Character - Less

This is a very telling item about Miz Pale-lyn's character (actually the lack thereof)

Governor Sarah Pale -lyn's signature accomplishment—a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48—emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an investigation shows.

• Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Pale-lyn slanted the terms away from an important group—the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.

• Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Pale-lyn had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.

• The leader of Pale-lynn's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Pale=lyn's pipeline team.

• Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Pale-lyn, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.

And, contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee that the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles.

Yet, McPain/Pale-lyn spokesman Taylor Griffin says: "There was an open and transparent process that subjected the decision to extensive public scrutiny and due diligence."

Yeah, and I am an innocent doe-eyed virgin.