Palin Probe Expanded Beyond Troopergate

The Anchorage Daily News reports:

The state Personnel Board investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of Walt Monegan has broadened to include other ethics complaints against the governor and examination of actions by other state employees, according to the independent counsel handling the case.

The investigator, Tim Petumenos, did not say who else is under scrutiny. But in two recent letters describing his inquiry, he cited the consolidation of complaints and the involvement of other officials as a reason for not going along with Palin's request to make the examination of her activities more public.

Newsweek reported on Saturday that the Personnel Board probe, which both the McCain campaign and critics expected would be more favorable to Palin, hasn't turned out that way:

McCain campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton dismissed the report as the product of "a partisan-led inquiry run by Obama supporters." But there could be more land mines ahead. Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethics complaint against herself with the State Personnel Board, arguing that it alone was capable of conducting a fair, nonpartisan inquiry into whether she fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten, who had been involved in a messy custody battle with her sister. Some Democrats ridiculed the move, noting that the personnel board answered to Palin. But the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles. Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and the counsel's report could be released soon after. "We took a gamble when we went to the personnel board," said a McCain aide who asked not to be identified discussing strategy. While the McCain camp still insists Palin "has nothing to hide," it acknowledges a critical finding by Petumenos would be even harder to dismiss.

On Tuesday, the Anchorage Daily News also printed a blistering editorial on Palin, calling her response to the State Legislature's Troopergate report "Orwellian."

Sarah Palin's reaction to the Legislature's Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

She claims the report "vindicates" her. She said that the investigation found "no unlawful or unethical activity on my part."

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."

In plain English, she did something "unlawful." She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

That's the charitable interpretation.

Read the whole thing. Read the full text of the Troopergate report here.

Comments

[nextpres08]

They are getting ready to talk about Todd Palin and the AIP party on CNN right now...

[EmotionDetector]

I'm watching it. Joe Vogler said that they, being AIP, are ready to die for their cause. I'm glad this is finally getting some media play.

What is taking so long for the McCain Iran-Contra story to break?

[mouselion]

Great! About time! Main-stream folks need to know about this.

[Chillinout]

They are mispronouncing the name of the party. It is the Alaskan Independence Party, not the Alaskan Independent Party. They want independence for Alaska. They are not an independent party.

[luckyoldson]

I predict that within 6 months, Palin is working for Fox News as a contributing wingnut.

She has absolutely NO future in national politics, regardless of how the Republicans are touting her as a candidate for President in 2012...whi­ch in itself tells you how crazy the Republican Party has become.

I also predict that the emails they can't seem to find will prove Palin to be just as conniving as Stevens and she will probably find the state of Alaska and possibly herself personally involved in lawsuits via individual citizens.

[Durango]

She will be lucky to get out of this without getting impeached from the Governors job.

Or indicted.

John, John John. See what happens when you don't vet your VP pick properly.

[gro]

She should try to talk endlessly without letting anyone one else get a word in edgewise. And somehow keep from foaming at the mouth and falling over backwards.

[GeeBee]

Even a conservative chap like John Cleese has seen the light: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/sarahpalin/3194405/Sarah-Palin-could-have-been-invented-by-Monty-Python-says-John-Cleese.html

[cesci]

Could Sarah Palin be a leader capable of understanding not just the problems that face Americans, but of the world, of all the cultures, governments - past, present and future foreign policy and what effects our policies have on the governments and cultures they
are directed at?

To truly grasp and understand the profound fundamentals of world politics requires a lifetime of study and dedication. Palin may be a quick study, however, that is equal to cramming the night before an exam; as soon as she passes the test, the information is gone.

Madeleine Albright, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Indira Gandhi, Jackie Kennedy, Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and many, many more…
Regardless of which party you support, would it be realistic to see Sarah Palin’s name on the same page as these exceptional women?

[Durango]

Elizabeth Dole.

She stands for everything I despise in a political candidate. Which should have made her an ideal Republican VP candidate.

But she is intelligent and qualified.

And I could respect her as VP or even President.

[CurtisEMayle]

By pre-empting the official report with her own report as Palin did, she established her cover, to be able to refer to her own report when a reporter thinks she's referring to the official report, and she can say with a straight face that "the report" vindicated her.

Now, I'll take it back if somebody holds up the official report, has her read the first section and provide an interpretation. If she then says that what she just read vindicates her, you'll know her leadership character.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Joe ripping the McPalin ticket

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=955Y3NJTRIE

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

The real Sarah Palin book banning issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSbtWkjxtw&feature=related

[akkadian]

excellent.­...
if they steal the election we can look forward to book burning parties...­.
priceless!

[MoeJava]

that might come in handy if we cant afford home heating oil this winter.

[blueshield]

That's the thing about blind ambition and the lure of power.

She and T.odd had a good little thing going in Alaska. She could have rode out the investigation, maybe gotten a wrist slap.

She was bringing in the pork, she was hiring her friends, livin' at home and billin the govt, plenty of time off.

Then she had to go and say 'yes' to the campaign to nowhere.

She should do her kids a big favor and get out now, put this all behind her, write a book: "Yup, Yup: A Hockey Mom Almost Sees the White House"

[akkadian]

absolutely, she can still become very rich, once the election is over,
but she will have to embrace the alter ego, and work it shamelessl­y....
(shouldn't be too much of a problem there)

[GonzoFactor]

Orwellian . . . a few relevant passages from Animal Farm:

The scapegoat was again Snowball. "Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball." In fact many of the claims begin to sound ridiculous to the objective mind. Of course, Squealer's mission is to keep everything subjective in the minds of the animals.

"Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer— except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs."

The 7 Commandments are abridged for the last time, simply reading, "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

Sooey, Sarah.

[honestpolitician]

If the campaign including Palin cannot be "truthful" about this, then how can Americans trust her or the party for 4 years???

http://politicaladattacks.blogspot.com/

[YesWeCanada]

They should investigate how the Palins suddenly had all kinds of free help to build their house at the same time as the hockey rink.

[Carolab]

Good. I knew this thing had legs. You're not out of the woods Missy. And that look on your face in the photo above shows you know it, too.

[MoeJava]

The worst part is her kids are learning the ways of the dark side......­..
abstinence-only and information-free education.

[mfournier]

I'm sure Sarah hasn't read the report. She's probably too busy reading "all the newspapers" that come across her desk which she couldn't even name to Katie Couric. I doubt this woman ever reads anything, seriously. I'm no elitist; I know most people today do not read newspapers. But an elected official should be better informed than an average "Joe Six Pack". I find it disturbing that an elected official could be so ignorant.

[jessieo]

Her old aide already told reporters that she doesn't read anything. They would drop these big binders on her desk and she'd ask for the bullet points so she could "run with it." I feel badly for her and I am actually starting to wonder if she has a learning disability. The fact that she blanks out about things suggests a type of processing disorder.

[MoeJava]

Learning disability? Wouldnt her parents, the school teachers, notice this when they raised little Sarah to be the #2 in the beauty pageant?

Wonder what their opinion of "intelligent design" vs Theory of evolution?

[frank1569]

"Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.­"

As if she even knows what "Orwellian" means...

Tomorrow she will announce that, when she takes over for Pres McCain after he suffers the expected debilitating health problem, "1984" will be banned in Pentecostal-blessed Christmerica.

[akkadian]

I'm sure she can see Orwell's ranch from her porch...