Palin being made a scapegoat over shopping to cover campaign failure: Aide

New York, Nov 8 : A longtime aide of John McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, has bashed critics claiming that the Alaska governor was unfairly being made a scapegoat for the Republican campaign's missteps.

Meg Stapleton gave a piece of her mind to anonymous critics inside the now defunct McCain-Palin team, claiming that they were inappropriately using Palin's infamous 150,000 dollars shopping spree to cover up their misdeeds.

Stapleton insisted that it was the campaign officials who handed over a blank check to a New York stylist for Palin's presidential makeover.

She also revealed that Palin did try to object to wearing a 3,500 dollars outfit, but the campaign staff pursued her to go ahead with it, saying "Here's your people, here are your clothes.

In an interview to ABC News, Stapleton said that Palin was directed to buy her fancy wardrobe before Sept. 4, so that she could bill it to the Republican National Convention.

"They said, 'Bill the convention, under "wardrobe," ' so that the cost could be hidden. And then they realized and they were told that's illegal," The New York Daily News quoted Stapleton as saying.

She added: "Then they said, 'Okay, how do we make this legal and appropriate?' So they had somebody pay for it and then the RNC [Republican National Committee] would reimburse them."

Speaking about another issue that Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, Stapleton called it a "human mistake" the governor made during a briefing session.

"She knows it's a continent," she said.

ANI