Alinsky Perfected Part II: Players in Palin complaints 1-9

With Sarah’s resignation, it’s obviously going to be “series” time again… Palin may be stepping away from her gubernatorial duties, but it’s readily apparent no vaccine exists for Palin Derangement. No conservative figure brings out the wrath, disdain, and downright ugly side of liberal progressives (and some GOPers) than the mere mention of the name, Sarah Palin. Downright funny to watch, it is. So I suspect I, and the other authors will be contributing often to a new FA category called the “Trials and Tribulations” of Sarah.

In this segment, I’ll add some data to the first nine of the eighteen complaints that have lodged again Sarah. I’m breaking this down in several posts because there’s lots of links, and there’s just too much to put into one.

And oh… BTW, when we’re done with the ethics complaints and Personnel Board, we can move on to some of the personal lawsuits the progressive assault machine is piling on Sarah as well.

No doubt, about the time I think I’m getting to the end of it all, a new complaint or lawsuit will hit the media.

You’ll find there’s some repetitive names in this cast of characters that are playing the frivolous ethics complaint game. And it’s worthy to start having a look at who’s doing what because… well… Alaskans are, unwittingly, bellying up to the bar to pay for all this. It’s almost another slap in the face not to have a close look. In fact, Alaskans have paid a bundle for the media to provide us with a “how to abuse the system” guidebook…. and here it is. So read and learn how “winning” politics are waged… meaning keep slinging the mud and clogging up the legal and state systems until something sticks. And even if it doesn’t, the public will think there’s something *really* wrong…

Alinsky tactics, gang. Time to learn, and remember them for a new election.

There are 18 ethics complaints on record, per the ADN. As I mentioned, three of these were related to Troopergate, and all but one were brought by Alaskans. They are below, in chronological order.

1: July 28, 2008: The Alaskan legislature launches it’s legislative witchhunt on Troopergate. This is the beginning of the now familiar circus as to whether or not Palin fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan because he refused to fire ex-brother in law, Alaskan Trooper Mike Wooten.

If you remember, this entailed dualing investigations… the Alaskan legislation investigation headed up by Dem Sen. Hollis French, and the Personnel Board’s investigation (which is #4 in this chronology).

Not to beat an already dead horse, just refer to the Troopergate series to recap in depth.

It might be interesting to note that French is now broadly hinting he will be tossing his hat into the gubernatorial ring against Sarah’s successor, Sean Parnell. Parnell, BTW, is calling Sarah “Alaska’s greatest gift to the US”.

“I was very surprised at first,” he said of Palin’s decision to resign, which he said she told him Wednesday.

“But then as she began to explain why she was doing it, I began to see it was Sarah Palin, once again, moving to put Alaska’s interest first,” Parnell told CNN.

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“She’s accomplished more in these two and a half years than most governors accomplish in one or two terms,” he said. “Our governor has been a great governor. She is going to be Alaska’s and is Alaska’s greatest gift to our country.”

2: Aug. 6, 2008: One of the three [Corrected] FOUR complaints filed by Andree McLeod of Anchorage. Now here’s one piece of work… Ms. McLeod. She was an employee of the Murkowski admin prior to Palin’s admin. While she likes to tout herself as a Republican, she also happens to be the darling of the self-admitted progressives who race to her defense because… rather like the jihad movements… they share a common enemy – Sarah Palin.

Please note, Celtic Diva, an Alaskan progressive blogger who’s defense of M. McLeod is linked above, is also known as Linda Kellen Biegel… and responsible for one of her own laughable ethics complaints (see #16). This stuff is almost like inbreeding… But back to Ms. McLeod.

One needs to remember Alaskan politics. The lines in the sand are not Republican/Democrat when it comes to Palin. She has armies of enemies in both political camps. While Ms. McLeod loves to tout that she is a Republican in order to take a partisan slant off her obsession with Palin, McLeod was a Frank Murkowski Republican…. remember that jet on e-Bay? Another example that there was no lost love between admins was the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission story. It was Gov. Frank Murkowski who appointed Palin to the Commission, and it was Palin who resigned on ethics because Murkowski appointed the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party to a seat on her commission while allowing him to keep his partisan post.

Ms. McLeod was employed by Gov. Murkowski on the Alaska Workforce Investment Board, a department of the Labor & Workforce Development. Palin notes she’s very disgruntled that she didn’t get a job – specifically the head of the Alaska Public Offices Commission — the state campaign finance watchdog agency – with her admin. And considering Palin’s opinion of her boss and his financial and moral ethics, that’s not surprising.

“This is the same Andree McLeod that follows us around at public events and camps herself out in our waiting area and hounds us for a job, asking us if there’s a way she can go around Workplace Alaska and not have to go through the system to get a job with this administration,” Palin said.

To which McLeod said: “The messenger always gets clobbered. I’m not interested in getting into a catfight — the issue at hand is this complaint.”

For a bit more bizarre insight into Ms. McLeod, you should know she’s also appointed herself the “chief of dress code police” for state workers, whining about how there was too much cleavage being shown.

Now that you know a bit about this woman who’s filed three FOUR complaints alone, and backed by a progressive Democrat who filed one herself, we’ve covered some groundwork on a few recurring players here. These two women are responsible for four of the remaining 15 complaints (excluding Troopergate’s three).

In this early August complaint, McLeod’s beef was that Palin’s staffers helped Tom Lamal get a job in the State department as a surveyor, and he also co-hosted a campaign fundraiser for Palin in his past. This complaint, like all the others, was dismissed. However when examining some emails, the Personnel Board did recommend some “ethics training” classes for one of the staffers, based on some email comments. sigh….

3: Aug. 20, 2008: This one is filed by Brian Kraft, founder of Bristol Bay Alliance. For some background, the Bristol Bay Alliance and Mr. Kraft were opposing mine development in the Bristol Bay area for environmental reasons and their perceived risk to fish. Palin, along with a then candidate Obama, desperate for miners’ support in Alaska, wanted the mine developed. Alaskans subsequently voted 57% to 42% to allow the mine development, but that didn’t stop Kraft from lodging an ethics complaint saying Palin violated elections laws by taking a public position on the ballot initiative in the days before the vote.

Interesting concept… no one wants to know where their governor stands on a ballot initiative??

The complaint was rejected by the Alaska Public Offices Commission May of this year.

We’ve now moved into the post campaign era, where the political motivation now has national repercussions … and 15 complaints to go.

4: Sept. 2, 2008: Palin files an ethics complaint request on her Troopergate charges, saying that the legislative investigation has now become too political. This is the first of the three Troopergate related ethics charges, atop the legislative investigation. One day before the election, the Personnel Board dismissed the charges, saying the firing of Monegan violated no ethics laws. As I said… already been there, done that… see the Troopergate series archives.

5: Sept. 3, 2008: The Alaskan State Troopers union, Public Safety Employees Association, joins the Troopergate fray with the second of the three complaints, accusing Palin of having unauthorized access to Wooten’s medical files. It was later amended to include harrassment charges. The PSEA’s allegations were investigated alongside Palin’s filing and also dismissed.

6: Oct. 13, 2008: THe last of the three ethics charges in Troopergate… Walt Monegan requests a Board hearing to “clear his name”. The Board’s attorney, Timothy Petumenos, says there was no legal basis or jurisdiction for such a hearing. History…. live with it, Walt.

7: Oct. 23, 2008: The only ethics charge filed by an entity other than an Alaskan citizen. This was brought by the Federal Election Commission by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics over “the wardrobe”… charging that the GOPs purchase of the clothes violated election laws. The FEC ruled that party money is not covered by the ban.

8: Oct. 24, 2008: “Travelgate”… Anchorage resident, and retired lineman, Frank Gwartney, filed a three page complaint accusing Palin of “Misuse of Official Position” by “securing unwarranted benefits for her daughters.” Meaning, she took her daughters on some campaign trips with McCain and some of it was charged as State expenses.

There were 72 excursions total, and 40 examined. The Board’s attorney, Petumenos again, evaluated them with the ultimate end of whether the personal benefit for Palin outweighed the public benefit. Nine were found to be more in favor of Palin’s personal benefit than the State…. but only portions, as some legs did involve State business. (I guess you just ship the kids home then, and bring ’em back again for the next applicable leg…. huh?).

As both Palin and the Board described the State travel rules for a Governor’s family as “dizzying and circular”, and in serious need of reform thru new and clarified regulations, Palin agreed to reimburse what seemed questionable and not contest findings, and the Board agreed to not file a formal accusation or take the case to a hearing.

It should come as no huge surprise that Frank Gwatney is a registered Democrat, and a contributor to Obama’s campaign. When asked if it was a filing that was politically motivated, he just said:

Sarah had run on this platform of ethics and cleaning up the state,” Gwartney said. “It’s fairly hypocritical. She’s just repeating the same thing everyone else has done.”

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But Gwartney said he didn’t time the complaint to hit during the heat of the campaign. He said he filed it after new information about the children’s travel was revealed in news reports.

Palin reimbursed the State an estimated $6,800. Small peanuts when you consider all the crisscrossing of the nation, hotel rooms, food, plus the trips to and from Alaska.

Someone ought to call ol’ Frank up and see if he’s just as bugged about this big taxpayer bill for frivolous crap… In fact, it would be interesting to know if Palin’s reimbursement was enough to cover for the costs of Gwartney’s complaint.

9: Nov. 14, 2008: Zane Henning. A former North Slope worker who’s now an environmental coordinator for Pioneer Natural Resources, an oil and gas firm out of Texas. Mr. Henning calls himself “politically conservative”, and is a member of The Last Frontier Foundation.

Mr. Henning filed a complaint that Palin was, as he put it, engaging in “post-election damage control” from her office, and promoting her career. [Warning… it’s a McClatchy report] He specifically seems to take exception to Greta VanSusten’s interviews.

“These video reports show Sarah Palin speaking to numerous reporters in her Republican vice-presidential candidate capacity defending and still promoting herself and not as the governor of Alaska representing Alaskans,” Henning writes.

The Board’s investigation, Michael Geraghty, dismissed the complaint, saying:

“There was no indication that Governor Palin presented her official position as governor of the State of Alaska for an improper personal or financial purpose.”

Speaking of interviews, Mr. Henning’s given at least one himself… most notably to that braintrust “documentary group” who created a 2-3 minute schpiel dissing Palin, called the Wasilla Project. “Intrigued” by McCain’s choice, they decided to head out to Wasilla to find out how the residents there feel about Sarah.

Here’s who they interviewed, and how they described them:

Anne Kilkenny – longtime Wasilla resident and government observer.
Zane Henning – is a Wasilla resident, politically conservative, and active as a researcher and government watchdog.
Andree McCleod – is a government watchdog who has been investigating Palin’s use of Yahoo email while governor.

Well now, there’s some unbiased opinions for you. Two filed complaints… one of them filed *three FOUR* complaints, PLUS a lawsuit. And Ms. Kilkenny? Her claim to fame was “the letter”… which even the St. Pete Times Politifact needed to clarify with numbers and context. Ms. Kilkenny is a Democrat and, along with the above two, no fan of Palin.

To keep the inbreeding alive, Zane seems to be part of a husband/wife hit team on the file-an-ethics-charge-daily game. Well, almost. The Mrs., Valerie Henning, is quoted as “fearing retaliation” if she files a complaint.

Valerie Henning told the board that fear of a backlash has prevented her from filing a complaint against the governor’s practice of collecting per diem for time spent at her home in Wasilla. Henning’s husband, Zane, earlier had an ethics complaint dismissed by the board. His complaint alleged Palin violated ethics law by holding national television interviews concerning her run for vice president from the governor’s office.

Valerie Henning brought up to the board the statement that Palin’s chief of staff, Mike Nizich, made on April 22 after the filing of an ethics complaint against Palin that was released to the press.

“I hope that the publicity-seekers will face a backlash from Alaskans who have a sense of fair play and proportion. I served six previous governors, and I’ve never seen anything like the attacks against governor Palin,” Nizich said in a press release distributed by the governor’s office.

Valerie Henning tried to get board members to suggest some alternative to making the ethics complaint, saying “I’m afraid of retaliation, basically.”

Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said Nizich was simply asking that Alaskans who have a “sense of fair play and proportion” speak up about what’s going on.

“I don’t know what she means by retaliation, but certainly some people have been raising their voices in protest of this abuse of the ethics act,” McAllister said. “People make these allegations against the governor and they keep getting dismissed and dismissed and dismissed, and some people are saying ‘What’s going on here?’ “

Yup… runs in the family.

Countdown for the last nine complaints that have been dismissed continues next in the series… nuff for now.