Lawyer to retrieve Palin's clothes

Sarah Palin left the national stage Wednesday, but the controversy over her role on the ticket flared as aides to John McCain disclosed new details about her expensive wardrobe purchases and revealed that a Republican Party lawyer would be dispatched to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in her possession.
Tensions have simmered for much of the last month between aides loyal to McCain and those loyal to Palin, but they erupted in the wake of the Republican nominee's defeat, as both sides spoke freely — but anonymously — about the wardrobe controversy and other conflicts.
Two aides to McCain and two to Palin discussed the tensions but asked that their names not be revealed, saying they were not comfortable speaking openly about internal operations.
The miscommunication and quarrels between the two camps continued as late as Tuesday night, said McCain aides familiar with the situation. Palin arrived at the Arizona Biltmore planning to deliver her own speech before McCain's concession speech, they said, but was told by McCain's senior aides Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter that would not be appropriate.
Fox News reported Wednesday that Palin's lack of knowledge on certain topics also strained relations. Carl Cameron reported that campaign sources told him she had resisted coaching before her faltering Katie Couric interviews; did not understand that Africa was a continent, not a country; and could not name the three countries that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement — the United States, Canada and Mexico.
For weeks, the McCain-Palin campaign has been dealt with the fallout from the disclosure that the Republican National Committee was billed for $150,000 in wardrobe purchases for the Palin family — a discovery that was widely ridiculed and undercut Palin's hockey mom appeal.
Several McCain aides said they had recently discovered that Palin's traveling staff had used their personal credit cards to spend as much as $20,000 to $30,000 more on wardrobe items for Palin as she has campaigned around the country in recent weeks.
Palin and many of her aides were traveling back to Alaska Wednesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.
The original $150,000 in purchases was revealed in late October after the release of the September and October Federal Election Commission filings by the Republican National Committee. Those reports revealed that more than $75,062.63 was spent at Neiman Marcus, $49,425.74 at Saks Fifth Avenue and $5,102.71 at Bloomingdales around the time of the Republican National Convention in early September.
The campaign has said that many of those clothes were returned.
But McCain aides said Wednesday that spending on Palin's wardrobe continued well after the convention, with one custom-made outfit showing up around the time of her Saturday Night Live appearance Oct.
18.