Frank Bailey's Manuscript, 'Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin', Leaked

NOTE: Some of the articles at the Alaska Dispatch links have disappeared. This morning, the links were changed, so I updated them. A short while later, a login was required. Later, hitting the links brought up an "Access Denied" page. I'll check, later, to see whether the Alaska Dispatch posts have been moved or restored. The links to articles at other news outlets still appear to be working (1400 PST of February 21, 2011). 1615 PST: The Alaska Dispatch story about the leak is available again; however, it is not the original story.

NOTE: We have another post about the leaked manuscript, here.


Frank Bailey was a key aide to former governor Sarah Palin. He has written a book -- unpublished -- about his time with Palin while she was governor. The book's manuscript was leaked to Alaska Dispatch, which posted "'Tell-all' book by ex-Palin aide leaked to media:"

[We have removed the excerpt of Alaska Dispatch's original story about the leak after reviewing Alaska Dispatch's response to the legal firm that represents the manuscript's co-authors.]

There may be more at the Alaska Dispatch website; see the link, above. They consider this to be a developing story, so they may be updating it.


Updates: Alaska Dispatch has updated with information about how the manuscript came into their hands.

Today: Book News, at NBC, has a story, via Anchorage's KTUU; they have indicated that there will be updates.

The Anchorage NBC affiliate's website is KTUU.com. KTUU's current story is here.

The Anchorage Daily News has a politics blog, which has several posts, here.

Alaska's Andrew Halcro, who ran against Palin in 2006, writes in his blog that Bailey's book validates everything he has written about Palin.

Gryphen has posted "The Leak of Frank Bailey's Book."

The AP has posted a story, "Aide planning tell-all about time with Palin."

Mudflats has a post by one of the authors collaborating on Bailey's book: "Frank Bailey's Memoir Leaked to Press (and a surprise)."

Alaska Dispatch has posted "Frank Bailey: Sarah Palin knowingly broke election law."

Alaska Dispatch has posted "Why did Palin name a pro-choice judge to the Alaska Supreme Court?"


Update of Saturday morning, February 19, 2011:

Sean Cockerham and Kyle Hopkins of The Anchorage Daily News write:

A leaked manuscript by one of Sarah Palin's closest aides from her time as governor charges that Palin broke state election law in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned.

The unpublished book by Frank Bailey was leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday.

The manuscript opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying "I hate this damn job" shortly before she resigned as Alaska's governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four-year term. The manuscript goes on for nearly 500 pages, a mixture of analysis, gossip and allegation.

Copies of the manuscript were forwarded around Alaska political circles on Friday. The Daily News received copies from multiple sources, the first from author Joe McGinniss, who is working on his own Palin book. McGinniss didn't respond to a message asking where he obtained the manuscript and the reason he circulated it. ...

There is much more at the Daily News' article by Cockerham and Hopkins.

The Daily News' political blog, here, continues to be updated. It includes Becky Bohrer's AP article, along with posts about an "obsession" with punishing Mike Wooten (Sarah Palin's former brother-in-law), about the making of an "illegal" campaign ad (with video), and about Frank Bailey becoming "Todd's go-to guy."


Update of Monday morning, February 21, 2011:

At Mudflats, one of the manuscript's co-authors has posted a letter from the co-authors to Joe McGinniss. The letter claims that McGinniss has violated copyright law and impaired the authors' ability to market the manuscript: "Say it Ain’t So, Joe! Co-Author of Leaked Palin Book Speaks Out." Joe McGinniss is the author of Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, which, after several delays, is now scheduled to be published on September 20, 2011.

The NY Daily News has "Sarah Palin tell-all written by ex-aide Frank Bailey promises 'revelations and insights' into ex-gov."

The Washington Post has "Ex-aide slams Palin in leaked manuscript."

ABC News has "Sarah Palin Bashed in Former Aide's Leaked Manuscript."

CNN has "Report: Ex-aide slams Palin in leaked book."

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan has "More Scoop On Palin: Her Reliable Media Mouthpieces. Sullivan writes: "[...] Bailey was as close to the Palins as anyone from Palin's first race for governor to the bitter end, is a rock-ribbed Fox News Republican, has vast amounts of firsthand data (the emails he has published alone reveal a lot), has contempt for Trig skeptics like yours truly, and comes to a simple conclusion in retrospect: Palin is a dangerous, vindictive, incompetent, congenital liar who has no business in any public office. Any publisher interested in the truth about Palin (Harper Collins therefore need not apply) should fight to publish it." Yes, it is a simple conclusion -- long overdue -- and it's good to see that Sullivan realizes that "Trig skepticism" misses the mark: there were and are real, verfiable issues about Palin's fitness for office. "Trig skepticism" is a Palin-circus sideshow that helps Palin more than it hurts her.

Tom Kavanagh of Politics Daily has served up: "As Governor, Palin Allegedly Told Aide: 'I Hate This Job'." Kavanagh states, concerning "Troopergate:" "The Alaska State Personnel Board investigated the matter and ruled that Palin did not violate state ethics laws;" however, a bi-partisan panel of the Alaska legislature found differently (re: Branchflower).

Sarah Palin Just One of The Boys: Simply Unqualified

Scott Conroy of Real Clear Politics has written "Female Vote Could Prove Decisive for Palin." The article is about how Sarah Palin might fare in Republican primaries, not the general election. Before writing the article, Conroy spoke with Andrew Halcro, who ran against Palin in 2006:

On a late night during the 2006 Alaska gubernatorial campaign, Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles and Republican-turned-independent candidate Andrew Halcro found themselves sitting next to each other in an exit row on an Alaska Airlines flight back to Anchorage following a debate in Fairbanks.

Halcro and Knowles had a friendly relationship, which was cultivated in part by both men's shared sense of exasperation over their inability to put a chink in the invisible armor that seemed to shield their Republican opponent, the former mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin.

While the two men were making small talk on the flight, Halcro, who ended up finishing third in the race, asked Knowles what was the most surprising indicator he found in his campaign's internal polling.

According to Halcro, Knowles replied that he was most astonished by how well Palin performed among well-educated women, and, perhaps more importantly, with moderate to liberal women.

"But that time has passed," Halcro told RealClearPolitics. ...

... Halcro, who has remained one of the most vocal Palin critics in Alaska, said that he did not prepare any differently in debating Palin simply because she was a woman and insisted that her record as governor of raising taxes on the oil industry and implementing a gas pipeline deal that has uncertain prospects for success will overshadow any built-in advantage she might have among women.

"I think she's going to get treated like one of the boys," Halcro said. "The debates are one thing, but I think you have to portray her as just simply unqualified." ...

The 2006 gubernatorial debates were covered by The NY Times and Christian Science Monitor during the 2008 presidential campaign. The Times wrote:

... Her [Palin's] debating style was rarely confrontational, and she appeared confident. In contrast to today, when she seems unversed on several important issues, she demonstrated fluency on certain subjects, particularly oil and gas development.

But just as she does now, Ms. Palin often spoke in generalities and showed scant aptitude for developing arguments beyond a talking point or two. Her sentences were distinguished by their repetition of words, by the use of the phrase “here in Alaska” and for gaps. On paper, her sentences would have been difficult to diagram.

John Bitney, the policy director for her campaign for governor and the main person who helped prepare her for debates, said her repetition of words was “her way of running down the clock as her mind searches for where she wants to go.” ...

And the Christian Science Monitor's article, written by Halcro:

When he faces off against Sarah Palin Thursday night, Joe Biden will have his hands full.

I should know. I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do. ...

What to do? Don't panic. It's likely that there will be many debates during the Republican primaries. There will be several governors running for the nomination. Their records will be compared and discussed at the debates. What will Republican primary voters think when they find out that "Governor" Palin's record as governor isn't what she has since said and written she did as governor? Many Republican voters will ask, "Was Sarah Palin really Governor of Alaska?"

Our post, "The Story is in The Story" may be a starting point for examining Palin's record as governor and the discrepancies between her record and what she has written on Facebook about her record.

You can read about Biden's strategy for the 2008 VP debate in Game Change. The story begins on page 405, and you can use Amazon's Look Inside! feature to read it, if you have an Amazon account. Search for far-off Delaware.