ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sarah Palin’s new memoir, “Going Rogue,” already has been strongly criticized by John McCain’s aides for her account as a vice presidential candidate on the ticket with him in their unsuccessful 2008 race for the White House.

Now, add Alaskan experts who were involved in the case over the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster saying her account over her role in the litigation is distorted for a number of reasons.

In the book, Palin claims to have helped the fishermen, Alaska Natives and other individuals suing Exxon over spill damages prevail in their legal case.

“It took years for Alaska to achieve victory. As governor, I directed our attorney general to write an amicus brief in the case, and, thanks to Alaska’s able attorneys arguing in front of the highest court in the land, in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the people,” she writes in her book. “Finally, Alaskans could recover some of their losses.”

But Palin’s claims of victory for the plaintiffs and of playing a role in achieving that victory are highly distorted, said the chief attorney for the approximately 32,000 plaintiffs that sued Exxon over damages from the worst oil-tanker spill in U.S. waters.

“That is the most cockamamie bullshit,” said Dave Oesting of Anchorage, lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants’ civil case against Exxon and its successor, Exxon Mobil Corp. “She didn’t have a damn thing to do with it, and she didn’t know what it was about.”

While the Supreme Court in its June 25, 2008 decision did uphold the right of the plaintiffs to receive some punitive damages, it slashed the award dramatically. The Supreme Court ordered that punitive damages be no more than $507.5 million, down from the $2.5 billion ordered by a U.S. appeals court and the jury’s original verdict of $5 billion.

While the plaintiffs did manage to salvage some punitive damages, the result was hardly a win, said Riki Ott, a scientist, environmental activist and longtime commercial fisherman from the Prince William Sound town of Cordova.

“It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to the legal system. It’s a disgrace to intellectual honesty to call 10 cents on the dollar a win for Alaskans,” said Ott, who has written a book about the spill and the failure of the justice system to address it.

At the time of the Supreme Court ruling, even Palin described it as a bitter disappointment to Alaskans rather than a victory. In an interview with Reuters, she said the state will tighten its oversight of the oil industry in response. “Exxon will know that we’re very disappointed in this ruling,” she said then.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Blake (workers clean up from the Exxon spill.)

GRAHAM, N.C. - Offering Americans a summer tax holiday from soaring gasoline prices as another example of why she is the best candidate for president, Sen. Hillary Clinton took aim on Monday at her Democratic Party rival Sen. Barack Obama.

“This is one of the big differences in this race. My opponent Senator Obama opposes giving consumers a break on the gas tax at the federal level. I support it. I understand the American people need some relief,” she told supporters gathered in a fire station here.

“Meanwhile Sen. (John) McCain says he’s all for a gas tax holiday, but he won’t pay for it. Well, that is a mistake because we can’t give up on building and repairing our roads. My plan is 100 percent paid for with the windfall profits tax on Big Oil,” she said.

U.S. drivers are reeling from soaring costs at the pump that have seen gasoline reach $4 a gallon in some parts of the country, with an average price around the country of $3.60, after oil scaled a record near $120 a barrel.

Clinton’s plan would use the windfall profits on oil to subsidize the federal gas tax holiday over the summer to make sure the country’s Highway Trust Fund — used to build and repair roads and bridges — doesn’t suffer.

Major oil companies report first quarter earnings this week and are expected to chalk up bumper profits thanks to record crude prices, with Exxon Mobil forecast to see net income rise around 22 percent to over $11 billion.

“Last year, Exxon Mobile made $40 billion in profits. So you paid through the roof and they made out like bandits. I don’t think those profits were the result of a free and fair market,” she said, blaming energy market manipulation.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Frank Polich (Clinton campaigns in Indiana).