Sarah Palin Palin said it was “cowardly” for people to criticize her conduct during the campaign anonymously. Palin allies: She's no diva

After enduring three days of brutal postmortem attacks, Sarah Palin and a group of Republicans who worked with her during the presidential race are pushing back hard against claims that she was a “diva” who helped tank John McCain’s campaign.

"I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr Pepper once in a while," Palin told reporters as she returned to the governor’s office Friday.


She said she “never forced anybody to buy anything for her” — a reference to the $150,000 in clothes and makeup the RNC purchased.

And, as the Associated Press reports, she lashed out at unidentified GOP sources who told Fox News that she didn’t know that Africa was a continent and couldn’t name the parties to NAFTA.

Palin said it was “cowardly” for people to make those charges anonymously.

The back-and-forth between Palin, her fans and her foes is a continuation of a feud that began even before the campaign ended, when Palin loyalists charged that she had been mishandled and her critics called her a “whack job” who was mostly out for herself. And it underscores the degree to which the No. 2 on the ticket continues to overshadow the principal.

Now, though, the stakes are even greater, as the conversation about who Palin is — and whether she helped or hurt the GOP’s prospects this year — shapes the party’s future, determining whether the suddenly famous 44-year-old becomes the party’s heir apparent, a cringe-inducing footnote or something in between.

The Republicans who worked most closely with Palin — the ones who were with her from when she first walked into that swooning Ohio basketball arena in August until she walked off the stage after McCain’s concession speech in Phoenix Tuesday — are now having their say in that conversation.

And they want it known that they’re sick of Sarah Palin being dragged through the mud.

“It’s depressing,” said Steve Biegun, a veteran foreign policy hand who tutored and staffed Palin and traveled with her through the fall. “We worked our asses off. It was a tough campaign. Then we have this?”

Biegun emphatically made the case for his much-maligned former boss.

“I think she was fantastic. She just brought a special energy to our ticket. Look, I was there at those rallies.”

Adds another former campaign aide: “You know what she did for us. She certainly solidified a hell of a lot of [previously unenthused Republicans].”

Without question, Palin offered McCain a boost of energy that he’d lacked since winning his party’s nomination. She gave the party’s base something to be excited about, nearly overnight drawing wildly enthusiastic crowds, more grassroots volunteers and a spike in small-dollar fundraising.

But she also wound up appealing less to supporters of Hillary Clinton and skeptics of President Bush than McCain aides had hoped; instead, she reinforced the ticket’s standing with voters already inclined to pull the Republican lever. And polls show that she actually turned off some of the moderate and independent voters she was picked, in part, to attract.

Still, she remains beloved by much of the GOP base, and top party officials are already predicting that she’ll be their top fundraising draw going into the 2010 cycle.

That she remains a player and may be the party’s nominee in four years would make it smart politics for Republican staffers to praise her in print. But those who went on the record suggest that they were doing so out of genuine affection for Palin and a sense that the image of her coming out of the election — that of a self-absorbed conniver — was not indicative of the person they knew.

“I’m appalled by it because Sarah Palin was one of nicest people I have ever had the chance to work with,” says Biegun, a former Bush NSC aide. “I’ve worked in Washington for 20 years, on the Hill, in the White House and in the private sector, and she ranks at the highest levels of decency, kindness and graciousness of anybody I’ve ever worked with.”

Biegun said Palin’s generous spirit was on clear display the final weekend of the campaign, after she was subjected to a prank call by a pair of French Canadian radio DJs imitating French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“I approved the call and was in abject horror of what I had done,” he recounted. “But she said, ‘Look, it’s not about whose fault this is, don’t beat yourself up, let’s just move on.’"

Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to McCain who helped on the Palin account early on, said Friday on NBC that the governor was “perhaps the most un-diva politician I've seen."

Twelve hours before Palin said all she’d ever asked for was a Diet Dr Pepper, Wallace told NBC: “The only thing I’ve seen her ask for is a diet soda.”

In an email, Wallace noted that Palin “drew huge crowds and excited and animated the Republican faithful.”

Another of Palin’s closest aides over the last two months, also fed up with the criticism, recounted a trying campaign — but insisted that the Alaska governor shouldn’t bear the blame.

“Gov. Palin was a breath of fresh air, particularly for those of us who've been living in the Washington bubble,” said Tracey Schmitt, the vice presidential nominee’s traveling spokeswoman and a veteran of the RNC and both Bush campaigns. “Because she is a working mom, she brought a real sense of perspective to the campaign trail, which was important.”

Schmitt said that Palin’s effort on McCain’s behalf was a dogged one — that she was completely devoted to helping the man who made her famous.

“She was tireless on the stump and would have shaken every hand on the rope line if there were time,” Schmitt recalled. “It was evident that this work ethic and enthusiasm was fueled by her sincere commitment to helping Sen. McCain get elected."

Two other McCain aides who were pressed unexpectedly into Palin duty also have only positive things to say about her now.

“One of the great developments of this campaign is the addition of Sarah Palin as a powerful and energetic new voice in American public life,” said Taylor Griffin, a McCain press aide who had been focusing on economic issues until he was dispatched to Alaska in late August. “She's smart, insightful, and has an uncanny ability to ask the right questions.”

John Green was McCain’s Capitol Hill liaison for much of the year but was quietly tasked this fall with helping Palin deal with some of her Alaska-related issues, spending significant time there and with her on the campaign trail.

“I thought she was an exceptional political person, but more than that an exceptional person,” Green said. “She’s in line with conservative principles and is an everyday Republican — what we’re going to have to find more if we’re going to get back to being a majority party.”

There is a reason, Green noted, why Palin had an 80 percent approval rating in Alaska.

As for the questions raised in recent days about her basic level of competence on policy issues, Biegun conceded that Palin couldn’t compare to Joe Biden’s 35 years of experience.

But, he said, they shouldn’t have tried to even bother.

“We kept falling into a resume matching contest,” Biegun lamented.