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Sarah Palin was guilty of abusing her power as governor, according to the report released following a three month investigation by the Alaska legislature. The investigation over whether Palin exceeded the limits of her authority in order to carry out a personal feud against an Alaskan state trooper began before Palin was selected to be John McCain's running mate.
The report states that "impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda” against Trooper Michael Wooten, who was involved in a heated custody battle and divorce proceedings with Palin's sister. However, it also clears Palin of any wrongdoing in the firing of Wooten's supervisor Walt Monegan, stating that "she had the right to fire (him) for almost any reason, or no reason at all.”
The conclusions of the investigation are not serious enough to warrant any charges against Palin and it is unclear what, if any, action will be taken as a result. It does state that Palin's actions were in violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Among the report's findings are that Palin allowed her husband Todd to use state resources in attempting to get Wooten fired, tried to press for harsher punishments on Wooten for his misconduct after Monegan told them he had done everything he lawfully could and a chastisement of Palin for not responding to any questions throughout the investigation.
Palin denies any misconduct and her lawyer says that the report is an attempt to "smear the governor by innuendo." Today while on the campaign trail Palin emphasized, "If you read the report, you will see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member." A spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign added that it was a "partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior.”
The McCain campaign has flown operatives into Alaska to wage a public relations campaign to discredit the investigation and Palin's lawyer is already calling for the state Personnel Board to launch their own investigation.
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who is this horrible woman and when will she leave?
Well gosh darn it!
What a maverick.
She tried to get her brother-in-law fired? The same guy that was abusing and threatening her sister and tasered his own son (her nephew)? Can't say I blame her, really.
"partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior.”
Yeah! That's why it had a MINORITY of Democrats on the panel!
Um...
I'd still hit it.
impeach Palin!
A "partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters," who somehow had the foresight to anticipate her nomination and convince Alaska's mostly Republican politicans to instigate the inquiry months before Palin was even nominated as McCain's VP? WTF?
drliving: the guy was reprimanded for the taser incident (which happened some time before). That's not why she was trying to get him fired.
Final vote: 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats all saying she had abused her power. Yeah, that's partisan. Sooo, Gov Palin, you're saying that many Republican politicians in Alaska are Obama supporters, as well? Gee, I can't imagine why.
Doesn't matter. Sadly, a great number of those that like Palin have no interest in analyzing information...they feel like they know her...and they love her. This is more partisan, liberal media...blah blah blah.
Talk about cognitive dissonance. The report states that she was within her powers as governor to fire the trooper, yet Gothamist has her "guilty" when she hasn't even been charged with anything. More bias induced poor writing, thanks.
The trooper in question also tasered a 10 year old boy and was caught drinking in his police cruiser; facts which the media seem to be ignoring.
The guy deserved to be fired.
How about looking into Obama's illegal meddling in a Kenyan election from his senate office? I think this is far more serious than giving a rotten cop his pink slip.
If any NYPD cop had done what that trooper did, everybody posting here would be howling like banshees for Bloomberg to fire his ass.
This actually had little to do with having the trooper himself fired. If he's a turd, fine, let him off the force. At the very least it helps prevent more major conflicts. It's that she also shitcanned officials below her for not getting out of the way. They didn't deserve to lose their jobs, and that's a flagrant abuse of power.
Maybe it's my bias showing, but this meaningless decision is appalling. Palin's hyped up entry into this race has made her untouchable - to throw the book at her now would put the election into chaos. She's made such a fucking mess and incited such friction into the culture wars that we have to protect her for everyone else's sake. If she weren't tagging along with McCain and moaning about liberal elitism you'd be hearing about her on page A-5 in the Times as another John Rowland scandal. But in a state for which people give even less of a shit than Connecticut.
hey sarah, i can see the end of your political career from my house!
Talk about cognitive dissonance. The report states that she was within her powers as governor to fire the trooper, yet Gothamist has her "guilty" when she hasn't even been charged with anything.
Talk about not knowing what the fuck you are talking about. There were two people involved. Monahan, who is in charge of the police force, and then Wooten, who is the brother-in-law trooper the Palins wanted fired.
The report finds that, since Monahan reports directly to Palin and can be fired for any reason, he was fireable.
However, it also found that repeatedly meeting with Monahan and pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law was a violation of state ethics laws. It's not normally under her purview (you don't expect the governor to be hiring and firing individual troopers), and it's an obvious conflict of interest. Pretty straitforward decision.
Palin could handle this very easily by just admitting she made a mistake and apologizing. That would be the smart move. But instead, she'll kick and scream and blame the messenger. Seems like that's all the GOP ever does these days.
Ides, I think Gothamist is bad for your health. Stick to the Post before you choke or get a heart attack.
Oh, and read past the headlines.
The worst part is we have to endure these local Alaska politics to get to the core of this pretender. If John McCain would simply leave her at the curb, I for one would say No harm no foul.
Can CREEPblicans be more reckless?!
The fascism of stupidity and unconsciousness has sent this country to hell!
...all that and the accent is fake too!
Dear Senator McCain,
Great job on choosing a winner!
Love,
Everyone
Palin is great. It's really unbelievable how the neo-lib smear machine has gone after her in full force. She gets more coverage than Obama and Biden combined! GO PALIN!
Democrats are negligent for allowing Republicans to control the White House the last 8 years destroying the integrity of a nation.
Republicans are lost and extremely annoying in attempting to make their point. That statement surely includes our juvenile President.
What could be worse.
Palin is an idiot and misinformed. McCain can't debate and is not funny. McCain has no clue.
Obama is a fake and pretends he knows what to do. But Obama is far more likable by intelligent minds. And those minds do not include most republicans.
The United States has proven that democracy is a term which allows those ruled under it to cheat and fraud and lie and spit on each other and get away with it. What a great ideology. The freedom to be an a-hole.
Isn't it proof enough that we all hate each other. Yet our God surely understands we all are only human and when He sends Christ down on that big white horse, all of you that are modestly attached to biblical overtones will surely be allowed to practice this free will all over again in some far off utopia. Thank God, God has a medicine chest full of Excedrin.
Is the wagering still open to place my money on China ?
A republican will always state the Dems screwed this country up while explaining why God exists thru some ridiculous assumption hidden in the words of the Good Book.
A democrat always has a better plan but finds a way to screw that up also.
How can anyone not think George W is such an irresponsible child, insane decision maker and never read a Dale Carnegie book in his entire life.
How can anyone not think McCain isn't a confused man and a stumbler when he is confronted with an issue that needs serious intellect and immediate problem solving.
How can anyone think B Obama isn't anything but a Lincolnesque speaker who basically talks like he can Part the Red Sea but in reality, it's all about finding the right people to give you the right answers whih in fact is what every president does anyhow.
This is just a pony show and all of your are blind-folded holding the pony's tail.
This country is a joke. Most of you and the leader's of this country do not even know the pains of the poor and the ill. You will never know until it happens to u. You are ignorant. And you don't care. Oh....you say you care thru the same BS as the candidates and the Good Book toten' person that u say you are. But you are all full of BS and your constitution has locked you into getting away with all this BS.
Your system of declaring a president stinks. Your legal system stinks. Your regulation of industry stinks. Your health care and educational system stinks. Your free will stinks. And your BS believing that any of these people are going to fix any of that stinks. All in all, you all stink, your ideology stinks and your beliefs stink.
Oh....I'm sorry. did I hurt your feelings.
Why don't you go help someone unfortunate.
And stop leaning on this God that doesn't even exist.
And after you do those two things, slap yourselves real hard in the face AND wake the freak UP !!!i
The rest of the world is LAUGHING at us. Keep it up and this act will be on prime-time some where in Peking.