Going Rogue: An American Life (44 page)
Read Going Rogue: An American Life Online
Authors: Sarah Palin,Lynn Vincent
Tags: #General, #Autobiography, #Political, #Political Science, #Biography And Autobiography, #Biography, #Science, #Contemporary, #History, #Non-Fiction, #Politics, #Sarah, #USA, #Vice-Presidential candidates - United States, #Women politicians, #Women governors, #21st century history: from c 2000 -, #Women, #Autobiography: General, #History of the Americas, #Women politicians - United States, #Palin, #Alaska, #Personal Memoirs, #Vice-Presidential candidates, #Memoirs, #Central government, #Republican Party (U.S.: 1854- ), #Governors - Alaska, #Alaska - Politics and government, #Biography & Autobiography, #Conservatives - Women - United States, #U.S. - Contemporary Politics
SARAH
PALIN
to run for governor) parked his bulldozer wirh rhe blade spraypainted red: CONGRATS AGIA! His sign included: THANKS GOV PALIN, TOM & TEAM-FROM CONSUMERS,
D.D.B. 6/6/07.
During the ceremony, I spoke of rhe historic economic and polirical juncture represented by
success. Piper and her
cousin McKinley srood beside me thtoughout the dedication, representing the future of Alaska. The gasline team had reason to be proud: after decades of bureaucrats just talking about it, we were ushering in change jusr six months after raking office, wirh new energy standing beside me and proven, reliable energy flowing past me in rhe pipeline. The hard work of the lasr six months had culminated in rhis moment.
Except for one rhing.
The bill wasn’t real. The legislarive director had a little snafu. The actual bill hadn’t made it from Juneau in rime.
“How did rhis happen?” our press people asked him. “We’ve been waiting for this moment for decades.”
“No one will ever know ir’s not a real bill,” he said. “We’re fine. We can fake ir.”
“Bur we knew this day was coming … ,” I said.
“Look, we’ll sign a ceremonial bill today and the actual bill tomortow. It’s fine.”
Fine wasn’r good enough. I cared about the possibility that anything we did wirh regard to this much-anticipated bill would be perceived as fake or insincere. But we couldn’t cancel. So the bill-signing ceremony turned our ro be … well, ceremonial. And I explained it rhat way.
When the real bill finally arrived in Anchorage, rhe director had to drive ir out to Wasilla, and, as wirh most significant evenrs in my life, I signed ir near my kitchen table.
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Going Rogue
During the AGIA education process, I participated in a series of rown
meetings across the state to help citizens understand what we needed to do. On May 4, I was with Tom Irwin, speaking
an AGIA meeting in Barrow, the northernmost city
in America, when my BlackBerry
I slipped out of the
meeting and
to a corner of the local museum to take
the call, surrounded by baleen carvings and historic Native harpoons.
“Governor Palin, it’s Special Agent Toni Fogle”-special agent in charge for
state of Alaska. With the corruption