JUNEAU, Alaska — Outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday 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 her 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 honorable 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 that the governor wrote the Facebook posting.
The abruptness of her announcement and the mystery surrounding her plans have fed widespread speculation. But Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein on Saturday warned legal action might 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.
Palin has kept a low profile since her announcement Friday at a news conference at her home in Wasilla. All of her public communication since then has been on Facebook and Twitter or in statements released by her office.
