Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has agreed to pay about $6,800 for family trips she had billed to the state, the Anchorage Daily News is reporting.

An investigator looking into an ethics complaint examined more than 40 Palin trips and found nine in which the personal benefits outweighed the state's benefits.

The agreement between Palin and the state says that nothing in it "constitutes an admission of wrongdoing, and none has been found."

Both sides said state ethics rules on travel by the governor's family are lacking, and the investigator described them as "dizzying."

If Alaska's ethics laws can't make a distinction between a state function and a family function, does that mean that Alaskans are one, big, happy family?  Maybe, but I doubt it.

Palin has returned the wardrobe the Republican National Committee bought for her, and now she's reimbursing the state for family travel.  What's next -- her IHOP bills?

You know what's the difference between a mother and a pit bull?  Nobody asks a pit bull for reimbursement.

• 
• Comment