Real Americans have the RNC buy $150,000 in Clothes for them at Saks

Politico is reporting that the RNC has paid over $150k to outfit the Palin family in clothes, including:

bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

A potential problem for Palin- this looks like it violates Federal law.

2 USC 439(a) deals with prohibited uses of campaign contributions by Federal Candidates (which includes candidates for VP). Subsection (b) of that section states the following:

(b) Prohibited use.
(1) In general. A contribution or donation described in subsection
(a) shall not be converted by any person to personal use.
(2) Conversion. For the purposes of paragraph (1), a contribution
or donation shall be considered to be converted to personal use if the contribution or amount is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of Federal office, including—
(A) a home mortgage, rent, or utility payment;
(B) a clothing purchase;
(C) a noncampaign-related automobile expense;
(D) a country club membership;
(E) a vacation or other noncampaign-related trip;
(F) a household food item;
(G) a tuition payment;
(H) admission to a sporting event, concert, theater, or other form of entertainment not associated with an election campaign; and
(I) dues, fees, and other payments to a health club or recreational facility.

UPDATE:

(via Politico)

Campaign finance laws prohibit candidates from spending donor cash to their authorized personal campaign committee on costs “that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign,” including clothing, vacations and gym memberships.

But the law does not prohibit such expenditures by party committees, and Congress has killed legislation to expand the personal use ban to those and other types of political committees.