Troopergate II: Still Trooperin'

When the Branchflower report was released showing that Sarah Palin abused the power of the office, I really hadn't considered that the Personnel Board report, the one she cooperated with, would be anything but a rubber stamp of her side of the story. After all, she appointed the whole board! But I guess they went and hired a Patrick Fitzgerald type who's undergoing a real investigation:

The state Personnel Board investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of Walt Monegan has broadened to include other ethics complaints against the governor and examination of actions by other state employees, according to the independent counsel handling the case.

The investigator, Tim Petumenos, did not say who else is under scrutiny. But in two recent letters describing his inquiry, he cited the consolidation of complaints and the involvement of other officials as a reason for not going along with Palin's request to make the examination of her activities more public.

Two other ethics complaints involving Palin are known. One, by activist Andree McLeod, alleges that state hiring practices were circumvented for a Palin supporter. The case is not related to Monegan's firing. The other, by the Public Safety Employees Association, alleges that trooper Mike Wooten's personnel file was illegally breached by state officials.

John Cyr, the PSEA executive director, said Monday the union plans to amend its complaint to be sure the board investigates "harassment" of Wooten as well.

Petumenos has not spoken to the press, in keeping with the secrecy of the state process. But he gave a rough description of the investigation's course in two letters to an Anchorage attorney threatening a lawsuit over Palin's effort to waive confidentiality.

This expansive scope may stem from the fact that--against all of Sarah's hopes--the personnel board appointed a tough, independent investigator for their investigation.

Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethics complaint against herself with the State Personnel Board, arguing that it alone was capable of conducting a fair, nonpartisan inquiry into whether she fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten, who had been involved in a messy custody battle with her sister. Some Democrats ridiculed the move, noting that the personnel board answered to Palin. But the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles. Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and the counsel's report could be released soon after.

Of course, this will now be used to discredit this report. The one that Palin authorized. Sigh.

Meanwhile, Walt Monegan is considering his options after the smear campaign that Palin and her allies have attempted against him.

I really thought this thing had dead-ended, but there appears to be new life. And of course, the very fact that we're talking about abuse of power investigations BEFORE Palin ascends to any higher office is disqualifying in and of itself (and worse for 2012, when I don't think she'll be the nominee, by the way).

Friday Night News Dump, Alaska Style

Sarah Palin abused the power of her office. Why didn't they read the report she released exonerating herself? Wouldn't that be the fair and balanced thing to do?

A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state's public safety commissioner. The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn't the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.

The Republican vice presidential nominee has been accused of firing a commissioner to settle a family dispute. Palin supporters have called the investigation politically motivated.

Monegan says he was dismissed as retribution for resisting pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

Well, she's said six or seven different things, that's just today's excuse, but that's besides the point. By the way that "politically motivated" investigation included 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

The report has been released (by unanimous vote of the Council) and can be found here. The nut graf:

For the reasons explained in Section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

"The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

The wingnuts will hang their hat on the fact that the report says that Palin's firing of Walt Monegan was within her statutory authority, but the above paragraph doesn't have a lot of wiggle room. Her handpicked Attorney General failed to turn over documents in the case, too.

I think the best way for the McCain campaign to spin this is to assert that, by being found guilty of abusing power and obstructing justice, Palin has now shown herself to be perfectly qualified for the office of Vice President as it has been conceived by Dick Cheney.

Or, they can go the route of Palin's lawyer and claim that the report is incomplete because they never talked to Palin herself, which leaves me to wonder if there's a word in Eskimo for "chutzpah."

Perhaps the best, or saddest, part of this is that they tried to stage a replay of the Brooks Brothers riot, this time by dressing up in red noses and rallying against what I guess they'd call a "reindeer court":





As for the nitty-gritty details, I figure Marcy Wheeler's better at that than I am.

Other-Shoe-Drop Watch

Stephen Branchflower is going to deliver his report in the Troopergate probe sometime this morning. Of course, he could always back out, because Sarah Palin has exonerated herself.

On the eve of a report on a legislative panel's abuse-of-power investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report clearing her of any wrongdoing.

Palin, running mate to Republican presidential nominee John McCain, is the subject of two inquiries into whether she abused her power by firing her public safety commissioner. The commissioner says he was dismissed for resisting pressure to fire Palin's former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Neat trick. I'm going to try it the next time I want to get out of paying my own parking tickets. "I wrote myself a voucher!"

Back on planet Earth, the New York Times reports that Palin and her associated simply harangued the heck out of Walt Monegan in their quest to harpoon Moby Michael Wooten.

By now, the outlines of the matter have been widely reported. Mr. Monegan believes he was ousted because he would not bow to pressure to dismiss Trooper Wooten. The Alaska Legislature is investigating the firing and whether the governor abused the powers of her office to pursue a personal vendetta. Its report is due Friday.

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.

It goes without saying that this is not a person or a family to whom you should designate more power.

...OK, she's calling this thing Tasergate? She's actually getting ideas FROM the likes of Ace of Spades and Confederate Yankee?

Why do we wonder why we're melting down under this kind of conservative rule?

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.

Today In Palin

As we await the hard-hitting, brutally frank, just-the-facts-ma'am interview that I'm sure Charlie Gibson is about to throw down for his prime-time special on 20/20, today options for questions sprouted up practically all over the place.

First, we have yet another of her "accomplishments" called into question as just a substanceless catch-phrase. The natural gas pipeline she claims to have built is anything but.

Certainly she proved effective in attracting developers to a project that has eluded Alaska governors for three decades. But an examination of the pipeline project also found that Ms. Palin has overstated both the progress that has been made and the certainty of success.

The pipeline exists only on paper. The first section has yet to be laid, federal approvals are years away and the pipeline will not be completed for at least a decade. In fact, although it is the centerpiece of Ms. Palin’s relatively brief record as governor, the pipeline might never be built, and under a worst-case scenario, the state could lose up to $500 million it committed to defray regulatory and other costs.

Indeed, claiming any kind of major fiscal success in Alaska at a time of record energy prices is kind of like saying that the King of Saudi Arabia is a competent fiscal steward. It's not his leadership, but the resources in the ground that provide the wealth. Alaska is a petro-state that nevertheless steals from the federal government treasury billions upon billions in largesse to finance themselves. It's true that its proximity demands some manner of federal aid, but look at what Palin has requested in earmarks over the past year:

According to Alaska's 2009 catalog of earmark requests the state's sea life are in great need of federal money. As Politico points out, Palin's office requested $2 million in federal monies to study crab mating habits; $494,900 for the recreational halibut harvest and $3.2 million for seal genetics research.

Those requests for the study of wildlife genetics and mating habits seems pretty antithetical to the long-standig views of Palin's running mate, John McCain.

Might be a good question for either Palin or McCain.

Meanwhile, the continuing saga of Troopergate has added more surprises and revelations. Palin was apparently warned by a judge to stop disparaging her sister's ex-husband, even before she became governor of the state.

Court records obtained by NEWSWEEK show that during the course of divorce hearings three years ago, Judge John Suddock heard testimony from an official of the Alaska State Troopers' union about how Sarah Palin—then a private citizen—and members of her family, including her father and daughter, lodged up to a dozen complaints against Wooten with the state police. The union official told the judge that he had never before been asked to appear as a divorce-case witness, that the union believed family complaints against Wooten were "not job-related," and that Wooten was being "harassed" by Palin and other family members.

Court documents show that Judge Suddock was disturbed by the alleged attacks by Palin and her family members on Wooten's behavior and character. "Disparaging will not be tolerated—it is a form of child abuse," the judge told a settlement hearing in October 2005, according to typed notes of the proceedings. The judge added: "Relatives cannot disparage either. If occurs [sic] the parent needs to set boundaries for their relatives."

Indeed, after she clearly fired Public Safety head Walt Monegan for his refusal to fire Wooten, an adviser to her warned her of the abuse of power perception, telling her that "'the situation is now grave' and recommended that she and her husband, Todd Palin, apologize for 'overreaching or perceived overreaching' for using her position to try to get Trooper Mike Wooten fired from the force." He also told her to fire any staff members who contacted Monegan over the firing.

Of course, Palin didn't step back then, and she's certainly not now, enlisting her state Attorney General to help quash subpeonas that may arise during the legislative investigation.

"The eyes of the nation have now turned upon us,'' senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Barnhill wrote. "We think there is a legitimate concern that this investigation is no longer being conducted in a fair manner.''

Barnhill complained in a seven-page letter about public comments made by Hollis French, a Democratic senator, that Palin or her aides may have broken the law by allegedly obtaining personnel files of the fired state public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.

TPM Muckraker is skeptical that much will come of the investigation, as Republicans in the state who were eager to look into this before Palin was made their party's Vice Presidential nominee feel less inclined to do so now.

But there's one story that could absolutely get lots of attention, and should, especially by women.

Speaking to a teleconference audience of reporters around the nation, former Gov. Tony Knowles and current Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein -- both Democrats -- accused Palin of misleading the public in her new role as the vice presidential running mate of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

While some of their complaints have already been aired, Knowles broke new ground while answering a reporter's question on whether Wasilla forced rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests when Palin was mayor.

True, Knowles said.

Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide.

"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said.

Note that it essentially was an Obama surrogate that pushed this story into the mainstream. It's getting other traditional media pickup, too.

I cannot imagine someone so callous as to charge victims of rape for their own exams. That's shocking. Disgusting. It speaks to judgment. And it should be known by every family in America.

UPDATE: Great catch by Jed - McCain voted against Joe Biden's bill which ended the practice of charging victims for rape exams. McCain and Palin really are soulmates.

This HAS to be an ad.

Troopergate Update

It's actually hard to keep everything straight with Sarah Palin, but I think the radical extremism, the constant lying, and the abuse of power are the three silos you can pretty much stack everything in. For the moment, let's focus on the abuse of power.

The effort to fire Department of Public Safety chief Walt Monegan has taken a couple of turns. First of all, there is more documentary evidence.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the running mate for GOP presidential candidate John McCain, wrote e-mails that harshly criticized Alaska state troopers for failing to fire her former brother-in-law and ridiculed an internal affairs investigation into his conduct.

The e-mails were shown to The Washington Post by a former public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan, who was fired by Palin in July. Monegan has given copies of the e-mails to state ethics investigators to support his contention that he was dismissed for failing to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, who at the time was feuding with Palin's family.

"This trooper is still out on the street, in fact he's been promoted," said a Feb. 7, 2007, e-mail sent from Palin's personal Yahoo account and written to give Monegan permission to speak on a violent-crime bill before the state legislature.

"It was a joke, the whole year long 'investigation' of him," the e-mail said. "This is the same trooper who's out there today telling people the new administration is going to destroy the trooper organization, and that he'd 'never work for that b****', Palin'.)"

She went right to the line of asking Monegan for Wooten's firing, and when he refused, she fired him. There aren't a lot of lines to read between here.

For the record, Monegan says that Palin is lying.

Monegan says he believes that the Governor has not told the truth about what happened.

"I think there are some questions now that, coming to light about how transparent and how honest she wants to be," Monegan said [...]

"You should never use your public office to settle a private score," said Sen. Hollis French. "And that's what the legislature is looking into, to what degree did the Governor's personal family relationship inject or get introduced into her work as Governor."

In case you haven't read what Palin aide Frank Bailey discussed with a police official, on tape, here it is:

Bailey asks the officials why there's been reluctance to fire the brother in law.

"The Palins can't figure out why nothing's going on. And here's the problem that's gonna happen is that, there is a possibility because Wooten is an ex-husband of the governor's sister, and there is a custody situation, there is a strong possibility that the Governor herself may get subpoenaed to talk about all this stuff on the stand. Right in the coming months, which would be, it would be ugly," Bailey says.

"I mean, you know, I don't think anybody wants that. But you know, Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, you know, why on Earth -- why is this guy still representing the department?," he asks.

And then later, a more direct reference to the commissioner Walt Monegan.

"I'm telling you honestly, I mean, she really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue, she feel like she doesn't know why there is absolutely no action for a year on this issue. It's very, very troubling to her and the family," Bailey said.

This is pretty darn clear. Incidentally, Bailey is now refusing to testify in the legislature's investigation.

Meanwhile, the Alaska police union has filed a complaint on behalf of Wooten.

The GOP candidate for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, may be facing yet another ethics investigation back in her home state of Alaska. An ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed Wednesday by the police officers union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper Mike Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law of Palin who is at the center of the "Troopergate" scandal.

The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."

John Cyr, director of the union that filed the complaint, told NBC News, "It seems obvious to us somebody has improperly accessed [Wooten's] personnel file."

This is but one example of why Roger Simon was absolutely right with his mocking tone today. The press has the responsibility to provide a fuller picture of elected officials and ask tough questions about them. It is not their job, no matter how much they think to the contrary, to lovingly transcribe whatever inside sources feed them. Just not their job. And it's in no way sexist to get to the bottom of these stories, either. Which it seems like they're following through on.

Bridge To Somewhere

Turns out that Sarah Palin has been caught in a lie on the first day on the job:

During the unveiling of his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to cast her as a “reformer” and “fiscal conservative.” She boldly claimed that with regard to Sen. Ted Stevens’s (R-AK) infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” she told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks“:

I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress — I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we’d build it ourselves.

It appears, however, that Palin is lying. As Bradford Plumer first noted, the Anchorage Daily News interviewed Palin during her 2006 campaign for governor. At the time, federal funding for the bridge had been stripped by Congress. They asked if she was in favor of continuing state funding for the project. “Yes,” she responded, noting specifically her desire to renew Congressional support:

Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now–while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.

The lying is a persistent issue with Palin. She actually campaigned hard on that bridge to nowhere, and then switched positions when the bridge became a punchline, but she's still using the funding to build an access road, because otherwise she would have to return the funding to the federal government. Runaway spending! Despite this, of course, Palin is being portrayed as a crusader against earmarks, and I expect that zombie lie to hold because... well, because she said so. Forget the $346 million in earmarks requested just last year.

There's also the DPS firing scandal, a good primer for which is here. The court tapes have been released, and the Washington Post had a chat with the fired DPS chief, Walt Monegan, which is more than the McCain campaign did.

The July firing of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan by Gov. Sarah Palin, who was announced as John McCain's running mate on Friday, has unearthed a stream of soap-opera-like details about Palin, her husband, her family and top state appointees. The controversy has also cut against Palin's reputation for holding an ethical line and standing up to colleagues in the Republican Party over matters of principle.

Monegan, 57, a respected former chief of the Anchorage Police Department, said in an interview with The Washington Post's James V. Grimaldi on Friday that the governor repeatedly brought up the topic of her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, after Monegan became the state's commissioner of public safety in December 2006. Palin's husband, Todd, met with Monegan and presented a dossier of information about Wooten, who was going through a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly. Monegan also said Sarah Palin sent him e-mails on the subject, but Monegan declined to disclose them, saying he planned to give them to a legislative investigator looking into the matter.

Palin initially denied that she or anyone in her administration had ever pressured Monegan to fire the trooper, but this summer acknowledged more than a half a dozen contacts over the matter, including one phone call from a Palin administration official to a state police lieutenant. The call was recorded and was released by Palin's office this month. Todd Palin told a television reporter in Alaska that he did meet with Monegan, but said he was just "informing" Monegan about the issue, not exerting pressure.

"She never directly asked me to fire him," Monegan said.

That's a thin reed to hang propriety on. And it's not the first time she tried to get rid of someone who crossed her. The police chief and library director supported her opponent in the Wasilla mayoral race in 1996, so she fired them. The police chief sued, and lost, because the judge said that technically, the mayor could fire him for whatever reason she chose. That's the kind of spoils system to expect with her as VP.

There's more from Monegan here. And she might end up being deposed in the case. Lest anyone not get why this is important, Josh Marshall breaks it down.

We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. It's called an abuse of power. There is ample evidence that Palin used her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. When his boss refused to fire him, she fired him. She first denied Monegan's claims of pressure to fire Wooten and then had to amend her story when evidence proved otherwise. The available evidence now suggests that she 1) tried to have an ex-relative fired from his job for personal reasons, something that was clearly inappropriate, and perhaps illegal, though possibly understandable in human terms, 2) fired a state official for not himself acting inappropriately by firing the relative, 3) lied to the public about what happened and 4) continues to lie about what happened.

These are, to put it mildly, not the traits or temperament you want in someone who could hold the executive power of the federal government.

Indeed.