Book: Palin was looking to cash out

JUNEAU, Alaska -- A former member of Sarah Palin's inner circle has written a scathing tell-all, saying Palin was ready to quit as governor months before she resigned and was eager to leave office when more lucrative opportunities came around.

"In 2009 I had the sense if she made it to the White House and I had stayed silent, I could never forgive myself," Frank Bailey told The Associated Press.

Palin's attorney did not respond to several requests for comment for this story.

"Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years," due out today, is based on tens of thousands of emails Bailey said he kept during his time with Palin. It began with working on her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and continued through her failed run for vice president in 2008 and her stint as governor.

The Alaska attorney general's office has said it's investigating Bailey's use of the emails. Executive ethics laws bar former public officials from using information acquired during their work for personal gain if the information hasn't been publicly disseminated.

The state has yet to release thousands of emails Palin sent and received during her 2 1/2 years as governor. His attorney has said Bailey took "great care" to ensure his writings were consistent with legal requirements.

Billed as the first Palin book by an ex-aide, "Blind Allegiance" bolsters the perception of Palin as self-serving, while casting Bailey as her enforcer, willing to do the dirty work, no questions asked.

Bailey became a footnote in Alaska history by getting embroiled in an investigation of Palin's firing of her police commissioner over allegations the man wouldn't fire trooper Mike Wooten, who'd had a bitter divorce from Palin's sister. Bailey was caught on tape questioning a state trooper official about why Wooten was still employed.

Bailey, who was Palin's director of boards and commissions, was put on leave after news of the recording broke, though he claims his actions were with the prodding of Palin's husband, Todd.

In spite of this, and what he describes as campaigns by Sarah Palin over the years to tear down others who have crossed or confronted her, he stuck around.

To speak up when he saw things he didn't agree with "went against all that investment of time and energy that I put into her," said Bailey. He said he "shed his family," his wife and two kids to singularly focus on Palin during her rise to the governor's office and beyond.

When Palin burst onto the statewide political scene, she was seen as a "breath of fresh air" amid the corruption that had seeped into Alaska politics. "We looked at her as . . . that queen on a horse that could come in and save the state," he said.

"As we started to see that that was not the case, I kept silent and I just kept on working."