Despite her pre-V.P. promises to cooperate with the investigation, Sarah Palin looks to be stonewalling the trooper gate investigation. You’ll recall that this is the matter where she is alleged to have brought government resources to bear in attempting to have her sister’s ex-husband fired. The head of the police force didn’t fire the trooper, and the head of the force was subsequently fired. The legislature opened an inquiry.
Initially proclaiming her willingness to cooperate with the investigation, Palin has become recalcitrant since McCain nominated her as his vice-presidential running mate. She lawyered up with an attorney named Thomas Van Flein who apparently started trying to throw sand into the gears of the investigation. The Senate Judiciary Committee, via Senator Hollis French, told him (and I’m paraphrasing here), to get bent (pdf), and if Palin didn’t cooperate as promised, the subpoenas were going to start flying. Now, TPMMuckraker reports that a key witness backed out of a scheduled deposition. Palin-aide Frank Bailey canceled his deposition yesterday.
Bailey is central to the case. In phone recordings released last month as part of a parallel probe by the state Attorney General, Bailey suggested that Palin and her husband wanted trooper Mike Wooten — who has been embroiled in a messy family dispute with the Palins — removed from his job.
“The Palins can’t figure out why nothing’s going on,” Bailey told a trooper official. “I mean he’s declared bankruptcy, his finances are a complete disaster, he’s bought a new truck. All kinds of crazy stuff. He doesn’t represent the department well. The community knows it, but no action is being taken.”
The strategy is reasonably transparent here: prevent anyone from testifying under oath to the effect that Palin abused her authority, at least until the election. The parallels to the Bush administration’s firing of Attorneys General for political reasons are fairly evident. Hard to run on a platform of mavericky change when folks are reminded of that bit of ugliness.
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Update Just after I posted this, I ran across this fairly remarkable audio with Republican pundits Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan characterizing the Palin pick as “gimmicky” and “political bullshit” and confirming that Palin wasn’t the most qualified when they were off the air — but apparently the microphones were still recording.
Let’s not confuse this with a scandal. Trooper Gate was about Bill Clinton using state troopers as Arkansas governor to procure women for his sexual pleasure. This is about an abusive, derelict, and drunken state trooper who was flaunting his bade, intimidating members of his family, threatening to kill the Governor’s father and tailing the Governor’s call (she drives herself to work). This investigation is happening because Palin asked for an investigation of herself to clear her name. Doug, This has got to be the most asinine attempt at creating a scandal where none exists that I’ve ever seen. Do you think this is even remotely as serious as Baracak Obama’s use of a convicted felon political fixer to purchase his home and pocketing a $300,000 cash free gift in the process? You really need to rationalize this one a little better, Doug. You neglect to mention that the public safety commissioner she fired is on record as saying the governor never pressured her to fire the out-of-control brother-in-law. If you want to hammer this issue, go right ahead. But you’re making a complete fool of yourself in the process.
Well, it is strange that she would brazenly ask for an investigation, then agree to cooperate once the outline of the procedure was known. Then, she changes her mind. Luckily this Gary Welsh is here to clear up that nothing important happened in this case. Nothing to see here.
Too bad she called for the investigation, because now she’s impeding it. It’s hard to see why she would take such an action with obvious and predictable political fallout, if nothing improper happened.
It’s noteworthy how many of the accusations (virtually all of them) about Mr. Wooten are coming from one interested side of a failed marriage. It’s also noteworthy that on the night when Palin was supposedly outside Wooten’s house (kind of stalking, almost) and supposedly heard the death threat, her response was to go off to a meeting and not call the police. On the other hand, this Wooten guy has four divorces in his past, which makes the totality of the claims about him sound like an antisocial personality disorder. However, again all of these claims come from one side of a not-disinterested party. And like a lot of Palin’s life, her failure to call police at the time is just another weird little wrinkle in her judgment, and calls into question how serious she really perceived the threat to be.
There are a few “allegedly”s missing from Mr. Welsh’s statement about Mr. Clinton.
Off topic, but Palin gave one barnburner of a speech. After having to hole up in a hotel for two days to rehearse someone else’s words, just what does she have to be so sarcastic about concerning Obama? The crowd loved it. As someone who, um, reads, and knows her “reform” and “experience” claims have a back story of abuse of earmarks and relative lack of experience, I thought her over-the-top delivery, dripping with contempt, made her look like a complete dumbass. But at least we have a word that might knock “POW” out of the top spot. That word: “Moose.” She can shoot them, she can eat them, she can talk about shooting and eating them. Mentioning it a few times fleshes out the biography. Mentioning it every time her face appears, and it becomes somewhat of a behavioral tic. But community organizing? That’s to be mocked for sure.
Maybe she didn’t use her office to help her sister’s side of the domestic dispute. And maybe she fired police commissioner Monegan for completely legitimate reasons. So, why the sudden stalling tactics over getting her and her people under oath to tell their side of the story? This is, after all, what they agreed to.
Bush & Cheney have made me uneasy about shenanigans in these sorts of occasions — “we’ll talk to you, but only together without a transcript and not under oath.”
“This is about an abusive, derelict, and drunken state trooper who was flaunting his bade, intimidating members of his family, threatening to kill the Governor’s father and tailing the Governor’s call (she drives herself to work). ”
and of course, you have proof of all of this?
No, what you have is ONE side of a divorce argument.
Seriously, though. This isn’t about the divorce argument. Let’s just stipulate that the ex-husband was a schmuck. Completely irrelevant to the discussion. The question is whether the office of the Governor was being used to further a personal interest in a divorce proceeding and whether the police commissioner’s termination was related to his not firing the Governor’s ex-brother-in-law.
Sorry for the typos. Kevin, The Anchorage Daily News detailed the personnel file of the state trooper in question. It was absolutely shocking that the guy wasn’t fired long ago. You had to scratch your head and wonder what was going through that public safety commissioner’s head to confine punishment to a slap on the wrist for such egregious violations.
Gary Welsh said:
I’m thinking… governor’s brother-in-law? It would look odd to keep him around until – huh, the divorce happened – and then fire him.
I’m not really following this one but, I bet it was a pretty touchy issue for all government employees involved.
I have read that the police commissioner said something to the effect of “Back off. If the trooper does something for which he can be terminated, your meddling is going to make his firing look political.”
You neglect to mention that the public safety commissioner she fired is on record as saying the governor never pressured her to fire the out-of-control brother-in-law.
this is false. monegan says that palin didn’t ask him directly to fire wooten, but that “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.”
we have an audio recording of bailey complaining about wooten. we also have an email palin wrote (pdf) complaining about wooten. it’s clear from both that palin desperately wanted wooten to be fired, even if she didn’t come out and directly ask for that, per se.
I also think he was given the reprimand, suspension, and told the next time he would be terminated. Then these frequent phone calls started, trying to get that final bad bit of behavior noted so he could be canned. Culminating in weird things like the call from her assistant about Wooten filing for bankruptcy and having a new truck, if I remember right. It just sounded like nagging to me at that point.
There was a process in place to determine proper punishment. They probably went light on him. He was given the Bob Knight treatment, “One more time and you’re through.” Now there’s a process in place to determine whether the governor’s behavior was improper, also…
If it were Indiana, would it even be an issue? I wonder if the ISP are “at will” employees, or not?
stAllio! has a link in his post to “an email Palin wrote” – why did she not file charges in the child abuse incidences??? I know Alaska is a bit “wild” but I can’t imagine tasering an 11-year-old is an acceptable form of corporal punshishment. And if my (hypothetical) daughtered was terrified by a threat of tasering and pepper spray, you better believe I’d file a complaint.
Side not: this woman could take over the presidency if something happened to McCain. She received her first passport in 2006. Site.
I really don’t get this choice.
Palin not just derisive, also either a big liar or a poor fact-checker.
She derided him for writing two books but no major legislation. Nevermind he can write two books and she can’t even write one speech about herself. But he wrote/sponsored major ethics reforms while in the Senate, and co-sponsored (with Lugar) legislation to secure loose nukes. Plus a couple hundred other lesser pieces of legislation.
What a lightweight dumbass this Palin is. I know McCain can’t use email–he’s admitted that. Apparently Palin can’t use the Google.
T…you think The Messiah writes his own speeches? Do you even know what speechwriters do? Much like a ghost writer on an autobiography, the speechmaker takes the points the person wants to make and structures them into a readable “flow”.
Listen to Barry without a teleprompter, he stutters like Mel Tillis.
He wrote his own speech. You may not have ever experienced the difference between preparing and rehearsing a speech, and answering a question off-the-cuff. You don’t appear to know the difference.
The McCain campaign was admitting before the speech that they had already written much of her speech, but were having to de-masculinize it. Presumably it was written before they knew the VP candidate would be a woman.
There’s no comparison.
“The Messiah” is a funny nickname, since all of the crowd shots last night looked like crowds at a mega-church or Promise Keepers rally, swaying, dabbing at their eyes, shouting, nodding, and looking like they were moments from flopping on the floor and speaking in tongues.
Looked just like Denver last week didn’t it? (with the huge columns etc)Or didn’t you watch that convention? Do you ever read what you write?
and…”The McCain campaign was admitting before the speech that they had already written much of her speech, but were having to de-masculinize it. Presumably it was written before they knew the VP candidate would be a woman.”
If that were true, how could it have been so laden with jabs at Obama referencing her inexperience? Kind of shoots your time line theory doesn’t it?
I don’t know why McCain’s spokesman said what he said.
Columns. What’s the obsession about?
What do columns have to do with the swaying, glassy-eyed convention attendees last night?
Do you read what you write? If you did, you would see that addressing columns doesn’t really advance any argument on your part.
But it is a prevalent talking point. THEY HAD COLUMNS! Even that adorable Sarah Palin talked about them. I think the GOP should run on an anti-column platform. Just go through Washington with a wrecking ball.
http:voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/09/putting_words_in_palins_mouth.html
Discussing McCain campaign manager Rick Davis telling Post reporters and editors about the McCain team having to rework her speech because it was written before she was picked and was too “masculine”.
Yeah, my theory’s shot. As in, not shot.
I guess I just get a kick out of how absolutely one sided you are T. How could any rational person not see the stunning similarities of both parties conventions? They are both always overblown, excessive, and filled with throngs of believers. By saying only Republicans display unflailing loyalty and not the Dems as well is just plain preposterous. I never expect to change your mind, just to maybe get a fair or honest assessment from you once in a while that your side can look pretty silly too.
Links to two articles:
Time on Obama writing his own speeches: here (not on whether or not he specifically wrote the DNC speeches)
Washington Post on Palin’s speech writers: here (this article says that the first draft, written a week before the announcement, had to be scrapped as it was too masculine)
Which, of course, says nothing of McCain or Biden speeches. I’m sure all staffs involved have speech writers – it’s the name of the game.
I have to admit… I couldn’t make it through any of the speeches. About the third time they only get two words out before they are interrupted by the crowd, I want to throw something (and we are only 10 seconds into the speech by that point). I know transcripts don’t give you the true feel of the delivery, but it’s all I can tolerate. Thank you NPR for providing the transcripts!
For the record, Palin didn’t even allude to McCain’s POW experience until the fourth sentence.
You cited columns. Weak.
Sorry T… not sure what you mean?
It was in response to Tim.
Her speech was written by a former Bush speech writer who is a moderate and anti-hunting vegetarian who works for animal-rights causes.
It’s funny that such an accomplished, firebrand hunter woman in favor of aerial hunting like Palin needs a moderate PETA-loving guy to put those words in her brain and mouth. Maybe if Obama weren’t capable of articulating his own vision all by himself, he could have someone from the Klan do it for him. Thankfully, what’s in his heart and head aren’t a mystery to him.
You’re right, this Palin/Trooper thing is really big news. Alaskan trooper who threatened to shoot Sarah P’s dad, who tasered his 10 yr old stepson and who got caught drunk in this patrol car.. that gets three stories on the front page of the NYT.. or was that Palin’s pregnant daughter? It’s so hard to keep track.
Yet nary a word on Tony Rezko, who funded Obama’s state senate election, not to mention making a really sweet real estate deal with Mr. Empty Suit for the purchase of the Obama’s home. Oh yeah, did you read that Joe Biden from Scranton is under investigation?
We were reading stories about Rezko before Palin had a year of governor’s experience under her belt.
This trooper situation is new news.
The Biden story will gather steam and become a topic.
I’m trying to figure out from the story if there was a hedge fund, or wasn’t one. Sounds like the fund was an idea that never actually went anywhere.
Let’s do talk about earmarks, though. We like talking about those. Did you hear the one about the Road to Nowhere? It’s a different one than the Bridge to Nowhere. Palin loved them both.
According to that article, Biden’s family is under investigation, but, as we’ve been told, family is off limits.
But, more seriously, Biden’s connections to MBNA and that abominable bankruptcy bill are big strikes against him.
Doug, with front page stories on the NYT’s over Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy, please tell us who exactly is saying that family is “off limits”? Please tell us, seriously. Among others, nationally syndicated TV and radio host Alan Colmes told us that Sarah Palin was irresponsible for finishing a speech when her water broke because she wanted to fly back and have her own gynecologist deliver her baby. It doesn’t get more intrusive than that, does it? But that’s “your side” telling us how they feel about privacy issues. Looks like even a few Democrats agree with my point
Here’s what I’d like to ask – has there ever in modern history been a more public sexist allegation made then those allegations made by those on the Democrat Party left who question Sarah Palin’s fitness as a VP candidate simply because she has children? Please cite, because with my poor memory, I can’t think of any. I’m sure you smart, informed leftists know better though.
Geesh, Mook, can you ditch the attitude? I would characterize most of the people who lurk here as centrists with some participants leaning moderately to one side or the other (both sides represented). By and large, though, you’ll find we are very willing to discuss issues intelligently. You appear to be swimming pretty strongly to the right so yes, you’ll be fighting the current a bit – that just means you need to bring your intellectual a-game. Unless, of course, you have no interest in participating in intelligent discourse, in which case… what exactly are you doing here?
has there ever in modern history been a more public sexist allegation made then those allegations made by those on the Democrat Party left who question Sarah Palin’s fitness as a VP candidate simply because she has children?
1. apparently mook wasn’t paying attention during the primary, when hillary clinton was routinely and systematically treated in a sexist manner. for some reason i doubt that mook was trolling the blogs back then defending hillary from sexism.
2. who exactly “on the democrat party left” have questioned palin’s fitness “simply because she has children”? mook is attacking straw men who do not exist.
Mook is attacking the Democrats for the behavior of the press.
Obama came right out and told the press to back off, and even reminded them of how old his own mother was when she had him. The fact that most of the press has ignored that should indicate that they’re a little more free from both sides than Mook would like to admit. The press is out for fame and money, and they’ll do whatever it takes because we keep watching.
Yes, it is very sexist to even ask how she is going to take care of her kids, when we don’t ask the same question of the men.
No, I don’t think it is out of line to draw some judgement from her flying back to Alaska to have her baby. That was a poor decision, and she took an unreasonable chance with her infant by doing that.
Is she free to make such a decision? I suppose, however, I question her dedication to the lives of unborn children when she takes such a chance with her own. No, this isn’t digging into her family, this is her actions we’re looking at. We need to know what kind of decision maker she is in case she does become president.
I’ve heard a lot more about Sarah’s kid and Bristol’s pregnancy from McCain surrogates than from the press or the “Democrat left.” This isn’t a case of mistreatment, it’s a case of the McCain campaign strategically wishing to convey an image of victimization.
A little late chiming in here, but I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the delegates you could see (when they’d pan the audience) during McCains speech were yawning. I’m going to assume that they were partying late the previous evening and were just tired from that, but I have to admit that the speech brought several yawns from me and I certainly wasn’t tired.
And before you think that I’m simply being partisan, I didn’t even bother to watch Obama’s speech (better things to do).
I don’t have any issue with a parent (of either gender) working outside of the home, but I guess I’m surprised at a parent (again, of either gender) of a special needs child *wanting* to take on such a burdensome job. It is, of course, their own decision to make.
Brenda,
My issue has been the questioning of her for that information.
If the tradition is to ask the
wifespouse the questions about the kids, then get the First Dude to come up and talk about their child care arrangements, and how he thinks their children will cope with one of the parents taking on such a big job.As Doug points out, this might be equal blame to the press and the McCain crew on not insisting that dad answer the questions.
oh, I agree whole heartedly. Is someone asking her these questions? Or grumbling about it? That would be an attitude I would find more likely coming from the conservative right.
I have not heard anyone directly ask her these questions, no. I also have not heard her give an interview, either.
I have heard many morning news people saying things that amount to this, though:
– Moms: Can Palin Pull Off Motherhood and Vice Presidency?