Ex-aide slams Palin in leaked manuscript

By Emi Kolawole



Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

A leaked, unfinished manuscript by a former aide to Sarah Palin claims the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate broke state election law during her 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that Frank Bailey, a former Alaska Airlines supervisor who joined Palin's 2006 gubernatorial campaign, has been working on a memoir titled "In Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of our Tumultuous Years" with California author Ken Morris and Jeanne Devon, publisher of the anti-Palin Web site Mudflats.

Bailey, who has never been interviewed publicly following his work with Palin, reportedly provides details of some of the 60,000 e-mails he sent to or received from Palin, including an e-mail in which then-governor Palin wrote "I hate this damn job." The Daily News goes on to report that the manuscript, more than 500 pages long, was supplied to the news organization by multiple sources, first by author Joe McGinniss, who is writing his own book critical of Palin.

Literary agent Carol Mann of the Mann Agency in New York wrote to the Daily News saying the manuscript was "not a finished draft and there isn't a pub date yet!" Devon also posted to her blog Friday writing:

The draft manuscript has apparently been leaked to the media without the knowledge or permission of any of the authors, or the literary agents. We on this end are shocked and horrified that this has happened, but the toothpaste is out of the tube as they say. So, now there's a little intrigue added to this story, which we certainly would not have chosen, and the consequences of which are yet to be known.

In that post Devon also posted a quote from co-author Ken Morris:

"One thing I'd like to be very clear about is that the leak was not in any way approved, and the team will protect our rights in the material to the fullest extent of the law. We will seek all legal recourse available against those responsible and those that continue the unauthorized spread of the content."

The Daily news reports that Bailey details claims of illegal actions on the part of Sarah Palin during her 2006 campaign, claiming Palin coordinated with the Republican Governors Association -- something candidates are not allowed to do under election law. Bailey also reportedly writes that Palin's husband Todd Palin asked him if he had thought of serving as Palin's chief of staff.

Bailey goes on to write of his disillusionment after his involvement in the "Troopergate" scandal, an investigation as to whether Palin had abused her power as governor when she dismissed public safety commissioner Walt Monegan. A state legislative investigator found Palin had abused her executive power in the case.

(Source: The Anchorage Daily News)