Palin Files Ethics Complaint Against Herself

Anchorage Daily News:

Gov. Sarah Palin wants a state board to review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan -- taking the unusual step of making an ethics complaint against herself.

Her lawyer sent an "ethics disclosure" Monday night to Attorney General Talis Colberg. The governor asked that it go to the three-person Personnel Board as a complaint. While ethics complaints are usually confidential, Palin wants the matter open.

The lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, also asked the state Legislature to drop its own investigation into the Monegan matter. He says the Personnel Board has jurisdiction over ethics.

Read the whole story: Anchorage Daily News

Comments

[Faith101]

Who is going to be duped by this fiasco. They do not give the American public very much credit. The apples will be shaked from this tree, one by one. The truth will inadvertily come from the extended family or their friends not Palin herself. She is already apart of the game, although she is in the big leagues now. I looked at the boyfriend today, that boy is about to crack, he do not want to get married at age 18.

[hmmmmmer]

45% apparently agree with McCain and the polls fluctuate so much I really have a hard time giving the American public credit. We will see.

[JHancock]

There were enough idiots that voted for the dumenbush that he could steal the elections. This has to be a blow out to keep them from doing the same for mcbush.

[BassMent]

A republican trying to BURY THE TRUTH!?!?!?

Refusing to TESTIFY?!?!?!?

Using questionable legal stunts to DERAIL AN ETHICS INVESTIGATION?!?!?

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!!!!

[CaliTLC]

One Question: What was Gov. Palin's participation, if any, in the appointment of the board members that she wants to review her bogus ethics complaint? Participation includes influence. Are they paid board members and did she raise their salaries lately? Come on please.
Obama-Biden 2008-2016

[DRaymond]

They are appointed by her. The usual convention is that as political appointees she can also ask for their resignation. So the notion that this is anything of an indepandent investigation is ridiculous. That's the whole reason why the legislature started their own investigation in the first place.

[CaliTLC]

Thanks. I figured as much. She and her attorney think we are all stupid. Let the INDEPENDENT investigation continue. Thank goodness for the Public Records Act. Documents usually tend to speak volumes.
Obama-Biden 2008-2016

[flydoghead]

Sounds to me to be a good reason to be able to say , "NO COMMENT DUE TO AN ONGOING
INVESTIGATION"

where have se heard that one before ?

[NicoloM]

Ah yes-- echos of Ted Stevens (I don't know if you heard the clips of him on Alaska radio, where the caller asks "did they tell you not to talk about it?" Stevens says no, so the caller says then you're just refusing to answer questions.
But the best questions would be asked of McCain-- he doesn't like talking about his mistakes..­.tempermen­t is the issue.
Senator McCain, did you ask Ms. Palin about the troopergate scandal? What did she tell you? Don't you feel the american people are owed an answer about the person you selected out of nowhere?
Just another fantasy of a country with a free press. It would be great if Arianna or Rachel Maddow got to chat with Ms. Palin for half an hour with the cameras rolling. But shucks, she's being carefully kept away from an open society.
As a lawyer though, I smell blood in the water when a suspect gets lawyered up and starts stonewalling. Pretty sure the probe is headed in the right directiion when they start flailing.

[Veratruth]

All jokes aside.... I think this mother should forget about the GOP convention. She should call together all political evangelicals, including Rick Warren, tell her story, and let them decide her fate. AND, let it be televised (prime time).

[whiskeytangofoxtrot451]

They'll tell it's all good because her life is dedicated to Jesus.

That's how frauds like Warren operate. You can do anything you want so long as you shed a few tears and promise to dedicate your life to Jesus afterwards.

[CaliTLC]

Please. Don't give Rev. Warren any ideas. Otherwise, we will have another farse of a question and answer session in Orange Co. again. No thanks.
Obama-Biden 2008-2016

[watertiger5150]

Sounds like she's been consulting Rove.

[tandrmcdonald]

This is what happens you hire people who have no other qualifications than being in the right political party. Sarah Palin fit the profile and was "vetted;" she was a female, she had a pulse, she was a Republican, and she was malleable. Pretty much like the Bob Jones/Liberty University types pretending to run the Republican Party, the Republican Campaign, and everything else associated with the dying Republican Party, including the executive office and the judiciary.
The party of Abraham Lincolm has become the party of dumb and dumber.

[JHancock]

Who would have expected an Alaskan Republican state official to be a corrupt whacko?

[virto]

Another Cheney in the making. I can't wait for some more "reform" from the Republicans.

[evolution1223]

Isn't this the same woman who, as mayor, demanded a show of loyalty from her staff in the form of forced resignations? And those who refused to resigned, there postions were just deleted.

And we expect this governor appointed board to rule in some way other than for her? Not if they want to keep being on the board.

[poco767c]

SHe demanded that they sacrifice a goat to an effigy of Rove.

[Kay72403]

Have mercy.....­.....abuse of power as a mayor and then as governor a foreshadow and omen of Sarah Palin in the executive office.

[Paula1953]

Figures.

[Veratruth]

Sarah Palin: Why would YOU request a three-person Personnel Board when YOU have already decided what the outcome will be regarding YOUR ethics?

[CaliTLC]

She probably appointed 2 of the 3 board members. There is some nefarious reason why she and her attorney are even suggesting this nonsense. Ridiculous.
Obama-Biden 2008-2016

[poco767c]

I detect Rove's chubby finger marks throughout this pie.

[research]

Why don't the dems understand that they could disable Rove, by enforcing the call to testify?

[JerseyBob]

Remember Roe/Wade. Palin could turn the Court.

Both a bane and a joy, government processes involve statutory timelines. Knowledge of these processes is a trough from which lawyers, in this case McCain's/Palin's lawyers, heartily take draft. This, as others note, is an effort to move timelines out. McCain wants no decisions or adjudications on Palin's activities at the state level to interfere with the campaign current.

If republicans think this selection is energizing, exciting, et cetera, ad nauseum (we've all heard this nonsense right?), I can only wonder about their, let me be discreet, private lives.

"Tonight dear, I'm going to be wearing one of those adorable cowboy outfits I saw at the convention. What are you thinking of wearing?" Forgive me; I was on a roll. I just don't like these people. But then, no better reason than that for the ballot. Vote! Remember Roe/Wade.

[ThunderclapNewman]

From TPM:

Palin Refuses to Testify

It didn't take long. We've already brought you news of the official investigation into Gov. Palin's firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Steve Branchflower, the lead investigator, began trying to arrange a deposition of the governor days before her veep selection. And despite claiming executive privilege to shield requested emails, up until that point Palin had promised full cooperation with the probe.

Now, however, she is refusing to submit to questioning by Branchflower unless he and the legislative committee that appointed him agree to relinquish control of the investigation and turn it over to a state review board made up of three Palin appointees.

Yesterday, Palin took the unusual step of having her lawyer, Thomas van Flein, file an ethics complaint against her with the state's Attorney General. This, she hopes, will lead the AG to give the investigation to the aforementioned state personnel board. Unless that happens, and Branchflower agrees to close down his investigation, she will refuse to testify.

.

That pretty much says it all, folks.

[wuzzafan]

Be careful what you wish for - Biden has a son involved in a hedgefund con that could come back to bite in October.

[BassMent]

Biden's son is not running for VP.

[rollingdivision]

There's no there there.....­.

It will go to the existing three-person Personnel Board

While ethics complaints are usually confidential, Palin wants the matter open to the public and news media.

Under state law, the board must hire an independent counsel for complaints against the governor to determine whether evidence of a violation of the state ethics act exists.

"Governor Palin believes it will find no conceivable violation of the Ethics Act," her complaint says. She wants the investigation "to put these matters to rest."

[Bitsko]

Do you have a crystal ball that allows you to peer into the future? You have somehow managed to convince yourself that what you wish to happen is how things will turn out. Reminds me a lot of how the Iraq war was going to turn out just swimmingly.

[Sloane7]

Then she should submit to questioning immediately. She should allow them to question her husband as well, since he provided a dossier on Wooten to Monegan. She should allow the $100,000 investigation that is already in process to proceed. She should not try to delay the results of the investigation and she should not be trying to find methods to stall the investigation.

[CaliTLC]

Come on. Surely you jest.