McCain VP Pick

[dhw]

Well, give him credit, he did want a VP Candidate who could hit the ground running.

So he picked one already under investigation for abuse of power.

After all, why wait until after the election?

Comments

[fabozz]

Replacing the head of the State Troopers because he refused to fire a drunken, violent cop who got slapped with a restraining order for threatening to kill his father-in-law counts as "abuse of power"? Personally, I call that "cleaning house." I would have thought that "fewer drunken thug cops" would be a policy agenda we could all agree on.

[dhw]

Sorry, but the reason he wasn't fired was because the charges weren't substantiated.

And yes, deciding that due process wasn't good enough, and firing people for not firing someone who was divorcing your sister counts as abuse of power. Or is the system only good enough for other people?

[dhw]

Sorry, to be more precise:

He demonstrated a taser (which had just been demonstrated on him) on his step-son at the son's request.

He shot a Moose for which his then wife had a permit at her request.

He apparently had a beer on duty once.

And the witnesses to the "threatening his father-in-law" were apparently, his father-in-law, his then-wife, and her sister.

Not my idea of a perfect cop, but you don't get to over-rule due process because it's your sister and you are the Governor.

We've had 8 years of people abusing the system because they could, we don't need more.

[ebeeman]

Well, the investigation will determine the validity of this, as it should be, in due process. I would presume that the McCain campaign have vetted this closely for validity and the likely outcome of an investigation, before announcing her as the running mate.

---Ellen

[dhw]

The investigation should be complete around Election Day.

I think this is a gamble for the McCain campaign, but they didn't have a lot of good options.

[fabozz]

We don't need to play "he said, she said"—the facts at hand are a matter of legal record. Wooten had his due process, back in March 2006 before Palin was governor. The investigation into the incident back then concluded that the events did take place as described, and as a result, he was suspended: "'The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession,' Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in a March 1, 2006 letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After the union protested it, the suspension was reduced to five days."
As a libertarian, I have a zero-tolerance policy on this stuff, so I personally believe that Monagan deserved to be fired for running the kind of police force where "a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of [the] profession" is apparently so humdrum and commonplace that it only merits a five-day suspension. I

[dhw]

That would be difficult, since Palin claims that the firing had nothing to do with her pressure on him to fire Wooten. Whether or not Wooten deserved to be fired, I have no doubts that Palin would not have been in any way involved in trying to make an end run around the law if it hadn't been her sister -- and that is the issue.

Oh, and her replacement for him had to step down when it turned out he'd had a bit of a problem with Sexual Harrassment of employees -- something she'd been aware of but "thought was unsubstantiated".

The inquiry ends on October 31st, we'll see what the results are.

[dhw]

Oh, the fellow who was on the job for two weeks before resigning due to his habit of sexual harassment?

Palin gave him a $10,000 severance package.

Monegan, who Palin insists did nothing wrong, she just wanted "a different direction". Nothing.

[dhw]

You know, if Sarah Palin really thought this was something that needed to be changed, why didn't she move to have the law changed? Why didn't she move to change State Police procedures.

After all, she was Governor.

Instead, she, her husband, and her staff, put pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten. It wasn't about changing the law, it wasn't about changing the policy, it was about her sister, and her custody case, and only that.

Incidentally, Monegan was appointed by Palin, he was not involved in the Wooten affair or the running of the department at the time.