Sarah Palin tells President Obama to call her

I'm not sure what to make of Sarah Palin trying to give President Obama advice on how to handle BP. An article at the New Orleans, LA local news site describes how Sarah Palin posted on her Facebook account that she outlined her experience and urged President Obama to reach out to the people in Alaska that had dealt with holding oil companies accountable in the past. Palin ended the section of her Facebook post by saying: "Give them a call. Or, what the heck, give me a call."


Why exactly would he want to give her a call?


Oh, wait, because in her book, "Going Rogue," she went on about her role in the litigation against Exxon after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. It seems like the lead prosecutor in the case has a different perspective on Palin's role in the lawsuit. Her own words from the book contradict the importance that she seems to place in her role. She says:


“It took years for Alaska to achieve victory. As governor, I directed our attorney general to write an amicus brief in the case..."


An amicus brief... that sounds so... official. Yeah, until I asked Google to define it for me.

Definitions of amicus brief on the Web:

* Amicus curiae or amicus curiæ (plural amici curiarum) is a legal Latin phrase, literally translated as "friend of the court", that refers to someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to assist the court in deciding a ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amicus_brief

* A document filed in a legal proceeding by an interested party who is not directly part of the case. In the WTO an issue has been whether to permit dispute settlement panels to accept such submissions, especially from NGOs.
www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/a.html

* "Amicus brief" is a written statement prepared and filed by a person who is not a party to a lawsuit but who has a strong interest in the subject matter.
john-gillard.com/misc/key_terms.html

So... what exactly did she do? According to the Southeast Alaska Fisherman's Alliance, after a few minutes of talking to Colberg, Palin told him to go ahead with filing an amicus breif that gave the perspective of the State of Alaska on the damages done to the fishing industry by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Anchorage Daily News says that Palin may have distorted her role in the lawsuit against Exxon.

In the Anchorage Daily News article, lead plaintiff attorney Dave Oesting of Anchorage said of Palin's claimed role in the case: "That is the most cockamamie bull****,"

She was apparently, from what I glean from the Daily News article, in Washington DC for something in November and made a brief appearance at an event where she spoke briefly and gave the go on the amicus brief.

It sure does not sound to me like she has enough experience to be advising President Obama on dealing with such things.

The woman is a slick talker, knows exactly what to say to get people to do what she wants them to. Thankfully there are sources that can be double checked on things to see if her boasting is worth listening to.

Oh, and as a final point... her husband, Todd Palin, worked for BP for over 18 years. Yeah, no thanks, Palin, I prefer my President to be using common sense and talking to the people on the ground in dealing with BP, not to have him listening to slicks like you and the CEO of BP.