Palin: I Didn't Fire Commissioner; He Quit

Palin was elected governor just as Alaska's political establishment was being realigned by the Veco bribery scandal. She had no role in exposing the corruption, but she was swift to see opportunity in the moment of crisis. The tainted politicians were being held to account, but hostility to the oil companies behind the corruption remained high. ...

The allegation was that Palin had dismissed her public-safety commissioner, a respected and well-liked officer named Walter Monegan, because Monegan had resisted pressure from her office to fire a state trooper named Michael Wooten. Wooten was Palin's ex-brother-in-law, and his divorce from Palin's sister Molly had involved an ugly custody battle that was not entirely resolved; it appeared that Palin had used her public office to settle a private family score. On July 28th, a bipartisan vote in the state legislature commissioned an investigation into the matter, at a cost of up to a hundred thousand dollars. Palin had invited it. "Hold me accountable," she said. She promised full coöperation: "We would never prohibit, or be less than enthusiastic about, any kind of investigation. Let's deal in the facts."

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