Palin suggests bigger plans by citing ‘higher calling’

OUTGOING Alaska governor Sarah Palin has laid the groundwork to take on a larger, national role after leaving state government, citing a “higher calling” with the aim of uniting the country along conservative lines.

A day after surprising even her closest friends by announcing she would step down as Alaska governor more than a year before her term was up, the controversial hockey mom was still keeping details of her future plans under wrap. But in a statement posted on Palin’s Facebook account, she suggested that she had bigger plans and a national agenda she planned to push after she resigns at the end of the month.

“I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint,” she said.

Palin also cast herself as a victim and blasted the media, calling the response to her announcement “predictable” and out of touch.

“How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country,” the statement said. “And though it’s honourable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.”

Palin’s personal spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, confirmed the Facebook posting was written by the governor.

The abruptness of her announcement and the mystery surrounding her plans has fed widespread speculation. But Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein warned legal action may be taken against bloggers and publications that reprint what he calls fraudulent claims.

“To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as ‘fact’ that Governor Palin resigned because she is ‘under federal investigation’ for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation,” Van Flein said in a statement.

“This is to provide notice to Ms Moore, and those who republish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law.”

He also told the Anchorage Daily News that Palin wasn’t in any criminallegal jeopardy.

“I can say definitively I am aware of no criminal investigation whatsoever involving Sarah Palin. Zero,” he said.

Palin has kept a low profile since her abrupt announcement on Friday at a hastily called news conference at her home in suburban Wasilla, outside Anchorage. All of her public communication since then has been on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, or through statements released by her office.

At the same time, Palin informed her spokesman David Murrow that someone using the name “exgovsarahpalin” on Twitter was spreading a false rumour that there was to be a party at her suburban home in Wasilla.

Palin was afraid her home would be mobbed, and security was dispatched, Murrow said.

With only a few weeks before she steps down on July 26, and Lt Gov Sean Parnell takes her place, the governor spent the Fourth of July weekend in the state capital, Juneau, but was only spotted briefly on the sidelines of the city’s parade. She had been invited to ride in a convertible, as she did last year, but never told organisers whether she would attend.