Saturday, October 11, 2008
“I believe their frustration was real as was their skepticism..”
Far be it for me to disagree with Will Crawley’s assessment that the “money quote” in Volume 1 of retired Alaskan state prosecutor Stephen Branchflower’s report to the Alaska Legislative Council, is
“Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”
The BBC report has more, and the Belfast Telegraph report seems somewhat premature.. Given that the full report has yet to be voted on, never mind endorsed, by the Legislative Council.. But I’d suggest the real ‘money quote’ is, as noted elsewhere
“I find that, although Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.”
The first quote refers to Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) which 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.”
Interestingly, leaving aside that it was, at most, a constructive dismissal of Moneghan, the first finding relates to an alleged breach of public trust in attempting to pressurise Moneghan to fire Trooper Michael Wooten, although Wooten was not fired, and corresponds with the ethics disclosure [pdf file] by Sarah Palin herself on 1 September this year. The detailed Wiki page on Troopergate provides the background, from Sarah Palin’s character reference for Wooten in 2000 to her overhearing a death threat against her father, Chuck Heath, in 2005 - a year before she became State Governor. In the aftermath of his divorce from Palin’s sister, Wooten was subsequently suspended for 10 days [pdf file], reduced to 5 days after a union appeal, and transferred to a different department. But the suspension letter made no reference to the death threat, despite an internal investigation concluding that - “Wooten violated internal policy, but not the law, in making a death threat against Heath. Wooten denied having made the threat, but the investigation decided that he had in fact done so. The investigation concluded that the death threat was not a crime because Wooten did not threaten the father directly; therefore, the investigator deemed the threat to be a violation of trooper policy rather than a violation of criminal law.”
The Conclusion of the explanation of the First Finding is also worth looking at from Volume 1 [pages 65-68]
As is the subsequent discussion to the Recommendation to the Legislature. [pages 79-81]
In this case, there has been much said about the level of frustration that existed on the part of Sarah Palin’s father Chuck Heath who filed the original complaint against Trooper Michael Wooten, and on the part of Sarah and Todd Palin, who attempted to learn the status of the investigation only to be told be Colonel Grimes that the matter was confidential by reason of AS 39.25.080. I believe their frustration was real as was their skepticism about whether their complaints were being zealously investigated. The irony is that the complaints were taken very seriously, and a thorough investigation was underway. However, the law prevented the Troopers from giving them any feedback whatsoever.
Pete Baker @ 09:47 PM
But Pete,
Unlike your post, they weren’t investigating Wooten, but whether Palin and her unelected husband were using her position to settle personal family scores that had already been legally dealt with elsewhere and, however just their personal grievance may have been, the issue was whether she unethically (if perhaps not illegally) fired the guy because he followed the letter of the law.Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 06:51 AMHow to obscure a simple story, Pete.
Palin had Monegan sacked. That she was certainly allowed to do.
What she had no right to do was to sack him because he had refused to sack Wooten, Palin’s sister’s ex husband.
That is all this investigation is saying.
Palin used personal and family prejudice in deciding to sack the man. It’s either vindictiveness or vendetta - your call.
Either way, that is certainly not a quality anyone wants to see near the White House.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 07:57 AMPete - for all your foibles and obsessions I thought you had some sense. Are you seriously suggesting that Palin is fit to be a heartbeat away?
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 09:04 AMThe weakly reasoned “Troopergate” report may well represent another nail in the McCain-Palin coffin, but, as the folks at Powerline clearly show, the case that she abused her power by violating the ethics statute and/or that she fired the public safety commissioner because he wouldn’t act against Wooten has not been made.
Alan,
would you agree that deception is ‘not a quality anyone wants to see near the White House’? I am thinking specifically of the Obama-Ayers subterfuge.Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 09:46 AMShe is only going for the Vice-presidency unlike Bill Clinton who also abused his powers as governor.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 11:23 AMLet us be kind to Sarah Palin. Let us give her the benefit of doubt. Let us presume that, in applying pressure on Commisioner Monegan in an attempt to secure the dismissal of Trooper Wooten, she did so in the belief that Trooper Wooten was not a person fit to hold the office of State Trooper. We could not argue then but that she had done her duty in attempting to secure his dismissal. Good girl, Sarah.
But then of course we are forced to call into question the judgement values of someone who supplied a reference for a person she now regards as unfitting for the post to which she recommended him. Bad girl, Sarah.
But the real story here is not merely the finding of the report that “Governor Sarah Palin had abused her power” but the gross attempt by the McCain camp to intimidate and influence the council as to its findings and then failing that their attempt to delay and suppress the publication of those findings. So we not only have to worry about a potential vice-president who is clearly lacking in judgement and who is abusive of power she is given but we are in danger of having a president who is quite prepared, like his notorious predecessor and fellow Republican, Richard Nixon,to engage in dirty tricks and cover-ups of the nefarious misdeeds committed by his henchmen (and women).
That’s what I love and admire about the Republican
Party - their consistency. They are always pure rotten, all the way through.Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 12:04 PMMcCain 2008 is not the McCain of 2000. He’s allowed Bush’s spinmeisters to run his campaign in a desperate attempt to reverse a potential Democratic landslide victory .
They are now appealing to God as we see from this report
‘A minister delivering the invocation at John McCain’s rally in Davenport, Iowa Saturday told the crowd non-Christian religions around the world were praying for Barack Obama to win the U.S. presidential election.
“There are millions of people around this world praying to their god—whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah—that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens,” said Arnold Conrad, the former pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church in Davenport.
This incident comes a day after a Minnesota voter asked Senator McCain if Barack Obama was an Arab at a town hall in Lakeville, Minnesota and just three days after Lehigh GOP County Chairman Bill Platt made a speech at a McCain rally in Pennsylvania where he refered to the Democrat nominee for president as Barack Hussein Obama.
Meanwhile Palin is now digging around in ‘abortion’ as her ‘last hope’ of diverting attention from American’s preoccupation with their crumbling economy - the result of 8 years of Republican incompetence on a scale that is hardly credible :(
Where is Mr Cheney these days ?
Shredding whatever he can no doubt :(
Anyway there are no more nails needed for this republican coffin . The Republican party corpse is now stinking so much that even the son of William Buckley Jr -the founder of the right wing National Review has now endorsed Obama for President .
In local NI political terms this is like Ian Paisley going on UTV tomorrow and saying a United Ireland is the only practical possibility to restore NI to democracy !
McCain needs to lose this one with some dignity . And to do that he needs to step down hard on the ‘racists’ and ‘born again nutters’ among his supporters . If he does’nt he risks the loss of any remaining ‘independents ‘ out there who were leaning towards him and could even provoke a widespread stay at home by ‘liberal ‘ Republicans thus turning a respectable Democratic victory into a rout of the Republicans .
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 12:47 PMGood to see you are all well refreshed by the break.
Alan,
would you agree that deception is ‘not a quality anyone wants to see near the White House’? I am thinking specifically of the Obama-Ayers subterfuge.Give me strength 6CoP
The game is up. If that nonsense is genuinely all the right has left then Obama and the Dems deserve to win big in November and roll back the Reagan-Thatcher destruction of decent civil society,
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 04:03 PMObama’s dismissal of Ayers as just ‘a guy who lives in my neighborhood’ will go down as one of the most deceitful statements of the 2008 campaign. The deception is astonishing.
Here are a few Obama-Ayers exposures, plus a couple of freebies on other topics, most of which, of course, will never see the light of day on msm outlets. The average person knows so little about the real Obama, it’s downright scary.
Obama is not fit to be president and America deserves a whole lot better. But I suppose you can fool all of the people some of the time. The US is about to buy a lemon.
All I can say is, God help America!
**************************************************Jim Treacher’s Obama-Ayerscomic strip
CNN pulls the Ayers’ rug on Obama
Top ten Obama-Ayers highlights over the past twenty years
Obama working with Ayers when Ayers stepped on US flag in 2001
Ayers’ reputation as a cop-killer
Obama started his political career in the home of a terrorist
Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools
Follow up on WSJ piece
1997 – Obama and Ayers together
Obama’s Friends video
Obama’s words and deeds
Why Obama hides his executive experience
All you ever want to know about Obama, Ayers and Annenburg
Obama-Ayers GOP dossier
Ayers and Chavez, 2006
///
Odinga, Obama’s agent for change
Mainstream Media Ignore Obama’s Radical Abortion Record
etc, etc, etc
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 05:34 PM6CoP
Just a quote from your depressingly long list of not very much.
“Obama fans jammed WGN’s phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg’s example. We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.”
Phoning and sending in e-mails
Is there no end to the intimidation?
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 05:54 PM“Obama is not fit to be president and America deserves a whole lot better.”
Ahhhhh, John McCain? I know you didn’t say it directly 6CP but is he “a whole lot better”?
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 06:02 PM6 county prod,
Philadelphia agrees that Palin is not fit to be VP and America deserves a whole lot better .
Although many Philadelphia Flyers fans cheered and clapped as Sarah Palin took to the ice at the Wachovia Center on Saturday night to drop the ceremonial puck kicking off this town’s NHL season, their warm reception was no match for the 90 seconds of sustained booing that rumbled through the arena, drowning out the few cheers in support of the Republican vice presidential nominee.
As Palin stepped onto the ice before a capacity crowd to drop the puck, joined by her daughters Willow and Piper, the arena’s jumbotron flashed a futile message to the thousands of notoriously harsh Philadelphia sports fans in attendance.
“Flyers fans, show Philadelphia’s class and welcome America’s #1 hockey mom, Sarah Palin,” the massive electronic message board pleaded, to little effect. Booing quickly erupted when the smiling candidate emerged from a tunnel leading onto the ice, muffling the applause of any Palin supporters in the crowd.
Some in the audience simply gave her a thumbs down gesture. Others called her names.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 06:25 PMCircles,
With McCain, at least you know what you are getting. He can think and work outside the box. He is a RINO and hence not restricted by Republican ideology, and conservatives well know it! He has rubbed them up the wrong way on numerous occasions. He has shown that he is a consensus politician who has effectively and regularly worked across the aisle with Dems. Through decades of service to his country, he has proved his dedication and love for America.
Obama, on the other hand, is the antithesis of McCain. His involvement in public life has (,some would say, poorly) served very narrow interests. His mentors are quite disturbing. He has no record of working with those whom he opposes politically. He is a left-wing fundamentalist whose views on issues like abortion, security and economics are liberal in the extreme, and, I believe, if elected, he will prove to be a very divisive president.
I hope I am wrong.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 06:37 PM6county,
I thought yall were the lawbinding people of Ulster. A cop got fired for not bending the law to suit his boss and you’re not outraged? Is it because his last name’s Monegan? :) Were you just as outraged at GW’S reprobate past as you are at Obama’s past radical aquaintance? (Headline: Shocker!Inner-city black politician knows a radical)Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 06:48 PM6county,
In what way does the complete balleeks that McCain is making of his campaign reassure you about his possible presidency? He is starting to make GW look measured and thoughtful by comparison.
Pete,
BTW nice to see another US topic come up. I was starting to think you and Mick only sing when your winning :) Seriously though cheers!Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 07:06 PMOops! “your” should, of course, be “you’re.”
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 07:08 PM6CP - too much - like organise your links in order of importance - some of us are busy !!
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 07:46 PMGreenflag,
Not very nice folks those Flyers fans. I read they booed Santa Claus as well. Glad they do not support McCain/Palin. Powerline has a funny report on the incident.I was through Philly by train in July. Bit of a dump compared to Pgh. My favourite baseball game was one I saw between the pirates and the phillies in three rivers. The Pirates knocked them out of the park!
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 08:08 PMDewi,
It only takes a couple of seconds to copy and paste links into a word file. Slugger US posts have been scarce this past week or so, there was nothing negative on McCain/Palin, I suppose, so the list grew a little long.Lacheeco
Monegan - is that an Irish name?
I have nothing against Irish people, in fact I had one in my house today. But listen, there’s nothing like a bit of blarney from an Irishman in Pittsburgh to effectively nail the intriguing coincidences and dubious dalliances of The One.
When are we going to get some answers?Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 08:24 PM6CP - so Obama talks to people in the PLO - good.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 08:43 PMStill a bit worried about Ohio - Obama has a few roads to victory but Mccain must win Ohio, Obama still spending a pile of dosh in Texas - why not just stop that and focus on Ohio? ANd forget Florida - he only needs to win one of FL - OH and surely Ohio more likely?
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 08:53 PM“McCain needs to lose this one with some dignity . And to do that he needs to step down hard on the ‘racists’ and ‘born again nutters’ among his supporters . If he does’nt he risks the loss of any remaining ‘independents ‘ out there who were leaning towards him and could even provoke a widespread stay at home by ‘liberal ‘ Republicans thus turning a respectable Democratic victory into a rout of the Republicans .”
Good point Greenflag
http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/10/mccain_rebukes_religious_speak.html
He is trying. I think he really believes that Obama is a decent American.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 09:07 PM6coP
“When are we going to get some answers?”
Try this one from Former Reagan Advisor Ed Rollins
“No one cares.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/53771.html
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 09:12 PMWillis,
Obama has tried to play the race card many times, but McCain’s not biting.
Yesterday we had another racist interjection from Obama: Hoodwink and bamboozle. But few were paying attention, white folks, that is. Or maybe the media are covering for him again.
In the movie Malcolm X, Denzel Washington warned black people about the hidden evils of “the White Man” masquerading as a smiling politician: “Every election year, these politicians are sent up here to pacify us,” he says. “You’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled.” I don’t know if the words are a accurate quote of Malcolm X, but Obama applied them to McCain.
How much more racist can you get?
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 09:26 PM6CP - watched your link and was very impressed by Obama - racist? don’t think so from my viewing.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 09:31 PM
