Palin’s Trooper’Gate: Beating MSM distortions to the truth

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**Welcome readers from Lucianne, Ace of Spades, Gateway Pundit, Protein Wisdom, The Corner, Wizbang, The Strata-Sphere, Macsmind, and Memeorandum….thanks for the link!**

View the ensuing posts, and on going story,
in the “Trooper’gate” Category archives

~~~

It’s been over 12 hours now since Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, has been named as GOP choice of Veep. Already, a desperate Obama camp of supporters are in search of talking points… other than the obviously poor choice of “inexperience”… or a scandal to take back what they perceive as the DNC ticket superiority.

Knowing the Palin-Monegan-Wooten investigation of abuse of power was their prime target, I’ve been spending time this AM researching the chain of events in hopes of beating the media to the political and biased distortions creating a new, and false “truth. I took into consideration that journalists… and ardent supporters like Markg8 on Curt’s thread… will be quick to post what they believe is damning evidence without reading more material on the issue.

So on that note, settle back and catch up with the reality of rural country politics. I’d like to share with you what appears to be the crux of the story, using both pro and con Palin bloggers and news media.

A timeline of events in the so-called “scandal”

4-11-05: Investigation of Mike Wooten by AST (Alaskan State Troopers) over two year allegation of misconduct involving family members commences.

5-1-05: Domestic complaint incident involving Mike and Molly [Sarah’s sister} Wooten, Sarah and Todd Palin. Transcript of Sarah Palin with troopers. Also, Trooper notes on the same interview.

SUMMARY: Molly calls Sarah (not yet Governor) in fear from husband. They leave an open phone line where both Sarah and Molly’s son hear Wooten threaten Molly and Sarah’s father (he’ll “eat an f*#king bullet). Palin doesn’t call police because she doesn’t want to hurt Wooten’s trooper career, nor make the situation worse…. Providing it didn’t get physical. Other incidents with Wooten noted.

8-18-05 Re’interview of both Sarah and Todd Palin. Trooper notes on Sarah interview. And Trooper notes on interview with Todd Palin, plus with bartender of Mug Shot Saloon.

SUMMARY: Sarah confirms an email on Aug 10th, 2005 to Col Julia Grimes, Director of AST (Alaska State Troopers) complaining of Wooten’s negative representation of the department. Wooten’s abuse of his authority and position in various instances. His racist attitudes towards native Alaskans (Todd Palin is a native Alaskan…), abuse of state resources (free gas/credit), illegal hunting activities, and Sarah’s daughter (Bristol) being a witness to Wooten’s tasering of his 11 year old stepson (verified)

SUMMARY: Todd also confirms Wooten’s disparaging remarks about Alaskan natives, his consistent abuse of authority and position, plus his hunting violations. Bartender confirms Wooten involving himself in bar fight, misusing his position as a trooper. Also bartender confirms Wooten with “girlfriend” at the bar, who was later arrested for DUI.

This is no means a complete picture of all that happened… but enough to give you a picture of an “out of control” trooper.

~~~
NOTE: Palin was not Governor of the State at this time… and this transpired BEFORE her primary campaign against GOP [see party affiliation correction at end of post, please]competitor, Andrew Halcro. Coincidently, the same man leading the pack screaming “scandal” over the “firing of Monegan”.

The investigations against Wooten started more than a year before she was elected governor, and about two months before launching her campaign”.

~~~

11-2006: Palin elected Governor of Alaska

3-1-06: Col. Julia Grimes findings on Wooten investigation results in suspension…. for only *five* days.

What we can derive from the timeline is that the investigations and complaints against Wooten as a State Trooper (not to mention with problems exhibiting a derelict father who tasers his step son, and is a physically and verbally abusive, unfaithful husband per the transcripts and testimony) had started prior to Palin’s term as Governor.

We can also determine that this is a man who most certainly does not need to be a trooper, armed with a badge and gun. And, if not in rural Alaska, Wooten is a law official who would have been run out of most departments as a seriously troubled man with violent tendencies.

Per Col. Julia Grimes in the Fairbanks Newsminer on July 28, 2008… and showing how long this “scandal” has dragged out…

The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable, and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession,” Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in March 1, 2006, letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After the union protested it, the suspension was reduced to five days.

She warned that if he messed up again, he’d be fired.

Where’s the “abuse of power” scandal?

Now that we know who Wooten is, and the story of the Palin relationship, PLUS the documented timeline in mind, let’s look at commenter markg8’s evidence (the video below) of a local Alaskan TV station on the “scandal”, as posted johnny-on-the-spot by leftist Obama supporter, Josh Marshall’s TalkingPointsMemo.

First, the video accusation is that the Governor’s office has questionable reasons (meaning removing Wooten from the AST) for firing Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan in July 2008. As we know, documented complaints from Palin about Wooten started prior to Monegan’s appointment… which Monegan may, or may not have been aware.

Yet Monegan was appointed by Palin. She is certainly within her rights to fire him. And if complaints were already lodged about Wooten to the immediate superior, Col. Julia Grimes, why did she need to pressure him to fire Wooten? Afterall, if Palin was going to “abuse” her power to get Wooten fired, why not direct that power over Grimes as the superior of the Troopers?

And if getting Wooten fired was her quest, why did she not take steps to do that in 2005 during the complaint period, instead of specifically stating under deposition she was staying silent in order not to put his job at risk? Not to mention the gap in time… why would it take her two one and a half years to fire Monegan because of Wooten?

Monegan’s “truth” problem

According to Monegan, he insists he was pressured by Todd Palin,“numerous times to talk about Wooten as well as Frank Bailey from the governor’s office and Commissioner of Administration Annete Krietzer who also pressured him to fire Wooten”.

If trooper recruitment and poor morale was one of Palin’s concern about Monegan’s performance, why would her husband Todd be doing the talking for Palin? And why would Palin send her husband… sans gubernatorial power… to convince Monegan to fire Wooten?

But the problem with Monegan’s charge is.… Todd Palin was *ordered* to talk to Monegan since Wooten was a potential threat against Alaska’s first family.

2. Todd Palin was ORDERED by the head of the Governor’s security detail, Special Agent Bob Cockrell, to discuss Trooper Wooten with Walt Monegan, as Wooten presented a credible threat to the Governor’s safety. Here’s a direct quote from Special Agent Cockrell, who is now providing security for his sixth consecutive governor:

“When made aware of the security concerns regarding a state trooper, I instructed the First Gentleman to contact the commissioner of Public Safety. It is standard protocol to ask every governor about any threats they perceive or have realized. “I will not hesitate to set the record straight in answering these false allegations by former Commissioner Monegan.” (emphasis added)

Monegan also states others “around Palin” also applied pressure… but not Palin herself.

But Monegan says pressure came from those around Palin, including former Palin chief-of-staff Mike Tibbles, Department of Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer, and director of boards and commissions Frank Bailey.

Tibbles, who is now the campaign manager for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, said Friday he couldn’t comment on whether he spoke to Monegan about Wooten.

Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Bailey never had such a conversation with Monegan.

Kreitzer could not recall, Leighow said.

Problem is, Palin directed none of these people to intercede her her behalf… either personally, or professionally. In fact, until someone presented her with the phone transcript of Bailey’s call, she had no idea these events had occurred… putting her in a more embarrassing position.

Frank Bailey, the boards and commissions director, told The Associated Press he acted on his own — and not on behalf of Palin or her husband, Todd — when he called Ketchikan-based Lt. Rodney Dial, pushing for the firing of Trooper Mike Wooten.

“There was never any direction by the governor, never any direction by Todd to make the call or to make any call to DPS on this stuff,” Bailey said.

In the recorded conversation, Bailey is heard telling Dial: “Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, why on earth hasn’t, why is this guy still representing the department? He’s a horrible recruiting tool. … You know, I mean from their perspective, everyone’s protecting him.”

Palin said she heard the conversation for the first time on Tuesday when she returned to Anchorage from state business in Fairbanks. She said it was unclear why the recorded conversation only recently surfaced.

“It’s embarrassing for me to disclose at this time a conversation has occurred, again unbeknownst to me,” she said at a hastily arranged news conference at her Anchorage office.

In another instance that questions Monegan’s honesty, he and Gov. Palin had met over two dozen times—yet he says they only met four times. Since he has only alluded to, but not directly accused Palin of, pressuring him to fire Wooten, is he suggesting Wooten was the subject of the meetings (of which there should be some sort of official records… which there are none)? Or were these meetings about his performance?

Clearly Monegan is not being truthful about the amount of times he met with Gov. Sarah Palin, when confirmed with Government office records. What can we believe about the subject of his meetings?

Monegan fired for budget, recruiting and enforcement performance

Disagreements between Monegan and Palin over a budget cut in the troopers, department morale and recruiting, and bootlegging enforcement are documented by Andrew Halcro. (As I mentioned earlier, but it bears repeating…. Halcro also happens to be the losing primary GOP[Correction: Independent] candidate in the 2006 gubernatorial candidate, and is the source of the complaints against Palin.)

The political plot thickens…

Palin, giving more specifics later in the process than she should have, confirms her reasons for firing Monegan in that position, but offering him another in the department which she felt he was better suited for.

Per Alaskan Activist” on the Alaskan Pride blog:

Palin has been under heavy criticism since firing former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. However, she also disclosed three reasons why she fired Monegan (I listened to the press conference in part on KFQD and specifically took down this information).

– He was not making headway on achieving key goals such as resolving the trooper shortfall.

– He was not making satisfactory progress on resolving alcohol issues.

– He was not a team player in regards to budget issues.

But recognizing his previous experience in dealing with alcohol issues, particularly in Bush Alaska, Governor Palin did not want to remove Monegan from the administration altogether, but to place him in charge of the Alcoholic Beverage Control board, where he could combine his rural expertise with a full-time focus on alcohol issues. Nevertheless, Monegan elected not to accept the post, and left the administration instead. Monegan continues to maintain he was pressured by Palin’s family and the administration to fire Trooper Wooten.

Alaskan Pride is no Palin fan for the Veep job, BTW. Also, there are links to “white nationalists” website links there. Frankly, just the sound of that gives me the creeps… But I figured hey… anti-Palin. Oddly enough, even he doesn’t deem Palin as corrupt, but naïve:

Sarah Palin could have saved herself a lot of grief if she had simply told us why she canned Walt Monegan last month instead of serving up some New Age Oprah-style drivel about “new energy” and “new direction”. There seems to be a disturbing aura of New Age influence within the Palin Administration.

So if Monegan and Palin disagreed on the budget, recruiting and enforcement (most over budget), and she was within her gubernatorial rights to replace him, just where does the scandal come into play?

It doesn’t… not that facts ever stop rumors or investigations in the political world. What we have here is the playing out of complaints instigated by a disgruntled loser’s political witch hunt. Fact is, if Palin wanted to do a gubernatorial power play, she could apply that to Grimes. However she had other grievances with Monegan.

Palin welcomes an investigation into the firing of Walt Monegan. Yet even that has some nepotism involved. The appointed prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, apparently has a very close relationship with Monegan.

Branchflower, who served as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage from 1974-1998, held numerous positions which required him to work extremely closely with the Anchorage Police Department, where Walt Monegan would become chief in 2001. He provided legal advice to APD officers, trained APD officers, and was even a co-founder of the APD’s Homicide Response Team. His wife also worked as a detective for the APD, not retiring until 2002, meaning that she worked under Walt Monegan. In short, it seems impossible to believe that Branchflower, whose entire career was wrapped up in his relationships with the APD, and his detective wife did not have at least some professional relationship with Walt Monegan, who was obviously one of the city’s top cops. Mrs. Branchflower also briefly came out of retirement to work as a cold case detective for the Alaska State Troopers.

So when you read of Palin also launching an independent investigation, you might consider having another investigator’s input is not such a bad idea in light of the personal ties between Branchflower and Monegan.

Palin replaced Monegan with Charles Kopp…who ended up resigning after two weeks under intense political scrutiny for an old (and removed from the books the previous year) sexual harassment charge. No doubt, that that will be the next attempted scandal… Either that, or it’s one jinxed position.

Now John Glass in is the Public Safety Commissioner seat…. Will the Alaskan local powers and the Obama camp make an issue of that? Only time will tell.

~~~

[Correction: Halcro was a GOP legislator in the Alaska House of Representatives. He ran against Palin on the Independent ticket. So sorry for the error… late, lots of data… zzzzz]

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anon: MataH was already accused of oversimplifying the conclusions in her summary so further refinement along the lines you suggest would only undermine the general thesis that there’s not much “there” there in this “scandal.”

It’s always nice to have a solid bedrock of thorough and well organized information upon which readers can base conclusions.

I have a great bumper sticker for the desperate Dems and Obamabots attempting to smear Gov. Palin with “abuse of power” (see trackback #11)

“America cannot afford VP Sarah Palin: she’s too hard on racist, child-abusing wifebeaters.”

Please, Obamabots, go there. I’ll go make some popcorn.

Hi, I’m a Dem for McCain and totally disgusted with the MSM and my party at the obvious intent to smear Sarah Palin with this kind of garbage. Sarah Palin and her husband should be considered heroes by all of us. How many times do abused family members end up dead because no family member or close friend had the courage to interfere in a “private” situation? And then to try to connect this original situation to a firing more than 2 years later is obviously a stretch, even for an old Dem like me.
I read up on all the VP maybes when the press was announcing them months ago, and the dynamic lady named Sarah was my favorite by far, but I never in a million years would have guessed that John McCain would have the savvy to pick her. I hear all these comments on TV about how Biden is going to chew her up in the VP debate, and I have to laugh because I have obviously done more research than the MSM. This is one intelligent, confident lady, and I hope the Dems continue to underestimate her until she makes them all look like the fools they are.

Just put this one up on Free Republic. It’s well-done and deserves to receive some serious attention.

Job well done.

GS

The MSM won’t go after O’Bumbler for Auchi, Rezco, Ayers, Kahlidi, infantacide, etc., etc., etc., but they’ll turn pit-bull against Palin on the flimsiest rumor. When is America going to wise up to the fact that lying Leftist goons are running most of the MSM?

Nice job, Mata!

UPDATE – I just found these over at LUNDESIGNS. They speak soooo eloquently to the MSM being in the tank for O’Bumbler&Bidet
http://lundesigns.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post.html
http://lundesigns.blogspot.com/2008/07/logos-closer-to-truth.html

NOW HERE’S A STORY!!!

“THE CANDIDATE TO NOWHERE…

voted for the “Bridge to Nowhere”:

…Obama and 81 other senators opposed an amendment in 2005 to strike the infamous $231 million “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark for Alaska and redirect that funding to help with rebuilding New Orleans.

The Senate rarely backs efforts to strike another member’s pet projects.

Translation: Obama, for all his hype about ‘hope and change’ , is actually the poster boy for ‘politics as usual.'”SanitySaiz

Thanks for the interesting article!!! Nice work!!!

Just to add an update of sorts. Today’s Anchorage Daily News (online) reports that Monegan now says he has “two or three” emails from the Governor regarding Wooten, although he says they don’t mention Wooten by name. FYI.

Thank you MataHarley for your efforts put in to debunk “Trooper-gate.” Truly fantastic work, uncovering the Democrats chief political attack against Gov. Palin’s ascencion to the VP nomination for the GOP. Before reading it, I didn’t believe there was much “there, there” but after reading your work, to find out that this is such a non-story at all is just priceless.

You have very diligently disproved the MSM’s talking points for the next several days all by doing a day’s worth of research. Gee, what were you thinking of? You will never write for the New York Times by putting that much effort into a story! (sarc/off)

Surprisingly, no one has attacked you, Mata, for being a surrogate for a big oil company, a Bush crony or a reporter at Fox News. You have managed to silence the usual attacks by being thorough and on point with your investigation. Or maybe I just haven’t read enough of the comments.

Keep up the great work. Investigative journalism suits you well.

To go a little meta, why on earth is the MSM pushing this story? It seems unlikely to me that she fired Moneghan over this matter – but suppose she did. Suppose the accusation against her is completely true. Then she tried to get a state trooper fired who had been beating her sister, tasered his stepson, and violated law and policy in other ways. This is supposed to be bad? She’s insufficiently sensitive to the needs of the Abuser-American community?

I can see the attack ads now:

“Sarah Palin.
Dangerous to wife-beaters.
Dangerous to America”.

That’ll go over real well. (On both sides of the aisle.) It makes no sense.

Hey Mataharley,

Great job! You can’t imagine how pleased I was to find your blog. Just two days ago while I was on Townhall, I learned that McCain had selected someone named Palin. I began to despair thinking he picked another white guy, then as I read further, I was elated to discover Palin was the intelligent woman governor of Alaska. But then as I read the comments posted below the article, I saw a liberal’s snear that Palin was involved in a scam revolving around a messy divorce.

I did an internet search for “Palin divorce” and read a story that painted Palin as a revengeful person who used her office to mete out personal justice. I was so sad that what looked to be such a good move by McCain was going to be a liability in the end.

Tonight, I did a google search on Palin and saw some returns on “Trooper gate”, so I searched those and found your blog. I fully expected it to be a scathing report ridiculing both McCain and Palin, but to my surprise it was a masterful job of investigative reporting. Wow! I can go to bed knowing that the McCain-Palin ticket is in great shape.

Thanks again for lifting the weight of liberal lies off of me.

(Since I spent over 10 years in China, I have a whole new appreciation for the work you did for everyone’s benefit.)

Mata, I appreciate all your work. I am neither red nor blue, and am skeptical about all politicians. I do believe heartily in human nature.

Many of your responses to “Lynn” refer to the logic of the situation, e.g., SP being on a short list for VP, it wouldn’t be logical for her to get involved with the trooper situation.

Mata, think about human nature and all of the politicians who have done things that logic would have told them not to do. Bill Clinton and an intern? Gimme a break – what logical reason would he have to do something like that? Politicians, like the rest of us, are human, all too human.

It seems more logical that SP would know from her not-constitutionally-elected-nor-appointed-to-state-service husband all about communications between TP and others concerning Wooten – her sister’s ex!

“Lynn” said that Bailey could be heard in a taped phone conversation that SP and TP were concerned about the matter. In a court of law, that would likely be more probative than any subsequent protestation by Bailey that SP was out of the loop.

I live near Chicago. Politicians use their power and authority all the time to get around he system. Maybe SP is pure as the driven Alaskan snow on this matter. Let’s see: Wooten, ex of SP’s sister. A certifable lout. Wooten disciplined, not fired. End of due process. Post-due process communications by governor’s staff regarding the matter. TP is in the communication loop. Then the guy who had hire/fire authority over Wooten is gone.

And while this is going on, SP is obliviously looking out a window, humming, and thinking about Washington DC in the springtime.

Hi Mata,

OK, you’ve got your own lenses for viewing the world, as do I. But I had to laugh a bit when you ascribed my thoughts to “raw emotion.” Not really. Far from it, in fact. The psychologists refer to this situation as “projection,” I think.

My stand: I don’t know whether SP is guilty of anything or not–which is kind of vague, reflecting my feeling, which is that I don’t really care. Your stand: Palin did nothing wrong–which is kind of emphatic, reflecting a fair assumption that you do really care. Which of us has more emotion invested in this topic?

Off to the beach–have a good one…let’s just agree that you like SP, and that I don’t like many politicians (other than a few I know personally).

Wow….now that was some response to a comment loaded with fact drzlecuti. Instead of responding to the facts Mata laid out in her response to you, you resort to “well you believe what you want and so will I.”

Brilliant!

let’s just agree that you like SP, and that I don’t like many politicians

Your basing your belief that something is amiss with the firing because you don’t like politicians?

Nope, no raw emotions there.

what do you suppose was included in the “first gentleman’s bio” on the official alaska governor’s website that, after first disabling the link, they have now scrubbed the link?

I wonder if Biden’s wife’s bio is included on his Senate site. Never thought to look, she’s never tweaked my curiosity, don’t even know her name.

Maybe pattyjames thinks Gov. Palin’s hubby is a hottie, fess up.

Besides, whatever was on that scrubbed page is probably still on ‘ahem’ Wiki.

I would like to join in on the kudos to MattaHarley for creating this fact rich post. I feel that the references to typos are a little out of place, but what has worked for me is to compose a post on MSWord, proofread, then copy into the forum if the post is to be more than a couple of sentences long. That also leaves a hard drive copy for you to refer to in case of cyberfailures/tampering.

Anyone who can’t mentally replace “the” with “them” when appropriate probably wouldn’t be able to follow the logic of the simplest of arguments anyway.

Thanks all for a good read!

The situation with Wooten-Monegan would be a non-issue if ALL of law enforcement would have the immediate instinct and simple decency to extract scum from their ranks. People that threaten to “kill” and harm others are terrorists.

Maybe the portion of psychological testing prior to be hired by a law enforcement agency needs to be switched to an outside party. There are far too many instances where we find out that someone wearing a badge tested negatively on the lie detector and psychological profile section of the hiring process…but a law enforcement agency hired them anyway…regardless of the prior warning…..THIS ONE.. is mentally and emotionally deficient.

As citizens, we are promised that only the best candidates are selected to “protect and serve” in law enforcement. Further, there is an additional promise that only the best get to stay employed and serve. The writer, elHombre is right on with the point that Wooten should be fired – “In any other state or department he would have been fired and probably prosecuted.” However, this is not a problem exclusive to Alaska. So the question is – What is wrong with law enforcement? Get a spine for gosh sake! Palin, her sister, the father, their collective children and families…nor any other US citizen should ever have to encounter scum like Wooten.

GOOD job MATTAHARLEY, I would grade your effort an A+. I’ve been following the buzz about SARAHCUDA for about 3 or 4 months now (long enough to know that ” SARAHCUDA”, has been used in ALASKA for a few months now, at least , on FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWSMINER blogs, and ANCORAGE DAILY NEWS blogs) I think WALT MONEGAN’s story changed AFTER the Newsminer story on the ARRIVAL in town of the OBAMA TEAM. After reading about some of the shennanigans that the OBAMA members/followers have been up to in the lower 48, having to do with Democratic caucus fraud and intimidation of HILLARY supporters outside of polling places ( and MY GOD the sheer extent of it ), even the financial donations to OBAMA superdelegates (FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ), that the DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION was stolen FROM HILLARY. “WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED”, has some of the information on that, but I suspect that there is MUCH MORE that OBAMA’s members/followers have been up to . I CAN’T WAIT TIL THE MOVIE COMES OUT!!! There’s a movie? Yes! Coming to a theatre near you!! Well actually you can buy it online . I don’t personally think that HILLARY is what this fine country needs, but, I find OBAMA repugnant! McCAIN/PALIN 08 ,THE DOUBLE MAVERICK TICKET. SARAH….SARAH….SARAH….SARAH….SARAH….SARAH.

“Only time will tell.” Yes, presently, that is the last thought:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/palin_likely_to_testify_soon_u.php

PALIN IS AS GREAT A MATCH FOR McCAIN AS SHE IS A COUNTERWEIGHT

AND THEIR AGENDA IS THE KIND OF “CHANGE” MOST AMERICANS ALREADY “BELIEVE IN”

The way the Leftist media beat her up for imagined problems it is obvious they are NOT neutral, and they ARE desperate.

I’m really excited about the possiblilties, including (but not limited to) the defeat of the double-noughts, O’Bumbler and O’Biden.

Matta says…

“Doug, do you have a point here?”

No, he doesn’t, except ….

“In which case, what is it?”

….to distract.

I’ve been ignoring him (as well as his waste-of-time links), and will continue to. He deserves less, but since I can’t do less, that will have to suffice.

My point is trooper-gate is now not some 30 second local news spot, it’s now national news, news with a whiskey chaser, with national brand researchers digging for answers: The media flame under this story is growing, getting hot.

And here’s why that’s important.

Me, personally, I’m quite convinced Palin was not vetting with enough time and/or poorly vetted. Theocons pushed Palin on McCain; she was a blown french kiss to them. The theocons were going to light up the phone banks and run ground work tactics around the clock if they didn’t get their/a fundamentalist on board.

Was Todd Palin’s DUI record vetted, Palin’s 17 year-old daughter, her mayoral town’s paper (the national press got the archives– McCain’s vetters never did), any of her beliefs: that the Founding Fathers wrote the Pledge of Allegiance?

If she was throughly vetted– which I doubt, then I can only say the theocon pressure for McCain to chose her was intense. She was forced on him.

Either she is ‘heavily experienced,’ as Cindy McCain said, or she’s not. And she isn’t, let’s be honest. Therefore, she was she chosen for points, on a gamble, for the conservative evangelicals.

If this is the case, that she was not deeply vetted, owing to pressure from the theocons, who knows what dark secrets we are going to turn up, how trooper-gate ends, how many VIP people Sarah will not be familiar with in a public forum, and what other kimchi will be undug.

“Only time will tell.”

Keep digging doug, I’m sure you will find something that you think will take her down. In the mean time, she draws a sharp contrast to someone that’s been in the Senate for toooooo long, is a plagerist, and is well known as the guy that wanted to take a pizza cutter to Iraq, he also denies that the surge worked. This is the guy that is supposed to bolster the Obama foreign policy creds. What a joke.

She has a record, she wasn’t in the position to vote present, she was and is responsible for her decisions as governor.

Here’s a better link about the hiring of a private attorney.

I’m relieved she has “lawyered up.” This limits the ability of Palin’s foes in the legislature to go on a witch hunt. Her lawyer has requested documents and statements from Branchflower, and already, the Alaska Democrat in charge of the investigator has denied the request. Having an attorney present during the deposition will also prevent Branchflower from trying go on a fishing expedition.

Time will tell indeed.

Palin jay-walked once too and caused a 38 car pileup.

In addition she had her picture taken nekkid on the beach.

It’s gotta be true I read it right here on AlGore’s InnerTube.

“It’s gotta be true I read it right here on AlGore’s InnerTube” — Aye Chihuahua

Wow. I knowed he done inbented the InnerNet, but I dinnit knowed bout no InnerTube. I wonder how we gots along wiffouten it fer so long!

I started to do another post, but it got up to about 1200 words or so,and its only about half done so i put it aside , the title would be”the palin effect”,I’ve never written more then 400 words on anything in my life. That surprised me! I suspect that the BRANCHFLOWER investigation will end quite soon. When the old boys network start to realize that investigating SARAH with revenge in mind by them,might burn them,they’ll put it to bed. Nothing will have to come from WASHINGTON, Alaskan Natives will clean their own LEGISLATURE if they figure HALCRO and the corrupt and the LOONS are gonna do something to Sarah. May I send you a copy of”THE PALIN EFFECT”, when it’s done?

This ethics investigation is total garbage. It’s led by a partisan democrat lawyer, and Palin did nothing wrong in dumping an ineffectual police commissioner.

Not WRIGHT for America (www.notwrightforamerica.com) also has a good post that covers what a load of BS this whole ethics investigation is.

There is a lot more to the Trooper Gate !
Palin even sent emails… and guess what… they have been found now…. wait for the next days… !

“Often something what’s glossy outside and seems to be Gold – ist plain simple DIRT inside”!

Interesting spin, I can’t wait to we get more info. on Palin’s sorded past.

Every news report about Palin is 1 less news report about Obama/Biden. If the Palin report is good, it’s good. If it’s bad, it makes the left look scared, sexist, and desperate. The more she dominates the news cycle, the better.

“Often something what’s glossy outside and seems to be Gold – ist plain simple DIRT inside”!

That ist ein perfect description of Count Barack Hussein Von Bumbler. (Not to mention all the other Democrat skanks on the Left) — [UPDATE: Oh, yeah, and crooks. Don’t forget the crooks. The PUMA’s know the score.]

As to Palin, American gold is still American gold, despite the “best” efforts of howling MSM feces-flinging monkeys, and skin-head trolls.

GREAT work!! I’m impressed.

Just a few things, from the perspective of a Human Resource professional…

It is obvious to me, after reading the documentation of his suspension, that Wooten should have been discharged for his actions. The fact that he wasn’t discharged and that he was/is a member of a union shows that unions have no place in the profession of law enforcement, due to the inherent power that comes with this job. Had Wooten not been the member of a union, he most certainly would have been discharged.

I don’t think that any reasonable person would conclude–after examining all the evidence provided–that Wooten should have continued his job as a State Trooper. Rather than jumping on the Palins for attempting to protect their sister and the rest of the Wasilla population from this monster, they should be jumping on the union for standing up for him, and for creating an obvious fear in the powers-that-be to do the job they were hired to do: To protect the people of Alaska from derelict officers, and to ensure that officers are performing their jobs appropriately. Everyone knows how difficult it is to terminate a union member, regardless of whether or not there is sufficient proof to do so.

Unions–as everyone knows–are the largest contributors to the Democrat Party. So where’s the outrage against the union for facilitating the continued employment of a power-tripping monster? I don’t think I need to answer that question for you.

Had Wooten been discharged after the department had more-than-sufficent evidence to prove that his appalling behavior was a threat to the people of Alaska, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I don’t think anyone would argue that Wooten should still be a State Trooper.

Rather than attacking Governor Palin for the termination of a man she had every right to terminate FOR ANY REASON AT ALL, the conversation we should be having is whether or not unions have a place in the law enforcement profession if they facilitate the continued employment of dangerous individuals who are paid by the taxpayers to ‘serve and protect’.