Stonewall Palin

If you track this from where we were to where we are, it's kind of incredible. So Sarah Palin was caught, on tape, trying to persuade Walter Monegan to fire her ex-brother in Law Michael Wooten. She promised to cooperate with the investigation. Then John McCain picked her to become his Vice Presidential nominee, and the Republican lawyers flooded the zone. Since then, aides who agreed to testify clammed up, cooperation was cut off, and subpoenas were issued. In the past 24 hours:

• Palin said she would not testify, despite pledging to do so earlier.

• She's decided the investigation is politically motivated and partisan, despite there being twice as many Republicans on the Alaska Legislative Council doing the investigating as Democrats, and despite the Republican from her own hometown of Wasilla casting the deciding vote to subpoena aides.

• She's flipped lawmakers who supported the investigation just a couple months ago. Five other Republicans have filed a lawsuit to shut the investigation down entirely.

• The McCain campaign has clearly fed their friendly media the line that this is partisan and part of a sexist plot to bring Palin down.

• She's changed her story about why Monegan was fired, now suggesting it was because of a "pattern of insubordination," which Monegan calls a lie. And get this - she's claiming he went over her head to go to Washington to seek funds for sexual assault prevention. That's right.

This alleged pattern of "outright insubordination" is said to have culminated in Monegan planning a trip to Washington to go after federal funds for an initiative to fight sexual assault crimes, which had not yet been approved by the governor. (Van Flein's account was in sync with the line taken last night by a McCain campaign spokesman at a press conference in Alaska.)

The issue of Monegan's work on the sexual assault initiative doesn't come completely out of the blue. In a lengthy exploration of Palin's record on combating sexual assault crimes, ABC News reported yesterday that Monegan was the "chief proponent" for an "ambitious, multi-million dollar initiative to seriously tackle sex crimes in the state," and that Palin's office "put the plan on hold in July," just days before Monegan's firing.

But whatever the role of the sexual assault initiative in Monegan's departure from state government, this is by now the third substantive explanation given by Palin for that departure. And, to one degree or another, all those explanations contradict each other.

It's interesting that Palin faulted Monegan for trying to combat sexual assaults in Alaska, particularly child sex assaults. This is a woman who as mayor of Wasilla charged rape victims for their own exams, and in a state with a troubling record on sexual assault, for her to fire those who wanted to make combating it a priority is very curious.

Evangelicals and social conservatives have embraced McCain's vice presidential pick for what they call her "pro-family," "pro-woman" values. But in Alaska, critics say Gov. Sarah Palin has not addressed the rampant sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence and murder that make her state one of the most dangerous places in the country for women and children.

Alaska leads the nation in reported forcible rapes per capita, according to the FBI, with a rate two and a half times the national average - a ranking it has held for many years. Children are no safer: Public safety experts believe that the prevalence of rape and sexual assault of minors in Alaska makes the state's record one of the worst in the U.S. And while solid statistics on domestic violence are hard to come by, most - including Gov. Palin - agree it is an "epidemic."

Despite the governor's pro-family image, public safety experts and advocates for women and children struggled when asked to explain how Palin's leadership has helped address the crisis. And current and former officials from Palin's administration confirmed that an ambitious plan to tackle the crisis has apparently sunk into doldrums after arriving at the governor's office.

"She's really done a lot of work on oil and gas, but when it comes to violence against women and children. . . we haven't been on her radar as a priority," said Peggy Brown, executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. The Juneau-based group is an umbrella organization for shelters and anti-violence programs around the state.

I don't know if it has to do with a far-right belief that treating rape victims equals abortion or what, but clearly Palin has turned a blind eye to a very serious epidemic in her own state, and on numerous occasions has actively worked against preventing sexual abuse.

But this is kind of a tangent. Clearly there's a massive cover-up going on here, complete with lies, politically motivated stonewalling and personal attacks against public officials. Right-wing lawyers are suing to shut the whole thing down, smearing Democrats involved with the probe in the process, in an effort to muddy the waters and create the impression that this is a partisan witchhunt. The goal is to pressure everyone involved into refraining from tackling the real issues here.

And if you want a comment out of Palin about this, forget it. She ain't talkin'.

Given the kind of disrespect for the rule of law and the Constitution that we've been through over the past eight years, this kind of steamrolling and stonewalling should be met with great concern. Sarah is growing up in Fourthbranch Cheney's image here.