Sarah Palin's New E-Mails Released: 'I Can't Afford This Job'

Just when you thought her time in the spotlight might have run out, reporters have dug up more details about Sarah Palin's half-term as governor of Alaska. E-mails released Thursday by the state reveal Palin was ready to quit the jobs months before she left office in July 2009 due to mounting legal bills and the toll public office was taking on her personal life, according to the Associated Press.

I can't take this anymore, Palin wrote to her spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, and aide Kris Perry during her last 10 months in office. I can't afford this job.

The message was a part of the 17,000 e-mails made public by Alaska officials on Thursday, the last batch of records requested by reporters as much as three and a half years ago. The e-mails, combed through by the AP, also show she was having issues with her husband, Todd, before she was even tapped to be McCain's running mate.

In a Sept. 26, 2007, e-mail to Todd and Perry titled Marital Problems, Palin hinted at divorce, but it's not clear how serious she was being: So speaking of ... If we, er, when we get a divorce, does that quell 'conflict of interest' accusations about BP? Todd was a former employee of oil producer BP on Alaska's North Slope.

Palin also expressed frustration about the intense scrutiny she went under as soon as she entered the national stage during the 2008 election. The politician-turned-pundit complained that more than 150 freedom of information requests cost the state over $1 million and that who knows what all the bogus ethics charges have cost the state.

I can't afford this job, Palin wrote in March 2009.

A large number of e-mails weren't included in the release. A 189-page document lists all the messages that were redacted, with explanations like child custody matter and children, dinner and prayer, along with messages about potential appointees.

The state of Alaska first released a batch of Palin's e-mails last June, three years after The Associated Press and other news organizations requested the records. The lag in time was due to the sheer amount of requests.

In those first 24,199 pages of e-mails, reporters found similar complaints about how her family life was under a magnifying glass. The messages painted a portrait of an ambitious politician with disdain for the press and was irritated by questions about government decisions and expenses, from using state finances for family trips to that tanning bed in the governor's house.

The e-mail archives, however, end in September 2008, before Palin dropped out of office to become a sharp-tongued pundit. The newly released records span from October 2008 to Palin's resignation as governor in July 2009.

The entire Associated Press article can be read here.

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