Mayor: Under Palin, rape victims charged for exams

Under Sarah Palin's leadership as mayor, Wasilla was the only community in Alaska to charge rape victims for forensic examinations, a former governor disclosed. The policy provoked the Legislature to pass a law requiring communities to pay for such exams, reports George Bryson, writing in McClatchy's Anchorage Daily News.

Posted on Thu, Sep. 11, 2008

Critics: Under Palin, Wasilla charged rape victims for exam

George Bryson | Anchorage Daily News

Two state leaders lashed out at the public record of Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday as witnesses in a new "Alaska Mythbusters" forum coordinated by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Speaking to a teleconference audience of reporters around the nation, former Gov. Tony Knowles and current Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein -- both Democrats -- accused Palin of misleading the public in her new role as the vice presidential running mate of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

While some of their complaints have already been aired, Knowles broke new ground while answering a reporter's question on whether Wasilla forced rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests when Palin was mayor.

True, Knowles said.

Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide.

"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said

A May 23, 2000, article in Wasilla's newspaper, The Frontiersman, noted that Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies regularly pay for such exams, which cost between $300 and $1,200 apiece.

"(But) the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests," the newspaper reported.

It also quoted Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon objecting to the law. Fannon was appointed to his position by Palin after her dismissal of the previous police chief. He said it would cost Wasilla $5,000 to $14,000 a year if the city had to foot the bill for rape exams.

"In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims' insurance company when possible," Fannon told the newspaper. "I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer."

An effort to reach Fannon by phone Wednesday was not successful.

Knowles and Weinstein also went after the Republican ticket on several statements now airing in campaign ads around the nation, including Palin's claim that she opposed federal money for the "bridge to nowhere."

The governor has refused to acknowledge her explicit support for the $230 million Gravina Island Access Project in her effort to sound more like an anti-earmark reformer to a national audience, Weinstein said.

And she still supports spending $400 million to $600 million on "the other Bridge to Nowhere," the Knik Arm Crossing, which would provide residents in Palin's hometown of Wasilla faster access to Anchorage, Knowles added.

"That project is moving right ahead," said Knowles, who served as governor of Alaska from 1994 to 2002. "The money for that project was not diverted anywhere else. ... So (for her) to say she said, 'Thanks, but no thanks....' I would say she said, 'Thanks!'"

A phone call to Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the Alaska office of the McCain-Palin campaign, was not returned Wednesday.

However, the Republican side lost little time in organizing a national truth squad of its own to battle what it considers "smears" of Palin by Democrats. A list of the names of more than 50 members of a Palin truth team, posted Monday on the Atlantic Monthly magazine Web site, included three Alaskans: Stapleton (a former Palin aide); Kristan Cole, a longtime friend; and Republican Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.

As a former governor, Knowles said, he's reluctant to criticize an active governor. But he decided to make an exception with Palin.

"In this situation it's not just a sitting governor," he said. "Our current governor is a candidate for the vice presidency and a heartbeat away from the presidency."

Read the original HERE.

List of books Palin supposedly banned is an urban legend

Over at OpEd News, Rob Kall, posts on the latest urban legend: the list of books Sarah Palin supposedly wanted Wasilla's librarian to ban. Problem is there is no such real list.

I hope you haven't embarrassed yourself by forwarding this or similar emails!

Here is a portion of Kall's post --

I must have received ten of these emails telling me that this was THE list of books Sarah banned or attempted to ban from the Wasilla library when she was mayor. Save yourself from having to apologize to the list of people you would have forwarded this to. It's a bogus list, probably one assembled by adlebooks, here. They say it's an incomplete list of books that others have attempted to ban over the years.

Here's one of the many emails I received that is providing bad information:

Palin's Banned Books

*The following is a partial list of books that Sarah Palin tried to get banned when she was mayor of Wasilla. For the complete list, please click on this article. *

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff

This list probably came from a list assembled by Adler Books, a bookseller, here where they state, "Books Banned at One Time or Another in the United States,"making a qualifying remark that it's an incomplete list.

You can read the complete story HERE.

Gov. Palin: Billed state for nights spent at home

Gov. Palin billed the state for sleeping at home -- and other eyebrow-raising expenses -- according to a report in today's Washington Post.

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home
Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel

By James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, September 9, 2008; A01

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

Before she became the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now, with the campaign emphasizing her executive experience, her record as mayor of Wasilla, as a state oil-and-gas commissioner and as governor is receiving intense scrutiny.

During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as a crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor. "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for," she said to loud applause.

Speaking from Palin's Anchorage office, Leighow said Palin dealt with the plane and also trimmed other expenses, including forgoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for her family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said.

"As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state," she said. "It's absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events."

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it."

The popular governor collected the per diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said.

Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show.

She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughters' expenses and $19,000 for her husband's.

Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor's office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, Garnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation.

One such invitation came in October 2007, when Willow flew to Juneau to join the Palin family on a tour of the Hub Juneau Christian Teen Center, where Palin and her family worship when they are in Juneau. The state gave the center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo.

Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor's children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. "The first family declined the per diem [for] the children," Leighow said. "The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5."

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won.

Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for a flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife.

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

"She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well," said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. "Some do, some don't."

Leighow said that the governor's staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski's wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of times his children accompanied him.

"And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor's office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin's chief of staff. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. The rules governing family travel on state-owned aircraft appear less clear. Knowles said he operated under the understanding that immediate family could accompany the governor without charge.

But during the Murkowski years, that practice was questioned, and the state attorney general's office produced an opinion saying laws then in effect required reimbursement for spousal travel.

Research editor Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.

Read the original story HERE.

Palin: First Gaffe: Fannie and Freddie

Sarah Palin displayed her lack of understanding of the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the nation's economy and well-being over the weekend, as Sam Stein reports for the Huffington Post...

Palin Makes Her First Gaffe

Sam Stein

September 8, 2008 11:50 AM

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, which came before the government had spent funds bailing the two entities out, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

"You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country's mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn't speak well for her, I'd say...

Read the full story HERE.

Palin: Her Stand on Issues

Over at the Huffington Post, Seth Colter Walls has a look at where Palin stands on a variety of issues.

How To Understand Sarah Palin: The Issues, Not Biography

September 8, 2008 01:01 PM


Who is Sarah Palin?

The question itself is open-ended to such a degree that it primes the reader for a complex answer. But what if the explanation turned out to be less complicated than advertised? And is achieved by, say, looking at a record of statements and political behavior rather than psychoanalyzing the subject?

The initial coverage of the Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee favored the latter: think the circumstances of her son Trig's birth, or her daughter Bristol's pregnancy. But what do these (admittedly gripping) personal yarns tell us about the candidate as a political creature? That she's militantly pro-life? A defender of the family? Well, not quite. In her short term as governor, Newsweek has reported that Palin cut funds for at-risk young mothers and sometimes angered abortion foes by refusing to allow full debates on hot anti-abortion bills.

After selling herself as an advocate in line with various issue groups, Palin has been more than comfortable declaring her independence at politically expedient moments. In this way, she shares a common trait with many ambitious politicians. As independent Alaskan pollster Ivan Moore told the Huffington Post right after Palin was announced as McCain's running mate, Palin in action has not always matched the ideological campaigner. "People were worried [about her conservatism]," Moore said, "but it didn't pan out in the sense that after she took office...she has governed pragmatically." That pragmatism also extends to her political self-definition. Though Palin now derides the "Bridge to Nowhere" federal project that John McCain often cites as bad government in action, she had previously trumpted its virtues as a candidate on the road to statewide notoriety.

But a pragmatic "common politician" is not the role McCain had in mind when picking Palin. Instead, he sought a "maverick" who could dazzle the press with the trappings of an unlikely biography while inspiring the base by signing the old favorites. And though GOP operatives publicly lament the media's exhaustive coverage of the Alaska Republican's personal life, there's reason to believe the guarantee of such breathless reporting was part of the reason Palin was selected. (As David Brooks noted on a Sunday chat show, the Palin "sizzle" is what's keeping McCain's campaign from bottoming out into Dole-style torpor.)

So, as the tabloid press promotes the intrigue of motherhood, pregnancy and rumored infidelity -- and while the navel-gazing mainstream media covers its own role in the mix -- Palin is perfecting her projection of a more orthodox ideological line to conservatives than McCain can manage. Though she recently offered praise for portions of Barack Obama's energy plan and was decidedly more extreme than John McCain on environmental issues, she now toes the line of her party much more explicitly. On the issue of Iraq, for example, she has been a quick study of the McCain policy manual. And though she said in 2006 that her busy schedule as governor precluded her from forming an opinion on the surge or the Iraq war at all, in her convention speech, she assumed enough policy mastery to decry Obama's forfeiture of victory there.

With an eye to the issues, then, here is a brief scorecard of where Palin stands:

On Energy: Drill here, drill now. But has also has supported a windfall profits tax for oil companies, contra conservative free-market wisdom. (The policy helps grease the skids in her home state, where the tax allowed Palin to add another $1,200 to the money every Alaskan receives from the state's Permanent Dividend for residents.) In fact, her reputation for "taking on" the oil companies actually extends from her implementation at the state level of a policy that John McCain himself opposes on the national stage.

On Iraq: In 2006, Palin said, "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe." Earlier this year, she said she hoped the Iraq war was "a task that is from God."

On Taxes: Echoes McCain campaign's misleading mantra that Obama will broadly raise Americans' taxes. But in addition to supporting a windfall profits tax for oil companies herself, Palin also raised a sales tax as the mayor of Wasilla. The revenues were dedicated to a new sports facility that plunged the town into long-term debt. Meanwhile, the land deal for the complex is still being litigated in court.

On Abortion: Publicly opposed in all instances, save for the life of the mother. No exceptions for rape (even if it were her own daughter), incest or the health of the woman -- including those who are trapped in a cycle of domestic violence. However, Palin has also passed up opportunities as governor to help her allies push for a partial-birth abortion ban.

On Education: A claim that Palin gutted special education funding by 62 percent in her first year as governor, spread mostly on liberal blogs, is untrue. (The flawed analysis stems from a misreading of budget lines.) However, in a 2006 debate during her race for governor, Palin said her preference would be to have creationism taught alongside evolution in public schools. "Teach both," Palin said during the live debate, according to the Anchorage Daily News. "You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both." In a follow-up interview, though, Palin appeared to back off of that statement. According to the paper, Palin said "she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum."

The former Wasilla PTA board member also courted controversy as mayor by asking the town's librarian about banning certain books. While the conversation was a non-starter with the librarian, and never got down to specifics, the revelation has nevertheless stirred concern among some education professionals.

Palin also answered a questionnaire while running for governor by saying she supports "abstinence-only" sex education.

On Earmarks/Lobbyist Influence: Palin identifies herself as an enemy of special interests. But, as noted above, that reputation stems from taxing big oil in a state where the politics of energy are unusually distinct and parochial. In other arenas, Palin has not opposed requesting earmarks, or objected to the work of lobbyists. As mayor of Wasilla, she hired a firm with connections to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff that secured $27 million in projects for the town's 6,700 residents.

On Environment: Denies climate-change is man-made. Supports drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. Supports aerial wolf hunting, and fought the Bush administration's measures to protect polar bears.

For more issues, see "The Sarah Palin Digest" over at Think Progress. Overall, the legislative portrait of Palin shows a hard-right conservative whose unorthodox positions appear either influenced by the uniqueness of the state she governs, or political expediency. But with the candidate presently sequestered from media scrutiny and unable to explain her political philosophy with greater precision, it is the mystery of her biography that entices many. As CNN's entertainment reporter opined to Howard Kurtz on his Sunday show: "It's something that is ripped from the script of a 'Desperate Housewives' plot line. And there you have it. Of course the tabloids are going to go hog wild over this story. And I expect more to come. They are not going to let this go at all." (Another conservative commentator chimed in as well, telling Kurtz that "many members of the media were blindsided by this choice.... so they said, what do we go with? Well, we know she's a mom, so let's ask questions about that.")

Still, there's no guarantee that the soft-focus lighting of network television interviews will expose the fine grain detail of Palin's record, either. At this point in the race, biography may have the lead over policy, according to none other than McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, who told the Washington Post "this election is not about issues."

If that prediction turns out to be true, it won't have been for a lack of them.

Read the original HERE.

Questions that can be asked...and shouldn't

In an opinion piece, Star-Ledger columnist Kathleen O'Brien has written about the questions that may be asked of Sarah Palin and those that she thinks should not be.

Sarah Palin: Questions we can ask...and ones we shouldn't

Posted by Kathleen O'Brien September 07, 2008 6:30AM

In the steamy soup that is the state of public opinion about Sarah Palin, we have beauty, brains, child care, sex, abortion, the glass ceiling and mooseburgers all brewing in a hot, ugly mess.

Oy.

Forget al Qaeda. Forget the housing bubble. Forget that looming winter heating bill.

It's all about Levi, Trig, Bristol and Todd.

It has been my experience that we're in trouble when nearly every sentence in a debate starts, "Well, if I gave birth to .¤.¤. blahblahblah" or "Well, if my daughter .¤.¤. blahblahblah." Everyone's an expert -- on someone else's life.

So grab a pot holder and a set of tongs. We're going to pluck out of that soup all the things that are none of our business:

-- Palin's teenager daughter's pregnancy -- what choices she made before getting pregnant and what choices she made after getting pregnant. It surely can't be a private choice -- not with John McCain greeting the young couple at the airport -- but it is theirs alone.

-- Palin's teenage daughter's wedding plans. Their family, their call.

-- Any of Palin's own pregnancies, from her first to her last. When we reach the state where the local newspaper is relying on third-hand accounts of comments her obstetrician made to other patients, we've really hit rock bottom.

-- How they raise her kids, how she and her husband manage their family affairs.

-- How they schedule time to pursue their (multiple) livelihoods. It appears they have so many jobs it's unclear when they sleep, but good for them. We should all have such energy and ambition.

That leaves only a few issues floating in the soup. Unfortunately for Palin, they are doozies that may not go away:

-- Numero Uno, front and center, top of the list: Will she be willing to change her current routine so she could carry out the duties of the vice president without too much distraction?

Thus far she has juggled all her jobs by often bringing her kids to the office. I'll come out and say it: I want a vice president who can concentrate on the job. It may be a dull job, full of obligatory appearances at state funerals of obscure national leaders, but it still deserves her full attention.

After the birth of her youngest, she actually announced that she intended to take no maternity leave and would bring the baby to work with her. That's a cozy and heart-warming scene -- but not if you're trying to be the actual vice president of the United States at the same time.

I can hear you saying, "But you'd never raise that issue if she were a man!" I submit that I would, if that man routinely brought a newborn to work.

Hire a nanny (or have hubby quit his job) and this issue goes away.

-- She's got 'em and she lives 'em. Her family twice came face to face with the abortion question and both times rejected it as an option. (And probably never even seriously considered it in either case.)

Those remain private decisions. But here's what remains a legitimate voter issue: Will she push for laws that order everyone else to make that same choice?

Read the original post HERE.

Paul Mulshine: Two questions for Palin worshippers

Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine, a card-carrying conservative, has plenty of questions about Palin and her nomination. Here is his most recent sally.

Two questions for Palin worshippers

Star-Ledger blogs

Posted by Paul Mulshine September 04, 2008 8:49PM

As you might have guessed, I am not the sort of person to go into ecstasy over something a politician says. Thus I was perhaps the only conservative in America not overly impressed by the Sarah Palin appearance at the Republican National Convention.

Sure, she did a good job of reading a speech before an audience of supporters. But I didn't hear a lot in there on some of the key questions of this campaign. So I invite you to weigh in with predictions on how Palin will handle the following questions.

ONE: What are the chance she will oppose the neoconservatives on their immigration amnesty? Both George W. Bush and John McCain are ardent advocates of an amnesty that would permit as many as 12 million illegal immigrants to stay in the country. Here's my prediction of the chance that Palin will come out against the McCain-Kennedy bill between now and Election Day: Zero.

What's your prediction?

TWO: What are the chances she will oppose the neoconservatives on their liberal internationalist foreign policy?

Both the traditional conservatives such as Pat Buchanan and the libertarians who post on the Lew Rockwell blog have expressed worries that Palin will fall into the nutty neocon policies that led George W. Bush into his nation-building exercise in Iraq.

Buchanan recently wrote: "Look for the neocons to move with all deliberate speed to take her into their camp by pressing upon her advisers and staff, and steering her into the AEI-Weekly Standard-War Party orbit."

As for the libertarians, they worry that Palin will endorse the Bush/McCain policy of endless wars fought for the benefit of foreigners rather than Americans.

Again I put the chances Palin will stand up to the neocons in favor of traditional conservative values at zero. But if you've got any evidence she is truly willing to stand up against the open-borders/endless-nation-building crowd, please feel free to post it.

Read the original HERE.

Paul Mulshine: Palin doesn't pass laugh test

The Star-Ledger's Paul Mulshine penned the following piece BEFORE Sarah Palin's electrifying speech at the GOP Convention, but he still has questions.

Sarah Palin doesn't pass the laugh test

Posted by Paul Mulshine September 04, 2008 2:52AM

H�ow long before John McCain gives the speech where he says he's 1000 percent behind Sarah Palin?

I allude, of course, to George McGovern's famous quote about his first vice presidential choice, Tom Eagleton, back in 1972. That assurance was followed by a decision to dump Eagleton after reports surfaced that he had been treated for depression with electroshock therapy.

This Palin nomination is shaping up to be the worst vice presidential pick since¤'72. I gather that there is still great hope for Palin inside the hall where the convention is being held. But I'm not inside that hall. The modern political convention is a TV show, and it is best watched on TV, which is what I'm doing.

As TV shows go, the first episode of the Sarah Palin series was great. We were introduced to the characters, and we were intrigued. There was mom, the former beauty queen who became a governor. There was the hubby, a commercial fisherman, oil worker and snowmobile racer. There were the kids, all of whom had great TV names like Willow, Piper, Bristol, Track and Trig and all of whom were presumably being raised with the best small-town values.

The second episode was a shocker, though. That's where the baby-daddy was introduced. The term "baby-daddy" has come into the language as a term that describes a father who is not married to a mother. And it turned out that 17-year-old Bristol from the Ozzie-and-Harriet family had been impregnated by a guy straight out of MTV. And as such characters do, 18-year-old Levi Johnston had a MySpace page on which he said all sorts of embarrassing things about himself, including a profanity-laced tirade that ended with the news that he was in a relationship, but "I DON'T WANT KIDS."

Never has a sitcom gone south so fast. Palin had gone from role model to laughingstock in one show. Jay Leno, David Letterman and all the late-night talk-show hosts got into the act.

This is not the sort of thing a candidate recovers from. A candidate can withstand endless attacks from the Washington Post and the New York Times, but you don't go from Letterman's Top Ten List to the top of American politics. Once she's cast as the ditzy ex-beauty queen who failed to notice her daughter was dating a thug, Palin is not going to be able to reinvent herself as the reformer who's ready to take over the presidency.

And the tough tests have yet to begin. As far as anyone can determine, Palin seems to have no discernible views on foreign policy. Back in February, she was quoted as saying of Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning candidate for the GOP nomination, "He's a good guy." But Paul's foreign policy views are the opposite of McCain's. Paul is a non-interventionist. McCain wants to intervene everywhere.

The Paul view is much closer to the traditional Republican view of foreign affairs that George W. Bush appealed to back in 2000. But Bush then did a 180 and committed the federal government to "ending tyranny on Earth." That's a nice thought, but at the time he uttered it, Palin's only political experience was as the mayor of the small Anchorage suburb of Wasilla. That's hardly an apt training ground for sorting out South Ossetia.

The irony here is that Palin is a perfect candidate for running the sort of small-government America that Republicans used to believe in. But she'd have to be the second coming of Joan of Arc to handle the messianic mission McCain seems to envision. She certainly has the skills to handle scripted appearances such as the Friday event and her speech last night (which occurred after this column went to press.) But her handlers must be dreading the prospect of Palin at press conferences. Any gaffe will go straight to the midnight monologues.

Meanwhile, McCain passed over a passel of politicians with extensive experience in that regard. Mitt Romney may be a bit boring, but he was guaranteed not to upstage McCain.

The Palin pick looks like yet another Beltway blunder for McCain. The senator has spent so much of his life in D.C. that he is left flailing about when dealing with the real America. There were reports that his first choice for the veep spot was Joe Lieberman, perhaps the sole candidate who would have been worse than Palin.

I could be wrong, though. Perhaps Palin will turn out to be absolutely brilliant once she gets out there and campaigns. Perhaps this series will have a happy ending.

But if I were McCain, I'd pick up the remote and change the channel.

UPDATE: I wrote this column before the speech because of an early deadline. The speech itself went pretty well, as I noted in my prior blog post, so perhaps I was a bit pessimistic about her prospects. Of course, we've still got the baby daddy in the headlines and lots of other laugh lines out there, so that will keep us amused.

Also, there's the prospect of how well Palin will do when she's out there fielding questions. There's about three newspapers in Alaska, so she'll have to get up to speed pretty quick to handle the media mess that she will be entering.

One thing I really liked from both her speech and the other presentations last night was the emphasis on the "explore-all-options" approach to energy. They could really kill the Democrats on this, since the Democrats oppose not only drilling but also the vast expansion of nuclear we need.

But again Palin is opposed here to her own presidential candidate, McCain. He opposes drilling in the Arctic National Widlife Refuge, a nutty stand that he will have th change.

This analysis piece by Adam Nagourney gives a good synopsis of what the future will look like for her.

Read the original article HERE.

Gov. Palin: Never issued an order to Alaska NG

When McCain's spinmeisters tried to tout Sarah Palin's military experience as Alaska governer and therefore commander of the state's National Guard, local reporters at the Anchorage Daily News got on the case. What they found differs significantly.

Official: Palin's never issued an order to Alaska Guard

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

By George Bryson | Anchorage Daily news

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — When presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate last Friday, the Arizona senator emphasized her role as the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard.

Later, when questions were raised about Palin's lack of experience in national and international affairs, the McCain campaign pointed again to her military command experience as governor. Some reporters have tried to follow up.

"Can you tell me one decision that she made as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard?" CNN journalist Campbell Brown asked Monday while interviewing McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. "Just one?"

Bounds couldn't, because Palin has never personally ordered the state guard to do anything.

Instead, here's what he said: "Any decision she has made as the commander of the (Alaska) National Guard that's deployed overseas is more of a decision than Barack Obama's been making as he's been running for president for the last two years."

However, the governor has no command authority overseas or anywhere in the United States other than Alaska, said Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the service commander of the Alaska National Guard.

"When members of the National Guard are federalized, they work for the president," Campbell said Wednesday. "It's not just overseas. They could be federalized to go to other states or they could even be federalized in the state."

Occasions in which Palin retains command authority over the 4,200-member Alaska National Guard are whenever the Guard responds to in-state natural disasters and civic emergencies, said Campbell, who also serves as the commissioner of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

Some examples?

"We've deployed individuals in state service all over the state under Sarah Palin," he said. “We had defense men down in Seward for the (Mount) Marathon run doing security.

"Out west and northwest we had erosion problems, and the National Guard was involved in some of the protection out there. About three days ago, the Army National Guard picked up a lady from Little Diomede (Island) . . . at the request of state troopers."

Did Palin directly approve each of those activities?

No, Campbell said. The governor has granted him the authority to act on his own in most cases, including life-or-death emergencies — when a quick response is required — and minor day-to-day operations.

"Some authorities have been given to me that she has acknowledged that I can execute," he said. "For others I have to ask her each time."

The recent decision to deploy a C-17 cargo plane from the Alaska Air National Guard to Louisiana to assist during the Hurricane Gustav response was an occasion in which Campbell briefed the governor's office and sought its approval, he said. Chief of Staff Mike Nizich signed off on it.

Last year, Palin journeyed abroad to visit 500 members of the Alaska Army National Guard who were stationed in northern Kuwait for 15 months. She also stopped at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, to visit wounded Alaskans, including regular Army troops based at Fort Richardson.

The journey marked the first time that Palin had traveled overseas, according to Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman in the governor’s office.

The flooding that occurred in Fairbanks in late July — for which the Guard sent trucks north to provide clean drinking water — didn't require the governor's approval, Campbell said.

Natural disasters are fairly sporadic, said Jeremy Zidek, the public information officer for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, which is part of Campbell's department.

Last year, during Palin's first year as governor, there wasn't much action, Zidek said. “Thankfully, we didn't have any major disasters."

In 2006, however, during former Gov. Frank Murkowski’s last year in office, the Guard assisted at a tragic fire at a schoolhouse and church in Hooper Bay.

The Alaska National Guard receives about 75 percent of its funding from the federal government, Campbell said. All the federal funding is pre-allocated by Congress.

The state maintains Army National Guard bases in 76 locations in Alaska and Air National Guard bases in three locations.

Read the original story HERE.

The Anchorage Daily News has pulled together a fuller story on Sarah Palin's attempt to have books banned from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor of that small town.

Here's the story about Palin's
book-banning try as mayor

Friday, September 5, 2008

By Rindi White | Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go.

Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.

It all happened 12 years ago and the controversy long ago disappeared into musty files. Until this week. Under intense national scrutiny, the issue has returned to dog her. It has been mentioned in news stories in Time Magazine and The New York Times and is spreading like a virus through the blogosphere.

The stories are all suggestive, but facts are hard to come by. Did Palin actually ban books at the Wasilla Public Library?

In December 1996, Emmons told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her -- starting before she was sworn in -- about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose.

Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider any kind of censorship. Emmons, now Mary Ellen Baker, is on vacation from her current job in Fairbanks and did not return e-mail or telephone messages left for her Wednesday.

When the matter came up for the second time in October 1996, during a City Council meeting, Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla housewife who often attends council meetings, was there.

Like many Alaskans, Kilkenny calls the governor by her first name.

"Sarah said to Mary Ellen, 'What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?" Kilkenny said.

"I was shocked. Mary Ellen sat up straight and said something along the line of, 'The books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of this size, and I would absolutely resist all efforts to ban books.'"

Palin didn't mention specific books at that meeting, Kilkenny said.

Palin herself, questioned at the time, called her inquiries rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion with a department head "about understanding and following administration agendas," according to the Frontiersman article.

Were any books censored banned? June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files Wednesday and came up empty-handed.

Pinell-Stephens also had no record of any phone conversations with Emmons about the issue back then. Emmons was president of the Alaska Library Association at the time.Books may not have been pulled from library shelves, but there were other repercussions for Emmons.

Four days before the exchange at the City Council, Emmons got a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. Similar letters went to police chief Irl Stambaugh, public works director Jack Felton and finance director Duane Dvorak. John Cooper, a fifth director, resigned after Palin eliminated his job overseeing the city museum.

Palin told the Anchorage Daily News then that the letters were just a test of loyalty as she took on the mayor's job, which she'd won from three-term mayor John Stein in a hard-fought election. Stein had hired many of the department heads. Both Emmons and Stambaugh had publicly supported him against Palin.

Emmons survived the loyalty test and a second one a few months later. She resigned in August 1999, two months before Palin was voted in for a second mayoral term.

Palin might have become a household name in the last week, but Kilkenny, who is not a Palin fan, is on her own small path to Internet fame. She sent out an e-mail earlier this week to friends and family answering, from her perspective, the question Outsiders are asking any Alaskan they know: "Who is this Sarah Palin?"

Kilkenny's e-mail got bounced through cyberspace and ended up on news blogs. Now the small-town mom and housewife is scheduling interviews with national news media and got her name on the front page of The New York Times, even if it was misspelled.

Read the original story HERE.

Troopergate: In legal maneuver, Palin files complaint against herself

In a gambit to remove the Troopergate investigation from an unfriendly Legislature to a potentially more friendly state agency, Gov. Sarah Palin filed an ethics complaint against herself in the matter, as the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Palin files ethics complaint against self
in 'troopergate'

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

By Lisa Demer | Anchorage Daily News

Gov. Sarah Palin wants a state board to review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan -- taking the unusual step of making an ethics complaint against herself.

Her lawyer sent an "ethics disclosure" Monday night to Attorney General Talis Colberg. The governor asked that it go to the three-person Personnel Board as a complaint. While ethics complaints are usually confidential, Palin wants the matter open.

The lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, also asked the state legislature to drop its own investigation into the Monegan matter. He says the Personnel Board has jurisdiction over ethics.

A senator running the investigation immediately refused.

The 13-page document gives Palin's view of a controversy that's dogged her for weeks in Alaska. Questions about whether she or others in her family or administration pressured Monegan to fire her ex-brother-in-law, state Trooper Mike Wooten, are now getting intense national attention with her newfound prominence on the national stage. Republican Sen. John McCain announced Friday that she's his pick to be vice president.

Under state law, the board must hire an independent counsel for complaints against the governor to determine whether evidence of a violation of the state ethics act exists.

"Governor Palin believes it will find no conceivable violation of the Ethics Act," her complaint says. She wants the investigation "to put these matters to rest."

The legislature plans to go forward with its investigation, said Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former state prosecutor who is project director for the case.

That investigation isn't just examining potential abuse of power by the governor, but also others in her administration, French said.

"We're going to proceed. If they want to proceed, that's perfectly within their right but it doesn't diminish our right to do so," he said.

The legislature's special counsel Steve Branchflower so far has not been able to depose either Palin or her husband, Todd. Van Flein indicated the governor likely will not agree to a deposition unless lawmakers turn the matter over to the Personnel Board.

"Assuming you agree to submit to proper jurisdictional process, we can check the Governor's schedule to see when she and the First Gentleman are available for an interview," Van Flein wrote.

He also warned that all communications need to go through the lawyers. He said he had recently learned that Branchflower tried to call Todd Palin directly "on a secure and confidential line. This represents a serious security breach that we may be obligated to report to the Secret Service."

This isn't the first time Palin has lodged a complaint that went before the state Personnel Board.

In late 2004, the former Wasilla mayor joined then state Rep. Eric Croft, an Anchorage Democrat, to seek an investigation into whether then Attorney General Gregg Renkes broke the law through his investments in an energy company that stood to benefit from a state trade deal.

In the days after he resigned in February 2005, Renkes settled with the board and the Palin-Croft complaint was dismissed.

Tom Daniel, an Anchorage labor and employment lawyer hired by the board in the Renkes case, took a quick look at Palin's complaint Tuesday.

"It appears that the Governor has filed an ethics complaint against herself. ... This is very unusual because ethics complaints typically are filed against others," Daniel wrote in an e-mail responding to a Daily News query.

Asked whether the personnel board could take the investigation away from the legislature -- as Palin wants to do -- Daniel answered: "I've never looked at that issue, but I can't see why filing a complaint with the personnel board would deprive the legislature of the right to conduct its own investigation."

The ethics disclosure echoes points made in a four-page backgrounder on the Wooten matter released by the McCain/Palin campaign. Did Van Flein write the background paper on Wooten for the campaign? He didn't answer that question when asked in an e-mail Tuesday evening.

Wooten was married to Palin's sister, Molly McCann, and as recently as this summer, they were still struggling over child custody and visitation.

Among key claims in Palin's complaint:

-- Special Agent Bob Cockrell of the governor's security detail told Todd Palin to let Monegan know about Wooten's threats against Chuck Heath, who is Palin's father and was Wooten's father-in-law.

-- Monegan never told the governor or Todd Palin that Wooten had been disciplined over complaints brought by the family that included tasering his stepson, illegally shooting a moose and telling others that Heath would "eat a f***ing lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce. Wooten ultimately was suspended for five days by troopers but the family says they only learned that when the conflict spilled into public after Monegan's firing. In her complaint, Palin calls the suspension "a slap on the wrist."

-- Recently, Wooten's supervisor intervened when he wouldn't return the children after a visit, the complaint says. Wooten warned his ex-wife he was going to get her and Palin, the complaint says. "There is evidence suggesting that Wooten was following the governor," it says.

Palin is facing another ethics complaint, filed by a former state employee and political activist alleging her office used improper influence to award a state job.

Van Flein is a private lawyer with expertise in employment law hired by the Department of Law because of a potential conflict of interest by Attorney General Talis Colberg, who had contacted Monegan about Wooten. Van Flein is representing the governor's office though some Palin staff have their own lawyers.

Van Flein donated to Palin's campaign for governor in 2006, but he also donated to Democrats.

Read the original story HERE.

Troopergate: Palin lawyer, legislator tangle

Gov. Palin's private lawyer in the Troopergate investigation we now learn was hired by the state after a determination the Attorney General had a conflict of interest in representing her.

Palin lawyer, legislator tangling
over 'troopergate' probe

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

By Lisa Demer | Anchorage Daily News


The state has hired a private lawyer to represent Gov. Sarah Palin's office in the legislature's investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The lawyer already has challenged whether lawmakers even have authority to oversee the inquiry.

The state Department of Law hired Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage attorney with expertise in employment law and professional liability, because Attorney General Talis Colberg has a potential conflict of interest and shouldn't represent the governor, Van Flein said Monday.

His work started Aug. 21. He's being paid $185 an hour, lower than his usual rate, to represent Palin and others in the governor's office, he said. He is initially authorized to spend up to $95,000.

The state's Legislative Council, a bipartisan panel of senators and representatives, authorized the investigation last month and approved spending of $100,000. They've hired a special counsel, retired state prosecutor Steve Branchflower.

The investigation concerns whether Palin or others in her administration abused their power or improperly pressured Monegan to fire a state trooper who is Palin's ex-brother-in-law. Palin and her father have said Trooper Mike Wooten was a "loose cannon" who made threats against them. The investigation has received national attention since Sen. John McCain, the apparent Republican nominee for president, chose Palin as his running mate Friday.

A four-page backgrounder on the Wooten matter put out Monday by the McCain/Palin campaign says that Palin's husband, Todd, and members of her staff had made inquiries "about the appropriate Department of Public Safety procedures for dealing with someone they considered a dangerous person and rogue trooper."

Palin has denied pressuring Monegan. The campaign says she only recently became aware of efforts by Todd and others.

Because Colberg has acknowledged contacting Monegan about Wooten, he's a potential witness, Van Flein said Monday. So an outside law firm needed to be brought in to represent the governor's office, he said.

He said the governor's office welcomes the inquiry and will cooperate.

Van Flein said the investigation should be handled by the state Personnel Board, not the legislature, because it's "statutorily mandated" to handle ethics cases. The three-member Personnel Board is appointed by the governor.

In a letter to Branchflower, Van Flein also asked for all witness statements, documents and other materials collected in the course of the investigation.

"No" to both requests, said state Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former state prosecutor who is project director for the legislative investigation.

The legislature has its own power of investigation, French wrote to Van Flein on Monday.

"Governor Palin has repeatedly stated that she has nothing to hide and that she and her administration will cooperate fully with this investigation. Is your client aware that you seem to be challenging the Legislature's jurisdiction?" French wrote.

As to witness statements, French said he had instructed Branchflower not to provide them. Colberg conducted a separate inquiry for the governor, and the governor can get statements from him, French noted.

"I think you will agree that it would be highly unusual for an investigator to share information with one of the targets of the investigation," French wrote. "I am unaware of any precedent for such an arrangement."

The back-and-forth quickly escalated.

"Our concern is that Hollis French turns into Ken Starr and uses public money to pursue a political vendetta rather than truly pursue an honest inquiry into an alleged ethics issue," Van Flein said in an interview.

"How does he explain the unanimous vote (to pursue the investigation) by the Republican-dominated Legislative Council?" French shot back.

Later in the day, French added, "It's too bad the governor has stooped to hiring a name-calling lawyer. That doesn't seem very open and transparent does it?"

Branchflower hasn't been able to set up an interview with Palin. French said the state will fly Branchflower to wherever Palin is on the campaign trail if needed.

"Clearly the governor's new political role will make it more challenging for her to make time for this investigation," French wrote. But Palin needs to be interviewed sometime in September, he said.

Van Flein said the investigation is "bad timing" in the middle of a presidential campaign. He said he couldn't guarantee her availability this month.

If witnesses aren't available, French wrote, he'll ask the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, to issue subpoenas.

Van Flein said several people from the McCain campaign contacted him about the Wooten matter as part of the vetting process, before Palin was announced as McCain's pick.

The lawyer said he thinks Palin will be vindicated.

"We have a governor that exercised her constitutional right to terminate a commissioner. We have a family concerned about their safety. We have them asking what do you do with a trooper ... who might pose a threat.

"We don't have any sex. We don't have any drugs. And there's no blue dress. Nor are there any shady real estate deals here," Van Flein said. "In the big picture, I think people are going to be disappointed that this is not a scandal."

Read the original story HERE.

Troopergate: Palin aide

McClatchy newspapers continue to outline Sarah Palin's involvement in the firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner after he failed to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a trooper.

Palin aide skips deposition
in 'troopergate' probe

Lisa Demer | Anchorage Daily News

September 04, 2008 02:09:34 PM

One of Gov. Sarah Palin's top aides was supposed to be interviewed under oath Wednesday as a key witness in the ongoing investigation into her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. But the aide, Frank Bailey, abruptly backed out amid what his lawyer said is uncertainty over jurisdiction.

"I canceled that," Bailey's lawyer, Greg Grebe of Anchorage, said Wednesday. "I'd say about 6 o'clock last night I learned that the governor's office was contesting the jurisdiction of the Legislature to handle this matter. It's my understanding that they believe the jurisdiction is properly with the personnel department. I can't make a judgment or a call on that."

His client will cooperate with whomever ultimately is in charge of the investigation, Grebe said.

"I don't want him to be a political football being used by one side or the other and being inconvenienced in all of this hoopla. I want it done once and I want it done right," the lawyer said.

The state Legislative Council, a bipartisan panel of senators and representatives, ordered an investigation that is supposed to wrap up by Oct. 31 into whether Palin's administration abused power in the dismissal of Monegan. The heart of the matter is whether Palin, her staff or family pressured Monegan to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, and then whether Palin fired her commissioner when the trooper stayed on the job. Retired state prosecutor Steve Branchflower was brought in as special counsel.

Monegan has told the Daily News that Palin sent him two or three e-mails discussing Wooten and adding to the pressure.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Monegan showed Palin's e-mails to the paper, but declined to provide copies. The story says Palin's e-mails pointed out problems with Wooten's continued employment and ridiculed a trooper investigation into Wooten's conduct.

"It was a joke, the whole year long 'investigation' of him," Palin wrote in a Feb. 7, 2007, e-mail, according to the Post. "This is the same trooper who's out there today telling people the new administration is going to destroy the trooper organization, and that he'd 'never work for that b****', Palin'.)"

That e-mail came a few weeks after Palin's husband, Todd, met with Monegan to press the case for action against Wooten based on a series of incidents including illegally shooting a moose, Tasering his stepson and drinking while driving his trooper vehicle, the newspaper said.

Palin's note recounted the transgressions, including his killing of the cow moose under his wife's permit, according to the Post. When the moose was killed, back in 2003, Palin's sister Molly McCann was married to Wooten and she drew the permit.

"He's still bragging about it in my hometown and after another cop confessed to witnessing the kill, the trooper was 'investigated' for over a year and merely given a slap on the wrist," the e-mail said, according to the Post.

That appears to contradict a background paper recently released by the McCain-Palin campaign that says the family never knew that Wooten had been disciplined, which is one reason Todd kept pressing the point.

Palin says she never pressured anybody, doesn't know that anyone on her staff did, and wasn't aware of what Todd was up to. She has called Wooten a dangerous "rogue trooper" and says that any contacts about him were legitimate. Monegan was terminated because of differences over the budget, she says.

Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage lawyer being paid by the state to represent the governor, said he thinks only the state Personnel Board has the authority to look into what he considers an ethics matter involving the governor. He wants the Legislature to drop its investigation.

The governor is now running for vice president alongside Republican Sen. John McCain. Is the campaign calling the shots?

"I am making the legal strategy for the governor. I have a legal team. We conduct our own strategy internally. I am not working for the McCain campaign and they are not working for me," Van Flein said.

Still, questioning the Legislature's jurisdiction could tie up the case in court and delay a resolution. Van Flein said he's trying to get it sorted out this week so that doesn't happen.

Van Flein says the legislative investigation is like "a secret grand jury" and that's one of his problems with it.

Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat from Anchorage and the project's director, said the Legislature has the right to investigate and that he intends to push on. Both he and Branchflower are former state prosecutors.

"Stephen is working hard over the next two weeks to do a bunch of interviews. ... This certainly will not help him get his work done on time," French said of Bailey's cancellation.

French said he's consulting with Republican legislative leaders. The process will be fair to Palin, he said.

Palin filed an ethics complaint against herself to get the matter in front of the Personnel Board.

Nicki Neal, director of the state Division of Personnel and Labor Relations, said Wednesday that the board will meet soon in executive session -- closed to the public -- to begin its work. Palin had asked for the ethics case to be open. Neal said she'll check into how that relates to the board meetings.

Bailey, the governor's director of boards and commissions with a $78,500 annual salary, has been on paid leave since Aug. 19 as a result of what Palin has called a "smoking gun" conversation with a trooper lieutenant about Wooten. He is paying for his own lawyer.

In the phone call, which was recorded by troopers, Bailey told Lt. Rodney Dial that "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, 'Why on earth hasn't this, why is this guy still representing the department?' He's a horrible recruiting tool, you know."

Palin has said Bailey wasn't speaking on her behalf, and Bailey has said the same thing. The phone call doesn't prove her staff members were pushing troopers and Monegan to get Wooten fired, she has said.

Bailey will cooperate, once it's clear who's in charge, Grebe said.

"No. 1, he's still an employee of the state," Grebe said. "No . 2, he's stated publicly what his position was, which is that no one put him up to making the phone call. Sarah Palin was not involved. He is going to say the same thing under oath. This is just to try to make sure we are going through the proper legal proceedings."

Palin has made repeated public statements that she'll cooperate, and that hasn't changed at this point, Van Flein says.

What if the Legislature won't drop its investigation? "Haven't crossed that bridge yet," Van Flein said.

Read the original story HERE.

Troopergate: Someone hires private attorney for Palin

McClatchy newspapers have stayed close to the unfolding Sarah Palin story. In the following dispatch, she suddenly acquires a private attorney in her ongoing tussle with the Legislature over her attempt to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Private lawyer hired for Palin
in 'troopergate' probe

Monday, September 1, 2008

By Lisa Demer | Anchorage Daily News

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — Republican John McCain's pick for vice president — now has a private lawyer representing her and others in the governor's office in an investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner

It wasn't immediately clear who hired and who is paying for Thomas Van Flein, who is with a large Alaska law firm.

The Alaska Legislature approved spending up to $100,000 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the firing of the commissioner, Walt Monegan. He has said he believes he was pushed out at least in part because he had refused to fire a state trooper who is Palin's ex-brother-in-law and who the family considered dangerous and a "loose cannon."

"We have been retained to represent the Governor and the Governor's Office relative to the Legislative Council's investigation into the termination of Mr. Monegan ...," Van Flein wrote in a Friday letter to Steve Branchflower, the special counsel hired by the Legislature.

Van Flein said he wants the investigation handled by the state's three-member Personnel Board, not the Legislature. He also asked for all witness statements, documents and other materials collected in the course of the investigation.

No way to both requests, said state Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former state prosecutor who is project director for the legislative investigation.

"Governor Palin has repeatedly stated that she has nothing to hide and that she and her administration will cooperate fully with this investigation. Is your client aware that you seem to be challenging the Legislature's jurisdiction?" French wrote on Monday.

French said he had instructed Branchflower not to provide the letters or witness statements.

"I think you will agree that it would be highly unusual for an investigator to share information with one of the targets of the investigation," French wrote. "I am unaware of any precedent for such an arrangement."

Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg conducted a separate inquiry for the governor, French noted.

Branchflower is still trying to interview Palin. He made a request on Thursday morning, but hasn't heard back.

Palin was in Arizona with McCain on Thursday talking to him about the vice president's slot. McCain announced on Friday in Ohio that Palin was his pick.

"Clearly the Governor's new political role will make it more challenging for her to make time for this investigation," French wrote. "Nevertheless, her repeated promises to cooperate fully with the investigation, as well as statements that her new role as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee will not interfere with the day-to-day functioning of state business, should result in a concrete willingness to schedule and conclude her deposition."

French said in a telephone interview Monday that he was surprised that the governor's office had private counsel for the investigation. Usually, the attorney general would represent the governor's office, "at least for anything that happens I think in her capacity as a governor, which is clearly this," he said.

Van Flein didn't immediately return a call. He handles employment cases and has defended clients against dental, legal and medical malpractice claims. He is with the firm Clapp Peterson Van Flein Tiemessen & Thorsness, which has offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Read the original story HERE.

Gov. Palin: For earmarks before against them

Palin wasn't always against earmarks (called 'pork' by some), as reported by the McClatchy Newspapers.

Palin was for earmarks before she was against them

Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: September 04, 2008 09:32:35 PM

WASHINGTON — Back in late February, when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin met Sen. John McCain for the first time at a convention of U.S. governors, the two dished about a number of things, but mostly earmarks.

"We just talked about earmark reform and how it's going to happen," Palin said shortly after she attended a breakfast for Republican governors featuring McCain.

Since McCain announced last week that she would be vice presidential running mate, his campaign has worked to paint Palin as a crusader who took on two of the most successful appropriators in the history of Congress: her fellow Republicans and titans of Alaska politics, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. But Palin also sought earmarks, both as a governor and a small-town mayor — a position that is at odds with McCain's zero tolerance.

So what exactly is Palin's position on earmarks? Is it an opportunistic evolution mirroring a growing national distaste for the spending practice or true conviction that Alaska needed to be weaned from such federal spending?

"My position has been in trying to read that writing on the wall, and understanding there's going to be reform, we can either put our heads in the sand and ignore the reforms that are coming," she said in a February interview. "Or we can be proactive and get Alaska in the position of being more productive, contributing more and becoming less reliant on the federal government."

Unlike McCain, though, Palin has not been a purist on earmarks. As Alaska governor, she sought and obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks for the state, and as mayor of Wasilla, she hired lobbyist and former Stevens staffer Steve Silver to steer federal money to her town.

Some of her earmark projects when she served as mayor from 1996 to 2002 even landed on McCain's list of questionable congressional pork barrel spending.

"I think she will fit in really well in Washington, D.C., because she is already used to saying one thing and doing another," said Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a key adviser to Sen. Barack Obama and one of the few Democrats who refuses to ask for earmarks.

"Not only has she taken them, she has gorged on earmarks," McCaskill said. "It's not what you say, it's what you do."

One thing is clear: Palin has increasingly distanced herself from earmarking since she made her first trip to Washington to lobby Congress for money in 2000. And over the past year, her stance has been the leading source of tension between Palin and the state's three-member congressional delegation.

Last year, when Palin announced the state was abandoning plans for the so-called "bridge to nowhere" in southeastern Alaska, she was met with what could kindly be described as a frosty reception from the delegation.

Her move embarrassed Stevens and Young — Stevens even complained publicly this spring that "the issue of earmarks and the way they handled the bridge money" made it challenging for him, Young and fellow Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski to ask for any special federal set-asides for Alaska.

"It is a difficult thing to get over right now, the feeling that we don't represent Alaska because Alaska doesn't want earmarks," Stevens said in an interview at the time.

The three lawmakers were so infuriated that they began publicizing on their individual Web sites all the earmark requests they received from Alaska, just to point out the sheer volume, especially the number originating from the governor's office.

Palin's staff is quick to point out that the governor's office has sliced its federal requests since she took office.

For fiscal 2007, the administration of former Gov. Frank Murkowski submitted 63 earmark requests totaling $350 million, Palin's staff said.

That slid to 52 earmarks valued at $256 million in Palin's first year. This year, the governor's office asked the delegation to help it land 31 earmarks valued at $197 million.

Why the gradual move away from earmarks? Palin recognized that Alaska's coffers were overflowing with revenue from oil profits and felt it was almost unseemly for the state to press so aggressively for federal money, said John Katz, who heads the Alaska governor's Washington, D.C., office.

In December 2007, Palin's budget director put out a memo urging state officials who were assembling their department spending plans to reserve earmarks for compelling needs only, in an effort to "enhance the state's credibility."

"When she took office, we talked about the state's reliance on federal earmarks and she made it clear for several reasons she wanted to significantly cut back on that reliance," Katz said.

Several other factors contributed. The national mood was turning, in part because of the controversy of the proposed bridge, which would have linked the airport on Gravina Island to Ketchikan. That shift meant it would be harder to land earmarks, especially for Alaska. Also, Stevens and Young, while still senior lawmakers, faced a diminishing role in Congress when the GOP lost control to Democrats in 2006.

But former sinners are welcome into the anti-earmark fold, said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., the leading crusader in Congress for scaling back wasteful spending in Congress.

"Anybody that comes to Washington that wants to help change the process, and reform the process so that the next couple of generations have some hope, I'm all for them," Coburn said. "If she has a solid position now, I'm all for her. I think she's going to be just what the doctor ordered."

MORE FROM McCLATCHY

Palin aide skips deposition in 'troopergate' probe

Read the original story HERE.

Convention Speech: Are families off limits?

Washington Post OpEd writer Michael Kingsley notes an irony in Palin's GOP Convention speech.

Memo to Palin

“Our son Track is 19. And one week from tomorrow…he’ll deploy to Iraq…. My nephew Kasey also enslisted…. My family is proud of both of them…. In our family, it’s two boys and three girls…. From the inside, no family seems typical. That’s how it is with us. Our family has the same ups and downs as any other…. Todd is a story all by himself…. We met in high school and two decades and five children later he’s still my guy…. My parents are here tonight, and I am so proud to be the daughter of….”

Did someone forget to tell Sarah Palin that families are off-limits?

Posted September 3, 2008. 11:56 PM.

Read the original post HERE.

Mayor Palin - Wanting library to ban books

No liberal she, Mayor Palin wanted books banned from the library, and to fire the librarian when she didn't get her way.

Publisher's Weekly 'Daily Roundup'

Wednesday, September 3, 2008


Sarah Palin Wanted to Ban Books
When She Was Mayor, reports Time

Time: "[Former Wasilla mayor John] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. ‘She asked the library how she could go about banning books,’ he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. ‘The librarian was aghast.’ That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving ‘full support’ to the mayor." Perhaps the governor of Alaska would be wise to heed the words of James J. (Jimmy) Walker, the Mayor of the City of New York during the Roaring 20s: "No girl was ever ruined by a book." Beau James, still right on the money.

Publisher's Weekly item HERE.