Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, an investigation by the Alaska Legislature has concluded. The inquiry found, however, that she was within her right to dismiss her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who was the trooper’s boss.
A 263-page report released by lawmakers in Alaska found that Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, had herself exerted pressure to get Trooper Michael Wooten dismissed, as well as allowed her husband and subordinates to press for his firing, largely as a result of his temperament and past disciplinary problems.
“Such impermissible and repeated contacts,” the report states, “create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior’s displeasure and the possible consequences of that displeasure.” The report concludes that the action was a violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.
What now lies ahead is not fully known at this point. Ms. Palin could be censured by the Legislature, but that is unlikely…
No kidding.
Results like this are always complicated by politicians taking care of their own. The Legislative Committee which issued this report is bipartisan. Their trepidation about mandating sanctions for lousy ethics are probably bipartisan as well.
How will American voters react?
How will American voters react?
I hope they don’t react..
Before all the right-wing yahoos start spewing…
Let’s note that this investigation started BEFORE she was nominated VP. It’s been going on and it progressed to its conclusion. It was a BIPARTISAN panel and they UNANIMOUSLY decided she had abused her powers.
Just another nail in the coffin. Bye bye Sarah.
Also note that the panel tried to help Palin as much as they could — releasing the report on Friday night. By Monday it’ll be “old news” and the Republicans can hope that it’ll blow over. We’ll see.
If McCain/Palin were elected, would Todd Palin answer the phone at 3am?
I have already concluded she is a cheat and a liar. Most fundamentalists in political office are==whether its religion or economic theory they are fundies over.
She shouldn’t be holding public office. I really hope her credibility takes a major hit in a few months to the point where she loses any political momentum, for Alaskan politics or anywhere else.
The sad part is that after her political career is over, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, she will likely be a CEO for a Fortune 500 company.
How will American voters react? Just like they did in 2004, they will elect McCain, the safe, “status quo” candidate.
Unless you editors blog the Palin Secessionist Video.
It should be noted that “The investigation was commissioned in July by Alaska’s Legislative Council composed of 10 Republican lawmakers and four Democrats.”
We here in AK thought something was fishy before this she was tapped by Mr. McCain…
The attached link http://www.sitnews.us/DaveKiffer/083108_kiffer.html goes to a column illustrating the reaction of many of us here in Southeast Alaska, back in August….
Damn, it’s a good thing that McCain & Co. fully vetted Palin before he went and asked her to be his running mate… there’s nothing like having a squeaky-clean candidate so that the opposition has no ammunition!
This is further proof of McBush’s poor judgement, another reason to vote for “That One”. So many like her working hard to screw up the economy. They may have finally succeeded. Makes you wish a little justice would trickle down once in a while.
This just proves that she is totally qualified to be PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
Doesn’t ABUSE OF POWER come with the JOB?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely??
SOOOOOO WHAT!!!!!!
burn her… she’s a witch.
Not surprised; typical.
I know you Yanks don’t like other countries poking their noses into your elections…but in the UK it just amazes and worries everyone that she could be a heartbeat away from the Presidency if McCain got elected.
I mean it’s crazy.
She’s a mentalist.
What’s worse is there seems to be so many supporters of her even after some of the things she is quoted as saying. And she can’t even name a newspaper.
Madness.
But yeah, like I say, don’t mean to poke my nose in or anything……
😉
14
Do poke, please. After all they poke their noses on just about everything around the world…
so what
people who are politicians are often the type who want / wish / do control others
at the very least they abuse the voters just by taking the perks of office and put in time
big deal
sign of the times
Here we have Barak Obama sitting in a church for 20 years clueless – supposed to lead the nation and take charge against Opec , iran , Russia and we see Palin’s actions as a bad thing ?
And all this time I thought you Democrats were tolerant and opened minded. So much for that.
The responses to this post alone proves you to be nothing more than zombies being lead by Obama to your own destruction. Hope that works out for you. No really, I do hope that works out for you.
Dumb Bastards!
16,
That’s just stupid. There is no comparison to standing by and listenting to someone you don’t neccasarily agree with (we all have friends and acquaintences we are embarrassed about) and actively misusing your office and its powers for personal gain.
Looks like she will fit right in. If you hold that against her, none of those jokers in DC would be there.
#16 Smartalix said
“There is no comparison to standing by and listenting to someone you don’t neccasarily agree with”
For pity’s sake, he went to the church for some 20 years and never (repeat never) listened (he might have heard it, but never really listened?) to Wright’s ravings. I’ve got to tell you, that is weak BS. Weak.
I happen to think that ignoring traditional codes of ethics is a very mavericky thing to do. If the Alaska legislature had more mavericks in it, she probably would have been fully exonerated. Maybe she should secede from the Republican party to form the Maverick Party, and then she can appeal this rebuke to a TRI-partisan commission that includes other Mavericks.
According to the Legislature, she “abused power” and was “within her rights” to do so, qualities of all great women leaders, from hockey moms, to CEO’s. Of course, this is one of those issues that demoz will pounce on, purely because all they can see through their Bush colored glasses is hate whenever they see any republican jogging for public office too close to their back yard. This issue is not that serious. It is one of grey areas. Or is that gray? I wonder what the Legislature would conclude, grey or gray?
The McCain ticket emulates the Bush/Cheney ticket.
McCain – has been run over by his own party with a smear campaign that even he is disgusted with. This is exactly what would happen if he became president. Like Bush, the military and the embedded government institutions would take over.
Palin – Like Cheney, is not shy about exerting her position to drive illegal outcome.
Thank goodness this is starting to resonate with voters. What is virtually left supporting McCain/Palin are the core racists, bigots and religious wackos surrounded by party faithfuls too proud to dump them.
So, the govs inaction was such a serious breach that the recommendation is that no further action be taken? Sounds pretty important!
#19, Ranger,
For pity’s sake, he went to the church for some 20 years and never (repeat never) listened (he might have heard it, but never really listened?) to Wright’s ravings. I’ve got to tell you, that is weak BS. Weak.
Alright, so you don’t like Wright. Can you point to ONE effen statement of his that is NOT personal opinion backed up by years of experience or training. I’m not asking for a list, just ONE fucking comment of Wright’s that is not based upon his years of experience.
Can’t do it? I wonder why.
So let’s turn the view to Palin. She listened to her pastor ramble on about the guy in the sky bit too. She also willingly participated in some filmed circle jerk where they cast out her demons by a witch doctor.
How about McCain? Didn’t he get endorsed by some pastors that blame everything on “the homos”, Jews, and commies? McCain even stood on a stage and thanked them for their support!
What Wright is accused of offended the bigoted and racist crowd. Palin and McCain’s guys are right off the weirdness scale.
This is the type of stuff that happens with big reformers. They become zealous and run roughshod over procedural issues. You can expect this with McCain and his angry personality, and also with Obama and his radical personality.
That said, this issue with firing a trooper is no big deal, and is hardly the worst of her crimes. If the media reported fairly on the issue, everyone would see what a non-issue this is. How many of the media stories even mention that the guy tasered a 10yr old?
#25: “no big deal”
Given that stance, I assume you felt the same way about Clinton’s actions that lead to the impeachment over a minor, no big deal thing.
#26 “Given that stance, I assume you felt the same way about Clinton’s actions that lead to the impeachment over a minor, no big deal thing.”
I always assumed that stuff like that occurred. What concerned me was that the CIC was slipshod enough to let it get out to the public and become an issue.
Sloppy, (no pun intended) 😉
#24 Bonehead said
“Alright, so you don’t like Wright. Can you point to ONE effen statement of his that is NOT personal opinion backed up by years of experience or training. I’m not asking for a list, just ONE fucking comment of Wright’s that is not based upon his years of experience.”
“What Wright is accused of offended the bigoted and racist crowd.”
Hate speech is hate speech. Most of us can (and do) find something to be offended by. And if you think hating whites will bring the country (and all of our children and grandchildren) closer together, some might disagree. Those words should offend any right thinking person.
The point remains that Obama claims to have never heard it. Are you kidding me? What was he doing, do you suppose, that he never, never heard it. BS!
#24 Bonehead
I’ll go one better and give you an Obama quote:
From Audacity of Hope:
Obama – ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’
Sounds like the makings of a traitor to me.
But, BROKE NO LAWS. And, what were the grounds for getting rid of the trooper? Rather very nasty ones, “Here is a copy on an investigation that was conducted on Trooper Wooten.
The internet is filled with rumors and innuendo on this subject. The fact is, Trooper Wotten had a previous record of misconduct and for all opinions, should not have been kept on the force.
His misconduct goes back to 2001.”
http://thomasalamb.blogspot.com/2008/08/troopergate-facts-on-palin-and-trooper.html