| The latest line of defense for John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, on the Troopergate Scandal, simply doesn't hold up one millisecond for those who know the story so far. As noted by mcc in a quick hit, the AP is reporting that Palin's administration has released a batch of emails supporting a claim that Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan was fired over budget disagreements, not because he refused to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten.
There's just one thing wrong with this: it's a Rovian coverup involving more lies and deception than you can throw a stick at. Indeed, if it were true, there would have been no "Troopergate" in the first place. The whole scandal began when Palin had a subordinate fire Monegan, without giving any reason. If this were truly why he was fired, then why didn't she just say so? Particularly since the failure to explain her actions caused an immediate stir in Alaska at the time.
On July 20, the Anchorage Daily News wrote:
THE HONEYMOON IS OVER ... So, will our Sarah change her claim of "transparency" to merely "translucence" given her refusal to say why she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan?
"Opaque?" |
| The Latest Line
First, let's look at the latest developments.
mcc wrote:
Palin says Troopergate firing wasn't about Wooten, it was about... preventing sexual assault investigations?!?
So as part of the new policy by the Palin administration in Alaska of not cooperating with the troopergate investigations, they're rolling out a new defense that the whole Wooten thing was completely coincidental to the firing of Walt Monegan. In particular, according to the AP, they're now claiming the proximate cause of the firing was trying to go behind Palin's back on budget ssues. Okay, whatever.
Except look what they're claiming specifically set this off:
The "last straw," the campaign said, was a trip Monegan planned to Washington in July to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases.
In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: the governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request "is out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen. Stevens."
Monegan was fired four days later.
Wait
What?
If they're somehow telling the truth, then this is probably even worse than the Wooten thing. I'd say if a state is giving insufficient funding to investigating sexual assault, then any public safety officer who goes behind the Governor's back to get more deserves applause. |
The Bigger Picture
mcc makes a good point, of course. But there are so many lies, so many contradictions that the real challenge is to keep them all in pespective.
The explanation offered--that Monegan was fired over budget issues--is not new. It's been Palin's position for some time now. What is new is the selective release of previously withheld emails, and the attempt to use them to short-circuit the legislative investigation.
Hence my my comment in response to mcc's quick hit:
It's Just A Stupid Lie, Is All--Ignore The Shiny Objects. Follow The Hands
None of this meakes sense, except as a newly concocted deception.
One simple question gives the lie to it all: If this were actually true, then why wouldn't Palin have said this long ago?
Don't get distracted by the fact that it's a stupid lie, making her look like a fool for not wanting needed funds--not to mention tying back into her whole rape kit scandal.
The important thing here is not that it's stupid, but that it's a lie. (The part about needing to move slowely with Stevens is also priceless, too, btw, as Palin and Stevens were already allies, and the mounts must have been chump change for an old porker like Stevens.)
The whole purpose is tied up neatly in this almost throw-away line:
Thomas Van Flein, a lawyer for the governor's office, cited the newly released e-mails Monday in asking the Personnel Board to find no probable cause for an ethics investigation.
The Personnel Board is made up of 3 gubenatorial appointees. This is a fig leaf that Palin wants them to use to quash the investigation. Except they have no power to do such a thing.
But that doesn't matter. It's all about putting on a kabuki play for the out-of-town medua hicks. See if they're ignorant enough to fall for it. Some of them are already wired into the local blogosphere, though, so it may not work so well. |
To flesh things out a bit, for those of you who haven't been following this obsessively, I'd like to quote from a guest post at Progressive Alaska by Alaska State Rep. Les Gara. As Gara makes quite clear, up until Palin's announcement as McCain's running mate, this was a completely bipartisan investigation that Palin had pledged to cooperate with fully. After her candidacy was announced, however, everything changed. As Gara explains, instead of Palin going to DC to change that culture, what happened was exactly the reverse:
Alaskans are starting to see evidence of a Karl Rove-like effort to stonewall what started as a non-controversial, bi-partisan "Troopergate" investigation. A little deception here. A few personal attacks there. And the kind of spin you see at an amusement park tilt-a-whirl station.
This investigation was started by a Republican-dominated Alaska Legislature to look into Governor Palin's conduct in seeking the termination of a State Trooper, once married to the Governor's sister, Trooper Michael Wooten. The McCain camp wants to stop it by saying it's a "democratic" investigation. Apart from facts, and the reputations the McCain folks don't mind destroying, there's not a lot standing in the way of this strategy.
Until August 29 "Troopergate" was a small state investigation Governor Palin, and every Republican and Democrat in a Republican-led Legislature, had agreed was appropriate. But things changed the day Governor Palin joined the McCain ticket. His handlers went ballistic that the Governor agreed to an investigation they now needed to stop.
I know Senator McCain is now running on a political platform of "change." Leave aside how he'll fight to change what he's voted to do to this country for the last 8 years. If you ask me, the only thing he's changed so far is Governor Palin's position - her decision to cooperate with this once-small investigation.
This is one of those cases where there's a clear truth. It's a clear truth - about a bi-partisan investigation - that I hope McCain's operatives will ultimately fail at spinning into a "partisan" plot against his running mate....
It's the ghost of Karl Rove. Say something untrue enough times - like that Al Qaida is training with Saddam Hussein's help - and people will believe it. Not this time. I'm not sure if I mentioned a few important facts.
Did I mention that no one ever attacked the Troopergate investigation by Alaska's Legislature - started long before Governor Palin was placed on McCain's ticket - until August 29? That was the day Governor Palin joined the McCain bid for the White House.
Did I mention that before the McCain camp got involved, the Governor stated of the Legislative investigation: "That being the route they choose, so be it. I'm happy to comply, to cooperate." (KTUU.com, July 24, 2008). She repeatedly stated she'd comply, and that it was the right thing to do.
Did I mention the personal attacks against our local public officials only started after Sen. McCain sent his flacks up to our small state on August 29? They came with a mission to make America believe a Republican-initiated investigation, started with a unanimous committee vote of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats, was a "partisan" plot. That's only a tough sell if people know the facts.
Did I mention they now claim the Legislature cannot legally proceed with an investigation into government misconduct (I thought Republicans didn't like attorneys who made frivolous arguments), and that they are threatening to to go to court to stop it? The Governor's attorneys started writing those letters on - you guessed it - August 29. Before then they agreed the investigation was proper.
Oh, and what about this. Last week the McCain camp put our Governor in a bizarre position. They told her to file an ethics complaint against herself! Yup, again after her VP nomination. Too weird? What's behind this move? You guessed it. Lawyers.
To create the legal argument that the Legislature cannot investigate government misconduct, the McCain team has had her file a complaint against herself before something called the State Personnel Board. That's a 3 member group of Republican Gubernatorial appointees - that, if it started this week, wouldn't get an investigation done, and reported to the public, until after the November election. Convenient.
One final note of irony: The "innocent explanation" offered is not just absurd, as mcc notes. It also ties back into another Palin scandal that was never fully appreciated at the time. When she was mayor of Wasilla, rape victims were forced to pay for their own rape kits. She fired the police chief who had established the city's police force just a few years earlier, and replaced him with her own, hand-picked man. When the state passed a law making this practice illegal, he even went so far as to grouse to the press.
Shannyn Moore has an exquisite post that covers this in context. An excerpt:
Alaska has the nation's highest per-capita rate of forcible rape. A disproportionate number of rape and sexual assault victims are Native Alaskan women. Alaska Native people in Anchorage were 9.7 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than others living in the city between 2000 and 2003. Alaska crime statistics never seemed to make a "Northern Exposure" episode. But this isn't about statistics-real lives were affected by Palin's regressive policies. One thing Alaska can't seem to export is the fundamental information around a woman's rights. Alaska "liberalized" abortion laws before Roe v. Wade. Our dirty secret had to do with a woman's right to be safe from rapists. This right to choose was not only threatened, but abolished with Sarah Palin's archaic policy as Mayor of Wasilla. The rape kit included emergency contraception. To be sure, emergency contraception is not, nor does it cause an abortion. In fact, ec prevents pregnancy and therefore reduces abortions.
Under Palin's Administration, "Life Begins at Rape" for women unable to pay for their forensic evidence gathering. Justice is served to women who can afford it and denied for those who can't. I live in Alaska-the wealthiest of the 50 states! Forcing rape victims to pay for their own forensic rape kits is something one would expect to find in a fundamentalist country overseas. I have outrage fatigue. I can't decide which facet of this policy is more upsetting. Is it the denial of justice for the poor? Is it the punishment of women who had been raped? Is it the political policies of a woman so entrenched in the "Pro-Life" movement she would deny justice to a victim? This is not a "Pro-Life" policy. This is a "Pro-Rapist" policy, and forced pregnancy policy.
It should be noted Joe Biden introduced legislation to fund rape kits to women in America. John McCain voted against it.
That is the background for the latest "innocent" explanation of why Monegan was fired.
If that's innocent, who needs guilt? |
