Vendetta, Anchorage Style
On April 11th, 2005, Sarah Palin's sister, Molly McCann, filed for divorce from her husband, Mike Wooten. The divorce was ugly. The Palin family alleged that Wooten had threatened to shoot his father in law, Sarah and Molly's father - although they didn't mention this threat to their father for a month, and they didn't mention it to the authorities for three months, and they could not produce any evidence of or witnesses to the alleged threat save themselves when asked to do so.
Wooten had the Palins' complaints against him, along with some other transgressions, so his superiors at the Alaska State Troopers suspended him for five days in March 2006. Since then, Wooten has kept his nose clean. Case closed.
Except. Sarah Palin was sworn in as governor of Alaska in December 2006, and then the Wooten hunt really began. In the first week of January 2007, Walter Monegan, the Public Safety Commissioner, got called to a meeting with...Todd Palin, the governor's husband, WHO IS NOT AND NEVER WAS A STATE EMPLOYEE OR OFFICIAL. The governor's husband told Monegan, WHO DOES NOT WORK FOR THE FIRST DUDE, that "they" wanted the Wooten case reopened. He supplied Monegan with information on Wooten provided by a private investigator the Palins had hired.
But the original findings of the Alaska State Troopers still held up - there was no just cause to fire Wooten.
If it is any comfort to my readers (it isn't to me), Governor Palin's husband, Todd, was involved in government like this all the time. He attended cabinet meetings that were closed to the public. His taking a meeting with Monegan to school him on all things Wooten was in keeping with the way the First Dude wielded authority in the Alaskan government, in spite of the fact that he was not actually, you know, elected, or on the payroll or anything, or had to answer to anyone for the things he did.
There followed a cascade of emails and phone calls from the governor and her minions to Public Safety Commissioner Monegan, the message of which was always, why is Wooten still a state trooper? (Although the governor's office was always very, very careful not to say, "fire the son of a bitch". That would have been illegal.) Monegan stuck to his original position that Wooten had been punished for his offenses, and there were no grounds to fire him. This was the considered opinion of the Alaska State Troopers and the Public Safety Commissioner. But Governor Palin didn't like it.
Governor Palin fired Monegan on July 11th, 2008. Monegan went public with his belief he had been fired for refusing to cave in to illegal pressure to fire Wooten, and the Alaska State Legislature launched an investigation. The State Legislature had to chase witnesses around, including Todd Palin, because Governor Palin's minions refused to cooperate with subpoenas, on the grounds that the investigation was nothing but dirty partisan politics to smear the now Republican Vice Presidential Candidate. This assertion is A.) Difficult to believe, because the investigative committee was made up of four democrats and TEN Republicans, and B.), totally the hell irrelevant. You are not allowed to refuse a subpoena on any grounds that I'm aware of, least of all, "The investigators aren't my personal cronies". But eventually the minions testified, and the investigation found that while Governor Palin had been within her rights to dismiss Monegan, because the rules say that the Governor of Alaska may dismiss any cabinet member at any time for any reason, like a bad haircut or dropping M&Ms on the floor, she had abused her power and behaved unethically in pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten. She had abused her power and behaved unethically in spending THIRTY-NINE MONTHS trying to ruin her ex-brother-in-law's career, which, by the way, would have served first and foremost to reduce his ability to pay child support, just because she didn't like him personally. And she used the influence of the governor's office to do it. From her first day in the office.
Palin has said that she behaved as she did because she was afraid of Wooten. How would his dismissal have made her or her family safer? And if she was afraid for herself, why did she decline many of the safety measures and bodyguards usually accorded a governor?
So what floats to the top of this stinking well of corruption is this question: should we put a person who thinks that the power of public office exists for her to use in ruining her "enemies", and cheerfully wields it thusly, in charge of things like the FBI, CIA, and NSA? Are you now, are have you ever been, married to my sister Molly?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/us/politics/12trooper.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Public_Safety_Commissioner_dismissal
Wooten had the Palins' complaints against him, along with some other transgressions, so his superiors at the Alaska State Troopers suspended him for five days in March 2006. Since then, Wooten has kept his nose clean. Case closed.
Except. Sarah Palin was sworn in as governor of Alaska in December 2006, and then the Wooten hunt really began. In the first week of January 2007, Walter Monegan, the Public Safety Commissioner, got called to a meeting with...Todd Palin, the governor's husband, WHO IS NOT AND NEVER WAS A STATE EMPLOYEE OR OFFICIAL. The governor's husband told Monegan, WHO DOES NOT WORK FOR THE FIRST DUDE, that "they" wanted the Wooten case reopened. He supplied Monegan with information on Wooten provided by a private investigator the Palins had hired.
But the original findings of the Alaska State Troopers still held up - there was no just cause to fire Wooten.
If it is any comfort to my readers (it isn't to me), Governor Palin's husband, Todd, was involved in government like this all the time. He attended cabinet meetings that were closed to the public. His taking a meeting with Monegan to school him on all things Wooten was in keeping with the way the First Dude wielded authority in the Alaskan government, in spite of the fact that he was not actually, you know, elected, or on the payroll or anything, or had to answer to anyone for the things he did.
There followed a cascade of emails and phone calls from the governor and her minions to Public Safety Commissioner Monegan, the message of which was always, why is Wooten still a state trooper? (Although the governor's office was always very, very careful not to say, "fire the son of a bitch". That would have been illegal.) Monegan stuck to his original position that Wooten had been punished for his offenses, and there were no grounds to fire him. This was the considered opinion of the Alaska State Troopers and the Public Safety Commissioner. But Governor Palin didn't like it.
Governor Palin fired Monegan on July 11th, 2008. Monegan went public with his belief he had been fired for refusing to cave in to illegal pressure to fire Wooten, and the Alaska State Legislature launched an investigation. The State Legislature had to chase witnesses around, including Todd Palin, because Governor Palin's minions refused to cooperate with subpoenas, on the grounds that the investigation was nothing but dirty partisan politics to smear the now Republican Vice Presidential Candidate. This assertion is A.) Difficult to believe, because the investigative committee was made up of four democrats and TEN Republicans, and B.), totally the hell irrelevant. You are not allowed to refuse a subpoena on any grounds that I'm aware of, least of all, "The investigators aren't my personal cronies". But eventually the minions testified, and the investigation found that while Governor Palin had been within her rights to dismiss Monegan, because the rules say that the Governor of Alaska may dismiss any cabinet member at any time for any reason, like a bad haircut or dropping M&Ms on the floor, she had abused her power and behaved unethically in pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten. She had abused her power and behaved unethically in spending THIRTY-NINE MONTHS trying to ruin her ex-brother-in-law's career, which, by the way, would have served first and foremost to reduce his ability to pay child support, just because she didn't like him personally. And she used the influence of the governor's office to do it. From her first day in the office.
Palin has said that she behaved as she did because she was afraid of Wooten. How would his dismissal have made her or her family safer? And if she was afraid for herself, why did she decline many of the safety measures and bodyguards usually accorded a governor?
So what floats to the top of this stinking well of corruption is this question: should we put a person who thinks that the power of public office exists for her to use in ruining her "enemies", and cheerfully wields it thusly, in charge of things like the FBI, CIA, and NSA? Are you now, are have you ever been, married to my sister Molly?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/us/politics/12trooper.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Public_Safety_Commissioner_dismissal