Palin May Have Fired Aide Over Affair

The Wall Street Journal reports on another Sarah Palin firing -- one that sheds light on the way she mingled personal and political business:

Sarah Palin and John Bitney go way back. They were in the same junior-high band class. Mr. Bitney was a key aide in Gov. Palin's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. When she took office, she gave Mr. Bitney a job as her legislative director, and a few months later stood beside him at a news conference and praised his work.

"Whatever you did, you did it right," she told Mr. Bitney and his team.

Seven weeks later she fired Mr. Bitney for what her spokeswoman now describes as "poor job performance."

What happened in between? According to Mr. Bitney, Gov. Palin got a call from another old friend, Scott Richter, informing her that his wife, Debbie Richter, and Mr. Bitney were having an affair. Mr. Bitney had kept that secret from the governor, even as he told her of his divorce, he said.

...

When Gov. Palin was notified by Mr. Richter in July 2007, she called Mr. Bitney into her office. She already knew he was going through a divorce, and, Mr. Bitney said, he had "led her to believe there weren't going to be any more surprises."

Mr. Bitney said the governor "indicated to me that she was hurt, disappointed and upset, and that she didn't know what she wanted to do."

A few days later, Gov. Palin's chief of staff "indicated to me that I needed to leave the governor's office," Mr. Bitney said.

The Politico has more:

While Palin's office framed the departure as an "amicable" mutual decision, Bitney told Politico that Sarah and Todd Palin "were upset with me about my divorce and who I was dating, and they didn't want that in the governor's office. I wanted to stay with the governor and support the governor -- we're talking about someone who's been a friend for 30 years -- but I understood it, and I have no ax to grind over the whole thing."

Still, Bitney took a line from the "Seinfeld" character Elaine, deeming Palin "a bad breaker-upper."

Palin also fired, according to the Politico, "a campaign adviser whose mother-in-law fought Palin's legislative agenda, a local political mentor who she felt represented the "old boys' network," a police chief who she said tried to intimidate her with "stern look[s]" and a state commissioner who refused to fire her sister's ex-husband."

Comments

[aspertame2]

How about some short-term perspective: the DailyKos, in retrospect, was used by the Right, just before the convention. We know what kind of fight campaign McCain wants, or we should. I'll bet Rove would LOVE IT if Palin's husband cross-dressed and her soldier son had impregnated Dakota Fanning (to tie in another pointless entertainment article linked to this site).

Obama gets it, and he's not getting drawn in. He won't discuss all the talking points that McCain/Palin are dying to rebut with high umbrage - her qualifications ("What about HIS?"), her family life ("SEXIST!!!"), her religion, etc. "Message Discipline" isn't some obsessive and overly polite bit of fastidiousness here on Obama's part - it's survival, the only way clear of "angry (sexist, ageist) black man!" rhetoric that is the GOP's surefire recipe for victory this November, if they can sell it.

[mrsscott3]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm an Obama supporter, but I am getting tired of this nonsense. The more "news" that comes out about Palin, the higher McCain goes in the polls. This he said, she said is so juvenile. It is obviously not working! Find some REAL dirt on the woman. Find somebody whose willing to go on national T.V. Then we might have something. Otherwise, shut the hell up!

[Diogenis]

If she makes it to the White House, she will fire McCain! The audacity of b alls!

[RStar]

Obama supporter here. Who gives a f about this story. There's plenty of other crap in her snow shoes.

Now there's something you'd never hear a McCain/Palin supporter say about someone on our ticket. It's all just on the bandwagon he's not American enough; not one of us; and doesn't put his country first.

[Sammy00400]

Republicans..... dont tout the popular vote too much. While its dead even (moving a little one way or the other every day) right now Obama is beating the pants off McCain on the electoral vote. If the election were held today all he needs are 30 more to win (several news websites say the same thing). And there are a little over 100 undecideds. Thats only %30. If it follows the %50 popular vote split then Obama wins.

George Bush learned this in 2000 and the republicans jumped for joy. If this time McCain wins the popular vote but Obama the electoral college.... well.... they cant complain about it. To be fair, those democrats who cried unfair in 2000 cant jump for joy this time either if this happens.

[stephangio]

Keep digging - the Dems just might manufacture something about her that sticks. HuffPost is better than the National Enquirer and US Weekly - writings and pictures targeted to non-critical thinkers. Even the loyalists here must get weary over the lack of substantiated stories.

[viewfromuphere]

we'll see on election day what sticks.

[mphalen]

Nothing has to be manufactured. She is a hot pile of mess. That's why they chose her. She is just as corrupt as they are. The sad thing is that when they are done with her, they'll drop her like a bad fish. She is a gimmick. They will replace her if McCain really does win. They were trying to keep these stories under raps until after the election and then they were going to use these things as an excuse to replace her before the inauguration.

[McFlipFlop]

Anyone that has critical thinking skills would not vote for McCain or Palin.

[SilverFoxUna]

And you are here commenting why?? There's plenty that's substantiated and more will come out in the days to come.

[torrrep]

Actually most of the stuff that has come out has been debunked:

Liberals claim she cut spending for special education. That's a lie. She tripled spending per pupil in special education.

Liberals claim she supported the bridge to nowhere before opposing it. That's a lie. The Alaska state democrats credit Palin with killing the funding. Meanwhile no one says anything about Obama and Biden who continuously SUPPORTED the funding.

Liberals claim she banned books in Wasilla. That is a lie. There is no record of any books being banned. There is no record of any request to ban books. June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files Wednesday and came up empty-handed when asked to provide any books that were banned or attempted to be banned. Also anyone who pays attention that many of the books on the so-called "banned" list were not even published at the time all of this took place.

Liberals claim that Trig Palin is actually her grandson and not her son. I think we all know that has been proven false.

So keep talking about stuff being "substantiated" because so far nothing has been substantiated.

[wordvarc]

.

What drama!

The networks could make the White House into a "Reality Show" if Palin moved to Washington.
.

[winfie6]

What would they call this show "Alaskanbilly"

[hypnus]

Wrap yourself in the American flag, carry a good Christian Bible in your right hand, espouse family values, talk tough and you can do plenty of wrong without fear of consequence.

[bikerdude]

+But when you watch ole john, and he starts with the rapid blinking and repeating the same "punchline" over and over, and spastically waving his arms, you gotta believe that he's in way, way over his head. It seems like he will say anything to get a favorable nod. Palin looks less dangerous...still mean as a snake, but less dangerous. How can these "have more" republicans be comfortable with those two...

[ohiodem250]

Democrats, we are playing with fire. Can we not see the forest for the trees? This will make independents happy. They already see too much corruption and "immoral" activity in Washington. Many independents will say, "Damn right he deserved to be fired, carrying on like that." Furthermore, this is not that big of a deal. We are becoming the boy who cried wolf on this woman. When something that is actually newsworthy comes up no one in the general public is ever going to believe it. Please, focus on Sen. Obama and being a megaphone for his message. I have come on HuffPo everyday since Palin was picked and all I see is stories (or, rather, non-stories) about her. I'm actually starting to believe the Republican spin that there is a witch hunt and the press has treated her unfairly. Perhaps sexism is still alive and kicking in this country. I am as liberal as they come, worked for Edwards in Iowa, supported Obama after Edwards dropped, and was one of those folks who (wrongfully I now believe) came to resent Hillary Clinton. But I must say, this past two weeks really makes me wonder if there was a sexist bias against Hillary and now against Palin. If something serious is uncovered then print it. But these non-stories need to stop and we need to focus on using up this space to lay out very, very clearly what Sen. Obama's message is. Democrats, shape up!

[viewfromuphere]

you know time for McCain to give that grey head a shake and wonder if he can do 4 years of this nonsense every day.

Bottom line.....whoever vetted this woman was only interested in energizing the republican base and winning an election.

They were not interested in what happens after the election.

With palin it looks like drama, drama, drama all the ding dong day.

[JamesInDenver]

What the article doesn't tell you is, "that Bitney was dating the soon to be ex-wife of Todd Palin's good friend."

Also when Bitney was offered a job in another government department, Palin used her influence again to make sure he didn't get it.

Not a pretty picture of the Palin family.

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/shadow_governor

[bikerdude]

Are they too far north to be classified as rednecks?

[winfie6]

alaskanecks aka coldnecks ain't nothing red in Alaska

[Nonamnesiac]

I don't know why HuffPo is carrying useless articles like this one. Palin has serious problems for firing her Safety Director (or whoever the boss who wouldn't fire her ex brother-in-law is). This story is just an attempt to piggy back onto that story and actually makes her look like she had a good reason for firing Bitney.

Use a bit of discretion. There's plenty of horrible, true stuff on Palin. Stop trying to pile on legitimate stuff and make it look illegitimate, or you'll look as if you're attacking her just because. This unqualified, religious zealot who doesn't believe in the right to choose when there is incest or rape and believes Iraq is God's war has enough against her that you don't have to make anything up or dishonestly/misleadingly make her look bad. She already is bad.

[viewfromuphere]

the way I'm reading the article is that Bitney was fired for reasons not to do with job performance as much as what he was doing in his personal life.

I'm not sure that is a reason to fire anyone ...and big picture....wasn't that one of the issue surrounding monica Goodling and DOJ...using some other criteria than ability to a job when hiring and firing attornies for the department.
I actually think this is something to pay attention to.....as VP Palin's going to have to make a lot of decisions about people.
How she might be making those decisions is important.

[LemonMeringue]

Since Sarah has so many times fired people because of "surprises" in their personal life, she will not mind if McCain drops her from his ticket because of all the surprises she presented him.

I hope she stays though. New scandals pop up every day. This may be the year we expose hypocrisy in the GOP.

[SilverFoxUna]

Yes! And, while we're exposing hypocrisy, let's remember that McCain has temper and anger management issues that he admitted were not helping his candidacy - so he goes to being the nice little old man??? Palin, notwithstanding, there are a lot of reasons McCain shouldn't be trusted to run the War Room. Palin just adds to the mix -- it's no wonder Koch calls her scary.

[LeawoodKansas]

if she did have an affair, as alleged, with her husband's business partner, will she fire herself?

[debwarot]

Sound like life under a Palin administration is similar to having a 'Big Sister' watching your every move, doesn't it? Does anybody out there really want her as our moral arbiter?