Tell-all book by ex-Palin aide out on Tuesday

USAToday, On Politics: Tell-all book by ex-Palin aide out on Tuesday
A former aide to Sarah Palin has written a tell-all book that says the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee was ready to quit as Alaska governor months before her actual resignation and eager to move to more lucrative opportunities.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Frank Bailey talked about his book, Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years, in advance of its release on Tuesday.

Palin, who recently said she has "fire in my belly" to run for president in 2012, has not commented about the book. Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Palin's political action committee, Sarah PAC, said in February when the book's manuscript was leaked that Palin would not respond to "untruth."

Bailey gives a scathing portrait of Palin as someone who is calculating and self-serving, and not interested in carrying out her duties as governor of Alaska when she returned from being John McCain's running mate in 2008. He said it was so hard for her staff to get her to go to events and meetings that it was "like nailing Jell-O to a tree," Bailey told the AP.

Why did he write the book? "In 2009, I had the sense if she made it to the White House and I had stayed silent, I could never forgive myself," Bailey told the AP.

A tell-all book by a former aide to Sarah Palin comes out on Tuesday.
CAPTIONBy Craig Ruttle, APBailey said Palin told him as early as February 2009 that she would "quit tomorrow" as Alaska governor if she could explain it adequately to Alaska residents. She resigned in July 2009, saying she didn't want to be the same kind of "lame duck" governor who announces she's not seeking re-election, only to travel the state or the world riding out their term.

Bailey's book is based on thousands of e-mails he kept from the time he worked for Palin in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign through her stint as governor. State ethics laws bar former executive officials from using information they obtained on the job for personal gain if the information has not been publicly disseminated.

The Alaska attorney general's office is investigating Bailey's use of the e-mails. The state has not yet released e-mails from Palin sent and received while she was governor. Bailey has said he has complied with the law.

There are other books critical of Palin in the works. Levi Johnston, the father of Palin's grandson Tripp, is writing a book expected out later this year. Author Joe McGinnis, who temporarily moved next door to the Palin family in Alaska, has written The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, out on Sept. 20.