So when Sarah Palin talks about being a “reformer,” is she talking about this?
A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state’s public safety commissioner. The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn’t the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.
So, they really did put lipstick on a pig.
As I mentioned in the open thread, the release of the report at around 8:30 p.m. EDT pretty much guaranteed that it was being “thrown out with the trash”. Lots of people don’t watch Friday 11:00 news, and even those that read hard copies of newspapers often don’t read the Saturday edition. They are hoping that by Monday, when more people are paying attention, it will be considered “old news”.
But given the history over the past eight years, the last thing we need is a person with a history of abusing governmental authority being a heartbeat away from a 72+ year-old president.
The son of William F. Buckley has decided-shock!-to vote for a Democrat.
Hey wingnuts, this has got to hurt.
So has Lincoln Chaffee and the former Gov of Mich who have both said McCain has blown it.
@3
Well, that and the Palin thing and George Will and Kathleen Parker and…
The Palin story is up on the NYT now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10.....er.html?em
Hmmm…
So I guess you all support a public safety commissioner who will not fire a trooper who admits tasering his stepson, illegally killing a moose and admits to the multiple reprimands found in his file.
Then a separate state trooper investigation found credible evidence he was drinking in his patrol car. Sound like it HA Drunken Libs Tuesday night participant.
Now we know what HA Donkey stand for. I wonder how you would like it if your 10-year old nephew was tasered by a state trooper?
Hmmmmmmmm……………..?
BTW the nephew was 11 years old. I guess by the comments above it’s okay to taser an 11 year old girl right HA leftists?
Proof, please. And not from biased sources.
Notice the question I didn’t ask Goldy.
Can you figger it out? Are the single celled cranial orifices engaged this evening?
blowjob@9: CNN interview… Oh wait, that’s Obama’s official news source…
@7
Actually, none of us has said anything in support of anything in your above quote.
1.
No, the pig puts on her own lipstick. She is well trained.
Pud- the vote was unanimous from a bipartisan investigation
How about a link, Terrorist Homophobe?
Simple fact is that this proves that McCain did not properly investigate her background before nominating.
Go ahead, spew all the bile you want.
Call me every name you want.
I know what you are.
Hateful. Homophobic. Liar. Sick. Evil.
TRAITOR.
Need I go on?
FYVM
@8
No.
Puddy,
No one is saying Wooten is not a rats ass. What the commission found is that Palin abused her power in firing his boss for not firing him.
Puddy, where is Wooten’s due process? He is has the right to a hearing and I am not sure he could be fired without the hearing or due process. Most police officers belong to unions. And believe me, you want them to have the union.
Wooten was suspended for 10 days due these allegations. The union appealed and the suspension was reduced to five days and he was put on notice that any further misconduct would result in his termination.
I know, he threatened good Republicans and should be fired immediately.
@16
Yep.
The sound you hear is the McCain campaigns last gasp of air.
There is nothing left and I expect that Monday or Tuesdays poll will show that McCain is 15 to 20 points behind.
My Left Foot:
Since BlowJob can’t find the CNN interview, I suppose it bespeaks to his Internet savvy. Sorry Charlie, he sucks! If BlowJob could remember facts he would have found it as the first link in his “search”.
Yes, Call Me a Terrorist. I like Israel! I don’t like the Taliban! Nuff SAID!
Now back to you Carl, He got a hearing. In 2006 he received a hearing. Was Palin the guvnur in 2006? Read the CNN interview.
This is very telling… “The father of three, who was married four times, told CNN” – that says enough for me!
BlowJob@17: Search and prove yourself worthy. Otherwise flake off loony lib.
BTW HA lefties, whenever possible I will use Obama’s news source CNN.
K- I understand it was a unanimous vote. But think for a second. Just a second, maybe two.
You find out your nephew was tasered. You find out death threats were made. You find out he drank in his cruiser. Is this a trooper you want roaming the roads of Alaska?
@22
So is it the rule of law that you dislike? Yes Wooten got a hearing, MLF posted about it.
Then the governor came along after the fact, tried to bully people into firing him and gave “the first dude” improper access to people and records.
Shouldn’t the governor have to follow the laws too?
I bet ya’ that there’s a way, within the law and out in the open, that Palin could have had Wooten reinvestigated.
Isn’t Wooten still a trooper?
Michael, I didn’t say I dislike the rule of law. That’s your conjecture. But this guy scares me as a police officer.
MLF @ 19
Actually, the only ding on Palin was that she knew that her husband was eagerly going from state office to state office trying to get the trooper fired.
The report did NOT say that SHE abused power in firing the boss.
It seems something akin to the “lack of institutional control” charge against the UW Huskies some years ago. Palin should’ve put a leash on her husband and the commission nailed her for it.
It is good to know that the democrats are for tasering 10 year old kids, of course they run the public screwls so I guess it’s par for the course.
Hmmm… Branchflower wrote in report “Palin was within her rights to fire Monegan, but contends that she violated state ethical codes.” Okay she wanted his sorry ass off the force.
Does the Commissioner of Public Safety serve at the guvnur’s pleasure?
I’m not saying he is a good guy (the cop). I am saying he had a complaint and process which resulted in a suspension. Those are facts.
A simple reality is that when you are in the government you are held to a higher standard. You do not get to decide the process was insufficient and you want to get him.
As for the dog, go sniff some butt.
And she does get to fire the Commissioner, she just should not lie about it.
@30
Yep!
Puddy,
Yeah, the guy scares me too, but you can’t go outside of the rules to get him out.
It didn’t sound like it worked anyway. I thought Wooten was still a cop.
27:
It is in the report, Page 8, Finding Number One.
She abused her power. You can put lipstick on this pig, but she abused her power when she fired him. There were other contributing factors, but she considered her personal feelings too.
No.
A simple reality is that when you are in the government you are held to a higher standard. You do not get to decide the process was insufficient and you want to get him.
She can get rid of him if she doesn’t like him for whatever reason… and yes I think she used good judgment. Of course the commissioner could have been worse and been a non-repented terrorist.
10/10/2008 at 8:13 pm
31. K spews:
And she does get to fire the Commissioner; she just should not lie about it.
Where did she lie?? Just because some commission said there was no reason to fire him doesn’t mean he should keep his job.
Does serve at the guvnur’s pleasure?
No.
Why???? Was he elected???? Who hires the Commissioner of Public Safety???? Ah liberal dipshits. hehehehehe
This is what she said, dog:
“repeatedly ignoring the governor’s budget priorities, making public statements that directly challenged the governor’s policy agenda and taking numerous unilateral actions in conflict with the governor….”
From their own report
K@31: You need to write to BO@34. He/she/it disagrees with you. Apparently BO@34 knows more than you.
Uuuh, whackjobs, Trooper Wooten is not running for Veep. The lawbreaker and petty tyrant is. And she is unanimously found to have abused her power. Oh, but wait. She did issue a report clearing herself.
BTW, in a state where the Gov mini-me Josephine McCarthy awards people $150 for bringing in a leg from wolves that are shot from the air, and she overturns all her scientists and says polar bears are not endangered, and tries to hide that from PRA requests, and she wants to hide her correspondence from PRA action by putting state business on private e mail, and she wants to ban books and fire librarians who don’t agree with her, and appoints violent seccessionists to her seat on council, etc, etc, I am not sure Wooten’s actions are that different from most anyone else.
Oh, yeah, and heroic Track or trip or fall, or whatever they named him, went into the National Guard because of various drug busts, on an ultimatum from a judge.
So tell me, unvarnished, the truth- would you trust her to run the country? And if so, what do you base that on?
How cum no one isn’t asking about the No Inmate Voter Left Behind?
John McCain. What a godforsaken idiot. He actually wants us to believe he has what it takes to make the big decisions. When he, himself, decided to choose a running mate with a Trojan Horse, automatic, slam dunk October surprise. She’s become a national and global symbol for stupidity. What a dipped-in-horse-shit moron.
Oh if they only did that here in FUWA, what a wonderful state this would be!
Pud @ 38- I do not necessarily agree with or support all who post here from my side of the fence. I’ve proven that before and every once on a while I throw you a bone. You invariable grab it and shake it at others.
43,
Don’t stare at the feeble-minded slobberers. It’s not polite, and better to look away.
Has McCain created a monster by elevating Palin to national prominence? At least he has enough sense to realize when a crowd is becoming a mob; but Palin has her head so far up her ass she incites the mob. The Associated Press has noticed: “The anti-Obama taunts and jeers are noticeably louder when McCain appears with Palin, a big draw for GOP social conservatives.” This woman has yet to learn that a governor, much less a vice presidential candidate, can’t behave like a hick-town mayor.
Puddy,
As McCain falls farther behind you seem to be screaming at an even higher decibel rate. This race is over. The hate and fear mongering are not working, except with that part of your party who live in trailers, drink corn mash and believe the martian they just imagined in their drunken stupor is actually real and watching NASCAR with them.
I know you are a smart guy. Reasoned argument will get your point across. You are honestly beginning to sound like the redneck, ignorant hicks that populate the Palin/McCain rallys.
I know you are better than that.
@3 Great leaders are not merely a product of talent. Lincoln had remarkable personal qualities; but he was made great by his followers. Obama has a chance to be a great president because his followers have something we haven’t seen since RFK’s followers in the 60s: A conviction that they can change the world, make it new again, right history’s wrongs, make things better. It is the energy and optimism those who believe in Obama that give him the chance to be a great leader.
47
I have believed this from the beginning. I like Hillary, I really do. But have thought Obama offered the best HOPE.
@7 Uh, puddystupe, there was an internal investigation that validated some of these allegations and rejected others, and the trooper was punished with a 5-day suspension. Palin wanted Monegan to reopen the matter and fire Wooten after he had already been disciplined! There isn’t a court in the land that would uphold that. The bigger problem is that Palin wanted Monegan to do something that is illegal. He can’t. And if you think this had nothing to do with Palin’s family’s personal quarrel with Wooten, you must be smoking crack.
And that’s the point, puddystupe — this issue is not about whether Wooten is a bad guy, but whether Palin is a person who uses a public office and the power of government for a personal vendetta against another individual. That office and power don’t belong to her, they’re the property of the people, and she has no right to use them to get an advantage in a personal fight. In fact, that’s explicitly against Alaskan law. Her lack of judgment, disrespect for law, and unethical conduct reflect directly on her fitness for higher power. She would be vice president of all of us, not just Alaskans; I say, a person who abuses power is not going to have government power over my life and property if I can help it. You want me to vote for this bully? Not a chance.
My Left Foot:
Carl, I have stated my positions on McCain since 2005 on this blog.
My argument is your friends in the MSM have performed their job on finding dirt on Palin. Yet when there is the same amount of dirt on Obama, your friends in the MSM turn a blind eye to Barack. So when Republican operatives start performing the MSM job, then your side complains. This is what I bring to the forefront.
Pelletizer, okay she tried to used her power as guvnur to remove a bad person from the police force. So what? He’s a mentally unstable person. If she went against a person of John Lovick’s character, I’d be there with you. But Wooten is scum. Since I agree he shouldn’t be on the force, and I see only Michael standing up and being a man here agreeing this is a worthless Alaskan trooper, you just keep on trucking man.
One last thing My Left Foot, regarding the financial crisis, this has Donkey hands all over it too, yet the lib MSM isn’t telling the truth because they are messiah apologists. This is why McCain is slipping. Rasmussen and Zogby write neutral questions and you can see the answers vs. the biased questions from other polling places.
“In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercie[sic] of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.”
Puddy,
McCain is slipping because he is all over the board with how he wants to run this campaign. He suspends, he’s back. He picks Palin and gets his bounce then pays for the rash decision because the woman is not qualified to be VP and she has skeletons. McCain is trying to race bait with code words and not so coded words. His crowds are angry and violent. As a man of color in this country you should be more sensitive to this that anyone.
McCain is acting irrationally. The intelligence level of the people at the rally yesterday floored me. To believe an ARAB could run for president? This is symptomatic of the tone of his campaign. He is now only appealing to the “fringe” of your party.
I am also tired of the lament “its the MSN”. Bullshit. Palin could not tell us what paper she reads? She could not name a Supreme Court decision? This woman is not intellectually curious. That is dangerous. She thinks she knows it all already and you want to blame the “MSM”. How many well known, well respected Republican columnists and thinks have said she is not qualified? George Will, one of the smartest men on the planet, a real thinker, says as much. Kathleen Parker has received threats for suggesting that Palin is “in over her head”. How much more obvious does it have to be for you?
Obama has tenuous, at best, ties to Ayers. They served on a board together that meant once a year. Several media outlets including the New York Times and Fox News have investigated and can not find a shred of evidence that these men have any kind of relationship other than in passing. Having a mixer at Ayers home to begin his political career is not troublesome either. Are you concerned that the meeting was a “crafts class” in bomb making?
As for taking money from Fannie and Freddie, well McCain’s campaign manager has taken more than anyone.
Why can’t we stay on the issues. The economy, the wars, foreign policy? Well, I know why. The Republicans can’t win on these issues so you go for character assassination and fear.
Only this time, finally, the public is saying “oh no, not gonna fall for that line”. Last night McCain had to defend Obama. Said he was a decent man and we did not have to fear his presidency. Right now Palin is talking live in PA. She is not using the rhetoric about Obama and Ayers. She is not using the “hanging with terrorists” line.
My, how things change overnight.
Sucks don’t it.
Did anyone see the acorn workers on TV?
Are you people proud to be associated with that? Maybe Obama could seal the deal if he
promised free dental
55
Um, Mark, how do I break this to you gently?
ACORN was registering Dems and Reps. The fraud is that their employees, who are paid per registration, were faking them to defraud ACORN for a bigger paycheck.
Fucking Republican talking point regurgitation is not going to change that fact.
Voter fraud is when the fake registrations actually vote or try to vote.
What a fucking Moe-ron.
The day McCain announced Sarah Palin as his runningmate, my reaction was that he must want to lose. Everything that has unraveled since then fits that reaction. What a blunder.As an independent, I had considered voting for him but that day changed everything. Now stuck voting for Obama or writing in a name.
Did you notice that electoral-vote.com comes to the conclusion that McCain is stuck with Palin? He says that there are no viable alternatives, then mentions the most obvious possibilities and dismisses them. It seems to me that McCain could easily improve his chances with some pretty high profile people who have been vetted by their careers. Elizabeth Dole for one is well known, a woman, highly connected, etc. She is also struggling in her senate race and might serve the party better by running for the Veep. Anyone on that level would be better for him than Palin. Take either of the two Maine senators. Get the Minnesota governor.
Now, I am not saying I would vote for him under any circumstances. There are so many stand alone reasons to vote against him. I am just thinking that a smart move would be to dump the horror he has found himself in with Palin. Does this reasoning make sense?
It is too late to dump her. Ballots are already out in some counties.
If McCain wins with her on the ticket and after two disasterous terms under Bush Jr., then the democratic party is offcially dead.
As far as democrats are concerned… If this trooper hates bush and all republicans then yes, they want him on the street. He passed their test.
Party before country.
Party before common sense.
61
Marvin, the medications need adjusting again.
Hugs and kisses.
How many men with a badge have abused their position over the past few years?
Women are often victimized by a system that takes the side of the abuser because he has a badge.
Luckily this situation didn’t end up with woman murdered by the abuser.
Shouldn’t a governor of any state take issue with someone they knowingly have serving as a law enforcement officer not being held accountable to live up to the law themselves?
If the Democratic Party wants to defend a child abuser (tasering a 10 year old), an officer caught drinking in his squad car who threatened his ex-in-laws for helping his spouse escape their relationship, then it makes perfectly clear that women’s rights are not a priority in the 2008 Democratic Party platform. The sexist attacks by their minions in the mass media have proven that without a shadow of doubt.
I applaud Gov. Palin’s actions against a man who should be stripped of his badge.
So should any American with a lick of sense that’s not consumed by their partisan hatred and bias.
Maybe someday common sense will rise above political party loyalty?
It was a bipartisan commission started MONTHS before she was nominated to be VP that made this finding. It’s not politically motivated. She used her personal feelings to try to influence another official.
“Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor …”
Thought Scott Giggles Simon cleared this up hours ago on NPR. Palin’s actions were not unlawful. She broke no law, no laws. She did not unlawfully abuse her power. Unlike Jim McDermott, Sarah Palin is not a crook.
A bipartisan committee determined that Sarah and Todd Palin were unethical. A commission did not determine that they broke the law, that their actions were unlawful.
Case closed.
@65: Abuse of power IS unethical AND illegal – case closed.
JC : Are you an idiot or do you just write like one?
After more than 36 phone calls about her ex-brother in law on everything from him volunettering at the county fair to his disability – that is misuse of the public trust and unethical – period. That is what the bipartisan report said. Are you defending political abuse of power? Are you for unehtical conduct in office? Do you have a double standard? If she was so worried about this guy – why did she cut her security detail?
No – this was a personal agenda by someone in a public office. This should not be tolerated in ANY elected official and the fact you are defending it shows that you either don’t know the facts or you favor corruption. Which is it?
Dear republican troll excusers of corruption:
If he was so bad, why didn’t his boss fire him? Becuase the boss (a republican) said that there was not evidence – so all that crap menas ….nothing. What we have is solid evidence of abuse of power for personal motives – not the busieness of the state. That is corruption and is shoudl not be tolerated.
How can a corrupt politician campaign on reform? The answer, of course, is that she cannot. Not that she has been shown to be a serial liar and corrupt – she should be taken off the ticket – she is an embarassment.
Dear Trolls: here is the report. It says Palin broke the LAW. What don’t you get?
They voted 12-0 on this report and the alaska legislature is controlled by republicans. Obviously, the republicans in Alsaka have some respect for the law, unlike the excuse-making trolls that visit this blog. What ever happened to moral standards? I sure didn’t hear these excuses when Clinton did NOT break a law. I sure condemned him for moral failure. It looks like the trolls on here can’t be consistent – it is only a problem when democrats have a moral failing. this is even more – it is a clear violation of the law and abuse of power. someone who has abused power should not be rewarded with a higher office and McCain should drop her immediately.
@56 No, Acorn is registering more fake ballots
otherwise the democrats would not win any race.
The voter rolls are so full of shit. I doubt
any democrat has really won in our state in twenty years. You’re the moron. How did you
like the free dental comment? The coming
Obama depression should weed out the weak in
our society. Democrats have had control for two years and look what they have done to our Country!
How Can ANYONE Vote for a guy who’s name cannot be yelled in a crowded airport?
Any idea how common it is for cops to stand behind their corrupt fellow cops? Any idea how many cops kill or harass their wives when they actually try to get away from the creep?
Abuse of power?
Travelgate?
Throwing out military ballots in 2000?
Aiding an abetting the enemy when combat troops are in harms way? FBI files and Rose law firm files missing? Fannie Mae fat cats in Obama’s campaign? Using Obama campaign money toward ACORNs corruption of the vote in multiple states.
Destroying the American Blue Collar Worker.
• Environmentalists funded by China
• No Mills, No Mines, No Logging, No Fishing, No Farming, No Family Farms because of the taxes when Dad dies and tries to leave it for the kids. Dem policies that destroy the USA economy.
That’s an abuse of power!
@70, 71
At this point I just laugh at you guys. McCain’s not going to break 200 electoral college votes. On the off chance that Rossi does make it into the governors chair he’ll be facing Democratic majorities in the house, senate and in state workers as well. Governor Rossi would spend his four years in office as an impotent place holder.