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Blogs Eric Reads
Something Is Rotten In the State of Alaska
- In case you forgot, the day before the election Alaska’s Personnel Board–a group of Palin appointees–released it’s own Troopergate report clearing Palin of any wrongdoing. Except they missed a spot, since it looks like Palin may have committed perjury. Trooper Wooten’s attorney testified under oath that Palin called him in January 2007. Palin testified under oath that she didn’t. That means someone’s pants are on fire. Only replace “pants are on fire” with “a felon.” (The Daily Dish)
- And speaking of America’s Governor, Palin said in an interview with CNN that she would be willing to serve in the administration of a friend of terrorists. No, seriously. In the same interview, Palin said that it would be her “honor to assist and support our new president” and that she was “still concerned” about Obama’s ties to “an unrepentant domestic terorrist.” Um, putting aside that the presidential campaign is over, you can’t exactly say both of those things in the same breath and expect to still have any credibility. (CNN)
- Don’t worry, all hope is not lost for Seward’s Folly! As of 2:09 pm local time today, convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens’ lead over Democrat Mark Begich is down to 971 votes. Nate Silver says that there are about 60,000 ballots left to be counted and that most are from rural districts where Begich performed well. (State of Alaska/FiveThirtyEight)
Palin Gets Trooper Wooten Assigned to Desk Job
It looks like Sarah Palin may have succeeded in getting Alaska Trooper Mike Wooten off the streets. The comments Palin made to the media have made it unsafe for Wooten to do his job:
The Alaska state trooper who was the subject of harsh allegations by Gov. Sarah Palin was taken off patrols recently for his own safety, after her comments allegedly prompted a series of threatening phone calls, KIMO-TV in Anchorage reported Friday.
…
In comments to the media and documents released to the public, Palin accused Wooten, her ex-brother-in-law, of making death threats against her family, drinking on duty, tasering his 10-year-old stepson and shooting a moose out of season, among other things.
“The trooper in question here did conduct dangerous and illegal activities,” Palin told ABC News’ Charlie Gibson Sept. 12, in her first nationally-televised interview after joining the GOP ticket as its vice presidential candidate. Wooten “threatened to kill my dad and. . . his threats were he was going to bring down the governor and the governor’s family,” she said.
…
Following Palin’s comments about Wooten in the national media, “people with little or no knowledge of the situation call and make complaints, make threats, talk about what a danger he is,” explained John Cyr, head of the Alaska trooper’s union, to KIMO. “All it takes is one person to show up and do something stupid.” Sources at the Department of Public Safety confirmed Cyr’s account to KIMO, an ABC affiliate.Wooten is now working a desk job, KIMO reported. The troopers’ union has expressed concern because the new position means he can no longer earn overtime pay.
Congratulations to Sarah Palin! Her insane personal vendetta has made it unsafe for a police officer to do his job. What a horrible person she is.
Will John McCain End Sarah Palin’s Abuses of Power?
The McCain/Palin campaign is really pushing the line that John McCain is going to end corruption in Washington. Here’s McCain on Saturday:
As a Senator, I’ve seen the corrupt ways of Washington and wasteful spending and other abuses of power, and its corruption. We now have former members of Congress residing in federal prison. That’s how bad it’s gotten. As President, I’m going to end these abuses whatever it takes.
This morning, Sarah Palin got in on the act as well:
See as a senator, John has confronted the corrupt ways of Washington. And the wasteful spending. And the abuses of power. As president, he’s going to end those once and for all.
While it’s certainly admirable that John McCain wants to end abuses of power in Washington, maybe he should start by getting his own house in order:
Finding Number One
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides
The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.
Innocent Despite Proven Guilty
Sarah Palin declared herself innocent the night before the Branchflower Report was released, and apprently she’s sticking to her story
Sarah Palin told Alaska reporters Saturday that she had been “cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of unethical activity” in the investigative report released the day before that explored her actions in dismissing a state official who refused to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police.
“Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity there,” Palin said on a Saturday conference call with reporters from the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2. “Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.”
Except there’s just one small problem:
Finding Number One
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides
The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.
But you can’t expect a regular Joe Sixpack hockey mom like Governor Palin to have time to read the whole report, now can ya? Maybe we can explain it to her with a song?
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.)
Palin Clears Self of Any Wrongdoing in Troopergate Probe
Since the Alaska Supreme Court rejected the GOP’s efforts to stop the Troopergate investigation, Sarah Palin has decided to beat the punch on tomorrow’s announcement of the results of the probe by declaring her own innocence:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - On the eve of a report on a legislative panel’s abuse-of-power investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report clearing her of any wrongdoing.
Shorter McCain/Palin campaign: Sarah Palin is innocent because Sarah Palin says she is innocent. Ipso facto, bitches!
Yeah, this really is their defense. Because Palin, like that Joe Sixpack regular guy George Washington, could never tell a lie, could she? I can’t wait until the results of the investigation are released.
(via)
Update: I think I’m going to refer to what Sarah Palin is doing as the “reverse-OJ.”
Obstruction of Justice
Is anyone else getting a feeling of deja vu?
Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin’s firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called “October surprise” that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.
In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska’s bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called “troopergate” investigation.
…
The move underscored the huge political stakes in the outcome of a legislative investigation that is being closely monitored by both the McCain and Obama campaigns because of its potential impact on the fall election. “How can this possibly be read as anything but a partisan attempt to shut down a legitimate investigation that was approved and funded with bipartisan support?” said one state Democratic legislative aide, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivities. Coghill told NEWSWEEK that he decided to write his letter to strip French of his position on his own-without any coaxing by McCain campaign officials.
But a top McCain campaign official acknowledged that the GOP lawyer had given the campaign a “heads up” about his letter and that the McCain campaign approved of the effort to remove French.
Sound familiar? That’s because the Bush administration has blocked investigation after investigation of everything from lost money in Iraq to the EPA. And, following in those footsteps, Sarah Palin is claiming executive privilege for all of her emails, having aides refuse to testify in a legislative investigation, and trying to end an investigation into her ethics.
We already know how John McCain and Sarah Palin are going to run the country because it’s the same way that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been doing it for eight years: by deceiving the American people, decimating the Constitution, driving the country straight into the ground.
Fired Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner: Palin Is Lying
Former Alaska Public Safety Commissoner Walt Monegan comes out and says it:
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Walt Monegan, the former Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner, said he was dismissed because he refused to fire the Governor’s former brother-in-law, a state trooper.
“I believe I was fired because of, primarily the reason of her former brother-in-law,” Monegan said. “I think that my unwillingness to take special action against her former brother-in-law was not well received.”
Monegan says he believes that the Governor has not told the truth about what happened.
“I think there are some questions now that, coming to light about how transparent and how honest she wants to be,” Monegan said.
Update: In other Troopergate news, Alaska’s police officer’s union has filed an ethics complaint against the Governor’s office.
An ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed yesterday by the police officers’ union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper, Mike Wooten, the ex-brother in law of Palin, who is at the center of the “Troopergate” scandal.
The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten’s personnel records. The complaint alleges “criminal penalties may apply.”
“It seems obvious to us somebody has improperly accessed [Wooten's] personnel file,” John Cyr, director of the union that filed the complaint, told NBC News.