Sarah Palin: Did fame go to her head? Is John McCain to blame?

Levi Johnston, the father of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's grandson, told the "Today Show" this morning that he thinks the governor changed markedly after her losing bid as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate.

"She wasn't as outgoing and I just didn't see the spark in her eyes about being the governor anymore," said Johnston, who lived with his then-fiance Bristol Palin and the Palin family at the time. "She became quiet, she would come home and just hang out in a room, you could tell something was wrong."

Johnston's conclusion: "The fame got to her head."

Admittedly, the 19-year-old Johnston is hardly the kind of character witness anyone would summon to their cause. An aspiring model who posed bare-chested with his infant son Tripp for GQ magazine,
Johnston is routinely derided by Palin spokesmen for exploiting his 15 minutes of fame.

But Johnston may be on to something when he says Palin's sudden resignation on July 3 was fueled by a desire to cash in on her fame -- and to end the stress that her sudden catapult to national fame had created, complete with myriad ethics charges she has derided as bogus and a Legislature no longer enchanted.

The husband of John Ensign's former mistress talks [Updated]

Philandering politicians Mark Sanford and John Ensign have much in common: conservative beliefs, dashed presidential ambitions -- and now screeds they likely wish they had whispered, not written.

Sanford, the South Carolina governor, attracted worldwide ridicule with his not-clandestine-enough visit to Argentina and the purple prose he e-mailed to his mistress, Maria (she of the curvy hips and "magnificent parts").

Today, the Las Vegas Sun posted a handwritten letter purportedly from Sen, Ensign to Cynthia Hampton, his family friend turned staffer turned mistress (whom he allegedly paid $25,000 in severance when she stopped working for him):

"I used you for my own pleasure.... Plain and simple, it was wrong; it was sin," the letter says. "God never intended for us to do this."

The letter is dated February 2008. The affair lasted until August, despite attempts by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to persuade his Nevada colleague to end things, Coburn's spokesman said. He did not address accusations that Coburn and others encouraged Ensign to give Cynthia and her husband, Doug, enough money to pay off their more than $1-million mortgage and leave Las Vegas.

Perhaps that's why Cynthia Hampton's husband wrote his own letter to Fox News, begging for "justice, help and restitution." When Ensign got word of it, he rushed back from to Las Vegas and announced the affair.

Today, Doug Hampton, a former top Ensign aide, apparently tired of the written word. He made all sorts of accusations against Ensign -- on television.

[Updated at 7:45 p.m.: "In response to today's television interview, Sen. Ensign said Doug Hampton was consistently inaccurate in his statements," said Tory Mazzola, Sen. John Ensign's spokesman.]

-- Ashley Powers

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Sanford, like a man in love, gushes about his 'soul mate,' confesses to other encounters

South Carolina's Gov. Mark Sanford is acting like a man smitten.

In three hours of emotional interviews over the last two days, the Republican governor told the Associated Press that his affair with Maria Belen Chapur -- a 43-year-old Argentina mother of two teenage sons -- was not a tawdry sexual encounter but a yearlong connection between two people deeply in love.

''This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,'' Sanford said. ''A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.''

They met for romantic stays in Manhattan and in the Hamptons, paying cash so their whereabouts could not be traced. They met one more time in the city, a rendezvous meant as their last, sanctioned by his wife, Jenny, after she learned of their affair and chaperoned by a spiritual adviser who came to help them say goodbye.

But the governor could not stay away. Four months later, telling his staff he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail over Father's Day, he got on a plane to Argentina, hungry for more time with Chapur, and discovered why he could not close the door. "I will be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate," he said.

Crying at times and clearly wearing his emotions on his sleeve, the two-term governor also acknowledged that he had casual encounters with other women but insisted that he never crossed the line by having sex with them.

''If you're a married guy, at the end of the day, you shouldn't be dancing with somebody else," he said.  "There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn't have crossed as a married man but never crossed the ultimate line."

The revelations led to more political fallout for the politician once touted as a likely Republican presidential candidate in 2012. The state attorney general, also a Republican, is investigating whether any public funds were used in the trysts. Sanford himself delivered a personal check for nearly $3,000 to the state for a 2008 state-funded trip to Argentina during which he visited Chapur.

And Sanford, who called for President Clinton to resign for lying about his dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky during a previous era, said he saw no reason to leave the governor's mansion now.

Despite his obvious emotional connection with Chapur, Sanford said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife, Jenny, his partner of 20 years and the mother of their four sons. "I owe it too much to my boys and to the last 20 years with Jenny to not try this larger walk of faith,'' he said.

So far, though many a state legislator is calling for Sanford to resign, the public in South Carolina seems to think the governor should be allowed to serve out the remaining 18 months of his term. In a poll conducted Monday night, nearly half of the state's residents think he should stay, as opposed to 41% who think he should step down and nearly 9% who aren't sure.

True, the poll suggested a party split -- Republicans lined up with their Republican governor, Democrats said he should go -- but the larger truth may be less political. I mean, we've all been in love, right?

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Sanford is solemn during a recent interview with the Associated Press. Credit: Mary Ann Chastain / Associated Press

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Jenny Sanford: champion of marriage or yet another wife-victim?

 

She is the granddaughter of Bolton Sullivan, founder of the Skil Corp. of Chicago, which makes electric power tools.

She has a degree in finance from Georgetown University.

She worked on Wall Street for the investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co.

And she managed her husband's campaigns for Congress and the governor's mansion. She even spoke for him in the last days of the 2006 gubernatorial race when South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was sidelined after burning his eyes under the bright stage lights at a groundbreaking ceremony.

But now 46-year-old Jenny Sullivan Sanford -- an outspoken woman who once lashed out at the Legislature for lavish spending while she cut costs at the governor's mansion -- will be remembered for her public response to her husband's private indiscretions.

One day after the governor confessed to having an affair with a woman in Argentina, pundits are having a field day.

Reading the statement she hand-delivered to reporters Wednesday, the one that quotes from Psalms and proclaims "the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage," some praised her stalwart convictions and willingness to forgive.

"Unlike other self-esteem-lacking wives of cheaters, Jenny Sanford shows real courage, class, and dignity in her statement to the press — and in her decision NOT to stand by her adulterous husband at his public confession," wrote conservative columnist Michelle Malkin.

But the Daily Beast's Tina Brown saw it differently. Disappointed that Jenny Sanford did not "set the table for a big-ticket matrimonial lawyer to have a payday on behalf of all the humiliated political wives — ashen Mrs. Eliot Spitzer; pulverized Dina Matos McGreevey; quietly imploding Mrs. Larry Craig; fuming deity Elizabeth Edwards," Brown said the first lady let the governor off the hook.

Belittling Jenny Sanford's offer to forgive her husband if he's willing to work on their relationship -- shades of Hillary Rodham Clinton -- Brown added, "God is great. Roll on the book deal about Resilience, and the date with Oprah."

What do you think?

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo Credit: Reuters photo of the couple arriving at the Obama White House on Feb. 22, 2009, before South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's wife Jenny wife learned that he was having an affair with a woman in Argentina.

Sanford and Ensign called on Clinton to resign after his affair

What’s that old saying about throwing stones and glass houses? It sure comes to mind today. And it relates to President Clinton and two Republicans who just admitted they cheated on their wives.

The Charleston Post and Courier reports that Mark Sanford, as a congressman, called on Clinton to resign when his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky was revealed. Sanford is now Gov. Sanford. And, as just about everyone knows by now, he confessed today that he had an affair with a “dear, dear friend” in Argentina.

But back in 1998, according to the Post and Courier, he said of Clinton, “Very damaging stuff. This one’s pretty cut and dried.” Calling the overall situation messy, he added: “I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally [to resign]."

John Ensign had similar thoughts back then. Ensign is now Nevada’s junior senator. As the Ticket reported, Ensign's popularity slumped after he admitted that he had an affair with a former staffer.

In 1998 he served in Congress and had this to say to the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "The honorable thing for him to do is to resign and not put the country through this."

No word from Sanford or Ensign on whether either man plans to resign.

-- Steve Padilla

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South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford wipes his tears as he admitted to having an affair during a news conference in Columbia, S.C Wednesday, June 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

Elizabeth Edwards answers the real questions so many have

We've had our fun here at the Ticket these past couple of years with good old Larry King. (No, he's not really old enough to have interviewed Stonewall Jackson after the Second Battle of Manassas.)

But today we have to hand it to the veteran talker. Yes, yes, it seems like every other night he's interviewing show biz cronies who died long ago. And we don't really care about families that have walked off the set of "Cops" and put on shirts for CNN. But that's King's bookers' fault.

His most recent show had Elizabeth Edwards. Now, this is not her first broadcast appearance pushing her new book, "Resilience." But it was by far her best, thanks to the suspendered one.

In his old overnight radio days, King used to tell guests that he never read their books because he wanted to ask the questions real people would ask. Last night, he seemed to have read at least part of Edwards' book about coping with adversity.

He was curious, wondering, politely pressing. He asked the questions many spectators of her husband's marital betrayal, confession, her illness and now her promotional tour would ask.

Such as, why in the world are you doing this? How are you coping with this and with a terminal illness? Aren't you worried what the children will see/think? Have you forgiven him? Are the children angry? Do you want to meet the other woman?

People watching politics often make judgments about public figures. It is, after all, a whole lot ...

Fashionable First Lady Michelle Obama helps the poor in $540 sneakers

Oops!

First Lady Michelle Obama, who's become quite the fashion role model with her J.Crew wear and buff-arm-spotlighting sleeveless frocks, is under scrutiny for what she wore on her feet the other day.

They're trendy Lanvin sneakers. Which look really nice and comfy and all. Trouble is, they cost $540. If you can find a pair anywhere.

And, of course, if you've got $540, plus -- what? -- 9 or 10% tax in some places. Which seems like a lot for two shoes not guaranteed to benefit your jump shot.

The other trouble is that -- wait for it -- she wore them to a poverty event, a Capitol Area Food Bank for Feeding America to provide much appreciated help and publicity to benefit the food bank.

Mrs. Obama  also has gone to serve a lunch hour at soup kitchens in Washington, where an unidentified presumably homeless person showed up with a camera cellphone to capture Mrs. Obama, who kindly posed for the man.

We have a video review below of Michelle Obama's first 100 days too.

The sharp-eyed Amy Diluna was first to spot the first lady footwear contradiction here.

Sharp-memoried politics readers will recall all the positive attention Mrs. Obama garnered during the presidential campaign for her everyday, every-woman $150 dresses from Black & White Market.

While Cindy McCain, John's wealthy wife, and some woman from Alaska both attracted negative attention for their expensive clothing, some of it reputedly borrowed.

(FYI, Michelle Obama is a Democrat. The other two women are Republicans. But what could that have to do with anything?)

Diluna also notes about Mrs. Obama: "A week ago, she shoveled dirt at a tree planting while wearing the line's chiffon tank. Dresses and strappy pumps cost upward of $1,500, while tops go for $400 to $1,000." An online poll by the N.Y. Daily news finds 59% think the shoe choice was in poor taste for a poverty event.

Now, the video below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Top photo: Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, second from left, and volunteers at the Capitol Area Food Bank for Feeding America event. Credit: Paul Morigi / Getty Images

Bottom photo: Lanvin shoe closeup. Credit: Reuters

Bill Clinton at Obama White House: The two first black presidents meet

Former President Bill Clinton visits the Obama White House today, the first meeting of the two in the Oval Office since Barack Obama took office.

Once called the nation's first black president -- so dubbed by author Toni Morrison because of his obvious affection for and affinity with African-Americans -- Clinton lost the title last year. Twice.

First, he injected himself into wife Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, disparaging Barack Obama's impressive win in South Carolina by likening it to victories in that state in 1984 and 1988 by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The subtext: a compelling black candidate can win in a state with lots of black voters but can't win a national contest. That angered a lot of black voters who once flocked to Hillary's campaign out of loyalty to her husband.

Secondly, of course, Obama won the election, beating Hillary in the primaries and handily defeating Republican John McCain in November.

Today the two meet in the Oval Office before President Obama signs the Edward M. Kennedy National Service Act into law at the SEED School in Washington.

The bill expands the legacy of President John F. Kennedy in launching the Peace Corps, a program that gives American volunteers an opportunity to help people in other countries, and of President Clinton in creating the "domestic Peace Corps" known as AmericaCorps. Under the new law, the cadre of government-backed volunteers could grow from 75,000 to 250,000 annually.

Aside from the encounter of the two first black presidents -- which the White House insists is more of a get-together than a meeting -- the event also promises another kind of drama.

Clinton  reportedly was furious when Kennedy broke with official Democratic orthodoxy -- which held that Hillary Clinton was the inevitable candidate -- and became an early backer of  Obama in  last year's grueling primary contests, more or less anointing him with the Camelot mantle.

Now, with Kennedy battling brain cancer, Clinton will have to rise to the occasion and bury the hatchet.

Check out the body language. The event's at 1 p.m. Pacific.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images North America

Can 'American Idol' really retire Hillary Clinton's campaign debt? And why pay off Mark Penn anyway?

She is not the only candidate with debt leftover from the Most Expensive Presidential Campaign ever.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani owes $2.4 million for campaign services spent on everything from from travel to telephones. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, already facing an expensive reelection campaign next year, has paid off $250,000 but still owes about $300,000 in campaign debts. Even former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose aw-shucks brand of campaigning didn't look very expensive, is, according to the latest Federal Election Commission reports, still short $82,000.

But nobody racked up more campaign debt than former first lady, former New York senator and now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the heat of the primaries last May, facing the phenomenal Obama fundraising machine, she had piled up more than $22.5 million in debt, more than half owed to herself. In January, President-elect Barack Obama asked supporters to help retire the $10 million she owed others.

Last quarter she paid her pollster, Mark Penn, $3 million, but she still owes him $2.3 million. And some are questioning why she should pay the architect of her failed strategy anything at all.

Penn is the same pollster she forced out during the campaign because of his work for pro-trade clients, the very same genius behind her candidate-as-incumbent strategy blamed by some many Clintonites for her fall in a year when the last thing voters wanted was the incumbent.

Clinton, says Time magazine's Karen Tumulty, feels an obligation to retire every single penny of her campaign debt, at least the part owed to others.

So Clinton loyalist James Carville recently sent out an e-mail to the faithful, urging once last push to take this load off Hillary's back. The gambit: "Enter today to win one of three truly once in a lifetime opportunities and you will also be doing something great to help finish off Hillary's debt."

Call it the raffle-ticket approach to politics. 

For $5, win a day with former President Bill Clinton in New York, "a truly once-in-a-lifetime chance: You and a guest will spend a day with President Clinton and a weekend of fun-filled adventure in New York."

For $5, win a weekend in Washington D.C., including lunch with strategists Carville and Paul Begala, the go-to guys of the Clinton political operation.

Or, for $5, win tickets for you and a guest to watch the finale of Fox TV's "American Idol" in Los Angeles.

Making Hillary happy -- priceless.

Not all Clinton supporters are buying in.

"Not a dime for Mark Penn,"  says Jonathan Tasini on Huffington Post. His case: Penn, who has since teamed up with Bush advocate Karen Hughes in a bipartisan consulting business, is a tool of corporate interests who doesn't care about any of the issues that motivated Hillary.

Whether you like Penn or not, at $5 a pop, it will take 460,000 Clinton fans to pay off the pesky pollster.

Your vote?

 -- Johanna Neuman

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Photo Credit: Friends of Hillary

A month in, 2-termer Bill Clinton has some advice for rookie Obama

Not that anyone recalls President Obama asking, but ex-President Bill Clinton has some advice for his fellow Democrat in the White House this morning:

Tone down the economic despondency talk some and ratchet up the optimism a bit. All gloom and doom could worsen the situation. Scare people.

"I just want the American people to know that he's confident that we are gonna get out of this and that he feels good about the long run," Clinton tells ABC's Chris Cuomo on "Good Morning America" today.

Although former Vice President Dick Cheney has weighed in with worries about the new administration's direction in some national security areas, the other living former presidents -- Bush I, Bush II and Carter I -- have remained silent on the critiquing sidelines.

As our colleague, Mark Silva, reports in the Swamp, last night in another interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, Clinton said, "I can't criticize him for getting out of Washington once a week."

Clinton likes the fact that Obama "didn't come in and give us a bunch of happy talk. I'm glad he shot straight with us."

But the only Democrat to win two White House elections since FDR sees the recession as a great opportunity to teach Americans.

"I like trying to educate the American people about the dimensions and scope of this economic crisis," Clinton says on ABC. "I just would like him to end by saying that he is hopeful and that he is completely convinced we're gonna come through this."

Timely advice, indeed, as Obama speaks to a nationally televised joint session of Congress next Tuesday evening and delivers his first federal budget to Capitol Hill on Thursday. Fresh back from his day-trip to Ottawa on Thursday, Obama will devote part of this afternoon to crafting his Tuesday speech.

Clinton says Obama faces difficult domestic and foreign challenges and, although the final economic stimulus package is "a little ragged around the edges," Clinton gives the newcomer an "A" for his first month in office, "A-plus-plus" for his choice of secretary of State.

The entire Obama team -- many of whose members are ex-Clinton folks, come to think of it -- will no doubt be thrilled to get that assessment this morning.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press