by Blue Stockings | News from Alaska, via Mudflats:
The Alaska Supreme Court today rejected an attempt by a group of six Republican legislators to shut down the Legislature’s investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin.
The ruling means that Steve Branchflower, the investigator hired by the Legislative Council, will release his report as scheduled on Friday.
But that's "only the first hurdle"----the Legislative Council still needs to vote to release the results of the report to the public. Alaskans for truth, do your duty.
Such information as we are receiving on "Troopergate" is turning out to be quite the story. Can't wait for the movie. Based on today's New York Times article, it's a cautionary tale told in the traditional manner (by transposing the sort of abuses of power that we have seen play out in the larger sphere to the office of a small town public official.)
According to The New York Times:
Ms. Palin has denied that anyone told Mr. Monegan to dismiss Trooper Wooten, or that the commissioner’s ouster had anything to do with him. But an examination of the case, based on interviews with Mr. Monegan and several top aides, indicates that, to a far greater degree than was previously known, the governor, her husband and her administration pressed the commissioner and his staff to get Trooper Wooten off the force, though without directly ordering it.
In all, the commissioner and his aides were contacted about Trooper Wooten three dozen times over 19 months by the governor, her husband and seven administration officials, interviews and documents show.
“To all of us, it was a campaign to get rid of him as a trooper and, at the very least, to smear the guy and give him a desk job somewhere,” said Kim Peterson, Mr. Monegan’s special assistant, who like several other aides spoke publicly about the matter for the first time. (NYT)
The Jed Report asks drolly: "Can you imagine the vindictive personal drama that would ensue if Sarah Palin were ever actually elected Vice President or President?" Emphasis on personally vindictive, as opposed to merely politically, as was the case with the Bush regime (looking Klassier every day, compared to Palin's).
Zuzu says:
Sarah Palin has failed in her efforts to block the Alaska legislature's ongoing abuse-of-power investigation into her firing of the state's public safety commissioner because he did not respond to her and her family's pressure to fire her ex brother-in-law, a state trooper. Nor has she successfully prevented seven state employees from responding to subpoenas), despite a big assist from a Focus on the Family-affiliated legal foundation, who were most likely called up by the McCain campaign people, who are effectively governing Alaska now. She's also, in a particularly Cheneyesque twist, refusing to turn over a huge number of emails to the independent investigator, whose legitimacy she disputes....
For some really great, though really long, analysis of the issues behind Troopergate, and why it all matters even if Mike Wooten is the scum of the earth, see Teresa Nielsen Hayden. Or poke around at Mudflats or at the Anchorage Daily News's site.
All of this secrecy and abuse of power and personal-vendetta-driven governance (or reward; let us not forget that she rewarded many of her schoolmates with high-level state jobs for which they were not adequately qualified, including putting one friend in charge of agriculture based on her childhood love of cows) is a good indication of how she might govern if she became president through McCain's death in office.
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