Troopergate Results: Palin Abused Her Power
Well, the Branchflower Report (PDF) is out and it pretty much confirms what we already knew about Sarah Palin:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of a state trooper once married to her sister and by allowing her husband to use the governor’s office in a crusade against the officer, a legislative investigation found.
“Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired,” concluded investigator Steve Branchflower in his report made public Friday.
The governor let her husband, Todd, use the governor’s office and its resources, “including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired,” Branchflower wrote.
“She had the authority and power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates, but she failed to act,” he wrote.
The eight Republicans and four Democrats on Alaska’s Legislative Council unanimously agreed to release the report today, which clearly demonstrates that this whole thing was a partisan ploy led by William Ayers to discredit–wait, eight Republicans? So that leaves the McCain campaign with no choice but to accept the results of the investigation, right?
The report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: This was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior.
Oh well. It’s not like that campaign can really be taken seriously at this point. In any event, take it away, headlines:
Update: Mavericky!
The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.
(McCain, of course, was reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee for his role in the Keating Five scandal.)
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