Portrayal in Palin book irritates former aide (Alaska) - Calls Palin a Sociopath [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

Former Gov. Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," blames her first legislative director for moves early in her term that helped poison her relationship with state lawmakers. But the ex-aide, John Bitney, calls Palin's account a fabrication and said he wishes his former boss would leave him alone.

"I'm just pilloried right and left and turned into the big bad wolf here for stuff I didn't do," said Bitney, who is now an aide to Valdez Republican Rep. John Harris. "It's like I'm this fictional character that she's decided to make me out to be this sort of incompetent slob."

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Palin's writing about Bitney is her most detailed description yet of incidents that helped shape her relationship with legislators. Her bad blood with top legislators of both parties began not long after she took office. By last spring, relationships with many lawmakers from both parties had soured to the point that feuds with the governor overshadowed much of the other legislative business.

Palin's dealings with Bitney are described on several pages of her memoir, although he is never named and there are no details of his work on her 2006 campaign. Palin refers to him as "my first legislative director" and he comes in for some of the harshest criticism of anyone in the book. That includes observations on his personal grooming, such as, "He turned out to be a BlackBerry games addict who couldn't seem to keep his lunch off his tie." Later, in describing one encounter to discuss the budget, Palin writes, "The fact that his shirt was buttoned one button off and his shirt tail was poking through his open fly didn't exactly inspire confidence." But Palin's larger point is that Bitney bungled her relationship with legislators.

Bitney is now swinging back hard at Palin, agreeing to appear over the weekend on a television show hosted by one of the former governor's most vocal critics in Alaska, blogger Shannyn Moore. Bitney was on a panel of others slammed in "Going Rogue" that included Palin nemesis Andrew Halcro and Anne Kilkenney, who wrote a long e-mail critical of Palin's leadership in Wasilla that was forwarded around the country during the presidential campaign last year.

Moore asked Bitney if Palin is sane. Bitney's response: "Is a sociopath sane?"

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/1025305.html