From CNN's Political ticker-- Palin says she is not a quitter:
Sarah Palin's not a quitter, she wants the public to know.
"I am not a quitter. I am a fighter," Palin told CNN on Monday while on a family fishing trip, on the heels of her Friday bombshell announcement that she was resigning as Alaska's governor.
Palin did her interview standing on the shores of Dillingham, Alaska, wearing hip waders. She granted 10-minute interviews to CNN and three other news networks Monday.
She resigned because of the tremendous pressure, time and financial burden of a litany of ethics complaints in the past several months, she said. The complaints were without merit and took away from the job she wanted to do for Alaskans, Palin said.
The decision to resign a year and a half before her term ends, and her rambling, often-disjointed resignation speech Friday, fueled days of debate among political analysts.
Speculation has run rampant that Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008, will seek the presidency in 2012.
When pressed about her future, Palin would say only that she would work in public service. She did not rule out a run for the White House or any other political office.
Palin is to leave the governor's office in late July.
The days since her resignation had been exhilarating and she loved being in Dillingham, a town of only a few thousand people and no cell phone service, Palin said.
On Monday, her personal lawyer also spoke about her resignation.
No legal "bombshell" or personal scandal lies behind Palin's resignation, but off-color jokes by talk-show host David Letterman contributed to her decision to step down, Thomas Van Flein said.
The governor needed a break after being "on duty now for two and a half years solid," he said.
"There is no bombshell. There is no shoe to drop. There are no investigations of any type that I'm aware of — no IRS audit, no federal investigation, no state investigation," Van Flein told CNN. "There is no legal reason in terms of a legal problem that compelled the governor to resign."
Friday was "deliberately chosen" for the announcement because of its proximity to the July Fourth holiday, Van Flein said: "She declared her independence from politics as usual."
Palin reiterated that statement in her interview.
Heather: Whatever you say Sarah. Good luck with that Presidential run if you decide to jump in there in 2012. Repeating something over and over doesn't make it true.
