• Gypsy Man

  +1

  This ethics investigation is total garbage. It's led by a partisan democrat lawyer, and Palin did nothing wrong in dumping an ineffectual police commissioner.
  
  Not WRIGHT for America (www.notwrightforamerica.com) does a good job destroying this alleged "ethics investigation" and demonstrating what it really is--a partisan witch hunt.

  Posted 9/2/2008 respond (flag)

McCain’s VP Choice Is Under Ethics Investigation For Abuse Of Power In Alaska
Think Progress — ... when she was accused of attempting to get a state trooper fired. That state trooper was her former brother-in-law who had gone through “a messy divorce” with her sister. After the trooper’s boss wouldn’t follow through on the governor’s request, she fired him. Though Palin says she doesn’t “have anything to hide” and she “didn’t do anything wrong there,” an investigation has found that one of her aides pushed the firing: Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday revealed an audio recording ...

mccain to senior staffers: "i said michael palin!!"
skippy the bush kangaroo — ... palin’s reformer image took a hit last month when she was accused of attempting to get a state trooper fired. that state trooper was her former brother-in-law who had gone through “a messy divorce” with her sister. after the trooper’s boss wouldn’t act on the governor’s request, she fired him. though palin says she doesn’t “have anything to hide” and she “didn’t do anything wrong there,” an investigation has found that one of her aides pushed the firing: ...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…
Comments from Left Field — ... Wooten, Gov. Palin’s former brother-in-law, and questions over whether Palin’s office pushed to get him fired. One reason why there are questions is because Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired. Monegan, also the former Chief of Police in Anchorage, was described to me as being a man nearly “beyond reproach” who should have never been fired. Though Palin’s office initially denied involvement in pressuring Monegan to fire Trooper Wooten, an audio recording of a call to Monegan from one of Palin’s aides was revealed a couple ...

Did John McCain Know That Sarah Palin Is In The Middle Of A SCANDAL?
Wonkette » top — ... Wonkette’s favorite GILF has now graduated to a losing ticket for vice president. Hooray for Sarah Palin, the new fake Hillary Clinton! And like the Clintons, Palin and her husband, “Todd,” are involved in a horrible scandal in their corrupt nothing state, and it’s about troopers. So let’s offer a brief background about this epic scandal which has ruined her reputation in Alaska, where she used to have 90% approval ratings. And then you will realize exactly how creepy Alaska is where they would care about such a thing. ...

Palin Probe Could Mean Election-Eve Trouble for McCain
TPMMuckraker — ... Palin had at first denied that her office had a hand in the commissioner's firing, but was forced to retract those denials when taped evidence emerged that a staffer in her office was involved. ...

What the Hell? Sarah Who? An Anti-Choice Creationist? What Scandal In Alaska?
The Democratic Daily — ... More info, where Palin denies knowledge of anything, including her chief of staff’s phone calls to the commission were new to her at the Anchorage Daily News. ...

Palintology
Firedoglake — ... o Used the power of her office to try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired, then fired the uncooperative Public Safety Commissioner and replaced him with ...

Summing Up The First Look At Anti-Choice, Creationist Sarah Palin
The Democratic Daily — ... To top it off , she’s involved in a scandal in Alaska about the misuse of executive power. What would she do from the White House? Is she the successor to Darth Vader Cheney? Probably not. She’s not experienced enough. But the misuse of executive power, especially when you deny knowing what your chief of staff is doing, is so Bush-like it’s truly disturbing. ...

Uh-Oh
Talking Points Memo — ... The wiggle-room here, as you can see, is what it means to 'pressure' as opposed to 'inform'. But look at how Palin described what happened (from an August 14th article in the ADN) ... ...

Gamblin’ Man
The American Spectator — ... something happens, can she be president?" "Gamble" is exactly the right word. Palin is high-risk but also potentially high-reward. As a relatively young (44) first-term governor of a small state, Palin undercuts the experience argument against Barack Obama as much as Joe Biden undermines Obama's message of foreign-policy prescience and change. If the pick is seen as unserious or as tokenism, if she stumbles once in the national spotlight, or if she falls victim to her own version of trooper gate , it could be one mistake too many for a Republican ticket that has little margin ...

Flailin at Palin
Jules Crittenden — ... , sounds like Dems may push for impeachment, which if it comes mid-election will have more to do with national politics than Alaskan justice. Anchorage Daily News  with considerably more trooper context, suggests there may have been a legitimate trooper problem and the handling of it somewhat less than sinister:  Attorney General Colberg also disclosed Wednesday that he’d made a call about Wooten. Colberg said he called Monegan several months ago after Todd Palin asked him about “the process” for when state troopers make death threats against the first family.“I made an ...

The Washington Post Trumps Up Palin "Scandal"
Weekly Standard Blog — ... So where do things currently stand with the controversy? The Anchorage Daily News reported on August 14 that although Palin “has previously said her administration didn't exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten,” the governor said she had recently become aware that her staffers had made two dozen calls to the public safety department about Wooten. “Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction,” Palin said. ...

A Question About Palin's "Troopergate"
Rhymes With Right — ... misconduct. * * * At issue is whether Palin, her administration or family improperly pressured Monegan to fire Alaska state trooper Michael Wooten, the ex-husband of Palin's sister, and whether Palin fired Monegan when that didn't happen. Palin's sister, Molly McCann, and Wooten are divorced but still battling in court over custody and visitation. Now what this comes down to is a "he said/she said" dispute between Gov. Palin and a disgruntled political appointee she fired. And Palin has laid out a case for the firing that seems compelling to me. Monegan was a Palin appointee, ...

The "Palin Drops Out" Theory, and its implicit dopeyness.
Blah3 Feed — ... Look at Sarah Palin's (and her husband's) public track record since she became Governor. She fired an official who wouldn't fire her ex-brother in law. not to be outdone, the old man pushed one of Palin's top aides out of his job for dating his best friend's ex. Then she upped the ante again by hiring a ...

Dick Morris Paints Palin As Ethics Crusader, Overlooks Corruption Allegations Against Her
News Hounds — ... Well, not everybody knows how honest she is. The Anchorage Daily News reports that after Palin insisted her administration never pressured anyone to fire her former brother-in-law, a recently revealed audio recording shows an aide pushing the Public Safety Department to fire the state trooper in question. ...

Getting Real
Talking Points Memo — ... The Attorney General's investigation quickly turned up evidence that Palin's initial denials were false. Multiple members of her staff had raised Wooten's employment with Monegan. Indeed, the state police had a recording of one of her deputies pushing Monegan to fire Wooten. Palin said that this was the first she'd heard of it and insisted the deputy wasn't acting at her behest, even though the trascript of the recorded call clearly suggested that he was. ...

McCain-Palin: Sloppy To No Vetting? How Can Anyone Trust McCain?
Firedoglake — ... being set up for calls and information about potential abuse of power allegations, with Sarah Palin and members of her staff and her husband caught ...

Palin Likely to Testify Soon, Under Oath, in Trooper-Gate Probe
TPMMuckraker — ... Palin had at first denied that her office was involved in the effort to have the trooper fired, but was forced to retract those denials when taped evidence emerged that a staffer in her office was involved. ...

The Bridge To Nowhere: News From An Alternate Reality
ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES — ... through the marble ceiling, the one which Hillary Clinton mentioned as now having millions of cracks because she came so close to becoming the Democratic candidate for the president? I can say that should Palin somehow succeed in that breaking she'd waste no time in getting the cement mixed and the trowel ready to permanently fill that hole so that no other woman could follow her, ever. I can also ask you to read about Palin's political views and actions and the political trouble she has had in Alaska. Did I already mention that all this smells and ...

Rove: Bush Had Foreign Policy Experience Because Texas Is Near Mexico
News Hounds — ... was another discussion in which Palin’s corruption investigation and many of her other shortcomings as a candidate were conveniently overlooked. With video. Rove’s comment about foreign policy experience occurs near the end of the video. But I’ve included the entire discussion in order to showcase the glaring lack of scrutiny of Palin on FOX News’ prime time debate show. She has already been proven to have lied about opposing the “bridge to nowhere.” She’s embroiled in a corruption investigation; she was a director of Ted Stevens’ 527 Group, “Ted Stevens ...

Palin Dragging Feet on Probe
TPMMuckraker — ... The investigation is focused on Palin's alleged involvement in an effort to fire a state trooper who had had been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Palin's family. The state's former public safety commissioner has asserted that he was fired for failing to fire the trooper. ...

Palin Aide Dodges Trooper-Gate Deposition
TPMMuckraker — ... Bailey is central to the case. In phone recordings released last month as part of a parallel probe by the state Attorney General, Bailey suggested that Palin and her husband wanted trooper Mike Wooten -- who has been embroiled in a messy family dispute with the Palins -- removed from his job. ...

New Emails Suggest Holes in Palin's Trooper-Gate Story
TPMMuckraker — ... This isn't the first time that events have appeared to contradict Palin's story about her role in Trooper-Gate. Palin at first claimed that her administration did not put pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten. But after a phone recording surfaced in mid-August of Palin aide Frank Bailey raising the issue of Wooten's employment with a trooper official, she was forced to acknowledge her office's involvement, though she has continued to deny her personal role. ...

TrooperGate: Sarah Louise's aide dodges deposition
The Latest on Air America — ... Bailey is central to the case. In phone recordings released last month as part of a parallel probe by the state Attorney General, Bailey suggested that Palin and her husband wanted trooper Mike Wooten -- who has been embroiled in a messy family dispute with the Palins -- removed from his job. ...

Fired Commissioner: Palin Hasn't Been Truthful on Trooper-Gate
TPMMuckraker — ... Palin has been caught out in falsehoods on Trooper-Gate at least twice before. She originally said that her administration didn't exert pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, but had to backtrack after evidence emerged that contradicted that stance. ...

The crime vs. the cover-up
Political Animal — ... about how transparent and how honest she wants to be," Monegan said. I'm sure Palin and the McCain campaign would love for this story to go away, but the longer she sticks to a bogus story, the more it undermines her credibility. The crime, in this case, is bad, but the cover-up is worse. Keep in mind, Palin has already had to backpedal when her public claims couldn't withstand scrutiny. She initially said her administration didn't pressure Monegan to fire her former brother-in-law. That turned out to be false . She said she had disagreed with Monegan over alcohol-abuse issues ...

Palin, Aide, Have Same Lawyer
TPMMuckraker — ... that one of those seven was Frank Bailey, the Palin aide who was heard in a recorded phone conversation telling a trooper official that Palin was wondering why Trooper Mike Wooten -- the figure at the center of the case -- still had a job. ...

Trooper-Gate: Everything You Need To Know
TPMMuckraker — ... from its own 2005 internal investigation of Wooten -- initiated at the request of the Palins -- and charged that Wooten had been unfairly targeted by the Palin family. Palin immediately denied that anyone in her office had pressured Monegan to fire Wooten. A former U.S. attorney and ethics adviser that Palin had previously hired to oversee new financial-disclosure regulations for the Alaska state legislature ...

Detailed emails/correspondence released re: “Troopergate”
Sister Toldjah — ... via interviews with reporters, insisting he was fired because he refused to fire disgraced Alaskan State Trooper Mike Wooten - Gov. Palin’s former brother in law - government emails were released today that shed a whole new light on Monegan than we’ve been getting from the MSM, and they go a long way towards backing up Gov. Palin’s claims about why she let Monegan go, which were: he wasn’t doing enough to fill state trooper vacancies and battle alcohol abuse issues [and] “did not turn out to be a team player on ...

Trooper-Gate: Palin's Shifting Stories
TPMMuckraker — ... As we've explained before, Palin at first said no one in her office had exerted pressure to fire Mike Wooten -- the trooper who was embroiled in a bitter dispute with the Palin family. But after a tape surfaced of Palin-aide Frank Bailey raising the issue with a trooper official in a phone call, Palin backtracked and admitted that "pressure could have been perceived to exist," though she maintained that Bailey had been freelancing. ...

Trooper-Gate's Attorney-General Problem
TPMMuckraker — ... As a result of new information uncovered by Colberg's investigation, Palin held a press-conference in mid-August and admitted that one of her staffers, Frank Bailey, had been tape recorded making a call to a state trooper's office, requesting the removal of Wooten. ...

Erik Ose: Sarah Palin's Inbox Reveals Possible Troopergate Smoking Guns
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... over Troopergate. On August 7, he sent an e-mail to Palin's Yahoo account with the subject line, "FW: CONFIDENTIAL Ethics Matter." The following week, on August 13, Palin held a press conference disclosing that in addition to Bailey's phone call in February, members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about her ex-brother-in-law. ...

Bill Dyer: Contra Bonnie Goldstein at Slate.com, Gov. Palin has never "publicly admitted" that any communications with Monegan were intended to "urge Wooten's firing"
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog — ... her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper named Mike Wooten. (Wooten's marriage to Palin's sister, Molly McCann, ended in an ugly divorce.) Two weeks before John McCain declared Palin his running mate, Palin admitted publicly that her husband, ...

Susan L. Travis: Peas In a Pod: Palin's Troopergate And Bush's Attorneygate
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... Palin: Monegan believes his dismissal was related to his reluctance to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law Mike Wooten, an Alaska State Trooper. ...

NYT Drops "Troopergate" Hit Piece on Sarah Palin
Weekly Standard Blog — ... The Anchorage Daily News reported two months ago that Palin's husband and staffers had made two dozen calls to the public safety department about Wooten. So the Times's report that maybe an extra dozen calls were placed really doesn't constitute evidence that Palin pushed for Wooten's firing "to a far greater degree than was previously known." As Palin admitted back in August, “Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction." ...

The Palin Report
Obsidian Wings — ... It also makes it very hard to believe Palin's claim that she only became aware in mid-August that people in her administration had contacted Monegan and others about Wooten. That might be true if all the contacts had come from Todd Palin. But the idea that she was unaware not just that her husband was calling people, but that her Chief of Staff, Commissioner of Administration, Attorney General, and Director of Boards and Commissions were doing so, defies belief. ...

The Troopergate Report
Political Animal — ... by Governor Palin seem not just false, but absurd: "Governor Palin says, "All I know what the facts are and what the truth is. And the truth is never was there any pressure put on Commissioner Monegan to hire or fire anybody."" It also makes it very hard to believe Palin's claim that she only became aware in mid-August that people in her administration had contacted Monegan and others about Wooten. That might be true if all the contacts had come from Todd Palin. But the idea that she was unaware not just that her husband was calling people, but that her Chief of Staff, ...

"Truly Peculiar And Creepy"
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — ... It also makes it very hard to believe Palin's claim that she only became aware in mid-August that people in her administration had contacted Monegan and others about Wooten. That might be true if all the contacts had come from Todd Palin. But the idea that she was unaware not just that her husband was calling people, but that her Chief of Staff, Commissioner of Administration, Attorney General, and Director of Boards and Commissions were doing so, defies belief. ...

Palin 'Troopergate' aide to write book
News — ... Bailey made a phone call to the Public Safety Department, which was recorded, asking why Monegan had not fired Wooten. Palin denied having requested members of her staff to make such calls.  ...

Hannity and Palin Blame Rahm Emanuel And The Obama Administration For Her Resignation
News Hounds — ... lot of the investigations that ensued which, you know, became very troublesome and expensive for you, which led to the resignation?” “Absolutely,” Palin said. “But it wasn’t just me. It was the burden put on the state administration. The millions of dollars, the thousands of hours that my staff had to spend just to respond to the frivolous things that were thrown our way and that was all quite unfortunate.” Obama and Emanuel must have remarkable clairvoyant powers. The Troopergate investigation, for example, began before her nomination. And Rahm Emanuel ...