Palin guilty of abuse of power

[BigRob]

Re: Palin ABUSED HER POWER

You're probably right, though it will dominate the Sunday shows as well. Anyway, as long as the economy remains the issue, Obama wins.

I'm not ready, as some people are, to state that Obama can't lose at this point but barring some unforeseen disaster it's awfully hard to see him losing either.

I told my brother the day McCain suspended his campaign to go back to DC to work on the bailout bill that the Republicans just lost the election.

Hopefully I am wrong, but I agree at this point all Obama has to do is avoid an implosion. Meanwhile, McCain has to restore faith in his economic sense, and figure out someway to basically get Obama to implode.

 

[GenSeneca]

Re: Palin ABUSED HER POWER

I told my brother the day McCain suspended his campaign to go back to DC to work on the bailout bill that the Republicans just lost the election.

Hopefully I am wrong, but I agree at this point all Obama has to do is avoid an implosion. Meanwhile, McCain has to restore faith in his economic sense, and figure out someway to basically get Obama to implode.

Dont you remember... Gore and Kerry... both of them were going to be "Landslide" victories too... Look how well that turned out.

Of course with the 1.3 million ACORN votes in critical swing states... Democrats might take this one.

 

[BigRob]

Re: Palin ABUSED HER POWER

Dont you remember... Gore and Kerry... both of them were going to be "Landslide" victories too... Look how well that turned out.

Of course with the 1.3 million ACORN votes in critical swing states... Democrats might take this one.

It is not that Obama will win by a landslide, I do not think he will.

I think that the McCain campaign has stalled a bit down the stretch, and unless he figures out a way to get it going quickly, there just will not be any time left.

Of course, I do hope that I am completely wrong and we see a McCain victory in November.

 

[Libsmasher]

Palin report incoherent

From Fox:

Investigator Stephen Branchflower, who drafted the bipartisan panel's report, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain

.

"Personal gain"? Huh? Clearly the ethics law in question refers to self financial enrichment. Move along folks - nothing to see there.

 

[Bunz]

Threads merged.

 

[XCALIDEM]

Re: Palin ABUSED HER POWER

It doesn't say how, and is likely irrelevant since it's already been established that she did not, nor did anyone in her administration, suggest or tell the Public Safety Commissioner that he should fire Wooten.

My guess is most democrats don't even know anything about what I just said anyway. You are just are hack job partisan trying to stop the Republican ticket.

Andy,

you are right most of the dems don't know the law in Alaska. Of course the media's title all over the news tonight is the same as this thread!!!

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sarah Palin "abused her power" as governor in the disciplinary case against a state trooper, according to a legislative panel's report released Friday, though it also found that her firing of a state commissioner was "proper and lawful."

The ethics inquiry, which Palin's supporters have called politically motivated, found that a family grudge was a factor in Palin's dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan -- but not the sole factor. The report says Palin failed to keep her husband from meddling in the discipline of the state trooper, her brother-in-law, following a contentious divorce.

The panel of state lawmakers released its report Friday after spending more than six hours in a closed-door session reviewing the findings. At the heart of the investigation was the question of whether Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, had pressured Monegan to fire Trooper Mike Wooten.

Palin has said Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

Investigator Stephen Branchflower, who drafted the bipartisan panel's report, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

"Today's report showed that the governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan," Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, said in a written statement.

Stapleton added that the panel's report shows that the inquiry was partisan and that Palin and her husband, Todd Palin, were "completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten, given his violent and rogue behavior."Monegan, meanwhile, said he felt "vindicated."

"It sounds like they've validated my belief and opinions," he said. "And that tells me I'm not totally out in left field."

The nearly 300-page report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation.

The investigation revealed that Todd Palin has extraordinary access to the governor's office and her closest advisers. He used that access to try to get trooper Wooten fired, the report found.

Branchflower said Sarah Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

Palin and John McCain's supporters had hoped the inquiry's finding would be delayed until after the presidential election, in which they face an uphill battle against Barack Obama and Joe Biden. But the panel of lawmakers voted to release the report, although not without dissension.

"I think there are some problems in this report," said Republican state Sen. Gary Stevens, a member of the panel. "I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at this with a jaundiced eye

Here's a link if you'd like to read the findings of the report:

http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/DOWNLOAD.pdf

 

[Petunia]

I read about this on Sept 13th on townhall..but wait, there's a twist on the investigation...

A Friday hearing revealed that an Obama partisan has manipulated an independent investigator’s subpoena list for a controversial inquiry against GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

The investigation is intended to determine whether Palin abused her office by firing Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin says she fired him over budget issues. Her foes believe the firing was due to Monegan’s unwillingness to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law State Trooper Mike Wooten, a man who has admitted to “tasering” his stepson, illegally shooting a moose and has been accused of threatening his former father-in-law with violence and drinking in his police car.

Investigator Steven Branchflower admitted he had ceded control of his subpoena list to Sen. Hollis French (D.) during Alaska’s Joint Judiciary Committee September 12 hearing that was scheduled to approve subpoena requests. [CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO.] French is a partisan who has endorsed Palin’s Democratic presidential ticket rival Barack Obama for president and is actively supporting his candidacy.

Lawmakers approved 13 of Branchflower’s subpoena requests that day, which included one for Palin’s husband, Todd. Four other subpoenas were approved for aides Branchflower believes participated in a meeting called by Palin’s former chief of staff Mike Tibbles where Wooten’s firing was allegedly discussed.

Rep. David Guttenberg (D.) asked Branchflower why he was requesting subpoenas for only those people attending the meeting and not Tibbles himself.

Branchflower said he would “have to defer that question to Mr. French.”

“I put the list together with, talking to Mr. French,” Branchflower added.

Sen. Gene Therriault (R.) told Branchflower, “I don’t understand why you would have to defer that question to Sen. French. If it’s your list you’re in complete control of the list, then why can’t you answer the question?”

Branchflower had no explanation. He only offered, “I’m not sure why his name was removed. My initial request was to have him on the list.” At that point, French interjected. “It appeared to me there wasn’t the political will to subpoena Tibbles.”

“Something’s fishy here,” Therriault replied. “I mean either Mr. Branchflower conducts his investigation without direction, and now we know he’s been directed on the date and changing what he’s doing and how he’s doing it because of the time pressure he is feeling. And now we’re hearing that people that he’s trying to get information from, there’s direction going on on that, too.”

Indeed. Although the investigation is far from concluding, French has suggested it may culminate in an “October surprise,” perhaps even Palin's impeachment as Governor-- a game-changing outcome that would certainly increase the Democrats chances of winning the White House in November.

The final report, which French has already described as “damaging,” is set to be released on October 31, four days shy of the presidential election. Since the investigation began last August, there have been disputes over the timing over the report’s release, as Therriault mentioned. Although there’s been general agreement that Branchflower should conduct his investigation in a “timely” fashion, some Democratic politicos, like French, have been pushing for an October deadline.

French, who is “project director” of the inquiry against Palin, and investigator Branchflower are two of three main players in this investigation Republicans say have been tainted by partisan politics. The other is Democratic Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of Alaska’s Legislature’s Legislative Council that’s overseeing the investigation. Both French and Elton are strong Obama backers.

Branchflower, who currently resides in South Carolina, was appointed by French to conduct the actual investigation. He worked with French several years ago when both were members of Alaskan law enforcement.

Palin’s lawyer Thomas Van Flein said the entire investigation is “unlawful and unconstitutional.” He recently wrote a terse letter to Branchflower, blasting the investigator’s “seemingly biased conduct of the investigation in recent weeks.”

Alaskan Republicans have asked Chairman Elton to replace French with someone less partisan, but Elton denied their request.

According to campaign finance data available on opensecrets.com Elton has donated at least $2,000 to Obama’s campaign. Three other Democrats on the Elton’s 14-member council are also supporting Obama for president, as identified on Obama’s presidential website.

Further fueling the GOP’s fire is the fact that former Commissioner Monegan and state trooper Wooten are surprisingly mild-mannered about this “scandal” that’s blown into a national news story after Palin’s vice presidential appointment.

Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News on August 30 that he was never pressured to dismiss Palin’s former brother-in-law. “For the record,” he said, “no one has ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff.”

Wooten, for his part, has reportedly turned down at least $30,000 from tabloids hungry for his side of the story. His union, however, the Public Safety Employees Association, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office, to find out if Wooten’s personnel file had ever been illegally disclosed.

The same week PSEA filed their complaint, CNN reported that Obama campaign officials had been contacting Wooten’s union, although Obama spokesmen have vehemently refuted CNN’s report as well as one from the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund that said more than 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researches had been deployed to Alaska to dig up dirt on Palin.

 

[Petunia]

Also wanted to add..

did anyone else notice, CNN's email alert says..

"Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in a state official's firing but did not violate the law, an Alaska legislative panel finds."

But, when you read their story, they only say that republicans say she didn't violate the law, you go to AP's story, they say nothing about no laws being violated! MSNBC casually forgets to mention the law issue too, hmm, no spin there!

 

[Andy]

Re: Palin ABUSED HER POWER

Granted it does say she had the authority but it also she's been covering up her real motivation. Look, I don't know how big a deal this is but it once again puts a floundering campaign on it's back foot and in that sense it is not good news for the GOP.

So basically it says that she ALSO had another motive. But we don't know at all if that's really the case. The panel, considered partisan at best, says that was her motivation, but was it? Basically the entire claim that Palin abused her power is based on nothing more than assumptions of Liberals claiming to have the divine ability to see in someone's mind.

Legally, everything she did was within her rights. This is nothing but a political foot ball for the left, and nothing of any substance. Of course, this validates another truth of mine, namely that democrats only exist off of attacking the opposition. Every issue you have, fails. So attack politics is all you have.

 

[XCALIDEM]

Also wanted to add..

did anyone else notice, CNN's email alert says..

"Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in a state official's firing but did not violate the law, an Alaska legislative panel finds."

But, when you read their story, they only say that republicans say she didn't violate the law, you go to AP's story, they say nothing about no laws being violated! MSNBC casually forgets to mention the law issue too, hmm, no spin there!

CNN AND MSNBC are banned from my TV...

 

[Andy]

Also wanted to add..

did anyone else notice, CNN's email alert says..

"Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in a state official's firing but did not violate the law, an Alaska legislative panel finds."

But, when you read their story, they only say that republicans say she didn't violate the law, you go to AP's story, they say nothing about no laws being violated! MSNBC casually forgets to mention the law issue too, hmm, no spin there!

And if it was a democrat, like say a former president, you could commit felonies and still have the news media saying Ken Starr was the evil doer. No doubt if Palin had been a democrat, like a Kennedy driving into a lake with a young intern in the car, the media and democrats alike would talk about how there was no conviction.

But in this case, she's a republican, and thus guilty even if no laws at all were violated. This is of course sufficient to make every news channel and paper. It will likely be in more headlines than Al Gores 'no controlling legal authority'. Just for humor, Palin needs to say that one.

Hypocrisy: Hallmark of the left.

 

[Petunia]

Don't forget CBS!

 

[XCALIDEM]

Don't forget CBS!

sometimes... I gotta watch football ya know...

 

[Bunz]

I am not sure how much water this whole report holds in the lower 48. But it certainly has legs here at home. I have some issues with the whole thing on a personal note.

Firstly, how the McCain campaign completely hijacked the Alaska Dept of Justice, and why the subpeonas where ignored for so long. When they new from the start that they were legit.

Secondly, the vindictive nature of how the Palin's have conducted themselves towards Wooten. Dont get me wrong, I have no respect for Wooten, but meddling in these sort of affairs steps way over the line, especially coming from the First Dude. At the expense of the most experienced/respected law enforcement officer in the state.

Lastly, this is a completely hypocritical deal on Palin's part. She was a major part of the legislation in question, and she abused it.

Also: This notion that Rep. Hollis French is a blood thirsty Obamaniac is nothing but a partisan attack from the right. French is well respected on both sides of the aisle, and his quote was taken way out of context. I do wish he would have never used the term at all, because this is the way of big league politics. Twist words to suit them at the moment. Both sides are guilty of it, but that does not make it correct.

 

[Petunia]

Bottom line IMO..YAWN Compared to ACORNs activities, all the mobster/terrorist ties, this is nothing!