Sarah Palin: Relentless scrutiny pushed her to exasperation

You haven't heard much about the release of over 34,000 pages of Sarah Palin's emails by the State of Alaska. Why? It looks like the emails disprove the criticisms heaped upon Sarah following her retirement from the Governorship. I'm sure that in all those emails there will be something the MSM will be able to distort. But as for now, hark, I hear the crickets chirping.

Excerpt: Just a few months after returning from the presidential campaign trail, a weary Sarah Palin shot off a 1 a.m. email to top colleagues in her office.

Flimsy ethics complaints were mounting, and the Alaska governor was feeling increasingly detached from her family. She faced mounting legal bills that only exacerbated the financial turmoil related to her family's travel.

"I'm just beat down on this one. I am tired. The opponents have succeeded on the drive towards our personal bankruptcy, and have divided my family," she wrote.

She finished the overnight email with a sobering conclusion: "One has to be single, wealthy, or corrupt to function in this political system."

The relentless examination and subsequent exasperation lingered for months after Palin's stint as a vice presidential candidate in 2008, and thousands of documents released by the state this week indicate that it ultimately drove her to leave political office.

Emails show that Palin remained engaged as governor in the issues of her day job, pushing for a natural gas pipeline, preparing speeches for civic groups, coordinating with the state's chief lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and even helping arrange a reception for football players at the governor's mansion. She said it was invigorating to directly speak to protesters holding a derogatory sign.

The treasurer of Palin's political action committee, Tim Crawford, said Thursday: "We encourage everyone to read the emails. They show a governor hard at work for her state."
But the documents also show her becoming increasingly distracted by the external issues tied to her newfound celebrity.

One of her political critics, trying to tout his own international experience in early 2009, parroted a "Saturday Night Live" line about Palin being able to see Russia from her house - a phrase that morphed from the governor's initial comment that Russia was visible from part of Alaska.

"Why does he suggest I said i could see russia from my house? I said u can see russia from Alaska, in trying to explain the proximity," she wrote to a staffer.

Despite it all, Palin's aides remained fiercely loyal to her. Randy Ruaro sent an email in July 2009 simply entitled "Thank you."

"I have been asked several times in the last few years why I work so hard. It's very, very easy to work hard for someone when you respect and believe in them," he wrote.

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