Troopergate Con't W/OUT "1st Dude" Palin
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| Sun, 09-21-2008 - 4:47am |
Trooper gate still looming in the background for Sarah. Sarah's independent investigation, that she launched shortly after being accused of abusing her power to fire for revenge, apparently has more than enough testimony to use in the report. Yea!
Palin Disputed In Troopergate Probe
September 20, 2008 04:41 AM EST |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/20/palin-disputed-in-trooper_n_127938.html
...A legislative committee voted July 24 to investigate the dispute, and Palin initially welcomed it. But after she was picked as Sen. John McCain's running mate on the GOP presidential ticket, she reversed herself. The campaign sent a team of operatives to Alaska to carefully coordinate any information that's released.
The investigation will be finished before the election, despite refusals by key witnesses to testify, including the governor's husband, the legislator heading the probe said Friday.
After waiting 35 minutes for Todd Palin and two state administrative employees to appear under subpoena before the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Hollis French condemned their refusal to testify and the attorney general's broken promise that seven other witnesses would testify who were not subpoenaed.
French said the retired prosecutor hired by the Alaska Legislature to investigate Palin, Stephen Branchflower, will conclude his investigation by Oct. 10. Still, that report will not include testimony from the Republican vice presidential nominee, her husband or most of the top aides Branchflower hoped to interview.
Sarah Palin's allies hoped the investigation would be delayed past the election to spare her any troublesome revelations _ or at least the distraction _ before voters have made their choice. Palin's reputation as clean-government advocate who takes on entrenched interests is central to her appeal as McCain's running mate, and possibly at risk in the probe.
The McCain campaign said there are concerns about the effect of political influence on the Legislature's inquiry and Palin will provide any information needed to a separate investigation by the Alaska State Personnel Board....


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A legitimate investigation called a smear? Get real. This malarkey is proof positive that some Americans are willing to believe anything.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260128
Is Palin’s 'Troopergate' a Political Smear or a Legitimate Investigation?
Is the Alaskan legislative investigation of Sarah Palin corrupt or are McCain and Palin just stonewalling a legitimate investigation? What are the primary disqualifications of those who are conducting this investigation?
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Yesterday Matt Volz and Gene Johnson of the Associated Press expressed great concern that Sarah Palin, with McCain’s help, was thumbing her nose at the legislative investigation now called “Troopergate.” The article asks several questions but the primary question is: Did Palin abuse her power "to settle a vendetta against her sister's ex-husband."
The article concedes that “the Legislature's investigator still plans to issue a report in October, the probe is effectively killed until January, when Sarah Palin will either be vice president or return to the governor's mansion in Juneau.”
Today Trooper issue turns into smear campaign, an article by Seth Church who is a friend of Sarah Palin, explains why he supports Palin and why the Legislative investigation of the firing of Walter Monegan (Troopergate) is corrupt.
According to Church:
1. The Legislative Counsel’s chairman, Sen. Hollis French of Anchorage, worked closely with Monegan without approval of the governor.
2. Sen. French has already prejudged the outcome of the investigation stating publically that the investigation could lead to Sarah Palin’s impeachment . . . and that the investigation was deliberately shortened for a “October surprise” before the Nov. 4 election.
3. The wife of the case investigator, Steve Branchflower worked with Monegan for years.
4. The case is being used as a political smear attack by Obama supporters.
Freedom of Information ACT request for information:
This week Christopher Huffman, a local Fairbanks resident “served a Freedom of Information Act request on Steve Branchflower requesting any communication between representatives of Barack Obama and himself.”
This week a law Suit was filed seeking a declaratory judgment that the investigation of Sarah Palin is Unlawful and in violation of Alaska Statutes and the Alaska Constitution.
Bob Bettisworth (former state legislator), Jim Dodson (Fairbanks businessman), Seth Church (small business owner), David Eichler (North Pole dentist), Tom Temple (attorney), and Alan Simmons (federal employee), have filed a lawsuit in the Fairbanks Superior Court seeking a declaratory judgment that the Branchflower investigation of Governor Palin and other executive branch officials is unlawful, violating both Alaska Statutes and the Alaska Constitution. . . .
Karl Rove Tactics. Uh-oh, not again.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0921pagesep21,0,1329347.column
Palin's silence
Ignoring subpoenas, Troopergate ripe for attack
Clarence Page
September 21, 2008
Enough about Sarah Palin. What about John McCain? What does McCain think of Palin?
There's no question that the Alaska governor has been a huge energizing asset to McCain's presidential bid. Conservatives, in particular, who sounded pretty ho-hum about McCain until she came along, now appear to be willing to stroll over hot coals to help send the Arizona senator to the White House—as long as he brings Palin with him.
But, I wonder, how well does McCain know his running mate? Does he really think she is the open-government, let-the-sunshine-in reformer that he says she is? If so, does that delight him and his campaign advisers or does it make all of them nervous?
These questions are provoked by the way McCain's campaign has been helping Palin throw a cloak of silence over the Alaska investigation now known to the world as Troopergate.
The probe, initiated with her blessing and a unanimous vote by Alaska lawmakers, is trying to find out whether Palin abused her power in trying to remove as a state trooper Mike Wooten, who divorced Palin's sister.
The details are about as sordid as any messy divorce, although enriched with a dramatic blend of "Northern Exposure" and "Smokey and the Bandit." Palin's former brother-in-law is alleged to have threatened her father, used a Taser on his stepson, drank alcohol in his patrol car and illegally shot a moose. Palin, herself a famous moose hunter, is alleged to have wanted Wooten fired so badly that she dismissed Walt Monegan, the state's public safety commissioner, after he refused to do it. Both Palin and Wooten, as the old saying goes, deny the allegations and the alligators.
Without raking any deeper into the personal muck, what's most important to the rest of us are two questions:
Did Palin force out the public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law?
Did the governor, her husband, Todd, or her staff improperly obtain confidential information about Wooten along the way?
To her credit, Palin welcomed the inquiry at first. But things changed after she became McCain's running mate. At first, Palin told reporters, "We have absolutely nothing to hide" and "we would never prohibit or be less than enthusiastic about any kind of investigation." But after McCain's campaign took over her damage control, the probe suddenly bore the "taint" of political motivation, even though Alaska lawmakers had voted unanimously to investigate Monegan's dismissal.
Haven't we heard this soap opera before? Suddenly Troopergate is taking on echoes of the type of stonewalling practiced by the current White House. Suddenly, we are reminded of President Bush's unexplained dismissal and replacement of seven U.S. attorneys in late 2006—and repeated refusals by Bush political adviser Karl Rove and others to honor congressional subpoenas.
McCain's campaign last week announced that Palin was "unlikely" to cooperate with the Troopergate investigation. Todd Palin announced that he would refuse to honor his subpoena to testify. The matter appears to be headed for a court fight that will push it well past Election Day. That's a break for the McCain campaign, which fears a self-inflicted October Surprise wound. But it leaves the rest of us in the dark.
As the Anchorage Daily News editorialized about Palin last week, "Whatever happened to the 'open and transparent' administration she promised Alaskans?"
Similarly, we in the lower 49 states might ask what this sudden stonewalling tells us about the reform-minded, house-cleaning "mavericks" that the McCain-Palin team vows to bring to Washington?
Yes, campaign 2008 needs to be about McCain versus his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, not their running mates. That means these questions about Palin are really questions about McCain and his judgment. Either way, McCain's campaign is not answering the questions.
We can only wonder what his campaign would be saying if Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, were ignoring subpoenas in either of their home states.
Or how much more Republicans would want to know about Obama's wife if she was as deeply involved in his decision-making as Gov. Palin's "First Dude" is involved with hers.
For those of us who live outside Alaska, Troopergate is less about the scandal than about what appears to be a convenient cover-up by the McCain-Palin campaign. It makes me wonder what kind of "change" we can expect from a candidate whose campaign is offering us so much of what's wrong with Washington now.
If Todd is with Sarah, who's watching the children?
This article has 4 pages. Too much to post. lol.Here's a taste...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/21/AR2008092102546.html?nav=hcmodule
'First Dude' Todd Palin Illustrates Alaska's Blend of Private and Public
By Alec MacGillis and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 22, 2008; Page A01
ANCHORAGE -- Todd Palin grew up as the archetypal Alaskan -- salmon fisherman, champion snowmobiler, North Slope oil worker. But since his wife became governor 20 months ago, his portfolio has broadened: househusband, babysitter, senior adviser, legislative liaison, and -- when the occasion warrants -- enforcer and protector.
This Story
'First Dude' Todd Palin Illustrates Alaska's Blend of Private and Public
Transcript: Post Politics Hour
Todd Palin Through the Years
He has supervised renovations to the governor's mansion and hopscotched by plane back and forth to Juneau to juggle duties as father and "First Dude," as he has come to be known. And to a degree that has surprised many state government observers, Todd Palin also has become involved in policy, sitting in on his wife's meetings, traveling on state business and weighing in on some legislative issues.
John Harris, the Republican speaker of the Alaska House, said he had never been called by the spouse of a governor before the two calls he got from Todd Palin. One was to argue for moving the state capital to Anchorage. The other was to ask Harris to "keep an eye" on a key aide who had an affair with the wife of one of Todd's best friends.
Political hands in both parties say the Palins are often referred to as a team -- "Sarah and Todd" -- and one Democratic lawmaker said Todd Palin has become her "de facto chief of staff."
Meghan Stapleton, a McCain spokeswoman who used to serve as Palin's press secretary, said the presence of Todd Palin has generated unwarranted criticism and that his role is in keeping with that of gubernatorial spouses in other states. "Every bit of his participating is appropriate and pertinent to his role as a spouse and as a father," she said.
"There are definitely critics out there who will blow up his level of involvement because he happens to be a stay-at-home dad when he's off from the slope, and he happens to be an active dad who wants to be with his kids and with his wife when he's not on the slope," Stapleton said.
In many ways, Todd Palin's high profile simply underscores the fine line between the personal and public in Alaska -- a huge swath of land with barely more people than Baltimore, where it can seem as if everyone knows everyone else.
Nationally, even before his wife began campaigning as John McCain's running mate, Todd Palin stood out among the country's few sitting first husbands. In Kansas, Gary Sebelius is a federal magistrate who stays away from wife Kathleen's partisan events and says he does not have time to adopt a favorite issue. Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm appointed her husband, management consultant Daniel Mulhern, to a state volunteerism board and gave him a small paid staff, drawing some criticism.
But Todd Palin, 44, the ruggedly handsome four-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, was already an Alaska star before his wife's election in 2006. Along with his family duties, he held two jobs, working occasional 85-hour weeks as an oil production operator for BP and, for a month each summer, as a commercial salmon fisherman in Bristol Bay. He belongs to the steelworkers union, an alliance that may partly explain his wife's strong labor support. His Yup'ik ancestry, which traces back to his maternal grandmother, gave Sarah Palin special standing with Native Alaskans........
I believe if she is elected VP she will be impeached. I don't think the Republicans will stomach her for very long.
Hi CL,
I disagree!
Thank you for saying it.
Hi Elissa,
Thank you for saying it.
Don't worry, you aren't the only one, and yes, it does get frustrating.
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