Hillary Designer: Palin Spending Strange
CBS News Investigative Producer Laura Strickler wrote this story for CBSNews.com.
CBS News has confirmed that the Republican National Committee spent up to $150,000 on what appears to be wardrobe and makeup spending at high end department stores for the GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
But one of the most famous political fashion designers of the year, Susanna Chung Forest, who designed Hillary Clinton's pantsuits says it would be unusual for a candidate as famous as Sarah Palin to need to buy clothes.
"Why do you need to pay for it?" Forest told CBS News from her boutique Susanna Beverly Hills saying that most designers would offer to clothe a candidate for free. "It's an honor, you are going to design for someone who could be the president of the United States," noting that the exposure any designer would get from dressing someone as famous as Clinton or Palin would be worth much more.
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this year that Senator Clinton's custom made pantsuits from Forest were worth about $6,350 a piece retail. Clinton's spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
The McCain campaign responded to the Palin wardrobe spending with the following statement, "With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it's remarkable that we are spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses. It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign," said spokesperson Tracey Schmitt.
Spending over a hundred thousand dollars on a wardrobe is a sharp bump since her days as governor. Matt Simon, reporter from the CBS News Anchorage affiliate says he jokingly asked the governor 'who she was wearing' for the inaugural ball and she responded that she didn't know. During an interview with KTVA soon after she was elected Palin told the station that her kids were bugging her to get some new clothes.
FEC officials say campaigns are allowed to spend on personal use items but it must be an item that "would exist irrespective if they were not a candidate or office holder", i.e. clothing, mortgage payments, country club fees, etc.
However, the political party (such as the Republican National Committee) can make coordinated expenditures with the candidate's campaign of up to $19.2 million dollars. The FEC says the possible outstanding question is: Are coordinated expenditures the same as if it were the campaign? The FEC tells CBS News that to determine this someone would have to file a complaint and then the FEC would investigate.
The Obama campaign says it has paid for hair and makeup costs for the Obamas and the Bidens associated with interviews or events but campaign officials say neither the campaign nor the Democratic National Committee(DNC) has paid for clothing.
A CBS News review of DNC and Obama campaign expenditures did not find any similar purchases.
By Laura Strickler
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. CBS News has confirmed that the Republican National Committee spent up to $150,000 on what appears to be wardrobe and makeup spending at high end department stores for the GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
But one of the most famous political fashion designers of the year, Susanna Chung Forest, who designed Hillary Clinton's pantsuits says it would be unusual for a candidate as famous as Sarah Palin to need to buy clothes.
"Why do you need to pay for it?" Forest told CBS News from her boutique Susanna Beverly Hills saying that most designers would offer to clothe a candidate for free. "It's an honor, you are going to design for someone who could be the president of the United States," noting that the exposure any designer would get from dressing someone as famous as Clinton or Palin would be worth much more.
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this year that Senator Clinton's custom made pantsuits from Forest were worth about $6,350 a piece retail. Clinton's spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
The McCain campaign responded to the Palin wardrobe spending with the following statement, "With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it's remarkable that we are spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses. It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign," said spokesperson Tracey Schmitt.
Spending over a hundred thousand dollars on a wardrobe is a sharp bump since her days as governor. Matt Simon, reporter from the CBS News Anchorage affiliate says he jokingly asked the governor 'who she was wearing' for the inaugural ball and she responded that she didn't know. During an interview with KTVA soon after she was elected Palin told the station that her kids were bugging her to get some new clothes.
FEC officials say campaigns are allowed to spend on personal use items but it must be an item that "would exist irrespective if they were not a candidate or office holder", i.e. clothing, mortgage payments, country club fees, etc.
However, the political party (such as the Republican National Committee) can make coordinated expenditures with the candidate's campaign of up to $19.2 million dollars. The FEC says the possible outstanding question is: Are coordinated expenditures the same as if it were the campaign? The FEC tells CBS News that to determine this someone would have to file a complaint and then the FEC would investigate.
The Obama campaign says it has paid for hair and makeup costs for the Obamas and the Bidens associated with interviews or events but campaign officials say neither the campaign nor the Democratic National Committee(DNC) has paid for clothing.
A CBS News review of DNC and Obama campaign expenditures did not find any similar purchases.
By Laura Strickler
Palin was doing a real job in Alaska till the week of the convention! She needed suitable clothes, makeup, etc in a hurry. GOP donors paid for it, not taxpayers!
I hope she takes this head-on, offering to release details of the rack cost of her wardrobe vs the rack cost of Obama''s -- as soon as he releases his small donors list, other sought records, and his birth certificate!
RE: your comment that The McCain/Palin ticket AND their supporters have been insulting and calling names since day one! Muslim ,a lie, kill him, lie about his tax programs, ..etc
Sorry, Charlie. Those are JUST THE FACTS! As the adopted child of his mother''s second husband in Indonesia and a child who was registered in school as "muslim" and who visited Pakistan as an adult in the 1980s with an Indonesian passport, I THINK IT IS SSAFE TO SAY THAT IF HE IS NOT A MUSLIM SNOW , HE WAS THEN. close enough for me to disqualify him ( and go ahead, call me prejudiced.)
RE: "kill him," the news story was a lie, repudiated by 20 US Secret Service agents on site who said publically that IT NEVER HAPPENED.
RE: His tax programs include a sleight of hand that calls a "tax credit" a "tax cut" and which amounts to welfare handouts to losers who don''t pay taxes to begin with.
As for child molesters protection ... you''ve got me. What is the claim exactly? But I know for a fact that Barrack sanctions infanticide so protecting child molesters isn''t much a stretch. I need more info.
And add this to list: SOCIALIST (and I do not mean "code" for BLACK, either. Sorry, but all the socialists on the world stage for the last 75 years are WHITE. Name calling, on the other hand, would sound something like, "Mother-----ing SOCIALIST." Nobody is saying that.
Acorn was the victim of their own stupid quota system. They paid the poor by the hour and "suggested" (quota) that about 14/day would be acceptable.
If you''ve ever registered voters in districts that are being combed by many political organizations at once, during a hectic political season, you see that the region quickly becomes saturated. They should''ve known that once their cash paid, low income, workers were striking out they might resort to fudging the forms.
The fact that the Acorn employees registered fake names like Mickey Mouse and John Q.Public, in no way comes close to voter fraud! The Irony is that Acorn, in a way, is the one who was defrauded. But, by being that stupid, they deserve it.
This crime is being committed by persons filling out voter cards, not ACORN itself. This fraud could be committed by persons either using any other voter recruitment organization or NOT USING ONE AT ALL! and just sending their voter applications directly in to the government. ACORN is not necessary to facilitate this fraud.
The worst part of the Acorn affair is that the disgusting, Anti-American, Voter Suppressing, Civil Rights destroying GOP is able to lie and use this to their advantage.
After Kathleen Harris & Co. purged tens of thousands of legitimately registered voters in Florida In 2000 (An election Gore "lost" by less than 270 votes), the GOP will try to claim that this is the reason McCain is going to loose in a landslide election. Sick Irony...
httpwwwnews - you aren''t still on about his birth certificate being faked, are you? Even the conspiracy theorists have given up on that one. According to it, his birth name was indeed Barack, not Barry - although I believe "Barry" may have been a nickname as a child.
Fact checking is a good thing.
Just want to say thanks for calling me a loser who doesn''t pay taxes. As an injured nurse who by the way took care of many illegal aliens who didn''t have to pay for health care but I who was injured on the job have been hassled by my employer through the workman''s comp case. I just have to say thanks for that. I who am a mother of a 16 year old girl who is in her first year of college and a 13 year old boy who is just having a rough time making ends meet. I guess Joe the Plumber is doing better than I the nurse..... But what the hey, lets give those who are making 250K the breaks because I am just scum who doesn''t deserve any help because I am a loser? I am one who believes in giving a helping hand to my brothers and sisters who are in need. Thanks for the "welfare".