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Nail in the Coffin: Palin abused power, says ethics probe

B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Need I say more?

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4998X420081011
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) - An Alaska ethics inquiry found on Friday that U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin abused her power as the state's governor, casting a cloud over John McCain's controversial choice of running mate for the November 4 election.
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Watch the polls slide farther and farther into the abyss for der penguin.
 
Defenestrated

Defenestrated

Turbo Monkey
Mar 28, 2007
1,657
0
Earth
The McCain campaign has already told me she was innocent...this would indicate that someone is being deceitful and I am uncomfortable with the realization that there is dishonesty in politics.
 
Straya

Straya

Monkey
Jul 11, 2008
863
3
Straya
http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/todd-palin-the-shadow-governor/2008/10/12/1223749846315.html


Philip Sherwell in New York
October 13, 2008

IT BEGAN as a bitter family dispute over an ugly divorce and allegations ranging from illicit moose-hunting to death threats in the small Alaskan town of Wasilla.

But on Saturday that feud exploded into the race for the White House after the independent investigator Stephen Branchflower concluded that Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, unlawfully abused her power as Governor of Alaska to push for her former brother-in-law to be sacked as a state trooper.

Mrs Palin remained defiant, insisting that anyone who read the report would see that she had acted within her rights.

But it is the issue of her husband's unusually intense involvement in state affairs which has come under the spotlight. Todd Palin, a part-Inuit champion snowmobile racer and self-styled "First Dude", has been revealed as a fixture in the day-to-day workings of government, a role some critics say amounted to that of a "shadow governor".

During the hearing, investigators heard that barely two weeks after Mrs Palin had been sworn in, in December 2006, the executive secretary to the then Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, got a confusing phone call from Mrs Palin's office: the "first gentleman" would like to schedule a meeting with her boss.

Mr Monegan arrived in the governor's office to find himself alone with Mr Palin who was sitting at a conference table surrounded by stacks of documents, including one from Mr Monegan's own Department of Public Safety.

The Palins, Mr Palin made clear, wanted Mr Wooten fired for a long record of behaviour they saw as inappropriate for a police officer.

"He kept using the term, 'We'. We went to, go talk to, we, we. And so I assumed it was he and Sarah, of course," Mr Monegan told the hearing.

The meeting "made me a little uncomfortable", he said. "We're having it in the governor's office, and he's not the Governor. I think he was trying to use state trappings to handle a personal issue."

Mr Branchflower's report contains an exhaustive record of Mr Palin's frequent and intimate presence in the day-to-day workings of his wife's administration.

Testimony compiled as part of the inquiry, and a Los Angeles Times review of email logs from the Palin Administration, shows that Mr Palin was a fixture in the governor's office, spending about half his time there. He attended cabinet meetings that are supposed to be closed to the public, and was copied on a wide variety of high-level government correspondence on issues such as contract negotiations with the police officers' union, native Alaskan issues and the privatisation of a dairy near the Palins' home town of Wasilla.

His report concluded that she knowingly "permitted Todd Palin to use the governor's office and the resources of the governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired".

The findings are a further blow to the McCain campaign, which is struggling to get its message across to voters with just over three weeks to go before the election on November 4.

Senator John McCain's aides have said he has been hurt by a series of high-profile rallies with Mrs Palin in which supporters shouted insults and threats at Senator Barack Obama, prompting Senator McCain on Friday night to chide audience members who did that. His attempts to quell the vitriol were met with boos.

New polls show Senator McCain is trailing Senator Obama by 11 points, and his advisers have been admitting privately that the campaign is slipping away.
 
drkenan

drkenan

anti-dentite
Oct 1, 2006
3,441
1
west asheville
If only this were the nail in the coffin. I doubt too many people are changing sides because of a little lyin'. Even from the Christian right who ought to know better.
 
Jim Mac

Jim Mac

MAKE ENDURO GREAT AGAIN
May 21, 2004
6,352
282
the middle east of NY
The thing that kills me the most is Todd Palin having access to personnel records....I mean, would you want your boss's spouse to be looking through your employee records??????:disgust1:
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,528
15,753
Portland, OR
Jim Mac said:
The thing that kills me the most is Todd Palin having access to personnel records....I mean, would you want your boss's spouse to be looking through your employee records??????:disgust1:
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Imagine what he will do as "First Dude" of the nation? That scares me more than she does.
 
JohnE

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,563
2,210
Front Range, dude...
Wooten slounds like he is a dirtbag, and would have lost his badge on his own, but it also sounds as if the First Dude is a little too high and mighty for his own good.

I used to want to move back to Alaska...now I am wondering if I cant find a better place.
 
JohnE

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,563
2,210
Front Range, dude...
NOW has apparently backed Obama/Biden...chopped from an email from my meathead sister...

FYI: The National Organization for Women (NOW) has endorsed the
Obamba-Biden ticket for just the reasons listed below. They
usually do not endorse, but in this case believed it was
absolutely necessary to take a stand. If you agree, please
pass this on.

Subject: Women and Sarah Palin

Friends:

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we
have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the
Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We
believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere
partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce on the part
of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that
has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of
what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record
could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future
daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth
control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection,
alternative energy development, freedom of speech, gun
control, the separation of church and state, and polar
bears -- to say nothing of her complete lack of real
preparation to become the second-(and possibly
first)-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as
a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a
pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and
altogether devastating choice for Vice President. Ms.
Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the
face to the accomplishments that our mothers and
grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for,
and from which we've so demonstrably benefited.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She
does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American
women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the
Republican ticket could win over women voters.

We want to disagree, publicly. If you agree that Palin is
an irresponsible, even dangerous, choice for VP, please
consider participating in this drive. Gentlemen, send this
to the women you know and care for. I know it's tough
to understand the way this choice is impacting women, but I
have never seen so many women so outraged, angry and
distraught in my entire life. We'd like our voices
heard.
 
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