There are not many days when I bother with DailyKos, but today is a bit different. As I follow the Troopergate scandal up in Alaska, I’ve been reading comments from folks from all over the country.
Of course, the big story for today is that the Alaskan legislature’s Judicial Committee will review the report of Investigator Branchflower beginning at about 1 pm Eastern, and then decide whether they should accept and release it to the public. This report relates to the real Troopergate matter, not the Palin sideshow with the Personnel Board.
Given that Sarah Palin decided through her appointed Personnel Board to investigate herself (she filed the ethics complaint against herself before filing a motion to dismiss the complaint before deciding – under the instructions of McCain campaign staffers – that she ought to continue it) and declare herself exonerated, I don’t see how the Judicial Committee can do anything but release the Branchflower report.
Troopergate was originally a one-trick pony.
Palin has an ex-brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten with whom she clashed upon her sister Molly’s filing for divorce. Prior to then, it appeared that everything was hunky-dory and that Wooten was just another family member acting like a Palin.
Upon Molly Wooten’s (now McCann) filing for divorce, the gloves came off and the two alpha dogs – Todd Palin and Mike Wooten – started pissing on each other. The two men, probably to their chagrin, forgot that the real alpha dog in the family was Sarah Palin. And once she was elected governor, things really got hot.
Unable to get Wooten fired by going thru regular channels that included an internal investigation by the Alaska State Troopers, the Palins really went over-the-top once Sarah entered the governor’s mansion. Todd Palin’s written answers to Branchflower’s interrogatories show a deep-seated obsession with Wooten.
Is Wooten a jackass who ought not be wearing a blue uniform? Absolutely. The March 2006 letter of Col. Julia Grimes makes that clear.
But that does not excuse the Palins from using the governor’s office or public resources to settle a personal, family score. The Grimes letter makes clear that the complaints of the Palins were fully investigated and that as a result Wooten was reprimanded, re-assigned, and suspended. It does not appear that any of the bad acts occurred since the time Sarah Palin became governor. But that did not stop either Todd or Sarah from pursuing every means possible to get Mike Wooten fired.
Sarah Palin became the governor of Alask in 2007. Walt Monegan became the Commissioner of the Dept of Public Safety. From the first day he stepped into the role, it appears that the Palins were on him about getting Wooten fired. When Monegan hemmed and hawed, and finally refused, Palin replaced him (with a guy who had a history of alleged sexual harassment).
I was drawn to the DailyKos site today because several bloggers made mention of a video thereon which clearly shows Sarah Palin offering a series of every-changing reasons for why Walt Monegan was fired. Here is part of the DailyKos post, with video.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/10/131/24458/636/625
“The full story, including several other contradictory statements by Palin and three other videos of her on Troopergate, are here and is also now at Digg.
[ed: verify youtube address]
Palin has been caught lying in the past, and the site’s special section on Palin has a couple of them, but most times only half of a lie is caught live on tape. The other half of the lie is usually caught on paper where it has far less weight, especially in the age of YouTube and a non-reading public. For example in her flip flop on global warming, her original thoughts were captured by newsmax.com, a highly conservative news site which lacks credibility. A picture is worth a thousand words, though, and a video is worth a hundred thousand. [ed: the newsmax link does not go redirect to any comments by Palin re firing of Monegan.]
The other unique thing is that this video is not saying two different things about a policy. It’s lying about the firing of a widely respected police chief – an ethical matter that could torpedo her candidacy for national office both now and future attempts as well. It’s one thing to lie about your positions. It’s another to lie about abusing your power to fire a top public official and wreck his reputation.
This cuts to the heart of the Troopergate situation because if she’s lying about why she fired him, it means she’s covering up the real reason. With a half-hearted probe about to be released, this video will probably say more about her honesty in the matter than anything the largely blocked probe will have. And it will overcome attempts by the McCain campaign to present her as innocent.
Please spread the word about this both to the mainstream media and to alternative media sites. If enough alternative sites report on it, the mainstream media will be more likely to cover it.“
And then there’s the British press with a well-written story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/10/uselections2008-sarahpalin1
“Palin stands accused of sacking the head of the state’s police force, Walt Monegan, when he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law, a state trooper who had been through a bitter divorce and child custody battle with her younger sister. There is evidence suggesting some members of her family waged a vendetta against the trooper, Mike Wooten, making complaints that he had broken the law, committed disciplinary offences, and lied to obtain sickness benefits. Eventually a divorce court judge warned family members to leave the man alone.
Wooten was investigated and disciplined in March 2006, but when Palin was elected governor later that year, she and her husband, and members of her staff, are said to have pressed to have the case reopened. When Monegan was sacked last July, he claimed that his refusal to fire Wooten had cost him his job, an allegation Palin denies.
An investigation into Troopergate was ordered by the state’s legislature, and a report on the matter is due to be published today. While Palin initially agreed to cooperate, her husband and several members of her staff resisted giving evidence, despite being summonsed. It has also emerged that Palin and her senior aides used personal email accounts while conducting official business in order to conceal their communications about Wooten.
Many Alaskans have been greatly disappointed by Palin’s behaviour during the Troopergate affair. Patrick Dougherty, editor of the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s main newspaper, says the episode has “raised serious doubts about her honesty and integrity“.
Andrew Halcro, the unnamed anti-palin blogger referenced in Todd Palin’s responses to Branchflower’s interrogatories, admits he’s the guy who outted Palin on Troopergate. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/10/63933/256/417/626049
2 Comments
October 10, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I can never seem to get it straight what exactly happened with the Troopergate, but it seems petty and High School to me. I mean, really, how retarded and juvenile. It reminds me of my mother in law.
October 10, 2008 at 12:36 pm
cough, cough
hahahaha.
ny times has a pretty detailed article about it today but I neglected to write down the URL. if I locate it again, I’ll edit the post to include it.
btw – at one pm eastern (half hour from now) the legislative committee will vote on the report. there are apparently enough votes to accept the 300-page report and release it to the public. read somewhere that there are over 1000 exhibits with it. whew!