The more they fight to prevent this from being released, the more it makes me wonder how damaging it is:
Republican state legislators, at the behest of the McCain campaign, have now filed an emergency appeal with the Alaska Supreme Court trying to shutdown the ‘Troopergate’ investigation. The plaintiffs (echoing the Bush v. Gore decision) claim “the plaintiffs and Alaskans will suffer irreparable harm” if the Branchflower report is released, as scheduled, next Friday, October 10th.
When I said Bush in a dress a while back about Palin, I had no idea how accurate a statement it was.
comrade chopper
i understand that palin is running on a platform of ‘reform’.
Homer_J
Jeez, between this and the ignoring of subpoenas I’m not so sure the Bush’s and Palin’s aren’t related. Any family tree specialists out there?
handy
What’s sad (for Palin) is that, should McCain lose, the whole cadre of slick DC lawyers that have so far been keeping her feet out of the fire will abandon her faster than you can say "November 5th."
And Alaskans should turn all these legislators who are doing McCain’s bid out on their ears.
AnotherBruce
So, is any of the big media picking up on this? I took a quick look at the WaPo and NYT and didn’t see anything. Nothing on the google either. Maybe it’s too early, but I think that if a matter concerning a VP nominee is headed to a state supreme court it should get some headlines.
cyntax
Stonewalling has worked so well in the last 8 years, and their campaign is nothing if not a less competent retread of Bush’s, but I gotta think that this is another place where the McCain camp’s myopic focus on tactics before strategy is going to cost them. If they can’t keep it bottled up till after the election, they could do themselves some serious harm.
But if it’s six the hard way, we know Johnny Drama’s gonna double down.
ATinNM
Does anyone in the GOP understand the phrase "intellectual integrity?"¹
Appealing to activist judges now, are they?
¹ Rhetorical question. The answer, of course, is: No.
Stuck in the Fun House
Yes, but at least Bush makes an effort to answer the questions he is asked. Not Sarah Serendipity. Ask her about the mortgage crisis and she pulls a Putin out of the Hat.
Brachiator
WTF? In a rational universe, the media would be all over this. Troopergate and any issues with Palin’s just-released tax returns should be the main focus of the weekend pundit shows, but instead I am betting that we will be treated to pointless ruminations about her debate performance and the magical sparkle in her eyes that speaks directly to male conservative dweebs.
Joshua Norton
Should be interesting. As I recall, the Supreme Court specifically said Bush v. Gore couldn’t be used as a precedent for other cases. Even Scalia and crew didn’t want to own the bullshit they were pulling.
Joshua Norton
They’re too busy claiming the debate was a tie. Since Palin didn’t stand there and drool on herself, that is equal to Biden knowing what he was talking about.
boonagain
As you can see here, she makes no bones that she is ‘fighting freedom of the Press’.
Comrade Napoleon
In a rational universe, after the campaign Johnny Drama has run the only votes he should get are his relatives, campaign employees and a few confused old people in Palm Beach County Florida.
Just Some Fuckhead
If the McCain campaign had any sense they’d use the report as an opportunity for Palin to step off the ticket. Then McCain can feign enough outrage at the liberal whomevers for hounding Palin off the ticket and keep the fungelical base energized for him.
But then McCain would put Lieberman on the ticket and blow up the whole thing. Mavericking is hard work.
Deborah
I find "Cheney in f-me pumps" more evocative, but whatever image works for you.
Mark S.
I read both briefs (they are really short). The best the GOP lawyers can hope for is to delay for a little while. They offer no substantive arguments at all, which is amazing since they are in effect asking the Court to place an injunction on a coequal branch of government.
Melinda
Handy, a lot of Alaskans are pretty angry that their state has been taken over by the national GOP and that Palin’s off campaigning when there’s work to be done at home. You’re absolutely right that she’s not in control of what’s going on up there but it’s also true that she chose to give that control away. Back when there was first talk of her getting the nomination it seemed very unlikely to me because of troopergate, and because of the twin Republicans-hate-this acts of jacking up taxes on oil companies and giving away extra money to Alaskans and calling it an energy subsidy. It didn’t occur to me that the national party would swoop in and throw a wrench into the troopergate investigations. "Duh" on me, major-league-big-time.
When the troopergate thing first blew up she said that she was going to cooperate with the investigation. It’s really since the McCain campaign has been making tactical decisions for her that the cooperation has ended; that may be a coincidence (i.e. she may have been planning on stonewalling all along and lied about it when she said she wasn’t) but it’s hard to know for sure.
I think there’s an argument to be made that she governs much like George Bush and that she’s as awful a candidate as George Bush but I don’t think they’re anything alike on a personal level. You could drop her in the Brooks Range with a knife and a tarp and have some expectation that you’d see her again; George W Bush is afraid of horses. She had a modest upbringing and he’s a spoiled child of privilege. Etc. Watching her traipse around Alaska these past few years I’ve gotten the impression that she’s pretty much who she says she is, while George W Bush is a complete poser.
Stuck in the Fun House
Just think of the Bridge to Nowhere’s that would cost Alaska if the report puts the Mccain/Palin candidacy out of it’s misery and Sarah doesn’t get to be VP/or POTUS when the geezer has to be tube fed. Look for BIAD to declare the report findings a State Secret that can’t be given to AQ, or that meany Putin, lest we all be wearing Burka’s or Ushanka’s.
Just Some Fuckhead
So instead of Palin being Bush in a dress, Bush is in fact Palin with a codpiece?
EddieInCA
Question for All:
Let’s assume for a moment that McCain/Palin loses in Nov.
Given that she’s pissing off almost EVERYONE in Alaska, and…
given that she’s enshrined herself into the popular culture as a moron who knows little about anything substantive, and…
given that she’s probably going to be embroiled in the fallout for Troopergate when she gets back to Alaska, around Nov. 6th…
…what awaits her?
It’s my opinion that McCain’s campaign has ruined her for national office in the future.
Anyone care to opine?
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
Well to be fair, the "irreparable harm" standard just means a harm could be inflicted that can’t be compensated or rectified by court action.
Definition, irreparable harm
comrade chopper
EddieinCA – i have 4 words for you:
dancing. with. the. stars.
Brachiator
For now, I’d rather focus on making sure that McCain and Palin lose in November.
Joshua Norton
As she’d say: "We’ll wade that crick when we comes to it".
jcricket
Yes, the best parts of this are drawing more attention to their own crimes and coverups, pissing off foes (makes Democrats and other Palin foes in Alaska more emboldened), pissing off nominal allies (watch all the vitriol for Republican appointed judges when they don’t vote the way the wingnuts want) and so on.
Republicans are not content just to lose, but to do so while slashing and burning their way through their future along the way.
Which, I might add, is FUCKING AWESOME!
It makes it clear there is no liberal/conservative divide in this country. There is the rational party, and the irrational one. The big tent party full of everyone from the far left to the moderately conservative and the small tent party with racists, xenophobes, end-timers and anti-tax zealots.
Reality is going to move further and further from the Republican party platform, and I for one can’t wait for them to embrace their inner wingnut.
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
“The plaintiffs and Alaskans will suffer irreparable harm.”
I really don’t understand why this is supposed to be a compelling argument. The investigation must be stopped because it will damage the careers of those involved? And the second bit is trying to argue that by damaging the careers of politicians, the people will be deprived of the full power of the representation they voted in?
And what the hell? It says on Mudflats that the court is actually going to hear their arguments!
Dulcie
@EddieInCA: I think she’ll be the Republican nominee in 2012. They still haven’t learned their lesson. It’ll take another four years in the wilderness before they actually attempt to run a candidate who isn’t beholden to the base of the party.
jcricket
And Palin will go back to being governator of Alaska after she loses. The initial report that essentially proves she’s lying about Troopergate won’t be the end of it, because no one has testified. The floodgates will open after the election, along with all sorts of other dirty tricks she’s done, and she’ll either be recalled (doubtful), or lose the next election for her position (more likely).
I don’t think Alaska’s turning solid blue any time soon, but she’s alienated enough of her own party (along with every Democrat and Independent) with her actions to be as unpopular as Bush come next election.
gbear
The Anchorage Daily News and the blog Mudflats are all over it, and they’re extremely rational.
Joe Max
This scandal is generating way too much smoke for there not to be any fire.
Funny thing is, if Palin had simply said from the get-go, "Yeah, I tried to get him fired, you betcha. He was an asshole. He beat up my sister and tortured his kids. The guy’s a violent nutjob, hiding behind his union buddies and the divorce court. For him to be walkin’ around with a gun and a badge is insane. He’s only lucky Todd didn’t figure out a way for him to have a "hunting accident", if ya know what I mean? So if the Attorney General wants to fine me or whatever, go right ahead. If the people of Alaska wanna impeach me, go right ahead. I was protecting my family and I’d do it again!"
Then the wingnuts would all be screaming their support. It’s just like always – it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.
jcricket
If you followed the 2004 governor’s race in Washington, the same kind of crap was used by the Republicans. They screamed voter fraud, and other crap, but when it came time to try and prove it, they couldn’t.
The (republican appointed, conservative) judge basically excoriated them for making ridiculous claims and then providing no proof, and ultimately denied their claims with prejudice.
Again – Republicans have declared war on reality, which makes almost everyone a potential enemy, including judges.
Brachiator
Actually, it’s not much different from arguing that the federal government must spend $700 billion to rescue the people who caused the financial mess in the first place.
Soylent Green
People thought Nixon was toast in ’62.
It comes down to whether Alaskans boot Palin out for being such a joke, or rally behind her defensively. She’ll be back home in a month and will try to reconnect with her public. But when the time comes, two years from now, I think they will punish her for embarrassing them.
Melinda
Eddie, I’m with Dulcie on this one. Palin has a lot of raw talent (really, really, really raw talent) and the GOP has no compunctions about running candidates that aren’t ready, aren’t clean, etc. Of course they knew about troopergate when they nominated her. I guess they figured they’d clean up the mess later, just like they figured they’d fight dirty in Florida in 2000 and clean up the mess later.
I’ve thought that Palin might be our first woman president (back to the "only Nixon could go to China" thing) but I didn’t think they’d push her out before she’s ready. Just goes to show that you can’t go too wrong underestimating the scruples of the Republican Party. She could also end up in a cabinet position in a future GOP administration. I think she’d have to end up in jail before the Republicans would pull the rug out. Look – she pushed through sending a $1200 energy subsidy check to every single Alaskan, adults and children alike, and she still got the nomination. That’s pretty remarkable given their antipathy to anything that smacks of social safety net. I think her future is with the national party and not in Alaska.
JGabriel
Origin of "Maverick", from Wikipedia
That last sentence explains so much.
.
Brachiator
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Palin became a Washington insider after running as an outsider? But then again, Republicans never let inconsistency slow them down.
JGabriel
Melinda:
I was thinking her future would be in a penal cell on embezzlement and/or corruption charges.
Not that a future with the Republican party and jail time are mutually exclusive.
.
malraux
@Joe Max:
Well, had she done that again, she would have been violating a Judge’s direct order not to do so. And by direct order, I mean getting called into court over emotional child abuse. It might have helped, but would have caused other court issues to come up.
link
Dulcie
@Melinda: Exactly. The Republicans never get rid of one of their own, especially someone who has as much charm and potential as Palin does. If they would’ve left her in Alaska for the remainder of her term as governor, and then helping her run for Congress and then the Senate, she would be a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately, the bench is thin – they had Jindal and Palin, and John McCain felt he needed to do something to shake up the base. There isn’t anyone else out there that isn’t a complete moron – Eric Cantor, for example.
I see her as a pundit on Fox, or something similar. She won’t be another Geraldine Ferraro, IMHO.
malraux
@Brachiator:
Well, McCain’s first campaign was based on the fact that he was already a washington insider.
Fern
If McCain loses the election, will Palin still have free access to the high-priced legal help she has now?
gbear
JGabriel, how did you un-bold the text in the blockquote? I SO want to do that from now on.
The Moar You Know
JGabriel, thanks. As you say, the last sentence explains so much.
This is so full of win I think I have to go lie down.
Also from Wikpedia, last sentence of the article:
A true Republican.
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Commenters on Mudflats are saying that the right to appeal is automatic, and that the Court could not decide not to hear their arguments. They say that what the court did yesterday was expedite the appeal, so they could smack it down without delaying the investigation. That makes me feel better.
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Blockquote test:
Just put a </b> in front of your quoted text, after the opening <blockquote>, and it’s no longer bold.
Dennis - SGMM
This is another Hail Mary from the Republicans. The appeal doesn’t seem to be based on any point of law but, rather on the nebulous notion of "irreparable harm" to Alaskans. While I’m certain that at least one Alaskan may be harmed I’m doubtful that this will carry the day for Palin and the pachyderms.
Comrade Napoleon
She is toast when this election is done. Something you failed to mention, and that is that a big part of the Alaskian GOP can not stand her. I bet if and when she stands for reelection she draws both serious primary and general election opponents.
TenguPhule
It would bring me great joy to see the former GOP candidates frogmarched out in handcuffs on national tv.
Cement the Republicans are criminals brand…forever.
Dennis - SGMM
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака, doesn’t work for me. I added the end bold tag and when I posted the tag disappeared. Browser, FF 3.0.3.
Scott H
I just don’t look forward to seeing Palin humped up on a CNN or MSNBC "expert" panel for the next two decades. With any luck, maybe FOX will give her a job, and I won’t ever have to see her, again. By the grace of God, she will go straight to talk radio. In Alaska.
gbear
LIfe is good. Thanks.
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
Edit: doggone blockquote tags…
gbear
Well maybe not. Maybe this time?
Edit: Fuck.
iluvsummr
@gbear:
Joshua Norton
Joshua Norton
null pointer exception
Joshua Norton, gbear:
Comrade Peter J
If McCain hadn’t picked her she might have been a future candidate. I seriously doubt that she will be one after this election. Romney and Huckabee are more likely than Palin.
About what awaits her. She looks good, she got a journalist degree of some sort and she’s a republican. Fox News if they’ll have her.
null pointer exception
Edit: Uh, never mind
Joshua Norton
I did that, but for some reason the editor kept deleting the /b insertion. What browser are you using?
Leo
That allegation is supposed to convince the court to order the legislature to stop investigating while the parties fight it out in court–i.e., issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction. Since fighting anything out in court takes months or years, such an order would effectively take Troopergate out of the picture for this election.
The idea of these orders is to let courts maintain the status quo until the parties hash everything out. In order to get one, you have to show you have a pretty good case, which is probably why the trial court threw this one out.
JGabriel
GBear:
null pointer exception
@Joshua Norton:
I am using FireFox 3.0.3
iluvsummr
@AnotherBruce:
Bloomberg has picked up the story
Joshua Norton
I figured it out. It’s {blockquote}{p}_value_{/p}{/blockquote} that works for me.
JGabriel
Yep, Joshua’s got it.
.
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Huh. Well, the tests I did were, in order:
<blockquote>test</blockquote>
<blockquote></b>test</blockquote>
<blockquote><b></b>test</blockquote>
<blockquote></b>test</blockquote>
I suppose this should work, too:
<blockquote><p>test</blockquote>
JGabriel
Товарищ, the last three tests you did worked because they weren’t the first block quote.
Only the first blockquote in a post gets bolded. Subsequent blockquotes will appear with standard formatting.
.
Comrade Nikolita
@ EddieInCA: I was thinking about that the other day. I think if she loses in Nov. with McCain, she’ll be losing her Governor position next election. I don’t think she has much left. She could always hope to be the Republican nominee in 2012, but I’d like to hope that the majority of the US would remember 2008 and say "Thanks but no thanks."
SGEW
I agree with above commenters that Palin is political toast after this election cycle. Daytime talk show, maybe. She’s been made into a national laughing stock – no one can recover from that.
Well, he was, kind of. And then he clawed his way back to the top: that was the genius of Nixon (in his way).
So saying, it must be iterated that Sarah Palin is no Nixon. Not by a long shot.
(Whaddya know. Th’ p tag works!)
gbear
You betcha! Thanks JGabriel.
Edit: YAY!!
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
@JGabriel:
So it’s a bug then, and not default formatting for blockquotes over here. I guess that makes sense.
John Cole
What planet are you all on? The wingnuts are in love. They see a new marketing opportunity, and that is what they need. Their only real principle is cutting taxes, so marketing is really all they have anymore. There is a reason McCain is not running on the issues- Republicans get killed on them. Thus, the never-ending authenticity/folks you wanna have a beer with/gosh darn it idiocy. If McCain/Palin loses, there is no way she is over unless she is thrown out of office in Alaska, and even then it might not matter. Even then, the Republicans will spend a couple million, rehabilitate her, and think nothing of propping her up for a 2012 run. For christ sakes- Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay are on my tv almost every night and Ted Stevens is running for another term. The only conservatives with actual ideas are folks like Daniel Larison, and they have been kicked out of the tribe.
Again, these guys don’t ever apologize or take responsibility for anything. A multi-trillion dollar economic meltdown- Barney Frank’s fault, doncha know- he insisted those CRA loans go to black people. Eight years of failed leadership under Bush- just shows we were not conservative enough! Plus, the liberal media had it in for us. Disaster in Iraq- not our fault. We were winning, but the Defeatocrats in Congress just refused to admit it. McCain losing in a landslide in 2008- no indictment of Republicans, they just ran a bad campaign and the media was in the tank. Blown budget and doubling of the national debt- not our fault, those damned moderates and the Democrats did it.
Palin won’t be done if they lose. Republicans never are done. They never admit fault. They never accept blame. They just move the goalposts, figure out a few new code words to work people into a froth, and get their hate on. Palin lying, being an incompetent boob, being incurious, being little more than a bot programmed to spew out talking points- that is what they want. She can deliver the lines, has no problem with lying, and gives Rich Lowry a boner. She is the full package. The only thing that matters is pissing liberals off and obtaining power. Period. That is just how they fucking roll.
You want Palin done after this, you need to work your ass off helping her primary challengers. Never let up. Never give in. Call her a liar every day, because she is.
She will not be gone, nor will any of the Republican farm team, until you hunt them down, drive stake through their hearts, and then bury them in a tomb of garlic.
iluvsummr
From the
associated press:
Looks like the Alaska Supreme Court might make history next Thursday if it quashes release of the findings.
SGEW
There goes Mr. Cole again, that elitist, always putting down the good old hard working
undeaddifferently alive Americans that make our country proud.Just Some Fuckhead
lmfao
Stuck in the Fun House
John Cole is Howard Beale with a cat.
Boiling down the bullshit to the molecular wingnut
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
I agree with John that losing the election will not discourage the true believers from trying to position Palin for something bigger.
It’s up to the Alaskans to boot/vote/keep her out of office (yes, we can help). Possibly she’ll get a nice appointment that will keep her in the limelight, if not, then a party slot.
In the meantime, she’ll be consolidating her position, working on those talking points, lobbying the fundie base, and generally rehabbing herself for the day she can get polevaulted back to the big time.
Just my opinion.
Stuck in the Fun House
I must say, the above should be engraved and bronzed for a plaque on the Funhouse Wall.
Brachiator
What John Cole said.
Even though Palin’s performance in the debate was barely adequate, it has totally rejuvenated her in the eyes of her staunchest supporters. Any perceived failure on her part is now just the media trying to bring her down. And those who would consign her to daytime TV are again underestimating her. She does well in front of a camera and has experience as a TV sportscaster. While she could probably never write a column or do a blog, she could easily function as a Fox commentator between elections.
Scott H
The only thing more utterly irrelevant than a dead politician is an unelectable politician. Gingrich and DeLay show up on the teevee, sure, because they have nowhere else to go.
If Palin’s unfavorables shape up the way they are trending, Republican strategists won’t remember her name November 5th.
I am sure Palin will have a grand career on the tent circuit. Maybe, she and Hillary could do a Liddy/Leary tour as The Women America Wronged.
Laura W
I am just dropping in because I have no one else to say this to tonight:
I am so OVER Christiane Amanpour.
I had such high, high regard for this woman, for many reasons, but her appearance on Maher last night (which I am only 1/3 way thru right now, and +3…)…um…I lost my point.
I HATE HER.
I can not believe she defended Sarah Homecoming Queen.
The saddest thing to me about the Palin Pick is how many women I once admired (personally and publicly) have come to her defense and say: "I LIKE HER!!!" with absolutely nothing to base that on.
Cognitive dissonance hurts my head furs a lot.
Ned R.
Sarah Palin as martyr is an amusing image though I can’t imagine her writing the equivalent of "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" anytime soon. Still, if she wants to try…
"16 April 2011
My Dear Fellow Moosehunters:
While sitting around in the Alaska state pen, I read in all the newspapers you folks saying my candidacy was "unwise and untimely." I don’t often take that kind of talk from people about my work and, also, ideas…"
SamFromUtah
Gingrich and DeLay show up on the teevee, sure, because they have nowhere else to go.
Except, possibly, prison.
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
Well, here’s how Palin framed her post-Katie, post-debate rehab:
Fox News interview
Seems that she now CAN name a buncha Supreme Court cases (to give Cameron his due, he does observe that she obviously went and crammed on this one).
She just hates that Kennedy v. Louisiana case, because the court told a state it can’t impose the death penalty on a "heen-e-yus" crime. And that Kelo case on "imminent" domain, well, it affected her as a mayor … except it was decided three years after she left office. Maybe she was prescient.
And the Valdez case that slashed the punitive damages Exxon would have to pay to Alaska businesses and tribes … she really had to go look that up?
Scott H
I will amend myself.
Sarah Palin will be first call for fund-raisers. She’s a license to print money.
kommrade jakevich
If this report is released, Putin’s head will rear into Alaska’s airspace!
Frequent guest appearances here.
Calliope
Joe Max @29
She doesn’t have this defense. She didn’t fire the ex-brother-in-law, he’s still a trooper. She fired Walt Monegan, the very highly respected head of Alaska’s Dept. of Public Safety, because he didn’t fire Wooten. Which he couldn’t legally do.
All this goes back to 2005, when Palin’s sister and Wooten divorced. Nasty divorce, and the Palins, Sarah included, made 16 charges against Wooten. These charges, with one exception, were all from 2003, but they hadn’t reported them until 2005. (Including allegedly tasing the nephew.)
The State Police investigated the charges in 2005, found 11 of them to be unsubstantiated, and the rest not to be firing offenses. They suspended Wooten for 10 days, which was later reduced to 5.
Then, in 2006, Sarah becomes Governor, appoints Monegan, and she, Todd, and her staff begin pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten. Since the State Police have already investigated and disciplined Wooten, he can’t fire him. Not without getting himself sued for wrongful termination, anyway.
At one point, Monegan begged her to stop pressuring him. He explained that he had to wait for Wooten to screw up again, but if they kept the pressure on and Wooten screwed up, he still wouldn’t be able to fire him because it would look as if the firing was politically motivated, rather than for cause.
The whole thing would be a farce, if her vindictiveness wasn’t so frightening in a high-ranking public official. Monegan couldn’t fire Wooten. Palin’s refusal to accept that fact bodes ill, as does her continued harassment of Wooten.
boonagain
Goshdarnit, I betcha the Palin fundraisers are gonna start including a pole for her to work…with Rich Lowry and Jonah Goldberg and that ilk trying to ply her with twenties.
Martin
Mavericks cheat on their taxes, apparently.
malraux
@John Cole:
For example, how many of the Nixon crew ended up in power in the Bush White House or conservative media. Or Ollie North.
28 Percent
So true and it is good to see that you know it I for one will be proud to see Sarah Palin as president or if not president then at lecture circuits and as an honorary judge at the state fair. I think she would be very good at that and very welcomed by REAl AMERICANS who do not want to see the country run (or should I say run DOWN) by the socialest Senator in history BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA. I’ll bet you did not know his middle name is HUSSEIN and yet he claims he is not a muslin but some people will believe anything and never admit the TRUTH. We will not surrender to Iraq and turn over the keys to the city to them until they are ready to govern for themselves. That is because we do not lose we bring peace by not taking our soldiers away until theyre presensce put an end to the violence.
Jane_in_Colorado
I don’t disagree with this, Comrade Cole. But since you were once one of them, I’m hoping you can provide a little insight. What’s wrong with these people? Is it just pure "us-vs-them-ism"? Is there any way to reach these people?
Conservatively Liberal
Dayum, that’s some great spoof! Run on sentences that are poorly written with spelling and usage errors tossed in for good effect.
/applause!
Notorious P.A.T.
I bet Rich Lowery will give her a job.
Brian J
This will sound intellectually lazy, and it is, but I gave up on following the Troopergate story. It doesn’t sound particularly interesting, and even if she’s innocent both legally and ethically, she’s so underwhelming in so many other ways, it’s almost surreal.
That said, you have to wonder, what the hell does she have to hide? If what I remember about the story is accurate, she tried to have her brother-in-law fired because he was a true S.O.B. Even if it was a naked abuse of power, if the details behind his behavior are true, wouldn’t most people ignore the abuse of power? I remember Keith Olbermann, not exactly a sympathetic supporter of Palin, saying that nobody could really blame her for doing what she did when we first heard some details of how he acted.
Maybe the story has moved on to some other angle. Like I said, I haven’t been paying attention to it. But if her brother-in-law is still a big part of it, you have to think there is something more to it, because as K.O. said, who is really going to mind her protecting her own family? It just doesn’t seem to add up otherwise.
Ned R.
Well, that’s kinda falling for the Palins’ implied narrative — that it was ‘just’ a family affair and that we’d all want to do the same, so why do we care? (Wooten has given an interview or two in the past month indicating that while he’s well aware he’s not perfect that there’s more to the story — and given Palin’s record on other things, we might want to keep that in mind.)
But the larger focus has been on the others caught up in it and, from the sound of it, pressured or punished for it because they simply wouldn’t roll over for what the Palins wanted. Think of it this way — were we in their respective positions of these others, most notably Monegan, we might think, "Yeah, dude sounds like a piece of work, but there are still rules and procedures and all." And for his pains Monegan, who from all accounts is a widely respected figure in Alaska on both sides of the aisle and among people in general, gets unceremoniously sacked.
So that’s what needs to be remembered — this isn’t so much about the brother-in-law as the brother-in-law’s ultimate superior. And simply put, the picture painted so far from what details are known are extremely equivocal, and the other day one interviewee changed her statement to implicate the Palins more clearly after questions of perjury arose.
Like I said to friends earlier today, it’s a mistake to go in assuming Branchflower’s report as Fitzmas redux — everyone was thinking that would bring down a good chunk of Cheney’s crew as well as himself and it was ultimately a damp squib — but the implications keep looking worse and worse the more the report is fought and the more comes out.
Andrew Halcro’s post shortly after the firing is a pretty good summation of the case against Palin:
Why Walt Monegan Got Fired
Conservatively Liberal
Troopergate:
Sarah’s sister has a nasty divorce from trooper. Sarah and her family file endless complaints in an attempt to get the trooper fired. Most complaints were dismissed, valid complaints dealt with by temporarily suspending trooper.
Fast forward to Sarah becoming the governator. She appoints a guy to head the troopers, possibly expecting him to do her bidding. She demands that the appointee fire the trooper but the appointee refuses.
She fires the appointee and then claims that she never tried to force the appointee to fire the trooper. There is hard evidence to the contrary, which means that she is lying.
Not detailed but a fair and short synopsis.
Martin
And the report should be fairly complete because even though everyone skipped out on their subpoenas (let’s hope they all spend some nice jail time for that) they’ve pretty much all given statements on the record previously, so apparently there’s already quite a bit to work off of.
Ned R.
Meantime, as long as we’re talking Alaska, the big Mudflats post today is an absolute must-read. To quote a bit:
Ned R.
@Martin:
Actually, is this making the rounds yet? Todd Palin’s decided to talk — though oddly enough, not to Branchflower but some other guy:
Brian J
Thanks for that. That was perhaps the best summary I could hope for.
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
Add Newsweek to the "emperor has no clothes" chorus:
The Palin Problem
JGabriel
Joe Meacham at Newsweek (from the article Zuzu linked above):
Best Cited Reason for Granting a Republican Strategist Anonymity.
Ever.
.
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
For some more fun, check out this Alaska audience’s reaction to the debate:
VP Debate: Alaska Bear Tooth Focus Group
Jeff
SNL is brutal once again.
Stay tuned for the drinking game reference.
Conservatively Liberal
Thanks for that Zuzu! Boy was that ever brutal. Her own constituents, and they were having none of it. While she still has a high popularity rating, it is only a veneer of popularity. Sarah is all veneer, no depth at all.
Alaska is a red state, and when you combine her taking over from an unpopular Republican governor, plus her raising taxes on the oil companies in Alaska and then handing it out to the voters, that is about all that she has to make her popular.
If Sarah was a book, it would be a preschoolers book with big letters, small words and few pages.
Melinda
Laura W, Palin is a genuinely very likable woman. She’s warm and enthusiastic and down-to-earth. She’s stilted on the stump but not more generally. The fact that she’s likable doesn’t make her right on any of the issues, it doesn’t make her suitable for high office, it doesn’t compensate for her lack of education or lack of experience, it doesn’t make her crappy judgment any better, and it really doesn’t make her anything but likable.
jcricket
Remember that most of what we "know" about Wooten from Palin was said in the middle of a contentious divorce. And the Palin family was later admonished, directly by the judge, to stop their accusations as they amounted to "verbal child abuse". So while Wooten’s not "perfect", I take nothing the Palin’s say about him at face value, not even if the outline of the event in question is "true".
And as others have pointed out, she got Wooten’s new boss fired when he told her he had to follow the law and could not fire Wooten.
BTW, the guy she replaced Monegan with (a crony of hers) had to quit within like 2 weeks. IIRC, he had a wee sexual harrassment problem.