The Palins make it personal... She really is like John McCain

Email Print posted by Ed 10/11/2008 12:21:48 PM EST

Google Technorati del.icio.us digg reddit
So the Independent Investigator made the point that he believed the allegations against Trooper Wooten as to the threat of safety towards the Palin family were a bit overblown...

...And I agree. Because any normal and rational person, if they are explicitly threatened by ANYONE, and especially a law enforcement official, is to:

#1. File a complaint with the police (in this case, that person's superior).

#2. File a restraining order against that person in a court of law.

Now, if you are someone who inherently disregards the law, #2 isn't really going to do you much good. But if you are the governor, and you file a restraining order against a state trooper, and then you put out a press release about it... you detroy that guy... c'mon. That would've been too easy.

Oh, and another point that the Independent investigator makes... Why if you are so threatened, do you have a reduced security detail everywhere? That doesn't seem smart. It actually seems more reckless than smart.

'There's a crazy, drunken, child-tasering, random moose-killing trooper on our streets, and he's out to get me and my family! Maybe I should make myself more vulnerable?' I know her whole family knows how to shoot a gun and all, but that's still a stupid risk to take. That doesn't seem like a "maverick" move, it seems more like a stupid move.

But after thinking about all this I realized that John McCain knew exactly the type of person he was picking for his running mate - someone just like himself. Sarah Palin, like John McCain, makes things personal, and takes fights to heart, using the organization and machine to defeat and diminish the people who stand in the way of the political goals.

McCain & Palin may come wrapped in different shells - one is your grandma's 26 year-old fruitcake, and the other is extra-fancy, country-fried steak with gravy. But they really aren't that different at heart - they are both rotten in the middle.

< Obama buying TV time on 10/29-Should he... | Now ACORN is a Terrorist Organization? >
 Display:
The Palins make it personal... She really is like John McCain | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
Reaching across the aisle... (none / 0)
...my a$$! Anything he's reached across the aisle about he's flipped on-even denouncing bills he's co-sponsored! McCain surrounds himself ONLY with a like-minded group, reminds me of someone....let me see...think,think....Oh yeah "W!" (Thanks to stanski I now refer to him as "the shrub"-Thanks, stanski!!)

by tifosies on 10/11/2008 01:02:09 PM EST

Restraining Order (none / 0)

Palin and Heath DID get a judge to sign a restraining order, in a ex parte' hearing while Wooten was in the lower 48 with his stepson.

Once Wooten got back and the judge heard both sides of the case, he immediately rescinded the restraining order and publicly admonished Palin, her husband and her sister.

There were more public admonishments of Sarah Palin by judges in the case.  At one point, a judge told Palin's sister that he was going to award sole custody to Wooten if the Palin family did not quit harrassing Wooten.  Obviously the judge wasn't worried about the safety of the children in Wooten's care, but said that what the Palin family was doing was tantamount to child abuse.

These Palins and Heaths are NOT nice people.

by rbruck on 10/11/2008 01:11:53 PM EST

I stand corrected. (none / 0)

Thank you.

 But I think my last point is still valid. And it makes the pressure and personal political tactics even more worrisome in my view.

"Objectivity lies not in balance, but in truth. And truth is more often than not unbalanced - slanted in favor of right, and against wrong." -Ed

by Ed on 10/11/2008 01:24:22 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Your Points are Valid Anyway (none / 0)

It is even more incriminating that even after the restraining order and admonishment, even after judges admonished her two more times and nearly took her sister's son away from her, Sarah Palin STILL abused her authority as Governor by trying to have Wooten fired.

You are 100% right.  The correct action is to go to a judge and get a restraining order.  But once she was not able to convince a judge that Wooten was dangerous, in spite of her consideral political power, she should have let it be.

What this whole incident says about Sarah and First Dude Palin is appalling.  Sarah Palin had the top Republicans in Alaska removed from office because of much lesser offenses - offenses that Palin, herself, is also now guilty of.  I'd say the chances are good that Palin will be removed from the Governorship after the election.

The verdict is over.  Palin was found guilty of Abuse of Power.  All that is left is the sentencing.

by rbruck on 10/11/2008 03:28:56 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Yeah, ok (none / 0)
In an episode of political theater that would make Josef Stalin blush, French gave it his very best shot: The investigator he hired and directed, Steve Branchflower, has labored mightily and given birth to a bloated and redundant 263-page report which boils down, for purposes of the ongoing presidential campaign, to two paragraphs that completely contradict one another. And the one of them that's unfavorable ignores the most important — indeed conclusive — evidence on point, but goes on to provide Branchflower's guess as to whether Gov. Palin has done anything improper.
Please understand this, if you take nothing else away from reading this post: The Branchflower Report is a series of guesses and insupportable conclusions drawn by exactly one guy, and it hasn't been approved or adopted or endorsed by so much as a single sub-committee of the Alaska Legislature, much less any kind of commission, court, jury, or other proper adjudicatory body. It contains no new bombshells in terms of factual revelations. Rather, it's just Steve Branchflower's opinion — after being hired and directed by one of Gov. Palin's most vocal opponents and one of Alaska's staunchest Obama supporters — that he thinks Gov. Palin had, at worst, mixed motives for an action that even Branchflower admits she unquestionably had both (a) the complete right to perform and (b) other very good reasons to perform.


Here's a note to Mr. Branchflower, who clearly is verbose, but obviously none too keen a scholar of logic: Gov. Palin's so-called "firing" of Monegan (it wasn't a firing, it was a re-assignment to other government duties that he resigned rather than accept) can't simultaneously be a violation of the Ethics Act and "a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority." This, gentle readers, is a 263-page piece of political circus that actually explicitly refutes itself on its single most key page!

What's more incredible is that Branchflower utterly ignores the public admission made by Walt Monegan himself that ought to have ended this entire inquiry (boldface mine):

"For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff," Monegan said Friday from Portland. "What they said directly was more along the lines of 'This isn't a person that we would want to be representing our state troopers.'"

That explains, of course, why it took a couple of weeks for Monegan to be persuaded that he'd been improperly "fired" (for supposedly refusing to fire Wooten) by an Alaska blogger, Andrew Halcro — a bitter loser whom Gov. Palin crushed in the 2006 Alaska gubernatorial race (he got less than 10% of the vote, proving that most Alaskans have long since figured out he's an untrustworthy windbag).

The rest is on site below.

http://hughhewitt.townhall. com/blog/g/134db782-50f0-42 e5-8171-791804d9fbc1

by Relvig on 10/11/2008 03:34:21 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Not at All (none / 0)

You are trying to blame the prosecutor, Branchflower, for Palin's indescressions.

The report is no longer Branchflower's.  The report was approved unanimously by the Legislative Panel - 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans.  It is now their report.

If you bothered to read the report, and you have the ability to understand it, you would not feel that it contains two contradictory paragraphs.  Contrary to your statement that the report contains two "paragraphs" (actually findings), the report actually contains four findings.

The two findings I suspect that you consider contratictory are 1) Sarah Palin committed a felony by abusing her power as Governor, and 2) Sarah Palin had a right to fire Monegan.

Regarding the second finding, this is not the first time Palin went through a legal proceeding for firing a Law Enforcement Officer for personal reasons.  The first time a Court found that as Mayor she had a right to fire whoever she wished for any or no reason.  This inquiry came to the same concusion - as Governor, she had a right to fire Monegan regardless of reason.

The first finding, however, had to do with using her office and her political power to try to have her brother-in-law, Wooten, fired and to have his medical claims denied.  THIS is an illegal abuse of power under Alaska law.  The legislative council report is detailed and thorough in its investigation of this matter, and presents its case in irrefutable terms.

These two items are not contradictory.  For example, say Todd Palin stole some money from Wooten and took that money to the local Indian gambling casino, where Todd lost all the money gambling.  If this case were to come to Court, the casino would not be force to return the money that Todd had lost, even though that money originally belonged to Wooten.  Todd could be found guilty of stealing money from Wooten even though Todd could not be found guilty of gambling - although gambling is not a nice thing to do, it is not illegal.

Similarly, Palin firing Monegan was not illegal, but her attempts at having Wooten fired and her consideration of Wooten in her decision to fire Monegan were illegal.

by rbruck on 10/11/2008 04:14:47 PM EST

[ Parent ]
The Palins make it personal... She really is like John McCain | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
 Display: