Peas In a Pod: Palin's Troopergate And Bush's Attorneygate

As the Republicans unfolded their presentation of Governor Sarah Palin as candidate for Vice President, I immediately realized that political candidates are NOT "vetted" by a crack team of FBI investigators. Who knew? I had imagined a meticulous scrutiny of the contender's computers amid a flurry of file folders, personal finances, and childhood refrigerator art. Apparently, I watch too much television, for, at least in this instance, the "vetting" has been left to the people. I knew what I had to do. I put on my lapel pin, and set about investigating. I discovered that "vetting," like the word "veterinarian," bears the common connotation of "examination." To that end, I began dissecting Sarah Palin's Troopergate troubles and discovered an eerie echo within the Bush Administration's Attorneygate scandals that continue to plague the integrity of our times. Consider my findings from the public record. The known facts are these: Palin: Troopergate, involves the 2008 firing of Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner by Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin. Bush Administration: Eight United States Attorneys were dismissed in 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Palin: claimed that she dismissed Commissioner Walt Monegan because of performance-related issues. Bush Administration: claims dismissals of the attorneys was related to job-performance "related to policy, priorities and management." Palin: Monegan believes his dismissal was related to his reluctance to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law Mike Wooten, an Alaska State Trooper. Bush Administration: Many allege that the attorneys were targeted in order to stifle investigations of Republican politicians, or for failure to initiate investigations that would undermine Democratic politicians or hinder Democratic-leaning voters. Palin: denied that there had been any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, either from herself or from anyone in her administration. Bush Administration: Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici are alleged to have attempted to pressure Iglesias into accelerating the investigation; Wilson stated that her call was not about any particular case or person, nor was it "motivated by politics or partisanship." Palin: Although subpoenaed, "First Dude," Todd Palin refuses to testify because he does not believe the investigation is legitimate. Bush Administration: Joshua Bolten, Karl Rove, Sara Taylor, and J. Scott Jennings have refused to comply with their subpoenas. Palin: It has been alleged that Governor Palin used personal email accounts to avoid public records laws. Bush Administration: Over 5 million White House emails were unavailable, as they had been via a non-government domain hosted on an e-mail server not controlled by the federal government. Palin: apologized to Alaskans for what she called "this distraction". Bush Administration: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales described the affair as "an overblown personnel matter". Both the Troopergate and the Attorneygate investigations have yet to play out before the public, though I suspect that the mirroring will continue. Why wouldn't it? We have entered the surreal world of Republicangate, where distortions of truth and contempt for the law saturate the Republican brand. Their spin machine would have us believe that these ethical allegations are misunderstood orphan kittens. Yet, I wonder if my dissections and alignment of facts will inspire an epiphany for Republicans so deeply steeped in denial about the truths of their party. I doubt it. In the vetting of Sarah Palin, I'm one among thousands of lapel-pinned investigators whose ironclad evidentiary findings, logic and critical thinking skills of discernment, analysis, and evaluation, meet only the stone-cold blank stare of the Republican Party. At last, I see why the people must do the vetting of Sarah Palin, and why our talking point is, "Do we really want more of the same?"

Comments

[Pam Atherton - Huffpost Blogger]

It seems the old adage of "better to beg forgiveness than ask permission " is a major part of our political decision-making process these days. And then let's hope that either no one finds out about our misdeeds, or the damages won't be that bad.

I'm just glad that digging to find the truth has not stopped on issues such as these. If nothing wrong happened, that will come out. No one should be afraid of that. But if something wrong did... we need to make sure there are some consequences. Not that consequences will prevent these things in the future, but it's better than letting the issues and the players fade off into the sunset, unscathed. That just tells us the strategy worked, and we'll only see more of it.

[K.J. Dwyer - Huffpost Blogger]

Great analysis. The similarities are so striking that it begs the question of whether there's an actual political strategy paper in the Republican Party on how to break the law through wanton firings of public employees, then disparage them by claiming it was their job performance and THEN, when called upon to answer allegations of crimes, how to evade subpoenas and basically scoff at the law.

Like the entire litany of abuses committed by this administration, this is so blatant and done with such contempt, not only for the law but for "we the people" and Palin just follows the game plan. They just rub it in our and the world's faces. It's such cynical, unethical, frat-boy, above-it-all, truly "elitist" (I think it's time to start using that word properly don't you?) behavior.

I pray that at some point someone will have the cajones to enforce just one of these subpoenas and put just one of these characters in jail. I fear it will be after the election given the legal evasions at their disposal, but I hope that people won't be too distracted or fatigued to stay the course and see these investigations through to their conclusions.

Again, great job pointing out these similarities. It shows a irrefutable Republican tactical pattern. It also heightens the outrage that we should all feel regarding this, both at their bad acts and the seemingly toothless response of our law makers and enforcers.

[Sheraber]

S. Travis, Your effort to show a common thread includes actual research--how refreshing! I rarely see this kind of depth in the mainstream media. Thank you for putting in the time. I am interested to see other comments.

[Travellini]

Thanks so much! . . . so many parallels, so little time!

[JonRaymond]

So what's next. Can you find someone who will file a suit on behalf of the American people? You maybe? Is there anything illegal in all of this?

[Travellini]

Not me! I'm just a humble lapel-pinned investigator . . . but they are trying in both cases, and a pattern would seem to be quite damaging at the very least.