How things work in Palin's gubment

[TexasTiger 13,556]

Hubby gets in on the act to use her office for a personal vendetta:

The July firing of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan by Gov. Sarah Palin, who was announced as John McCain's running mate on Friday, has unearthed a stream of soap-opera-like details about Palin, her husband, her family and top state appointees. The controversy has also cut against Palin's reputation for holding an ethical line and standing up to colleagues in the Republican Party over matters of principle.

Monegan, 57, a respected former chief of the Anchorage Police Department, said in an interview with The Washington Post's James V. Grimaldi on Friday that the governor repeatedly brought up the topic of her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, after Monegan became the state's commissioner of public safety in December 2006. Palin's husband, Todd, met with Monegan and presented a dossier of information about Wooten, who was going through a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly. Monegan also said Sarah Palin sent him e-mails on the subject, but Monegan declined to disclose them, saying he planned to give them to a legislative investigator looking into the matter.

Palin initially denied that she or anyone in her administration had ever pressured Monegan to fire the trooper, but this summer acknowledged more than a half a dozen contacts over the matter, including one phone call from a Palin administration official to a state police lieutenant. The call was recorded and was released by Palin's office this month. Todd Palin told a television reporter in Alaska that he did meet with Monegan, but said he was just "informing" Monegan about the issue, not exerting pressure.

"She never directly asked me to fire him," Monegan said.

But he said Todd Palin told him Wooten "shouldn't be a trooper. I've tried to explain to him, you can't head hunt like this. What you need to do is back off, because if the trooper does make a mistake, and it is a terminable offense, it can look like political interference.

"I think he's emotionally committed in trying to see that his former brother-in-law is punished."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingto...ml?hpid=topnews

[TitanTiger 20,708]

First, there's zero evidence she actually did anything directly or indirectly to get the guy fired, much less that she did so as some vendetta.

However, I'd say regardless of anything she could have possibly done, the guy deserved to be fired:

Grimes suspended Wooten for 10 days. He also was punished for illegally shooting a moose and using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson. The trooper admitted to using the Taser on his stepson in a "training capacity" and said he shot a moose on his wife's tag, but didn't think the act was illegal.

...Wall's investigation did find that Wooten threatened Palin's sister, Molly McCann, with shooting her father if he hired a lawyer to represent her. Wooten denied making the statement, but Palin, McCann and Palin's son all confirmed that he did.

Wall said the act wasn't a crime because Palin's father was not present when Wooten made the statement.

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/072808...310532640.shtml

Tasering a kid would have been enough in my book to fire his ass. The shooting threat would have just been gravy.

[TexasTiger 13,556]

That wasn't the guy she fired. And you like her hubby getting in on the act of telling a government official what he should do?

Zero evidence? You are on the koolaid.

First, there's zero evidence she actually did anything directly or indirectly to get the guy fired, much less that she did so as some vendetta.

However, I'd say regardless of anything she could have possibly done, the guy deserved to be fired:

Grimes suspended Wooten for 10 days. He also was punished for illegally shooting a moose and using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson. The trooper admitted to using the Taser on his stepson in a "training capacity" and said he shot a moose on his wife's tag, but didn't think the act was illegal.

...Wall's investigation did find that Wooten threatened Palin's sister, Molly McCann, with shooting her father if he hired a lawyer to represent her. Wooten denied making the statement, but Palin, McCann and Palin's son all confirmed that he did.

Wall said the act wasn't a crime because Palin's father was not present when Wooten made the statement.

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/072808...310532640.shtml

Tasering a kid would have been enough in my book to fire his ass. The shooting threat would have just been gravy.

[TitanTiger 20,708]

First some facts:

The PSC commissioner serves at the discretion of the governor in Alaska. They can be let go for any reason.

However, given this trooper's record and the commissioner's unwillingness to properly deal with him, I would have no problem with a governor firing the PSC commissioner. If these exact same circumstances were in place but there wasn't the brother in law angle, no one would blame her even if she did get personally involved. However, there is no proof that she told anyone to make calls to Moneghan or that she herself brought pressure on him to do so, much less that any of it was done as some kind of vendetta.

Like I said before, if Obama can survive the landmines he's managed to dodge so far, this won't rate even as much as a firecracker in the grand scheme of things.

[AURaptor 1,137]

Nothing, and I could not stress more emphatically, NOTHING but the Left's penchant for muck raking and fear of a strong women leader.

They sse the Hollywood dream of a Barack Presidency coming to a grinding hault, and so we'll have the likes of this nonsense.

[TexasTiger 13,556]

First some facts:

The PSC commissioner serves at the discretion of the governor in Alaska. They can be let go for any reason.

However, given this trooper's record and the commissioner's unwillingness to properly deal with him, I would have no problem with a governor firing the PSC commissioner. If these exact same circumstances were in place but there wasn't the brother in law angle, no one would blame her even if she did get personally involved. However, there is no proof that she told anyone to make calls to Moneghan or that she herself brought pressure on him to do so, much less that any of it was done as some kind of vendetta.

Like I said before, if Obama can survive the landmines he's managed to dodge so far, this won't rate even as much as a firecracker in the grand scheme of things.

We'll see. Meanwhile you can save the state of Alaska time and money by contacting the investigator and telling him you already know all the facts.

She had to backtrack on her claims when it came to light that there was a tape of a phone call.

Governor says she's learned calls were made about Wooten's ouster

Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday revealed an audio recording that shows an aide pressuring the Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper embroiled in a custody battle with her sister.

Palin, who has previously said her administration didn't exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten, also disclosed that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper.

"I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said.

But Palin said her decision to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan last month had nothing to do with his refusal to dump trooper Mike Wooten.

The governor said evidence of what she called a "smoking gun" conversation, and other calls made by her aides, only recently surfaced as the attorney general started an inquiry at her request into the circumstances surrounding her firing of Monegan. Palin wanted the review because a special investigator hired by the Legislature is about to investigate the firing and a legislator has been quoted in a newspaper story talking about impeachment.

The majority of the calls came from Palin's chief of staff at the time, Mike Tibbles, according to information gathered by the state attorney general's office. Attorney General Talis Colberg and Palin's husband, Todd, also contacted Monegan about the trooper.

Palin said she'd only known about some of the contacts and never asked anyone on her staff to get in touch with state public safety officials about Wooten.

"Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction," she said.

Palin said the "most disturbing" was a phone call Frank Bailey, the governor's director of boards and commissions, made to trooper Lt. Rodney Dial in February. The Public Safety Department recorded the call, as it does routinely.

Palin, who said she'd only just learned of the call, released a recorded copy of it to the press on Wednesday. In it, Bailey clearly pressures the lieutenant.

http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/492964.html

[TexasTiger 13,556]

Not ready for prime time:

Watch the whole thing-- "I fired him for the same reasons I claimed were strengths when I gave him a different job."