in the entire state that did not pay for rape kits in the ER. So she was not in the mainstream. But yes, I'd be interested to hear her explain the discrepancy in what she supposedly upheld versus what she was forced to do by state mandate- if she ever gets asked more real questions in interviews. A woman who purports to support women's health and safety who has the power allocate funds to do so, but is one of a few in the state who didn't ? btw, she billed taxpayers for more money to pay herself for staying at home than the cost of rape kits to taxpayers. Something else to chew on. .
