Conservative blogger and disgraced Arizona lawyer Rachel Alexander announced on Monday that she'd raised enough money from her right-wing readers to save the life of her cat, Buckley.
But a closer look at Alexander's previous writings shows that Buckley's life had already been saved. Alexander just needed to pay the bill.
As we detailed on Monday,, Alexander had resorted to begging for cash for Buckley the Cat's surgery in the aftermath of a financially ruinous legal scandal involving top Maricopa County officials.
"His owner Rachel cannot afford the surgery due to being attacked the last few years for being a conservative blogger, which has crippled her finances," said a statement on Buckley's web site on Monday afternoon.
See also: Rachel Alexander, Disgraced Arizona Lawyer, Reduced to Begging for Cash to Save Cat
A short while later, an update appeared on Alexander's blog, Intellectual Conservative: "In less than two weeks, 51 of our kind friends contributed the full $1750 needed to save the life of Buckley the Cat. Buckley has successfully had the surgery and made a full recovery!"
Buckley's life was actually saved on the first day of the fundraiser, as Alexander's Twitter feed shows.
She began begging for money on December 21 with a post on Alexander's Intellectual Conservative web site. "Save the Life of Intellectual Conservative's Buckley the Cat!" read the headline.
Then, also on December 21, after raising $500, Alexander posted a picture of a sad-looking Buckley along with this text: "Here's what I look like now. I have a cone and a feeding tube, but I made it through surgery!"
Yet Alexander continued to collect money and pimp the effort with numerous tweets.
"Help @Buckley_IC receive the #Christmas miracle of life saving surgery!" reads one on December 22.
We weren't the only ones to be fooled by Alexander's wording into thinking the surgery wouldn't happen unless Alexander collected the $1,750.
One of her followers, Just Call Me Master, writes on December 24, "We have almost enough to #savebuckley the conservative kitty cat!"
Cha-ching!
Alexander moved to Seattle a few months after being stripped of her law license in a high-profile state Supreme Court disciplinary procedure.
Her former boss, former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, was disbarred in April for perjury, filing malicious and bogus criminal cases against political enemies, and other ethics violations. Another of his subordinates, Lisa Aubuchon, was also disbarred. Both women are appealing the decision by a three-member panel headed by Judge William O'Neil. On August 31, the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office declined to press charges against Thomas or his alleged accomplice, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Alexander played the role of stooge in the power-play by Thomas and Arpaio, taking an incompetently crafted racketeering lawsuit against county leaders, judges and local lawyer and re-filing it for Thomas after Aubuchon recused herself from the case.
With her law license in limbo, Alexander could no longer handle bankruptcy cases to support herself. The business that was the sole source of income for her fiance's four children, Alexander wrote in court pleadings.
At least she won't have to worry about that veterinary bill.
