Sarah Palin can bandy about rhetoric on her supposed fiscal discretion all she wants, but that won’t alter the discovery that she spent thousands of her constituents’ tax dollars— so that she could hang at home. At the GOP convention last week, Palin charmed the pants off of Americans, claiming, “I got rid of a few things in the governor’s office that I didn’t believe our citizens should have to pay for.” Well evidently, Palin felt that citizens should have to pay for her to stay at home for over 300 evenings, since she charged many of those evenings to the state for “lodging” expenses.

According to the Washington Post:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business…

She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

While she’s at it, Palin might as well try charging the state for lodging expenses when she goes to church; it is the house of God after all. Then again, perhaps it would be savvier for Palin to divert some attention from her controversial Pentecostal upbringing and her recent attendance at the Wasilla Bible Church on August 17 when David Brickner proclaimed “"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. When a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment -- you can't miss it."

This June, Palin spoke at her former church, the Assembly of God, and told them, “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas pipeline built… I can do my job there is developing my natural resources, but all of that doesn’t do any good if the people of Alaska’s heart is not good with God.” One can only wonder how Palin was able to determine that God willed a gas pipeline built. Did he speak to her in a vision? Were there were heaven-sent signs? Did the Lord confer with her via e-mail?

Oh wait, now I understand! God must have willed Palin to screw taxpayers over.