About Palin's "Trooper Gate"

[Poper]

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=305334817341058

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 9/3/2008

Politics: You'll be hearing a lot in coming weeks about Sarah Palin's "abuse of power" in trying to get a state cop fired. Here's the back story you won't be hearing.

Read More: Election 2008

Palin's political enemies have a stink bomb set to go off late in October, just before the election. That's when voters will see fruits of a legislative investigation into the charge that the governor fired Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan because he wouldn't get rid of Mike Wooten, a state trooper and Palin's ex-brother-in-law.

We can see where this is headed. Palin will be found to have done nothing illegal in firing Monegan, since public safety commissioners serve at the governor's pleasure. But the media will frame this case in vague but sinister terms: Think "abuse of power." It will also bury the back story that explains why Palin was so concerned.

So here are some key facts to keep on file (for a full report on Wooten, see adn.com/front/story/476430.html). You may not be seeing much of them from here on:

" Mike Wooten, 35, has been a trooper since 2001. He has been married and divorced four times. One of his marriages was to Palin's sister, Molly McCann, with whom he had two children. That marriage ended in 2006. His behavior leading up to the divorce led Palin's and McCann's father, Chuck Heath, to file a formal complaint about him to the state police.

" Heath and Sarah Palin, who was not yet governor, said that Wooten had threatened to kill Heath  telling McCann that Heath "would eat a f***ing lead bullet" if he hired a lawyer for her. They also charged that he had used a Taser on his own 11-year-old stepson, had drunk beer in his patrol car and had shot a cow moose without a license (the latter a crime in Alaska, where such licenses are not easy to come by).

" The state police investigated these charges and substantiated all of them. Col. Julia Grimes, then head of the Alaska State Troopers, suspended Wooten for 10 days and wrote, "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." She warned him he would be fired if he didn't shape up. The troopers' union got the suspension cut to five days.

Now ask yourself this: If you were Sarah Palin and had such a revealing look at Mike Wooten, would you have wanted him on the force? Palin was acting as any concerned citizen should after a close encounter with an unfit cop. If there's abuse of power in this story, it lies on the side of bureaucrats and unions protecting officers whose behavior makes them a danger to the public.

Think the anti-GOP kooks will divulge this info?
I kind of doubt it.

Poper

[Standing Wolf]

If there's abuse of power in this story, it lies on the side of bureaucrats and unions protecting officers whose behavior makes them a danger to the public.

Government looks after its own interests first, last, and always.

[Brad Johnson]

You realize that the press is going to try and make a Something-gate out of everything she's done, right?  I wouldn't be surprised if they did an hour-long "expose" on her choice of breakfast cereal.

Brad

[Scout26]

If this guy lived in Illinois he'd be named Drew Peterson and Nancy Grace would be all over him like the rabid pit-bull she is.......

[wacki]

The guardian makes Palin look like a criminal:

She is also waging a ferocious legal campaign to block a bipartisan state investigation into claims she pursued a personal vendetta against a former family member. The dispute, inevitably called 'Troopergate', threatens to dog Palin as she hits the campaign trail. The complex case is looking at allegations that she dismissed the head of the Alaskan police service, safety commissioner Walt Monegan, because he refused to bow to pressure and sack Palin's former brother-in-law from the police force.

Trooper Mike Wooten was involved in an acrimonious divorce from Palin's sister before the governor took up her post. Palin denies any impropriety, though she has acknowledged that more than 20 approaches were made to the commissioner by her husband Todd and her closest aides urging him to take disciplinary action against Wooten.

Last week she appointed a private lawyer to represent her interests. Thomas Van Flein is an Anchorage attorney with a tough reputation who specialises in employment law. He has moved swiftly to put spokes in the wheel of Stephen Branchflower, a former state prosecutor appointed by the legislature to conduct the investigation. Seven key witnesses who had previously agreed to co-operate with Branchflower have now retracted the offer. Two other witnesses were last week interviewed by Van Flein - a spoiling technique that for legal reasons could make it more difficult for Branchflower to quiz them.

As Palin's lawyer fights aggressively to contain one forest fire, another appears to be flaring up. New allegations have surfaced that potentially criminal acts were committed in snooping into Wooten's personal employment files. A taped telephone conversation between one of Palin's staff and a senior manager in the police department, in which complaints were made about Wooten, suggested that he had lied on an official form claiming compensation for injury at work. Wooten's union, the Public Safety Employees Association, has issued its own legal proceedings that allege such information could only have been obtained in breach of the trooper's right to confidentiality - a potential crime.

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/07/uselections2008.sarahpalin1
US election: Storm as Oprah says no to Palin interview,  Sunday September 7 2008

[wacki]

From the original post:

" The state police investigated these charges and substantiated all of them.

Anyone have any hard evidence of this?  If this is in fact true then just about every single newspaper I've read on this topic is guilty of fraud.

[longeyes]

I suspect an increasing number of prospective voters are going to be turning off tv news and stop reading newspapers between now and the Election.   

I think the game is up for Big Media. 

Most people already know what this Election is really all about and will vote their guts.

I'm not sure the electoral outcome is really dispositive of America's future, frankly, anyway...

[wacki]

I suspect an increasing number of prospective voters are going to be turning off tv news and reading newspapers between now and the Election.   

I think the game is up for Big Media. 

Aren't these two sentences in conflict?  Aren't newspapers "Big Media"?

Most people already know what this Election is really all about

And what is that?  HOPE and CHANGE?

and will vote their guts.

Polls show the guts of the majority of American's gut reaction is to trust Obama.  Nothing proves this like the skyrocketing polls of the terrorist befriending Mr. "Empty Suit" during the primaries.

I'm not sure the electoral outcome is really dispositive of America's future, frankly, anyway...

And what does this mean?

[longeyes]

Well, we'll read the guts of America in November.

My point was that most people have already turned off the noise in their heads and have really made up their minds.

I'm not saying that means McCain wins.  I don't know how many raving idiots there really are who have the vote in this country and will turn out.  Obama could squeak through.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

From the original post:

" The state police investigated these charges and substantiated all of them.

Anyone have any hard evidence of this?  If this is in fact true then just about every single newspaper I've read on this topic is guilty of fraud.

he aknowledges 2 outa three offenses himself in interviews

[Tallpine]

Worst case scenario: Palin used her influence as gov to try to fire a violent and irresponsible cop.

So what was the problem again

[AJ Dual]

Well, we'll read the guts of America in November.

My point was that most people have already turned off the noise in their heads and have really made up their minds.

I'm not saying that means McCain wins.  I don't know how many raving idiots there really are who have the vote in this country and will turn out.  Obama could squeak through.

My one main concern is voter fraud.

Especialy in swing states that had close 2000 and 2004 margins. Like here in WI for instance. Bush did not lose Wisconsin by the smallest percentage, that goes to Ohio, but he did lose Wisconsin by the smallest margin, something like 11,000 votes.

In Wisconsin, no photo ID is required to vote, or even register. And registration same-day at the polls is provided. Utility bills, mail, all sorts of crap is acceptable. Activist groups turned in hundreds of fraudulent voter registrations in Milwaukee this summer.

I'd guess conservatively that at least half of that 11,000 were fraud/nonexistent votes. And of course, vote fraud is most endemic in urban areas/inner cities with it's transient populations, apartments, multi-family dwellings.

And with Obama, the racial motivation for fraud will trancend the normal liberal bias for it.

[Intune]

Let's get on to some real issues.

That would make waaayy to much sense.  They would be afraid of losing 3/4's of the "J. Springer" population!   

[roo_ster]

Mike Gravel was interviewed by a couple of lefty journos on this & other Palin rumors.

The answer was other than they expected.

I just about fell outta my chair when he says something to the effect of, "That trooper has no business wearing a badge and having that kind of authority!"  A blinding flash of the obvious from Gravel clubs the baby seal of the hosts' hopes.

Link to audio below.


Comedy gold: Lefty radio hosts crestfallen as Palin defended by & Mike Gravel

You dont hear their hearts actually start to break until he says, Troopergate is going to come out in her favor. Although the most traumatic part, surely, must have been the exchange about how the mayor of Wasillas experience compares favorably to Barack Obamas.

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/09/comedy-gold-lefty-radio-hosts-crestfallen-as-palin-defended-by-mike-gravel/

[MicroBalrog]

Anybody who thinks Gravel is a lefty deserves to have his hopes dashed.

[Wildalaska]

As a resident, I can assure you that troopergate is much ado about nothing.

The leader of this farce, Holis French is my state senator (I didnt vote for him). Wait till he runs again, he's gonna have me all over his butt at every meeting.

WildlikeapittbullinapinkthongAlaska TM

[grislyatoms]

Long time no see, Wild.

[Matthew Carberry]

Ditto.

Good to see ya Ken.

I've been casually looking for an answer and it's the kind of thing you would know.

What's the endgame if the Legislature is able to enforce those subpoenas and they then decide she did use improper influence?

A vote to censure?  A fine to the Gov's office?  Monegan gets a pay-out?

I keep hearing "trial" and "conviction" being thrown around, but I don't think there's a real criminal case in here anywhere.

[Wildalaska]

Matt, I advocated Sarah as VP on TFL last year....so here is my prediction....
Much ado about nothing:) Bottom line, she can fire anyone she appoints. And Im no even gonna get into the quality of the Troopers here...remember that guy who got 3 million for being tortured by the troopers out in the bush?

WildswamiAlaska TM

[Tallpine]

Isn't the governor ultimately responsible for everything in the executive branch of the state ?

The worst she can be accused of is micro-managing.

[Firethorn]

The worst she can be accused of is micro-managing.

Or consistancy.  By what I've heard, she was trying to get him fired even before she became governor. 

Ultimately, I think troopergate has less hold(he does have serious infractions on record) than librariangate - where she attempted to fire the Librarian for 'personal differences'.  Reportably she asked the librarian if she'd be willing to censor stuff, the librarian said 'heck yeah, I'd have issues', several months later(as mayor) Sarah attempted to fire her.

By the way, at least in my location, have you seen the negative ads put out by Obama?  I think that it's telling that I haven't seen one on the good Obama says he'd do.  All negative attack ads.  That, at least to me, are obvious misstatements and exaggerations.

[Matthew Carberry]

To be fair, she actually fired everybody who had jobs when she was elected and then hired most of them back.  She wanted her team to all be on the same page.

Also, the librarian issue was, apparently, not "her asking" but her asking on the part of some constituents. (there's apparently an audio tape where she says people have been asking her about it)

In that case, she may have been acting as a result of constituents questions.

Would I have asked?  No.  I'd have told those constituents to pound sand and go to the community council and get it voted on.

But it wasn't a simple case of "she's a book-banner".

That's why I hate sound-bite politics, no context or nuance.

[Brad Johnson]

That's why I hate sound-bite politics, no context or nuance.

Well see, there's yer problem!  You want to know the whole story.  This is politics.  We can't be bothered with things like context or background!

Brad

[agricola]

That's why I hate sound-bite politics, no context or nuance.

Well see, there's yer problem!  You want to know the whole story.  This is politics.  We can't be bothered with things like context or background!

Brad

Thats the annoying thing - context or background dont matter in this case, as she didnt ban any books. 

[seeker_two]

WildlikeapittbullinapinkthongAlaska TM

Who wants to see WA in a pink thong?......anyone?......