The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree

Ever since she hit the national stage as McCain's vice-presidential choice, Sarah Palin has been a money-making machine. She even resigned her position as governor because it was interfering with the money-making. She demands from $75,000 to $100,000 to make a speech (in addition to traveling and hotel expenses). And she has written two books (or at least had two books ghostwritten for her), which hit best-seller lists only because of bulk purchases by right-wing organizations.

But her discovery of political PAC's was like a license to print money. After the 2008 campaign she created a PAC that she told her followers was to provide money for conservative candidates running for Congress. She even "targeted" 20 races where she said the money would be used to elect conservatives. There was just one little problem -- that wasn't what the money was used for.

How many candidates in those twenty designated races got money from Palin's PAC? That answer would be none. Not a single one, even though the PAC had received well over a million dollars for that purpose. To be fair, she did donate about $7500 to five candidates (although none of them were in her targeted races) out of the $1.3 million raised. It seems that most of the money was spent for travel expenses for Palin and her family, paying for her own political consultants, and efforts to raise even more money.

Now it looks like Sarah Palin wasn't the only one of her family who has learned how lucrative being associated with an organization can be. Bristol Palin is cashing in also, but instead of a political PAC, her cash cow is a "charity". Back in 2009 Bristol aligned herself with a supposed-charity called Candie's Foundation. The foundation claims it's purpose is to prevent teen pregnancy. A perusal of the charity's tax form puts that in doubt.

The largest expense that Candie's Foundation had was a payment to Bristol Palin of $262,500 (who was listed as an independent contractor). The next highest expense was for $165,000 for advertising (to raise more money mostly). Organizations that actually help teens in the community received only $35,000 (less than 1/7 of the money paid to Palin).

At this point it is really not known whether Bristol Palin knew just how big a sham this "charity" really is. It is possible that she thought this was not only an opportunity to make a bundle of money but would also help young teen girls, but there is no doubt that she made a lot of money while few teens were helped. Right now it looks like the so-called charity is little more than a publicity effort by a teen clothing company.

Here's how Think Progress puts it: Bristol’s Candie’s Foundation group is run by Neil Cole, an executive at the teenage clothing company Iconix Brand Group. Many critics have pointed out that the Candie’s Foundation appears to be geared towards improving the public image of Cole’s company rather than reducing teen pregnancy.