Oct 10th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Alaska Inquiry Concludes Palin Abused Powers
The very first time I ever heard Sarah Palin’s name floated as a potential VP was on Morning Joe. Andrea Mitchell immediately responded that Palin was the subject of an active abuse of power investigation, so she was out. Everyone seemed to agree with that, and the conversation moved on. Sounded sensible enough to me. But within days she was John McCain’s choice. And now we see: “Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, an investigation by the Alaska Legislature has concluded.”
46 Responses to “Alaska Inquiry Concludes Palin Abused Powers”
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October 10th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
nice post!
http://culturedecoded.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/barack-obama-and-the-party-that-cant-lose/
October 10th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
To just lift from my blog:
October 10th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Pffftt! You know there’s a very convincing explanation for this in which Sarah Palin did absolutely nothing wrong! I don’t remember it off the top of my head, but it involves Obama, the librul media, Tina Fey, anyone that can see the Atlantic Ocean from their house, William Ayers, and a tank.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
My reading of the September New Yorker article on Palin made it pretty clear that she didn’t see a problem with telling her subordinates to address what ever issue she needed addressed, her former brother-in-law included.
Philip Gourevitch enjoyed a rather unique perspective, interviewing someone who couldn’t even imagine being days from getting the call from McCain.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:03 am
# Michael Drake Says:
October 10th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
In other words: If A, then B or C; not-C; therefore…not-A?
They don’t even a name for that fallacy.
I believe it’s called a McCain/Palin.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:07 am
The McCain campaign is going to say that firing Monegan was not illegal, but that’s beside the point. It is the attempt to fire her brother-in-law Wooten which is so disgusting. Using the power of the governor to attempt to punish someone for no reason other than that they are divorcing your sister is beyond contempt. Sarah Palin should be ashamed of herself.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:21 am
After 8 years of abuse of power by the Bush/Cheney administration, spearheaded by Cheney, it is hard to imagine that the Alaskan finding won’t finish this race. Coupled with McCain’s Minnesota town hall admission that Obama is a decent family man who shouldn’t be feared, there is only one remaining question, “how many congressional seats will the Republicans lose in this landslide?”
October 11th, 2008 at 12:24 am
She doesn’t seem to understand. Every time she’s interviewed on this she goes about explaining how terrible her ex-brother-in-law is. This has nothing to do with whether he was a bad guy. In fact, her argument that he is terrible makes it sound like she did intervene, and she’s trying to justify her intervention. No matter how terrible, there is not justification for her intervention. The law is clear: she should not use her office in any way to get her brother-in-law fired.
The firing of Monegan was lawful, but wrong. Trying to influence Monegan was unlawful.
And she’s so dumb she doesn’t get it.
The icing on the cake is that the investigation didn’t believe her accusations against her brother-in-law.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Bless your heart, Matt, Sarah Palin’s son is in Iraq right now fighting for your right to post this slanderous blog entry.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Yes, she has bad judgment, doesn’t always — or, ever — see that mythical bright white line in order not to cross it. I’m sure she thought she was, merely, using her power to influence an outcome she desired, just like everybody else who commands power routinely does. If she had known in this case that she was on shaky ground, surely she would have been cleverer in getting what she wanted with fewer traces. The scary thing is that in a very public way she appears not to know the use of power from its abuse, or to attach any significance to the difference. You might expect this from a woman who would brandish her disabled infant for political gain. The question is, will it be any kind of a deal-breaker?
October 11th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Bless your heart, Matt
I think you are being snarky, but does everyone know that “bless your heart”, is really, really, churchy, pentecostal for “Fuck you”?.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:41 am
It sounds like slander, but it’s only what happens when truth is in the vicinity of a Republican politician! Oh, and the fighting in Iraq isn’t about any American’s “freedom.” But I like your spirit, Jim! Keep the propaganda flowing!
October 11th, 2008 at 12:57 am
I’m waiting for McCain to come out and clench his jaw while he repeats over and over how “honorable” Palin is and how “she always puts country first.” Because those words are like magic little starbursts that answer all questions.
You would think that being found guilty of abuse of power three weeks before an election would, i dunno, utterly destroy your candidacy.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:04 am
I get the impression that this story won’t have legs. I think it should have legs, because abuse of power is a serious issue, but I get the impression it won’t.
The facts of the story have basically been public for a while. It’s been perfectly clear that Palin abused her power to pursue a personal family grudge. But Republicans seem not to care, and she has already lost most of the independents.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:57 am
I think you are being snarky, but does everyone know that “bless your heart”, is really, really, churchy, pentecostal for “Fuck you”?.
Not just Pentecostal. My sister lived in Catholic New Orleans for seven years and says “bless her heart” means “that bitch” there, too.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Jim Henley, bless your heart, you’re using a word but I don’t think it means what you think it does. See for something to be slander it has to be untrue. You seem to think that slander means pointing out an uncomfortable truth about your candidate that you wish someone woudln’t bring up.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:41 am
@ Jim Henley: no, bless your heart, sir. Really. Sarah Palin’s son, along with McCain’s son and Joe Biden’s son, are in Iraq mopping up the mess of a war started by George W. Bush, with the hearty support of John “next stop Baghdad” McCain. Saddam Hussein never threatened our freedom of speech or our way of life and yet Bush saw fit to spend the lives of 4,000+ brave soldiers on his own little Napoleonic delusions of grandeur. Our men and women in uniform are now tasked with unfucking us from Bush’s brilliant little quagmire. Saddam Hussein never threatened our freedom of speech or our way of life. Bush’s wars have in fact cost us dearly on both counts.
October 11th, 2008 at 3:08 am
The scary thing is that in a very public way she appears not to know the use of power from its abuse
She’s the Republican id. Dick Cheney’s attitude to power meets Jonah Goldberg’s intellectual curiosity.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:37 am
F@$king ACORN!
October 11th, 2008 at 4:37 am
So, if you do something unethical for reasons other than personal gain, especially financial (and it’s implied that Palin did not gain personally, especially financially)–or if you do something unethical for no particular reason at all—or if you do something unethical out of altruism for another that in no way is a personal gain for you, then it’s o.k. to do something unethical.
Gotcha’.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:00 am
You know, it’s a wonderful thing to live in a free country– the kind of place where official wrongdoing is absolutely immune from official consequence.
Only in America!
October 11th, 2008 at 5:21 am
I look forward to the ripped-from-the-headlines episode of Law & Order. Do you think Fred Thompson will choose to prosecute?
October 11th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Palin responds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHjNhsZPgms
October 11th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Jim, I think a few here didn’t get the joke.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:32 am
And we can also thank Track Palin’s sacrifice for allowing us to live in a country where most of Matt’s commenters don’t know who Jim Henley is.
Freedom!
October 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am
In defense of some of the comments, if you don’t already know who Henley is, there is no way to recognize snark from real right-wing talking points.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I get the impression that this story won’t have legs. I think it should have legs, because abuse of power is a serious issue, but I get the impression it won’t.
Many American voters aren’t put off by abuse of power because they look at cases like Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney and think, “If I had lots of power, that’s what I would do with it.” It’s a tough nut to crack: with financial corruption, you can tell voters that a politician is “stealing your money.” Abuse of power, by contrast, can come across to people as just being the sort of aggressive person who “gets what he wants”– the sort of people that lots of voters aren’t but wish they were.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Apart from the report, the last month has done a number on Palin’s face. She no longer looks like the super-well-preserved 40something she was when introduced. She’s got droopier jowls. The make-up is more obvious. She looks real tired.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I agree that she doesn’t seem to understand how/why what she did was wrong. It fits with an anecdote in the New Republic piece about her resentment of elites, that some people on the Wasilla City council had to explain to her why she should recuse herself from meetings to determine the prize for a sled race that her husband had won the previous year. And how she argued with them about it.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I don’t think that’s really true wrt Cheney, but it might be true for Palin, which is why this story won’t have any legs. Palin’s actions are something anybody could sympathize with. The more you learn about how crazy the ex-brother-in-law seemed, the more you think, “I might stretch the rules to get that guy fired.” He seems like a dangerous guy to have as a cop, that’s for sure.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Ted Said:
October 11th, 2008 at 1:04 am
It’s been perfectly clear that Palin abused her power to pursue a personal family grudge.
Hmmm….kinda like “he tried to kill my Daddy?”
October 11th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
it might be true for Palin, which is why this story won’t have any legs.
It perhaps depends if Tina Fey fancies doing something with it. Portraying Palin in Alaska as the Red Queen might give it legs.
October 11th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Jim Henley,
I apologise for missing that you were a spoof. You gotta admit though it i si pretty tough to spoof the wing nuts now days, understating the insanity might be the only apporach left:-)
October 11th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
This woman is ditzyer than Bush. It would be Todd Palin running things.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I believe Tennessee Ernie Ford’s signature phrase was “bless your little pea-pickin’ heart.”
October 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
No, the icing on the cake is that she replaced the state trooper commander with a man who had been publicly repromanded for sexual harassment. So what she is saying is, it is OK for a sleazebag to be a state trooper as long as it affects only other people’s families & not hers.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
But Ernie ford meant that in a good way.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I’ve read several pieces use the word “unlawful” to describe Palin’s abuse of her office. In plain English, doesn’t this mean she broke the law? Is somebody going to prosecute her?
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