Troopergate’s Mike Wooten has been taken off patrols because of the harrassment he is receiving from Sarah Palin supporters.
The Alaska state trooper who was the subject of harsh allegations by Gov. Sarah Palin was taken off patrols recently for his own safety, after her comments allegedly prompted a series of threatening phone calls, KIMO-TV in Anchorage reported Friday.
Classy. This was not by Wooten’s request – it was imposed on him by his superiors for his safety. Here’s hoping Trooper Wooten can take some comfort in the fact that, in some small way, his story helped stop a real disaster from happening in this country.
Ellid
Personally, I think Trooper Wooten should go to another state where he can live in peace, without his former sister-in-law trying to get him fired.
PaulW
You stay classy, Palinites!
/sarcasm
Mr Furious
Excellent point, Michael. I imagine this will cool down after a while, and he’ll go back out in the field…
I wonder if Gov. Ubetcha will go after him again?
Tymannosourus
Maybe they were pissed because all his DUI stops involved cars tagged with McCain-Palin ’08 stickers.
Incertus
I’m betting we’ll see a slow but steady stream of these kinds of stories for at least the next three months, with an uptick in them as the inauguration gets closer. I’m going to try to resist the urge to tell right-wingers to "get over it–your guy lost" because I remember how that felt when they said it to me about Gore. Mind, McCain wasn’t robbed by a pre-election purge of the Florida voter rolls and a Supreme Court victory, so the examples aren’t quite the same, but I think I can hold back if they do.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I’m thinking Sarah Palin is going to spend the next four years hunting down every Obama supporter and try to get them fired from their jobs.
[p.s. – TZ and I made up, so I’m not leaving]
Conservatively Liberal
Fixed.
Are you telling me that these god fearing, jeebus (and ‘merica!) luvving, flat earthers who are bitterly loading their guns to go moose hunting have been attacking this evil trooper?
Say it ain’t so Michael. Also, you betcha. Also.
Fucking fruitcakes. Republicans are truly the party of hate. I think that is all they have left. Talk about running on empty.
D. Mason
Can you imagine how earnestly trooper Wooten was praying for an Obama win? What kind of hell would she have put him through as VP? Thank God we’ll never know.
gbear
Driving While Republican.
My favorite story about Palin’s homecoming was a NPR piece saying that dozens of people were on hand to greet her plane. No way she’s going to get a second term as governor.
kommrade jakevich
The Chickenshit Party strikes again! Stay tuned for whining and claims of martyrdom when they find out threatening phone calls are illegal and cops don’t like anyone who fucks with cops.
Punchy
@D. Mason: Under the Constitution as written, she’d have zero power to do anything. The Vice has no constitutional role whatsoever besides Ceremonial ones and breaking ties in the Senate.
Garrigus Carraig
@Punchy: And that one other thing.
gex
@Punchy: Never stopped Cheney.
JGabriel
GBear:
True, but somewhat misleading. There were about 100-150 people there. Certainly less than hundreds, making the description of dozens apt – but over a hundred would probably have been more connotatively accurate.
I wouldn’t gauge her support by that figure. McCain/Palin got 62% of the vote in Alaska; that’s probably a better number by which to measure her support.
.
Atanarjuat
Another explanation (and a more likely one) is that State Trooper Wooten has made quite a few enemies over the years by exceeding his authority in the line of duty, and now the aggrieved parties are finally returning the courtesy.
It’s very convenient that Wooten is able to deflect appropriate attention to his thuggish behavior on the roads of Alaska by pointing to the supposedly vengeful Palin clan as the source of all his woes.
But do keep holding up this kid-tasering bully as your hero, lefties.
– A Country Gasping for Air
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Apparently when someone goes on national television and apologizes for a stupid stunt, calls it stupid and says he realizes it was a mistake, Atan doesn’t ever find any forgiveness.
That’s okay Atan, scream "Uncle" when you realize how stupid you’ve been, we’ll just keep ridiculing you, because you deserve it.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
My father was guilty of that (along with the rest of my nuclear family members), I guess that’s why when he went to Washington, he wanted me to drive. ;)
gbear
I’m getting a laugh out of your new sign-off lines. They’re really very funny. Carry on.
Jay C
@Incertus:
And probably more stories along the lines of the businessman in (?) Ohio who was so assured that an Obama Administration was going to badly damage his company’s prospects, that he decided to preemptively cut his payroll: and tagged those of his employees with "Obama/Biden" stickers on their cars to go first.
Atanarjuat
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII said:
Apparently when someone goes on national television and express regret LONG after the fact, it’s not a cynical, face-saving maneuver, but something that gullible people (liberals) are willing to swallow so as long as it makes their opponents (conservatives) look bad.
I’m sure you were so accommodatingly forgiving of Senator Vitter when he apologized for having cheated on his wife vis-a-vis the D.C. Madam scandal. You have absolutely forgiven him for this sin, right?
Insofar as Wooten and his "apology," I’m sure that if he could have truly spoken his mind, he likely would have expressed regret that the battery in his Taser depleted before he could finish applying that very valuable "life lesson" on his stepson.
– A Country Rent Asunder
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Who the fuck are you to make that claim? How do you know it was just a face saving tactic? Prove it.
I never said a word about Vitter and never will. I personally know very clearly what that type of situation is like, and you’ll never hear me say a word on it. Please point out where I stated one single word about Vitter. I never did.
GSD
I am sure if Sen. Vitter could have truly spoken his piece, he’d have brayed for some privacy and an endless parade of buxom temptresses sporting ever larger strap-ons.
-A Nation No Longer Duped
-GSD
jcricket
C’mon, the Palin story isn’t over. Discounting the piling on she’s getting from the McCain campaign right now, the $150k spending spree has legs, mostly because she’s still lying about it. Eventually the AP will do some fact finding piece and it’ll be $200k, she will have tried to keep the clothes, she’ll be forced into giving them back (not voluntarily) and it will involve $40k in spending for her family.
Moreover, the requests for all her "public" (on private server) emails haven’t been fulfilled yet. You think there’s no dirt in there? ADN and AP are digging – because they know there’s a juicy story.
Think those two reports were the last on Troopergate? Doubt it. The emails will have even more damaging details.
Palin’s biggest problem is when confronted with malfeasance she tells lie after lie. She’s come up with like 10 reasons for firing Monegan. It’s that kind of lying that gets reports and opposition politicians smelling blood. In fact, even the GOP leadership in Alaska is at odds with Palin.
She’s gonna be the gift that keeps on giving. Someone that should normally just fade back into their home state life will instead be a symbol, probably for at least the next year or longer (if she insists on being a national figure) of GOP corruption, incompetence, malfeasance, base-pandering, etc.
jcricket
BTW – Related to what I’ve said, there’s a logjam of GOP scandals that haven’t played themselves out yet. Larry Craig – did he resign? Has Abramoff finished talking to the Feds? What happens when Miers and Bolten finally testify (if the Dems have the balls to force it).
Will we ever get those missing WH emails? Visitor logs?
I’m not saying we (Dems) should make this our primary thrust, but each of these things is just waiting to burst open. And if Dems are smart, they won’t be worry-warts about the whole "criminalization of politics" or "bygones" kind of talk.
A bunch of good scandals to remind everyone that the GOP is rotten to the core will help us in 2010. It’ll also take down individual politicians along the way.
Person of Choler
Poor Twooper Wooten. I hope they didn’t take away his taser when he was assigned to a desk job.
Joel
Not going to blame Palin for this but there’s a place for dealing with this – it’s called the law. I hope for everyone’s sake, it is abided.
TenguPhule
Fixed.
Geeno
Its only a question of when. Dude is going to have to get a job out of state. Then watch what happens when the nieces/nephews go with him. WE need to stay vigilant on his behalf, otherwise she’ll run over him.
otherwise
but did he or did he not taser a ten year old child?
Beldar
Oh, please. Like someone is going to attack Wooten?
Now, the odds are QUITE good that someone would make a snarky remark to him, in which case he might Taser them or "put a f***ing bullet through [their] brain[s]."
This is about preventing civil liability to the Alaska DPS, not about "keeping Wooten safe."
But that’s fine — keep up your loyal support of this child-abusing miscreant. Hug him to your bosom all you want.
jukeboxgrad
beldar (aka bill dyer):
Gosh, you’re amazing. Your posts about Wooten are packed with misinformation. I proved that here.
And I reminded you, here, here and here. And what do you always do, over and over again? You run and hide.
jcricket
You do know that the accusations of child abuse were made during a contentious divorce, were found inaccurate in family court. And the Palins were so over-the-top and unrelenting the judge specifically admonished the Palins that their continued line of accusation amounted to emotional child abuse (by trying to make the father into a monster in the eyes of his kids).
Honestly, I enjoy seeing the way the fucking right-wing idiots see situations – because it obviously has no basis in reality. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking about how people "see" a politician, things like habeus corpus for enemy combatants, what’s going on in Iraq, evolution, health care, etc. The wing nuts have become so fucking far removed from how the world actually is that they will never win over another person to their cause.
They will drive away old allies, alienate potential new recruits, and draw the wagons into an ever tighter circle as they find new ways to make current allies into apostates.
Fine by me.
Calouste
@JGabriel:
62% of the votes that have been counted so far. Turnout figures in Alaska have been very dodgy, as in less than two (or was it six?) years ago when there was only a congressional race on the ballot and no Presidential race with a local candidate nor a Senate race with a convicted incumbent.
nabalzbbfr
Have you considered the possibility that just maybe Wooten’s supervisors finally realized that those allegations of him being an out-of-control bully and drunk might be true after all?
Luddite
All these Sore Loserman Trolls like atanwhathisface are really quite boring. There is a "winding the cocoon tighter" circle jerk going on daily now at Redstate.com. He/she/it would be much more at home there.
jcricket
No. SASQ.
They investigated him before and suspended him for a short period of time. The suspension was further reduced because his union reps successfully argued on his behalf.
Keep believing stuff that’s the opposite of reality. See how much it helps you.
jukeboxgrad
Aside from the Taser incident, there has never been any finding that Wooten has committed violence against any person. Palin’s sister told police that he never abused her.
And there was never any finding that he has ever been "drunk." And he has never been arrested for DUI, unlike Bush, Cheney and Todd Palin.
Person of Choler
jukeboxgrad:
As you say, unlike Bush, Cheney and Todd Palin, there has been no finding that Twooper Wooten was ever drunk.
To this stirring defense let me add (to promote bi-partisan cooperation and healing) that there has been no finding that Twooper Wooten has ever gotten drunk and left someone to drown in a submerged car, like Ted Kennedy did.
And he only tasered a stepson once. Well, that proves it. He is a good man, a fine officer, and a victim of political malevolence.
jukeboxgrad
Indeed. Either that, or Palin is some kind of a nut. Pay attention to what she once said about him:
jukeboxgrad
And aside from being a 10-year Air Force vet, there are signs that he is indeed a competent and brave cop (link, link).