More Trooper’gate background posts here
The Alaskan legislation investigation of Palin’s “Trooper’gate” has been underway for about six weeks… but when it comes to efficiency, they pale by comparison to the expediency of Gov. Palin’s Anchorage attorney, Thomas Van Flein.
As of five days ago, Van Flein had already interviewed two witnesses that were at the heart of the damaging accusations. Frank Bailey is central to both charges… exerting pressure on Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire AST Mike Wooten, plus accusations he leaked private medical information from Wooten’s fire. Bailey’s recorded statements remain the same as previously accounted… that the Governor, nor her family or administration, never asked him to pressure Monegan or interfere in the process. Bailey remains on paid administrative leave.
The other interviewee? Michael Monagle of the Labor Dept’s Workers’ Compensation Division, and the keeper of Wooten’s medical file.
Monagle said that in regard to the controversy, there were rumors on the Internet that the governor or her office had requested Wooten’s workers’ compensation file.
“Absolutely not” true, said Monagle, who said that the file is “in my office in a locked file cabinet” for safekeeping.
Despite the hefty headstart for the legislative investigation, Indy Counsel Steve Branchflower has yet to interview even Mike Wooten himself. Since it was only Sept 1st that Van Flein stepped in as Palin’s Counsel and filed Ethics Disclosures to open the Personnel Board procedure, one can only marvel at the legislative investigation’s lack of speed. They had ample time to obtain the interviews prior to Sept 1st.
Per the Mike Quinn AP article appearing in The Frontiersman, Wooten says the tabloids are hot on his trail with cash offers for “the story”.
Speaking cautiously and in measured tones, Wooten said he refuses to “throw stones” at the Palin family or his ex-wife, Molly. He said he’s turned down cash offers, well into the tens of thousands, from tabloid newspapers for interviews.
“I’m not going to tell them story they want. I’m going to tell the truth,” he said.
Wooten, who is in his eighth year with the state troopers, said he’s learned from a 2005 investigation that led to his five-day suspension and has not had a complaint filed against him since. He works as a field training officer.
Wooten has been making the circuit in a lower profile, and represents himself as a redeemed man from past mistakes. He may very well be. We all have to remenber that the heat of the times was four years ago. Add to that the accusations that Palin was abusing her power as Governor commenced approx three years after those events, and Monegan’s termination – supposedly for not firing Wooten – did not happen until she was a year and a half into her term. Not exactly the sign of a woman on a quest.
Still today, liberal/progressive media and Obama activist talking points focus on the legislative investigation, while ignoring the process of dealing with ethics violations against the administrative branch per Alaskan law. Their argument? The Personnel Board is appointed by the Governor, and they believe the Personnel Board’s investigation is biased.
Again the anti-Palin activists remain clueless. The existing Board members are all originally appointed by the Murkowski administration, prior to Palin’s term. Only Debra English’s term came up for renewal in Jan 2008, and was reappointed by Palin. However all are picks of a Governor and administration fraught with charges of corruption… and no friend of Sarah Palin’s.
But let’s look at that “unfair” Board investigation and see the duality of their arguments. Just what happens in Alaska if an ethics complaint is lodged against a sitting or former lawmaker?
Per the Alaska Legislature’s site on complaint procedures for ethics:
WHO HEARS THE COMPLAINT?
The House Subcommittee hears complaints against representatives, former representatives, and employees of representatives and committees of the House, chaired by representatives. The Senate Subcommittee hears complaints against senators, former senators and employees of senators and committees of the Senate, chaired by senators. The full Ethics Committee considers complaints against employees of legislative agencies, joint committees and the public members and employees of the Ethics Committee.
My my… lookie there. When a House or Senate representative faces ethics changes, they are judged and penalized by the same legislative body. Surely isn’t this what they complain of with the Personnel Board? The ol’ coyote guarding the hen house syndrome?
Where is the outrage there? The hypocritical argument is breathtaking. When Coghill sent a letter to Elton requesting that French be replaced for his pre’determination of Palin’s guilt to the press, Obama supporter Elton refused, stating confidence French will be politically unbiased. Tho Coghill may make another appeal to Elton, it’s unlikely to result in any other decision.
Imagine if one wanted to file an ethics charge against Elton or French… look who would be the judge.
With the two main charges being pressure on Monegan, and the leak of Wooten’s private medical information, Van Flein’s testimony by both Bailey and Monagle on record represent more than a serious speedbump to the legislative process. He’s performed brillantly in demanding the Personnel Board process as the primary… and should be the sole… investigation, as per Alaskan law.
Van Flein wants the state personnel board to conduct the probe, not the legislature. The board members are gubernatorial appointees. Van Flein said he has already provided the board the depositions of two witnesses he has questioned, leaving the legislature in the dark.
The legal tactic of pre-emptive questioning gives the governor a distinct advantage in the controversy because it means that she already knows at the outset the detailed accounts of potential witnesses against her. The procedure also locks important witnesses into the accounts they give. If the witnesses provide statements now that are favorable to Palin, the witnesses’ credibility could be called into question if they make statements in the future that are unfavorable to her.
Recap? The conveniently sluggish six week legislation investigation… and the controversy surrounding Sen. Hollis French’s media statements (condemning Palin prior to the investigation’s completion) shows their process is a politically motivated witch hunt. A process they appear to purposely drag out to dominate a highly charged election cycle with rumours and damaging press.
And they weren’t even efficient at covering up their political motivation.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
Hollis French is also a fake Marine.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2079174/posts
Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on this! Hopefully Van Flein will checkmate Frenchy and his ilk and we can see another smear go away.
With the new revelations, I can imagine the “Legion of Doom…MSM” is saying DAMN IT!!!!
Being a grunt, had to look up PLC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoon_Leaders_Course
Any Corps personnel in Alaska who might be able to have a tete-a-tete with this wanker?
Tom
Yes thank you for the update on this, Sarah Palin is going to come out of this just fine.
However I dont know if the Liberals are.
this reeks of nasty, partisan crap. it is, in a sense, a “corrupt” investigation. hopefully the dems in alaska will figure out how badly certain lawmakers up there are behaving and vote them out of office.
“Sarah Palin is going to come out of this just fine.
However I dont know if the Liberals are.” — MariesTwoCents
Hey, maybe they’ll learn something from it, and grow to be better people? One can hope they will actually change rather than just keep talking about it.
Isn’t it funny that when liberals try to bring down their opponents slime is always attached to themselves? Really, when will the dems learn not to throw stones from those glass houses they live in?
The dems in legislature are drawing their investigation out as long as they can hoping people will either believe it or at least leaving the perception of scandal in people’s minds. Also this way they can continue the mantra that she is being investigaed. They have nothing else since the McCain/Palin team is so disobliging as to have no big scandals in their wake.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109403841221751.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
Kind of makes all her campaign talk about that ethics reform bill she signed into law seem sorta empty, doesn’t it?
Only to you, Doug, because you’ve already tried her and found her guilty in your mind.
I’ve heard even by those who are not Palin supporters that they don’t think there’s any ties between the termination of Monegan and Wooten. What they criticize her for is being less descriptive for her reasons for firing up front, instead of laying out the budget differences, etc.
Another timeline fact for you… the letter was written Aug 4th. When the investigation by French was getting underway… slowly… and prior to Palin selected as VP.
Palin did not retain Thomas Van Flein until almost a month after the legislative investigation was supposedly going on, and AFTER the lead lawmaker, Hollis French, made public remarks about his belief of her guilt.
Some “fair” investigation…. Dont blame the woman a bit for wanting to move it to the legal Board procedure as a neutral ground, sans politics.
So why didn’t the legislative investigation get on the stick when Palin told them she’d cooperate, and obtain those interviews with Palin, Bailey, etal? Why did they drag this out so long?
Simple… the longer they can drag it thru the mud before completion, the more often French can make statements to the media about her, the more damage the press can do instilling doubts into willing minds like yours.
That you’d think this was an unbiased investigation, in light of the timeline and the facts surrounding it, is amazingly naive.
Let’s face it, an small time Mayor and Governor who is under investigation for lying, whose big claim to fame is being a runner up beauty queen and so called hokey mom, who was first extremely fo and then against the bridge to nowhere and then still kept the money for the state…a backer of a Senator who is about to go to jail when convicted…is not a suitable vice president except for maybe some two-bit 3rd world country…wake up….this is your country calling and so far, you aren’t there..
doug,
It also says in that same letter from Shea:
This is all just politically expedient advice. It’s up to Gov. Palin to determine the appropriateness of it.
radix2,
I believe you don’t acknowledge the degree of the advice as “politically expedient.” Stating it’s ‘just’ politically expedient undervalues the political gravity of the advice. Your interpretation of the situation reminds me of Monty Python’s knight japing, ‘It’s just a flesh wound!’ after losing an arm.
The WSJ piece clearly sees the potential political damage Palin could be facing in the advice given to her. You are simply not registering the threat, by claiming it’s ‘just’ advice.
IDIOTS!
If the man deserved to be terminated regardless of how Palin “felt” about him, her “feelings” and “motives” are IRRELEVANT! There is NO WAY to “prove” she fired him for anything but just cause, and even if they could, it wouldn’t matter because NO INJUSTICE WAS COMMITTED!
In a sense it’s the perfect witch hunt, because given his behaviour she had no choice but to fire him, and given his relationship through her sister, slimy slanderers from under every rock and out of every crevace are free to paint the situation with whatever wild fantasies they want, and no one can prove them “wrong,” anymore than they can prove they are right.
Bottom line….
Should he have been fired?
YES!
Case closed!
Dennis… you need to get out more. Meaning stop getting your news only from Air America, MSNBC and Politico, oh supposed GOP member. You’ve proven, by your statements above, you don’t read squat.
Palin is not being accused of “lying”. She is being accused of using her position to pressure a Gov appointee to fire an AST, and firing him when he did not. Big problem… even that Gov appointee – Walt Monegan – says Palin did not pressure him. He says he was pressured by Frank Bailey.. and Bailey is on record not once, but twice, under oath, saying Palin did not request he speak with Monegan, and had no idea he was speaking with Monegan.
The 2nd thing Palin is accused of is leaking the AST’s medical records. However the only person to is remotely connect to that incident is Bailey… see above, bozo. Also, the keeper of the medical records… THE subject of this post… says there has been no leak of those records, as spread about the in liberal blogosphere.
Congratulations… you’ve proven your bias and lack of knowledge of fact. You make a great parrot tho.
As far as Palin’s qualifications as an executive administrator, she oversaw a town in a strategic location for Anchorage employment, as well as Denali tourist attractions, used federal funds to put in infrastructure to allow for the 13% growth in the last two years of her mayoral term alone. And if you had a clue as to city comprehensive plans, you’d know you can’t add population and new development without also improving the city’s capabilities of handling that growth. Under Palin, she helped develop the infrastructure that allowed for the growth. All tax increases and assessments were done with the population’s assent by ballot.
And oh, BTW, when a city grows, so does their budget and debt.
So Palin has executive experience of managing in an executive administative job from 1996 to 2004.
And what does Obama have? IL Senator, just over a year in Federal Congress before he was a professional campaigner, and no experience in administration… just writing bills that get no where.
He manages nothing… and the only thing he did manage… the CAC… was a colossal waste of educational funds with no positive results. Obama can raise money, and spend money. Throws great parties. That’s it…
You obviously didn’t read the timeline and events of the Gravina Island Bridge or you would know that the federal funds were granted to Congress for Alaskan transportation needs to use as they see fit…. all BEFORE she took office.
The only one lying here is you…. too bad we can do an investigation, eh? But then, your insignificance makes it a waste of time and cash.
One more thing, Mr. “I’m a Republican”….
Palin is not a Stevens backer. He is a GOP member, so he endorses her. Palin, however, did him no favors with the Gravina Bridge affair.
Now, if you want to complain about Stevens’ endorsement of Palin, shall we talk about who supports your boy, Obama?
Give me a break Mr. ignore the facts…Palin was all for the bridge, it’s a matter of record and you know it, then, as the tide of thinking moved against this blatant waste of money, she really had no choice, moving quite late as a matter of fact to jump on the band wagon. There were also powerful influences in Alaska who correctly saw the project as a boon doggle (Stevens was not one of them) and Palin changed her stripes, yet again. A maverick…I think not. A crude politician…yes.
Americans will soon determine that our party mantra ‘Country First” is unfortunately a shell in light of the nomination of this lightweight for Vice President. She really believes that proximity to Russia constitutes international qualification…and her somewhat psychotic pronouncement that God somehow wanted this country to engage in a war with Iraq is absurd and downright scary. What we don’t need is another religious extremist…and yes, I am a Christian but I don’t portray myself as knowing what God’s plans are..disgusting!
Wake up people, name one thing that is better in your lives now than 4 years ago, 8 years ago. And our big claim to help our ailing country back on its feet is to want a mirror image of Bush, to continue the same policies as the Bush Administration, backed by our own party. Let’s face it, our party has been in control of the congress for 6 of the last 8 years and NOTHING has been accomplished, unless you really consider that No Child Left Behind has been a roaring succes…I think not!
Try not to lose it in cyber-public, Dennis.
First… remove the tip of your tongue from the left side of your lips, and move it to the right.. Then try moving it back again.
When you accomplish that, maybe we can help you grasp first the fact that you aren’t a Republican, but a Democract, and may find some required personal support in a different forum.
If you think you are confused with your beliefs, at least we’ll know to keep the sentences confined to only one noun, and one verb, at a time.
In the meantime, I’m sure Daily KOs will appreciate your “wake up people” alert. You ain’t gonna make the cut here, bubba.
Mata,
I love it when the concern trolls run over, throw the front door open and start their frothin’ o’ the mouth about all the things that are wrong about whatever it is they’re frothin’ and foaming over.
More often than not, their passion is misplaced and so is their honesty.
By the way Dennis, nice shoes.
Aye… not to worry about CAC. No record scrubbing and expunging can change the outcome that it’s $160 mil down the drain for no scholastic results. That’s an “education” credit Obama will have to live with.
Those “looking”? They may be missing what they are looking for. And that would be an Ayer’s socialist educational state agenda with the financial agreement of the then money bags, Obama.
But it really doesn’t matter. Obama’s already told us in not-quite-so-minced-words they he wants to socialize education and everything American.
So what are we really missing?
Dennis
…go and learn before ye babble
Even Bill Clinton Blames Kennedy for No Child Left Behind Flaws
Bush was an idiot to co-operate with a far Left Dem on anything so important, and that truly is one of his greatest shortcomings, but let us not forget how bad things would be if those Leftists were in charge of everything. G-d save us!!!
It will probably come as no surprise to no one here that the AP has finally come on board with stating the Palin claim that she ‘killed the funding for the bridge to nowhere’ is false:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-McCain-Stretching-the-Truth.html
Better late than never.
GOTTA ADMIRE DOUGY’S PERSISTENCE
He’s always wrong, but it doesn’t phase him. He just keeps pumping the bilge, and ignoring his abysmal record of not getting anything right.
Way to go, dougy!! You are wrong yet again. (That, and you ignore the ZERO-B’s commitment to inertia)
Doug, I’m not sure what facts you and the media can’t seem to absorb. Again: the bridge funds were diverted from that specific earmark to general transportation fund projects by Congress, and approved by both Biden and Obama (rather than diverting to Katrina projects)…
….. in 2005…. a year BEFORE Palin took office From a Nov 2005 WaPo article…
One more time for the fact retention challenged… A YEAR BEFORE PALIN TOOK OFFICE!
She cannot return bridge funds that she did not receive. She received transportation funds that she could have still allocated for the Gravina Bridge. She did not pursue the bridge because it was not cost effective for the Alaskan taxpayers. So she killed the deal.
That horse is dead. Quit beating it. No matter how many times you and the MSM try to portray it any differently, the facts remain the same. Yet the MSM continues to make fools of gullible guppies by planting false claims for the Obama faithful to spread – and for no other reason than to blatantly support Obama.
To me, the real story is the 4th branch of openly and deliberately spreading lies by avoiding the timeline facts in order to elect a candidate. OMG… when the media is so overtly partisan, we are in deep sheeeeeeeeet.
The same is going on in Trooper’gate, where the bank of reporters up in Alaska have never bothered to learn Alaskan law calls for ethics complaints to be run thru the Personnel Board for investigation. Not a legislative investigation. Yet the MSM doesn’t seem to either know there are two processes going on, and refuse to focus on the one laid out by the lawmakers themselves.