Investigation Report: Palin Unlawfully Abused Her Power In Troopergate Scandal
Posted by Ashish on 10.10.2008
Things go from bad to worse for the McCain campaign...
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for the McCain campaign, a bipartisan committee (10 Republicans, 4 Democrats) investigation into Sarah Palin's involvement in the Alaska troopergate scandal has found that she unlawfully abused her power in firing Alaska's public safety commissioner. The full 263 page investigation report is available here.
The McCain campaign has been using Palin to attack Obama as a "typical Chicago politician" and someone who wasn't truthful, but now this investigation has found that not only was Palin abusing her political power, she lied to the Alaska public when she said that personal issues between her and the public safety commissioner had nothing to do with her firing him. The report finds that part of the reason Palin fired the safety commissioner is because he refused to fire Palin's former brother-in-law, a state trooper, who was involved in family disputes with the Palins.
With McCain falling further in the polls, and today being forced to defend Obama to his own supporters and getting booed for it, this is obviously the last thing in the world they need. It's certainly difficult to make the case that you are the ticket of reform when your running mate has been found to have abused her power to carry out personal vendettas.
Posted By: Geoff (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 09:25 PM
Christmas certainly came early for me this year.
Posted By: Vallejo (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 09:40 PM
It is so SHAMEFUL for Sarah Palin, and so disappointing for REAL Conservatives like me, but then again, this is NOT the first time she has been disappointing, nor do I suspect it will be the last.OsiSpeaks.com
Posted By: KYJurisDoctor (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 09:58 PM
Can the republicans be so completely corrupt that even their candidates aren't immune.
I can imagine Obama laughing so hard that he pisses his pants.
Posted By: Mikel (Registered) on October 10, 2008 at 10:20 PM
Christmas came early, it seems.
Posted By: David (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 10:23 PM
Hmmm...If this keeps up in a week or two they will have to drop her from the ticket, but who, who will they get to step up in on such short notice?
"Dont worry, I, Dick Cheney have 8 years experience as VP, I will run with you John McCain!"
Then tens of thousands of votes disappear in Ohio, Michagan and Florida and POW! McCain is President...quickly followed by WHAM! McCain has heart failure.
Hail to Commander-in-Chief Cheney.
To quote Rattrap the Maximal: "We're all gonna die..."
Posted By: Wooder (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 10:24 PM
The real gift here has little to do with this election, which was all but out of reach anyway. This likely destroys her viability as a candidate for national office and should spare us the horror of her running for President in 2012. What a great week, you know, fiscal apocalypse notwithstanding.
Posted By: Shockmaster (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 10:54 PM
Rattrap is full of win!
Posted By: David (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 11:00 PM
It looks pretty bad for McCain, but don't count him out yet. A lot could happen in the next 25 days and there's one more debate left. What worries me is that the Republicans always have something up their sleeves and will do ANYTHING to win. Like I said, watch out for an "October Surprise." These Republicans are capable of ANYTHING whether it's vote fraud, smear tactics, staging a catastrophic event, etc.
Posted By: master (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 11:07 PM
I think it may be too late to drop her. Who's he going to get? Huckabee? The guy may want to run for president in 2012 if Obama's elected and may have already been offered the VP slot before Palin and turned it down so that may be off the table. Rommny? He's a Mormon so that may piss off the bible thumpers in the south. Hagel? The guy was already mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama and his wife is supporting Obama so he's already out. Lieberman? He's a democrat. An independent democrat but still a democrat. Goodbye conservatives and goodbye south. He's out.
Yeah, he's stuck with her all right. It's over folks. Get used to President Obama.
Posted By: Geoff (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 11:08 PM
LOL!
And that's all I have to say about that.
*waits for bombshell to hit Obama's campaign, too.*
Thank you for the download!
Posted By: Andrew (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 11:36 PM
KYJurisDoctor,
Care to participate in a future edition of Politics Fact or Fiction? Shoot me an email. crow.brandon@gmail.com
Hope to hear from ya!
Posted By: Brandon Crow (Guest) on October 10, 2008 at 11:56 PM
Who cares? It was the result of a biased partisan investigation.
Posted By: BillyBobJoeBob (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 12:21 AM
How's Sarah Talking-Point going to Talking-Point her way out of this one?
Posted By: Jevan (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 12:41 AM
Well, it's still a while until the election. There's still a chance to wreck the economy bad enough for W to declare a state of emergency and cancel the election "until further notice"...
Short of that, it's all over bar the shouting.
Posted By: woody (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 01:14 AM
BillyBobJoeBob - 10 republicans and 4 democrats unanimously agree Palin broke the law - yeah that sounds biased.
just a suggestion: do the country a favor and stay home on election day. it doesn't appear you are qualified to operate complicated equipment like a voting booth
Posted By: Mikel (Registered) on October 11, 2008 at 01:17 AM
Yeah, what a biased investigation! 10 republicans and 4 democrats!
BillyBobJoeBob, are you some sort of fucking inbred? How do you manage to put your pants on in the morning without accidentally wrapping them around your neck and tying one leg to the ceiling fan?
Posted By: Vallejo (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 01:21 AM
yeah the full report seemed to actually be a little of both and also concluded that her firing of the commissoner was due partly to the family reasons.Plus hello this trooper wasn't exactly a boy scout as he admitted to tasering her 10 year old nepher and this trooper was also to be durnk in his sqaud car. Really in the long run this probaly won't hinder the mccain-palin ticket as it seems to be limping to the finsih as is
Posted By: coby preimesberger (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 01:59 AM
master have u not been paying attention to the news or u a kool-aid drinker, as in 13 states acorn is under investiagtion for voter fraud and oh yeah wasn't it dan rather who tried to pull an cotober suprise with the forged documents about the texas air natinoal guard, and oh yeah before that there was the drunk driving arrest during the 2000 campaign, and also for the record it was found that she did fire the public safety comissoner lawfully, and found that what she did wrong was inaction, and it was her husband who pushed for the firing of the state trooper
Posted By: coby preimesberger (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 02:05 AM
coby preimesberge, your a fuckin idiot. Show me your sources. Back your claims up with reliable sources. I've heard the crap you spewed from Heil Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, etc. By the way, it was Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and SOS Katherine Harris who illegally purged black voters from the voting rolls in 2000, effectively handing the Presidency to George W. So please leave America, you traitor, if you keep supporting these right-wing wackos. All you stinkin right-wingers really need a mental evaluation. How dare you spew your lies and insult America with your deceitful talking points.
Posted By: master (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 03:07 AM
Everyone, and coby, I apologize if I was going overboard in my statements to coby. I'm a just an average hard working American who's tired of the reckless policies of Bush-Cheney-McCain. I hope McCain and Palin are defeated in a landslide. Our economy is in shambles and we need new leadership and Obama and Biden are the two men who can heal the wounds of the last 8 years.
Posted By: master (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 03:17 AM
This is what happens when you make a haphazard, desperate VP candidate decision without properly vetting the individual. We all wanted to know who Sarah Palin was six week ago. Now we know: closed-minded, bigot, unprepared, uninformed, unqualified, and, it seems, a criminal. At the very least, she's acting well outside her lawful boundaries.
Posted By: JD Koziarski (Registered) on October 11, 2008 at 04:04 AM
The McCain campaign came out and said this proves two things: One, Palin fired that guy legally. And two, the investigation was partisan, Obama-supporter influenced ridiculousness.
So, you say the investigators are partisan, but you use their report to prove a half-truth as the end-all be-all of her innocence, when the report proved she broke the law? You dumb fucks...
Posted By: James (Registered) (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 06:18 AM
Now I know politicians will do anything to win an election (look at how Bush smeared McCain in 2000 with the illegitimate black baby thing, or his stirring up fear that the U.S. would be screwed if he didn't stay in office during 2004) but do you think McCain would willingly go through with something that was grossly untrue?
I know he has before, but he's then gone out of his way to point out that untrue smears about Obama are really untrue. Call me dense, but McCain does actually seem to have a hint of decency in him, far more than someone like an idiot, Bible-thumping, lie-pushing politician like Bush or Palin. Palin is Bush only in MILF form. They're both hypocritical, they both thump the Bible, and neither of them appear to be too bright.
Of course, this being politics, yeah, I agree with everyone saying that you shouldn't count McCain out yet. Obama could still fuck up or something from his past could come back to haunt him, followed by gross distorting of the facts by the right, allowing McCain to win. When Republicans go after someone, they go all out.
Posted By: Zingy (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 08:32 AM
Yes, because calling for the firing of a state policeman who can't keep from abusing his wife is unreasonable.
Posted By: Mitch Michaels (Registered) on October 11, 2008 at 08:39 AM
"master have u not been paying attention to the news or u a kool-aid drinker, as in 13 states acorn is under investiagtion for voter fraud and oh yeah wasn't it dan rather who tried to pull an cotober suprise with the forged documents about the texas air natinoal guard, and oh yeah before that there was the drunk driving arrest during the 2000 campaign, and also for the record it was found that she did fire the public safety comissoner lawfully, and found that what she did wrong was inaction, and it was her husband who pushed for the firing of the state trooper"
There is so much that is wrong with that sentence.
Posted By: J.D. Dunn (Registered) on October 11, 2008 at 10:20 AM
The sad part is they'll probably win anyway. After the last 2 elections, it wouldn't surprise me.
Posted By: Jaime (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 11:09 AM
ok the dems weren't exactly clean in that elction either as they were trying to not count votes from our troops stationed overseas. 2 if u want to blame anyone blame the democratic election board of harris county, who they were the ones who took thanksgiving and friday off, when every other county canvassing board was working to get there votes counted and had it not been for that, the election results could've been certified and the florida supreme court and us supreme court would've never gotten involved. 3 when all the dust settled and the ap and 4 other news orginaztions decided to go back and do a recount and u know what they found, is had the recount gone forward bush would've won
Posted By: coby preimesberger (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 04:15 PM
I've been wanting to use this fucking joke since she was picked so bear with me:
I guess if you want to be president, you shouldn't be Palin' around with criminals!
Waka waka!
Posted By: Vallejo (Guest) on October 11, 2008 at 06:11 PM
Maybe do some fact checking? The Press has found Governor Palin guilty, based on a meaningless report, released by a panel that has no authority to take further action. She was not found guilty of anything. There has been no personnel hearing. All we have now is Special Prosecutor Steven Branchflower's report to the Alaska Legislative Panel.
This is sort of like when Ken Starr delivered his report to the House Judiciary Committee. Some might recall that Starr "found" that Bill Clinton had committed an impeachable offense. The difference is that the House had authority to act further. The Alaska Legislative Panel likely does not.
Here are some quotations from panel members; which support my conclusion: "I'm going to vote to release it, but it's not a vote in total agreement" said Republican Sen. Gary Stevens. "There's not a consensus for the conclusion," said GOP Rep. Bill Stoltze. As for hearings to determine if Palin actually abused her power: "To me, that's the smaller issue of all this" said Democratic Rep. Les Gara, "Any action against the governor would properly come from the state personnel board.
In other words, all they did was vote to release Branchflower's Report. They offered no opinion on the findings. I wonder what Gara's geater issue might have been?
Branchflower wrote "Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads." Then he adds, "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power ..."
The report offered two recommendations for further action:
1. Amend the definition of "governmental agency".
2. Add an amendment to permit those who file complaints against peace officers to receive some feedback about the status and outcome of the complaint.
Posted By: robin (Guest) on October 12, 2008 at 11:24 PM
STAY CURRENT