Electronic Writer

Hey, wait a minute!  The queen of transparency . . . miss “Hold Me Accountable” . . . Sarah Palin AND her staff are NOT going to testify in the Alaska Troopergate Inquiry (bi-partisan, I might add, with 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats).

First, there was the “I don’t know anything about it” phase where  Sarah Palin argued that she was unaware of what Walt Monegan was EVEN discussing.  This phase was short-lived and quickly followed by “I have done nothing wrong.”  Sarah Palin accentuated the point by adding the wonderful, news-ready headline, “Hold Me Accountable!” (There is a really good overview at Think Progress >>)

Next, there was the nomination.  I wonder if the 1-conversation vetting process with John McCain sounded more like confession than a professional discussion, or if all of the subsequent corruption was revealed later?

After the nomination, there was the release of the recorded phone conversation between her staffer, Frank Bailey and the Alaska State Troopers Office.  (You can listen to it here at Alaska Daily News >>)  Governor Sarah Palin put her staffer on PAID leave and said it was the product of staffers wanting to “gain the favor of the governor.” [The PAID leave thing irks me.  It is like a 4-month vacation that the taxpayers are funding.]

The next part of the saga: Governor Palin hired a private lawyer (because the State Attorney General made calls to pressure Walt Monegan and was implicated in the abuse) who filed an Ethics Complaint against HERSELF–in an effort to strip the investigation from the Legislative Investigation.  This was denied.

Governor Palin’s aides and husband refused to testify to the informal requests.

And, now, the Governor’s aides (including the Alaska State Attorney General) has elected to break the law and are refusing to testify to the legal subpeonas–because she has declined to participate.

In my opinion, this is the worst possible form of corruption.  Would any citizen of the United States be able to “decline to participate” and refuse to show up for a lawful subpeona?

Nope–we would be arrested.

As a child, I was chastized that sometimes it takes big lies to cover up the little ones.  The point of the advice was to not tell lies.  I think Sarah Palin’s Troopergate scenario is EXACTLY what my mother was talking about.

Here are the events:

1. Mike Wooten marries Sarah Palin’s little sister.  After 3 – 4 years, they call it quits, and have a bitter child custody dispute.
2. Sarah Palin and her husband Todd hire an investigator, and contact Walt Monegan (Mike Wooten’s Boss) more than 20 times saying that he wasn’t an asset.
3. Sarah Palin fires Walt Monegan because he refuses to break the law and fire Wooten (who had already been disciplined).  This takes place in early July of 2008.
4. The Alaska State legislature begins investigating the firing of Walt Monegan.  Sarah Palin denies knowing anything about it.
5. The Audio tape of her aide making a phone call surfaces.  Sarah Palin says, I didn’t know about it.  My staffer did it without my knowledge.  I am going to put him on PAID leave until this is resolved.  The aide indicates that they got into Wooten’s personnel and workman’s compensation files while they were conducting other business at the same location.
6. Sarah Palin becomes Vice Presidential nominee with Senator John McCain.
7. Sarah Palin’s personal attorney (hired to defend her in the investigation because Alaska State Attorney General made phone calls to pressure Monegan) on behalf of the Governor filed an ethics complaint from the Governor against herself to move the case to a review by the Personnel Board and out of the hands of the investigation taking place with the Alaska State Legislature.  The judge denies this request.
8. We find out yesterday that the ethics adviser for the Governor warned her that firing Monegan raised “grave” concerns in a letter on July 24, 2008–only 9 days after Monegan was fired.

So what does all this mean?

Everyone has been saying all along that divorces are personal and emotional topics.  We can understand how they can affect someone so deeply–especially in custody cases.  But, abuses of power, are not acceptable.  When you are elected, it is your responsibility to NOT abuse your power.  And, the evidence is mounting that the claims may be credible that Sarah Palin abused her power in the firing of Walt Monegan BECAUSE he would not fire Trooper Wooten.  Ironically, she had praised him for his hard work a mere three weeks prior, saying she wanted to honor him publicly.

According to Time’s article, Palin and Troopergate: A Primer, in 2005 the judge was concerned with the fervor of the Palin family pursuing Mike Wooten:

Court records from 2005 show that the judge in the divorce case was concerned at the aggressiveness even then with which the family was trying to get Wooten fired, saying from the bench that “the bitterness of whatever who did what to whom has overridden good judgment.”

The most recent events involve 8 of her senior staffers refusing to testify, the Alaska State Legislature being forced to subpeona witnesses for their refusal to cooperate with the investigation, and attacks the this is a partisan witch-hunt: 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats are on the Investigation committee.

All in all, this is just ugly.  Lies told to cover up more lies.  And, now our potential Vice President using Bush/Cheney tactics to avoid accountability.  What makes this stink all the more is that Palin has lauded herself as the champion of reform.

From what I can see, there is not one shred of transparency left in Sarah Palin’s Office of Governor.

Read the entire article at CNN here >>

This is almost getting a little redundant: there is more in the news today about the investigation of Sarah Palin’s power abuse in the Anchorage Daily News.

Republican Rep. John Coghill last week asked the Alaska Legislature’s Legislative Council, the body that appointed French to oversee the investigation, to discuss replacing French.

Coghill said he believed the investigation was lacking in fairness, neutrality and due process after French was quoted in media reports that the probe’s results were going to be an “October surprise” that is “likely to be damaging to the administration.”

On Monday, Democratic Sen. Kim Elton, the head of the Legislative Council, turned down his request. French’s decisions to date have been appropriate, bipartisan and unchallenged, Elton wrote to Coghill. And the comments French made were “corrected in a very public way in the media,” Elton wrote.

Seems there are a bunch of “mavericks” up in Alaska . . . .

Read the entire article at Anchorage Daily News >>