Roger Rueff
Contributor & Official Campaign Watchdog for Shirley
After eight years of watching the mainstream media sit up, beg, roll over,and lick the hands of the Bush administration, it¹s refreshing to watch themhold someone¹s feet to the fireŠ in this case Sarah Palin, whose statementson Saturday regarding the conclusions of the Troopergate report‹a bipartisaninvestigation (10 Republicans, 4 Democrats) into whether she fired PublicSafety Commissioner Walt Monegan because he wouldn¹t fire her formerbrother-in-law, a State Trooper named Mike Wooten, who was in a bittercustody battle with her sister were clearly false. (More below)
Falsehoods
On Saturday, Sarah uttered falsehoods to reporters about the Troopergatereport on several occasions. According to ABC, in a phone call with reporters: "Well, I¹m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing," Palinsaid, "any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to becleared of any of that." At a gas station in Pennsylvania, when asked to elaborate: "I'm thankful that the report has shown that, that there was no illegal orunethical activity there in my choice to replace our commissioner, so, nowwe look forward to working with the personnel board that the entity that ischarged with looking into any activity of a governor, the lieutenantgovernor, or an attorney general," Palin said. UmŠ not so much. What the report actually says is: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin Abused her power by violating AlaskaStatute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act ...Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional... "The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least,engaged in 'official action' by her inaction if not her active participationor assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [andthere is evidence of her active participation.] She knowingly, as that termis defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use theGovernor¹s office and the resources of the Governor¹s office, includingaccess to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate stateemployees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Herconduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act... "Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue whereimpermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order toadvance a personal agenda." And about that State Personnel Board investigation... It was a gambit by theMcCain campaign‹and it sounds suspicious from the outset because Sarah hasthe power to fire anyone on the State Personnel Board that¹s investigatingher. (She had to file an ethics complaint against herself to make it happen.) [More below]
It turns out, however, that the gambit might well backfire (seeNEWSWEEK, below). TIME (http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1849399,00.html): It was within her power to fire Monegan, even without cause, but it lookslike their might have been causeŠ just not the kind that¹s justifiable toanyone outside her immediate family. According to TIME: ³Did Governor Sarah Palin abuse the power of her office in trying to get herformer brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, fired? Yes. Was the refusal to fire Mike Wooten the reason Palin fired Commissioner ofPublic Safety Walt Monegan? Not exclusively, and it was within her rights asthe states' chief executive to fire him for just about any reason, evenwithout cause. Those answers were expected, given that most of the best pieces of evidencehave been part of the public record for months. The result is not a mortalwound to Palin, nor does it put her at much risk of being forced to leavethe ticket her presence succeeded in energizing. But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because itconvincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palinadministration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so.² NEWSWEEK (http://www.newsweek.com/id/163465): About that State Personnel Board investigationŠ The McCain campaign tried todo an end-run around the Troopergate investigation, thenŠ ³uh-oh.² ³Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethicscomplaint against herself with the State Personnel Board, arguing that italone was capable of conducting a fair, nonpartisan inquiry into whether shefired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten, who had been involved in amessy custody battle with her sister. Some Democrats ridiculed the move,noting that the personnel board answered to Palin. But the board ended uphiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as anindependent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenoswas a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor,Tony Knowles. Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and thecounsel's report could be released soon after. "We took a gamble when wewent to the personnel board," said a McCain aide who asked not to beidentified discussing strategy.²
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