Palin Investigation Stalled By McCain Campaign, State Legislator Says

ABC News reports:

Is the McCain campaign afraid of an 'October surprise' involving vice-presidential pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska?

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor," said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired.

An Anchorage Daily News story suggests that Palin's lawyer is helping stall the investigation. He's trying to get the probe into the hands of a governor-appointed board:

The state has hired a private lawyer to represent Gov. Sarah Palin's office in the Legislature's investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The lawyer already has challenged whether lawmakers even have authority to oversee the inquiry.

...

Van Flein said the investigation should be handled by the state Personnel Board, not the Legislature, because it's "statutorily mandated" to handle ethics cases. The three-member Personnel Board is appointed by the governor.

And he's making it difficult for Special Counsel Steve Branchflower to interview Palin:

Branchflower hasn't been able to set up an interview with Palin. French said the state will fly Branchflower to wherever Palin is on the campaign trail if needed.

"Clearly the governor's new political role will make it more challenging for her to make time for this investigation," French wrote. But Palin needs to be interviewed sometime in September, he said.

Van Flein said the investigation is "bad timing" in the middle of a presidential campaign. He said he couldn't guarantee her availability this month.

If witnesses don't become available, French says, he'll ask for subpoenas.

Comments

[V4Vigilance]

Boy, the "October Surprise" will need to be a DOOZIE to outshine all the "September Surprises"!

LOL

[mesut]

yeah and it's only the 2nd day of September

[layman]

MORE OF THE SAME.
DIRTY POLITICS AS USUAL.
DIRTY STALLING OF INVESTIGATION.
DIRTY COVER UP..

[ChristiB]

NYT, CNN & any investigators cannot get access to McCain or Palin. GREAT WAY TO START YOUR WOULD BE PRESIDENCY MCCAIN!

[srtjsrtj]

Wouldn't you Hide Too if you had this much Mess in YOur Background. McCain you know is Embrassed even though he will never admit it.

I have a feeling that Sarah did not tell McCain her little secrets but he now has no Choice but to Play Cover Up

Anyone with Half a Brain Can See Damaga Control When it Stares them in the face

And this Mr. McCain is definitely Damage Control

[FollowTheLeader]

More stuff from Washington Post

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_scrubbing_car_wash.html

Palin Scrubbing Turns Up a Car Wash

By Matthew Mosk
ST. PAUL -- In addition to being a mayor and raising four children, Sarah Palin found time for another venture in her Wasilla years -- she was part-owner of an Anchorage car wash.

Palin and husband Todd each held a 20 percent stake in Anchorage Car Wash LLC, according to state corporation records filed in 2004.

The venture was not entirely smooth sailing, though. State records show the business ran into trouble with Alaska's division of corporations business and professional licensing after Palin became governor of the state in 2006.

A Feb. 11, 2007 letter to the governor's business partner advises that the car wash had "not filed its biennial report and/or paid its biennial fees," which were more than a year overdue.

The warning letter was written on state letterhead, which carried Palin's name at the top, next to the state seal.

On April 3, 2007, the state went further and issued a "certificate of involuntary dissolution" because of the car wash's failure to file its report and pay state licensing fees.

[JLopez]

Wait, wait a minute. What happen to the executive experience? Maybe just maybe, she fired her executive assistant because the dog was not walked and that why the correct paperwork was not filed.

[Moka11]

Sarah loves bikinis and guns.

http://thebruceblog.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/sarah-palin-do-you-like-my-flag-bikini-the-perfect-huntin-attire/

[FollowTheLeader]

More stuff from the Washingto postPalin Scrubbing Turns Up a Car Wash

By Matthew Mosk
ST. PAUL -- In addition to being a mayor and raising four children, Sarah Palin found time for another venture in her Wasilla years -- she was part-owner of an Anchorage car wash.

Palin and husband Todd each held a 20 percent stake in Anchorage Car Wash LLC, according to state corporation records filed in 2004.

The venture was not entirely smooth sailing, though. State records show the business ran into trouble with Alaska's division of corporations business and professional licensing after Palin became governor of the state in 2006.

A Feb. 11, 2007 letter to the governor's business partner advises that the car wash had "not filed its biennial report and/or paid its biennial fees," which were more than a year overdue.

The warning letter was written on state letterhead, which carried Palin's name at the top, next to the state seal.

On April 3, 2007, the state went further and issued a "certificate of involuntary dissolution" because of the car wash's failure to file its report and pay state licensing fees.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_scrubbing_car_wash.html

[4wehttam]

OMGosh, when does the trail end......................??????

[firewmn]

** News Alert*****..

Rick Davis of McCain camp just called Sarah Palin.. Sarah Fail'n.. by accident..

It was sooo hillarious..!!

Gov. Fail'n....

hahahahahahaha..
he had to correct himself.. than went to a John McCain change america for everybody..

Not only can't he remember her name and use a freudient slip but John is trying to steal the change movement....

*********

[gettyleigh]

The liberal media have launched an offensive against McCain's vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin. The New York Times suggested Palin wasn't properly vetted. ABC News' Matt Dowd is saying that Republican delegates are turning on Palin. I doubt that very much--it appears that just the opposite is happening--Republicans are rallying around Palin the face of this controversy contrived by the liberal media.

[zendem1]

Once again, you trhow the term "liberal" around alot for someone who lacks the intellect to adequately define it. I know you're simply parroting your juvenile heroes on radio and tv who like to use the term in a derogatory manner. It doesn't do any harm really, as most just consider the source. Thank you for your interest in progressive politics and have a nice day.

[situationcritical]

You spelled lib'ral incorrectly.

[RobinSeattle]

You're talking out your backside.

The heads of the corporate media are all Republicans. They stood idly by doing little more than providing stenography for White House spokesman Ari Fleisher's talking points in the run up to the Iraq War and they have blown up non-issues like Jeremiah Wright to attack Obama.

The fact of the matter is that there are myriad problems with the Palin nomination and that isn't the liberal media's fault, it is her's and McCain's since he picked her.

It is amazing to me how the talk radio ranters and their acolytes treat Republican candidates as if they were picked by the hand of God himself. Meanwhile, Democrats like me want to see the likes of William Jefferson, Alcee Hastings and Patty Murray (porkmonster general of Washington state and one of the five dumbest members of Congress) replaced because they are an embarrassment. In contrast, Republicans defend folks who took bribes from Jack Abramaoff and wanted a guy convicted of perjury pardoned in Scooter Libby.

You guys are a bunch of sleazebags.

[LightningJoe]

It's true: God really DID pick John McCain and Sarah Palin!

The dirty little secret no one will talk about it that God is slipping. Think about it. Hard as it may be to believe, God is EVEN OLDER than John McCain! No wonder He's having senior moments; in fact it's surprising it didn't happen sooner.

Oh, wait -- it was God Himself, who directed Dubya to invade Iraq. And even before that, it was God who mandated the Crusades; who put the Inquisition in place, who wiped out whole villages to counter the scourge of the Gospel According to Timothy.

Hmm.. maybe God, having such as extended life, has also come into an extended senility. That would explain so much; including why He keeps forgetting what he's told people over the ages, and tells them something else the next time. Now we have whole rafts of people who got their stories straight from God's mouth, but still don't agree with each other -- even on the main points.

It may be time for God to retire...

[LemonMeringue]

LOL

Is that all you've got?

[CharlesJ]

Hey stop complaining, the same media launched a witch hunt against Obama and have been very biased in their reporting even until now. And FYI use your computer to do some real searches on Palin.... it is all true.... but leave the kids out of it. Not all republicans are for Palin, half are half are not.

[mesut]

it must hurt when that shoe is on the other foot

[gettyleigh]

Let's take a look at the left's bill of particulars against Sarah Palin, gleaned from The New York Times:

1) Her seventeen year-old daughter is pregnant.

That this is being dwelled on by the media is shameful. It is a nonstory, as http://www.notwrightforamerica.com/ covered earlier and even Obama says.

2) Palin's husband was arrested for DUI 22 years ago.

That this is brought up is la joke--how many members of Congress have gotten DUIs? And this happened when Mr. Palin was in his early twenties.

3) Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party for two years in the mid-90's, and they support a vote on whether Alaska should secede from the Union.

Alaska ain't New York City, and the politics there are much different than they are in the lower 48. I can only imagine how those who are truly living on the Last Frontier feel about being bossed around by people like Nancy Pelosi. But regardless, a two year membership in a party with a goofy secessionist plank is going to generate a collective yawn from the American public.

4) Palin has hired a private lawyer to defend her "in an Alaska legislative ethics investigation into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner." (That quote from the New York Times.)

[RobinSeattle]

Oh, get real!

Nobody cares about the DUI of her husband (hell, Ken Calvert was busted for getting a hummer from a street prostitute and Republicans not only still love the guy, but his Democratic Party candidate opponents have never made it an issue).

However, Palin wants to impose abstinence only education on schoolchildren despite studies that show it doesn't work. That Palin pulled her daughter out of school to conceal her daughter's pregnancy because it would be politically embarrassing only made people want to pursue that story harder. Again, it often isn't the hypocrisy itself that gets you, it is the coverup. Republicans, time after time, refuse to learn that lesson.

Had Obama been a member of a black separatist group, Bill O'Reilly would have run a week long special on it and Sean Hannity would be talking about it every night. That Palin was a member of a secessionist party shows that she hates the United States. Moreover, she only became a Republican "out of convenience" to further her own ambitions. So knock off the hypocrisy, dude. This is a valid line of inquiry in today's political world.

I'm running out of allowable word count here, but you get the idea. You're just wrong.

[plooger]

Membership in the AIP doesn't mean Palin hates America, necessarily; it likely just highlights the typical self-serving attitude of all humans. They likely want separation so they can drill the hell out of Alaska, and collect more oil royalties.

[MikeLee7125]

That's so convincing. Why aren't you on Palin's PR staff?
I'm sarcastic in case you can't tell. Why do you think Palin's lied about or fudged on all of the above? Because if she took your advice, even in the reddest state in the union, she'd be out on her butt faster than you can say RECALL.

[Forest]

You jump to conclusions. It is Republicans like yourself who are making a deal about Palin's daughter's pregnancy. Who cares? Stop projecting your own prejudices on to what you call, "the left."

[plooger]

Chuckle. When the name of your party is the "Alaskan Independence Party," secession isn't merely a plank... it's the platform.

[LightningJoe]

Um, that was two days ago, now. Let's see...

We hear the most pertinent sort of new information about our brand-new R-VP candidate, now trying out for the second shift in the Oval Office -- and you think that the networks should already have already forgotten about her?

What should the press do instead, then? Would you advise them NOT to cover such a story?

"Oh look, the new pro-life evangelical former-AIPer's teenage daughter is expecting -- Out Of Wedlock. Hmm- no, sounds personal. Let's just leave them to familyize in peace. Don't ask her how this relates to her beliefs and principles."

We don't really need to know how she follows her stated convictions, do we? She's only trying out for VP. Sure, that's a bit of jump for her, but she won't really have to take over. At least not until a crisis -- that's when the old guy would kick it. No, we mere citizens don't need to ask such questions of our leaders.

It's a different world, after 9/11, isn't that right? So we're just sheep now, I guess; rather than citizens of a Representative Democracy. We're just "consumers" of whatever manufactured "realities" are presented to us, right? Can't get up about it, though; Survivor's on.

Look into the character of a candidate? They're celebrities -- leave 'em be!

[gettyleigh]

It's funny, I don't remember the media making a big deal of it the countless times the Clintons hired private counsel to defend them in various scandals. And this also appears to be erroneous--the state hired the lawyer, not Palin.

Regardless, on the surface this last one is the most serious charge against Palin, but it falls apart even under mild scrutiny.

The essence of this matter is that Palin's staff is alleged to have pressured Alaska's Department of Public Safety Commissioner to fire a state trooper, and ultimately fired the Public Safety Commissioner when he did not do so. This state trooper was involved in a nasty custody fight with the Governor's sister.

In the first instance this "ethics" investigation is being led by Senator Hollis French, a Democrat and a Massachusetts born, Cornell educated lawyer who advocates socialized medicine. In other words, a liberal.

The other thing you won't get from the liberal media is that this Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was appointed by Palin and according to the Anchorage Daily News, "she had a right to fire him for any reason." This will shock you, but that important detail was left out of the Times story. But if this is an investigation into whether Palin abused her power by firing Monegan, as the Times says, the investigation should be over already--she had the legal right to do what she did. Hollis French, as a liberal lawyer, should know this.

[zendem1]

You throw the term "liberal" around an alot for somebody who is unable to define it.

[LemonMeringue]

Get this straight:

Nobody cares if Bristol Palin CHOOSES to have 10 illegitimate kids.

We care that her mother would push her policies on everyone else - against sex education, against birth control, against choice.

That's our business.

[RobinSeattle]

So what you're saying is that only Republicans should be allowed to investigate Republicans and, by extension,Democrats should only be investigated by Democrats.

You do know that we have an adversarial justice system, right?

AS for the Obama scandals, those would be what exactly? The Rezko set to turned out to be a non-issue. Obama is not nor has be faced any government inquiries into his activities while Palin is in a REPUBLICAN RUN STATE and being investigated by a BIPARTISAN commission.

Too many of you Republicans put your party's interests before the interests of justice and the United States. Again, I want embarrassments like Laura "I can't pay my mortgage but I should still be allowed to keep my house" Richardson gone and real quick like. But you Republicans have no such integrity. Disgusting.

[MikeLee7125]

gettyleigh doth protest too much.
Seriously, if you're trying to convince people this ISN'T a big deal, you're doing a lousy job.

[wm1066]

So Mccain is involved with a cover up BEFORE he is prezident!

[doug108]

There it is. I knew McCain had to have some kind of assurance that the investigation would either be derailed or the conclusion made available too late to have an impact on the election.

[GIBill]

How surprising.

[Faith101]

Even if McCain did change horses at this stage in the race, it would be his ultimate flip flop and gross case of misjudgement. This don't have nothing to do with sexism. But they are trying to milk that argument for all that they get out of it. McCain did not vet this woman and people are trying to get to know her and what she stands for. To be honest, she is looking shaky right now.It goes directly to his judgement or lack there of.

[Dragonfly0867]

What bothers me most, even more than the abuse of power, flip flopping and extreme right views has to do more with her character, which in my opinion, is gender neutral.

When I think of a parent, whether mother or father, who throws their child's private life into the fire for pure political gain, I find it disgusting. According to reports from the McCain campaign, Ms. Palin's daughter informed them of her situation the week before the formal nod. At that time, both Palin parents had to make a decision whether to go forward, if asked, with the VP position. It is irrefutable that the decision was made to accept, regardless of the absolute certainty that their daughter's pregnancy, along with her boyfriend's identity, would be thrust into the limelight. Any parent that I know would have determined that it simply wasn't meant to be (the VP position) and that if it were meant to be, another opportunity would arise.

Ms. Palin is only 44 years old. If she had designs on the VP, or even the presidency at some point, she is undoubtedtly young enough to have begun steering her political career in that direction. Under the current circumstances, it appears that her own political aspirations (supported, apparently, by her husband) trumped her daughter's privacy and reputation.

Very sad indeed.