by Blue Stockings | Quelle surprise! We've got a result in Troopergate. At Open Left, Chris Bowers deadpans:
Unsurprisingly, the report which Palin tried to block through lawsuits, stall through non-cooperation, discredit through personal attacks against the investigators, isn't very good for Palin.
As Jack and Jill Politics puts it, "While she’s on the campaign trail, whipping up bigoted frenzies being described as “renewing” the GOP base, the Good people of the state of Alaska got busy putting their Governor in check." Ha, ha, it's true---all of it!
The Anchorage Daily News reports:
A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister, or by failing to prevent her husband Todd from doing so.
Here are some of the findings:
"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda ... to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired," Branchflower's report says.
"Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional. It is an individual responsibility imposed by law, and any effort to benefit a personal interest through official action is a violation of that trust. ... The term ‘benefit' is very broadly defined, and includes anything that is to the person's advantage or personal self-interest."...(ADN)
The report found that the actual firing was within her authority.
The actual firing of Walter Monegan was actually legal–the probe found no wrong doing in its execution. Palin still, however, broke the law, a law that is specifically worded, “betraying the public’s trust.” (Comments from Left Field)
Justin Gardner says:
Seems pretty straightforward. Firing Monegan was legal, but her conduct was unethical.
Chris Bowers: "So, Palin broke the law. But at least she broke the law in a folksy, hockey-family sorta way: by carrying out a vendetta against a former borther-in-law."
Her attorney fired back:
In a five-page response issued Friday night, Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, accuses Branchflower and Democratic Sen. Hollis French, who oversaw the investigation, of using the probe in a partisan attempt to "smear the governor by innuendo."
Van Flein says Branchflower's finding that Palin violated the ethics act is flawed because she received no monetary benefit from whatever actions she and her husband are accused of. He cited several prior ethics investigations.
"The common thread of all of these Ethics Act cases is money and the use of a government position to personally gain," Van Flein's statement says.
"Here, there is no accusation, no finding and no facts that money or financial gain to the Governor was involved in the decision to remove Monegan," the governor's attorney says. "There can be no ethics violations under these circumstances." (ADN)
Hey, the Bush Administration should hire this attorney to argue that there was nothing unethical about the politicization of the Justice Department because: no money changed hands!
I know I never mind when a politician uses political power for personal revenge. That's not unethical---it's a job perk for the politically powerful!
Yglesias reminisces:
The very first time I ever heard Sarah Palin’s name floated as a potential VP was on Morning Joe. Andrea Mitchell immediately responded that Palin was the subject of an active abuse of power investigation, so she was out. Everyone seemed to agree with that, and the conversation moved on. Sounded sensible enough to me. But within days she was John McCain’s choice.
Jeralyn at Talk Left has links to the original report as well as a list of fascinating excerpts.
Anyway, there's already been substantial blogger reaction to the news.
Indispensable Alaskan blog Mudflats lists the 12 members of the legislator who determined that she had abused her power. As you can see they are NOT all Democrats.
Senator Kim Elton (D), Senator John Cowdery (R), Senator Bettye Davis (D), Senator Lyda Green (R), Senator Lyman Hoffman (D), Senator Gary Stevens (R), Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom (R), Rep. John Harris (R), Rep. John Coghill (R), Rep Stoltze (R), Rep. Peggy Wilson (R), Rep. David Guttenberg (D)
In fact it was a group of TEN Republicans and FOUR Democrats. I don't quite see how this could be some sort of plot cooked up by Democrats, do you? No, I didn't think so. As Justin Gardner says at Donklephant, this wasn't some partisan witchhunt---it was a bipartisan finding.
But "Palin's allies have accused the committee of having already drawn their conclusion. They cited comments by Democratic state Sen. Hollis French, who said the investigation could provide an "October surprise" for McCain." (Fox News) Read the McCain camp's preemptive report here!
Dday says:
Sarah Palin abused the power of her office. Why didn't they read the report she released exonerating herself? Wouldn't that be the fair and balanced thing to do?...
Meanwhile, about that hacked Yahoo email account where she was hiding her private correspondence?
In another setback for Ms. Palin, a judge on Friday ordered the state of Alaska to preserve any government-related e-mail messages that Gov. Sarah Palin sent from private accounts. The ruling, by Craig Stowers of Anchorage superior court, came as the result of a lawsuit brought by a resident, Andree McLeod, against Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Ms. Palin has occasionally used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, and her Yahoo accounts were hacked last month. The judge ordered the attorney general to contact Yahoo and other private carriers to preserve any e-mail messages sent and received on those accounts. An assistant attorney general told the court that the governor was no longer using here private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. (Boing Boing; quoting NYT)
skippy saith truly, and it is unfortunately so:
of course, this won't hurt...w/the repubbb base because, after all, the gop considers abuse of power a pre-requisite for holding office.
Dday agrees:
I think the best way for the McCain campaign to spin this is to assert that, by being found guilty of abusing power and obstructing justice, Palin has now shown herself to be perfectly qualified for the office of Vice President as it has been conceived by Dick Cheney.
Though there is a bright spot:
...it won't help amongst the independents.
And here is another, via Comments from Left Field:
[T]his is not likely to put a lot of voters at ease in regards to how Sarah Palin will conduct herself as a potential Vice President. Dick Cheney, a man credited with expanding the powers of the Vice Presidential office does not find a great deal of trust among the American people for just that reason. In fact, a recent poll showed that disapproval of Cheney is in the seventy percent range.
There's a good Troopergate piece in The Guardian. The Democratic Daily reports:
The Fix reports that the DNC has “released a fact sheet containing a series of excerpts from the report and detailed information about the bipartisan nature of the investigation.
Truthdig has a useful article providing a close-up look on Palin's fans. And check out this great photo of Palin looking very much in full rabble rouser mode.
Sullivan thunders:
We have been given a clear warning about the vice-presidential nominee for the Republican party. We already know she is a pathological liar. We already know she refuses even basic transparency and accountability, refusing to hold a press conference as veep nominee for the first time in modern American political history and refusing to provide even minimal documentation of her fifth pregnancy. Barely into her first year as governor, as one might expect of such a person, she abused her power as governor of Alaska to persecute a former family member
Justin Gardner: "I’m not holding my breath for this to appear as a massive headline with flashing red lights on Drudge." No...
For the benefit of Drudge, the right wing blogosphere (blightosphere? No?) and the entire GOP, Ron Chusid points out the clear implications of any attempt to circle the wagon.
This report provides fair warning that the vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party has abused her power and is unfit to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. John McCain and the Republican Party, if they have any honor and any concern about restraining the power of government, have no choice but to remove Sarah Palin from the ticket. Should they fail to do so they will be demonstrating that the abuses of power under George Bush and Dick Cheney are not an aberration from Republican views but that abuse of power is sanctioned by the party. Should this be the case, they are unfit to govern. This will also be a good litmus test of conservative writers and bloggers as we see which support principle and which support party over principle. (Liberal Values)
Well, that's already becoming quite clear as regards many conservative bloggers. As for McCain's supporters....well, as The Mahablog says:
More interesting to me is that today McCain supporters booed and jeered at McCain when he said Barack Obama is a “decent person.”
Memeorandum has more bloggity goodness.
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Palin should be impeached, she loves to talk about corruption and dishonesty, but now her little dirt is coming to light. I have a question, Who is the real Palin? hehehe
Posted by: Kenny | October 11, 2008 at 11:51 AM