Palin: 9 Weeks, 3 Stylists, $165,000

New campaign finance reports indicate that Republicans spent the kind of money on Sarah Palin that Hollywood studios spend on A-list actresses for Hollywood premieres or publicity campaigns.  The period of October 16 to November 24 shows significant purchases on Palin’s behalf, way beyond the $150,000 already reported that was spent at high-end luxury stores.  Approximately $23,000 in additional charges were spent at stores like Saks, Neiman Marcus, Victoria’s Secret, Brooks Brothers, among others.  And more than $165,000 was spent on three stylists during that period.

The new filings also showed that the McCain campaign paid Lisa L. Kline, a New York stylist who appears from campaign finance records to have been Ms. Palin’s fashion consultant, $54,900 in mid-October.

[…]

A former McCain campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity to give a candid account of private matters in the campaign, said that after Ms. Palin expressed interest in help from a stylist, she was referred to Ms. Kline by Nicolle Wallace, a senior communications aide for the campaign. Ms. Wallace did not return a call seeking comment.

Two Hollywood stylists, each of whom works with leading actresses but asked not to be identified because of their clients’ wishes, said Ms. Kline’s fee seemed excessively high.

[…]

Ms. Palin’s traveling hair stylist, Angela Lew, was paid $42,615, which works out to about $750 a day over two months. John Barrett, who owns a hair salon in New York that bears his name, said his day rate to work with a star or a V.I.P. was $5,000, a figure that was consistent with other top hairdressers’.

“For someone like Nicole Kidman or Jennifer Lopez, that’s reasonable,” Mr. Barrett said of the fee.

I thought it was the Democrats who Republicans always accuse of going Hollywood.  To be fair, it appears that most expenses were dictated by the campaign, not by Palin herself.  But it shows how out of touch they were, displaying a mindset that lead to their defeat.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.