Of all the stories and rumors swirling about Soap Opera Sarah Palin, the one about her selling a jet on eBay is one of the least significant. But it’s important because, along with the story about opposing the Bridges to Nowhere, it formed part of her introduction…her Creation Story for a national audience. And, just like her account of her position on the Bridges to Nowhere, her story about the eBay jet is so misleading as to border on fiction.
The Chicago Tribune: Palin claim on eBay plane sale doesn’t fly
The Washington Post: Governor’s Plane Wasn’t Sold on Ebay
“You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor, and sold it on eBay — and made a profit!” McCain declared in Wisconsin at a campaign stop Friday.
She listed it on eBay but it didn’t sell. It was sold in the ordinary way, through a broker. And it was sold at a loss.
In fact, the jet did not sell on eBay. It was sold to a businessman from Valdez named Larry Reynolds, who paid $2.1 million for the plane — shy of the $2.7 million purchase price — according to news reports at the time. Reynolds contributed to Palin’s campaign in 2006.
So, one of her campaign contributors bought the jet and received a steep discount. But, you might be asking yourself, isn’t it a good thing that she sold the jet and rid Alaska of this ridiculous extravagance? Well, that’s a mixed story. Alaska is huge…much bigger than Texas. Air travel is not a luxury for a governor of such a large state. But, more to the point, the jet wasn’t just some toy.
Also, while Palin characterized the plane as an extravagance of former Gov. Frank Murkowski, who arranged for its purchase in November 2005, the plane saw heavy use transporting Alaskan convicts.
Alaska does not have adequate prison capacity and contracts for space with a private facility near Phoenix. On Thursday, 24 percent of the 4,546 Alaskans in jail or in prison were serving their time at Arizona’s Red Rock Correctional Center, said a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Corrections.
When the state first began using the plane in November 2005, prisoner transport accounted for 58 percent of the jet’s use, and Murkowski’s office used it 23 percent of the time. Over time, Murkowski’s usage increased.
Today, the U.S. Marshals Service transports 90 percent of Alaska prisoners to Arizona.
The last U.S. Marshal flights to and from Arizona transported 145 prisoners at a cost of $127,000, or about $875 per prisoner. That’s cheaper than the jet, whose per-prisoner cost averaged $1,674.
There’s an argument that by using the U.S. Marshals Service, Alaska has halved the cost of transporting prisoners. That’s a good thing. On the other hand, the state of Alaska took a $600,000 loss on the sale of the jet.
What’s more important than whether the jet saved or cost money, or whether it was justified or an extravagance, is that Sarah Palin’s Creation Story is phony. She has a whole life to extol and the two pillars of that life that the McCain campaign chose to highlight have both turned out to be false. She supported the Bridges to Nowhere before she opposed them. She didn’t sell the jet on eBay and she didn’t sell it at a profit. The sale of the jet was always a gimmick. It was an unfair attack on Frank Murkowski that was turned into a stunt. And the Palins have used this to create a mythology about being crusaders for reform.
The American people have had enough shading of the truth from our public officials. We’ve been lied to habitually over the last eight years. For Sarah Palin to come out of the box telling lies and distortions about her record is a very bad sign. Lying about unimportant stuff that is easily debunked with a simple google seach? We’ve had enough of that. Enough!!
