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Trooper Finding

A hasp and a hinge or two shy of a gate, as the Alaska Legislature’s bid to shaft McCain-Palin comes up a little short. Ethics violation alleged by partisan hacks in efforts to fire the trooper. No law broken in commissioner’s firing. Wall Street Journal: 

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin violated ethics rules by trying to remove her former brother in law from his job as a state trooper, a highly-anticipated legislative report into the matter has concluded. But she didn’t break any laws in firing her public safety commissioner, who said he had been pressured to fire the trooper, the report found.

The report by investigator Stephen Branchflower was released late today in Anchorage by the state legislative panel that commissioned it. The bi-partisan panel voted 12-0 to release the findings to the public. Legislators said they would have to consider later what, if anything, to do now.

The so-called “Troopergate” inquiry was launched in July after Gov. Palin — now on the Republican presidential ticket — removed her public safety commissioner, and he later said he had been pressured by the governor, her husband and her staff to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten.

Release of the report, which ran some 1,300 pages, came amid charges from the McCain-Palin campaign that the legislative investigation — headed by a Democratic lawmaker who supports Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama — was politically driven. On the eve of the report’s release, the campaign released a 21-page “analysis” of the investigation which shot down any link between Commissioner Walt Monegan’s firing and Trooper Wooten, who the governor’s family had feuded with amid a bitter divorce with her sister.

Full report pdf here. It’s curiously, but no doubt blissfully only 263 pages, not the 1,300 cited by WSJ above.

No little irony that this report was released the same day as the Steyn verdict.

AP has a different take than WSJ, reporting the hacks found Palin “unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state’s public safety commissioner.” AP has had trouble getting its facts straight in Palin reporting, on Sept. 11, for example, when Charles Babington’s lede and other graphs in “Stretching the Truth,” a slam on McCain-Palin re the Bridge to Nowhere, had to be changed and resent to clients three times in an hour and a half because it was … stretching the truth.  

UPDATE: AP rewrites the lede, adds a kicker. via Boston Herald.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday. The politically charged inquiry imperiled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain’s Republican ticket.

Well, in fairness, it was the wild-eyed, exaggerated, in-the-tank reporting on that and other matters, such as the Bridge to Nowhere, that imperiled Palin’s reputation as a reformer. Any calm inquiry into any of it has been sufficient to swiftly set aside concerns about anything but the state of basic journalistic fairness in this country. OK, I’m a little concerned about the media hyperventilation. Someone’s going to pass out, if they haven’t already. But did anyone but Democratic Party hacks … I’m using the term broadly to include Obama’s media baggage handlers … really take that politically charged inquiry seriously?

The actual finding in the report linked above, by the way, is that she violated an Alaska statute that states any public official’s action that benefits a personal or financial interest is a violation of public trust with regard to the trooper.

Sounds like an ethics law you could use to indict a ham sandwich, though I didn’t notice any mention of penalties in the discussion of the law in the report. There’s also, of course, the question of whether a state trooper who is making threats and behaving erratically … you know, tasering children … is more than just a personal interest for someone who is ultimately responsible for the public safety of all Alaskans. Unclear whether the august panel mulled that.

The Anchorage Daily News points to this graph from the report:

“Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda … to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired,” Branchflower’s report says.

“Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional. It is an individual responsibility imposed by law, and any effort to benefit a personal interest through official action is a violation of that trust. … The term ‘benefit’ is very broadly defined, and includes anything that is to the person’s advantage or personal self-interest.”

Broad enough to drive a campaign bus through. I hereby declare all pols, whose every breath is an act of personal self-promotion, to be in permanent violation of Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a). I’m applying Hague rules here. Doesn’t matter where you practice politics, you’re guilty.

Anyway, the hacks’ finding regarding the commissioner’s firing is that while the trooper issue played a role, so did other factors actually cited by Palin. It specifically states his firing was a “proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statuatory.” Which may be why the AP modified its lede.

AP’s earlier, pre-release version of the Troopergate report story laudably included this cautionary quote:

“I think there are some problems in this report,” Republican state Sen. Gary Stevens. “I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at this with a jaundiced eye.

Much as I often find myself compelled to counsel people regarding Associated Press articles.

Here’s the McCain-Palin camp, via McClatchy:

 ”Today’s report shows that the governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan. The report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact.”

So what’s it all mean? Allahpundit at Hotair:

Look at it this way: If the race was close right now, this would be a killer. As it is, it’s just one more shovel blow to the back of the skull.

Buck up, Al. Inshallah, it ain’t over ’til the 72 fat virgins sing in Paradise.

Prior Palin scholarship:

Bridge Goes Somewhere

Another View from Across The Pond

Two Incompatible Americas

OK, Now Panic … 

Pitbull With Lipstick

Her Turn

* At google news you might still find link blurbs quoting the original lede, but click in and you get the new one.

Report: Gov. Palin abused power
Detroit Free Press, United States - 2 hours ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska’s governor in the firing of her public safety commissioner, …

Topics: hacks, pols

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:27 pm on Friday, October 10, 2008

10 Responses to “Trooper Finding”

1. Kae Gregory Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 12:19 am

   It may not be a gate but it will play like a drawbridge in the media. This mote in the McCain/Palin ticket’s eye will be vastly more debilitating than the million logs in the eye of the Obama/Biden ticket by the time the media finishes spinning it.

2. Bullshark Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 12:55 am

   Okay, so say she doesn’t try to get him fired, then the headlines read “Governor uses position to keep in-law who tazed a pre-teen, drove his patrol car while under the influence and threatened to kill an old man”.

3. cardeblu Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 5:00 am

   How does the AP get “unlawfully abused” out of “PROPER AND LAWFUL” from the Branchflower report itself?

   I think someone should be sued….

4. Joe C. Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 7:35 am

   YYYAAAWWWNNN!!!
   The MSM and B. Hussein wouldn’t dare make a big thing about this. It would expose the entire hypocrisy of the campaign and the Media. For example:

   “Palin gets a slap on the wrist in a political witchhunt, and it’s all over the media. Obama’s hip deep in causing the greatest economic crisis since The Great Depression, but the Media won’t touch the story. Now try and tell me they’re not in the tank.”

5. PoliGazette » Alaska Troopergate Report: Palin Abused Power Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 9:00 am

   [...] McCain responded immediately to the report concluding: “Today’s report shows that the Governor acted within [...]

6. obladioblada Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 10:52 am

   There’s no there there.

7. Tazergate Investigagtor Concludes that Palin Might Have Abused Her Power, Except She Used Them Legally and Properly | The Sundries Shack Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

   [...] MSM is abuzz this morning with the apparent story that Governor Palin sorely, nay grievously, abused her power when she fired Commissioner of Public Safety Walt [...]

8. Chew on this: Man vs. Bear Edition « Chockblock’s blog Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

   [...] II: The revenge Of Sara Palin, it turns out that while Gov. Palin may have abuse her influence, she did not break the law when [...]

9. What Sarah knew « Blithe Spirit, the Blog Says:
   October 12th, 2008 at 4:18 am

   [...] It’s an “episode of political theater that would make Josef Stalin blush,” says this commentator, one Bill Dyer, “ethics violation alleged by partisan hacks,” says another, one Jules Crittenden. [...]

10. bevinstalent Says:
    October 12th, 2008 at 4:51 pm

    I responded directly to Lyda Green and ADN and Fbks Daily News Minus (as my husband calls them. I read portions of the 263 page report. It was pretty boring - but it was large type too.
    It seems that there’s no one to talk to in Alaska if you’re having problems with a trooper EXCEPT the DPS commissioner … but I suggested that they have some independent council to take complaints … they may already have that - but they said they would let people KNOW if they’re making any headway on the case of complaint - instead of STONEWALLING the people making the complaint.
    The Wooten in question sounds like a real criminal - but you didn’t hear me say that - anyone that tazers a 10 year old that is NOT related to him is pretty sad and dangerous. Anyone that poaches and is NOT arrested and thrown in the slammer for about 20 years - oh wait it was a moose - 30 years - it’s pretty slim on the justice up there in AK. I’m from Ak and was born and raised there and was married to a Trooper. I have some 1st hand knowledge on HOW Troopers are SUPPOSED to act and Wooten is not one of them I would like to be around.
    So MAYBE that’s what the council should work on next - how to get rid of a trooper or any other employee that’s wasting state monies and threatening to kill people - etc.
    Check out http://GoSarahGo-vp.blogspot.com if you’d like to see some positive on her. Also, I may include you in our blog roll. :)

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