Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sarah Palin tell-all written by ex-aide Frank Bailey promises 'revelations and insights' into ex-gov

Do you think a former staffer who was fired amid scandal would be a reliable source for a tell-all?

Yes, a person like that would be in a position to know things.
No, someone like that is only interested in revenge.

A one-time aide and friend is telling all about his soured relationship with Sarah Palin.

Frank Bailey's nearly 500-page opus, tentatively called "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of our Tumultuous Years," is based on 60,000 e-mails he exchanged with the then-governor of Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday.

Once a part of Palin's inner circle, Bailey joined her campaign for governor in 2006 as a campaign worker. He soon became an administration official and a close confidant before losing his position after the "Troopergate" scandal in 2008.

Among the claims made in the book, Bailey writes Palin told him in an e-mail that "I hate this damn job," referring to being governor of Alaska -- a job she held for less than two years before resigning in 2009.

Bailey, who worked on the book with two other writers, also claims the politician turned Fox News commentator's vindictiveness spoiled his once lofty view Palin.

"Sarah Palin had God's blessing and people's love and faith," he wrote, according to the Anchorage Daily News. But she had a dark side, "including the compulsion to attack enemies, deny truth, play victim and employ outright deception."

Bailey also claims to have been a close confidant to Palin’s husband, Todd, and writes that the two worked together to orchestrate "Troopergate," a scandal involving the effort to get Palin's ex-brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper.

Copies of Bailey's manuscript were leaked to reporters late last week, although it is unclear who sent them. Ken Morris, a California-based writer who worked with Bailey on the manuscript, said in an e-mail that the material is preliminary, subject to copyright protections and not authorized for use.

Morris, who told The Associated Press that he, Bailey and co-writer Jeanne Devon did "tons of research," said the book still has no publisher. Devon is a frequent critic of Palin who writes a blog in Alaska.

"Since leaving the Governor's office, Frank has been forced to reconsider his actions on Palin's behalf in terms of his deep Christian faith and his allegiance to her as the standard-bearer for the conservative causes he still champions," said the New York-based Carol Mann Agency, in an e-mail promoting the manuscript.

Mann also describes the manuscript as "the story of one man's slow drift from his most cherished beliefs and his ultimate redemption."

Michael Sheridan
NY DAILY NEWS

No comments: