As if we needed more proof that John McCain will represent more of the same in Washington, his newly annointed VP pic, Sarah Palin, is currently under investigation for ethics and personnel violations. Just a few weeks ago, the Alaska Legislature voted to spend up to $100,000 to investigate Palin's controversial firing of state Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan in July. (Folks, when the Alaska Legislature votes to spend 100 grand to investigate you for ethics violations, you know you're in trouble!) Monegan has claimed he was pressured by Palin's office to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, who went through a bitter divorce from Palin's sister and is locked in a bitter child-custody battle with her. But Monegan didn't open a new investigation into the allegations or fire the trooper, so Palin canned him. Yes, Sarah Palin would fit right in with the ethics-challenged Bush administration.
On August 20th, Palin placed her boards and commissions director, Frank Bailey, on paid leave due to the investigation. A few days earlier, an audiotape surfaced of a call that Bailey made on Feb. 29 to a trooper lieutenant, Lt. Rodney Dial:
Bailey told him during the conversation that Palin and her husband want to know why Wooten still has a job.
"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," Bailey told the lieutenant.
Bailey made several accusations against Wooten in the call, including that he lied on his application. Dial asked Bailey how he knew about any issue with the application.
I used to be a recruiter. I know a lot of times that information is extremely confidential," Dial told him.
Bailey replied he was reluctant to say but saw the application as part of Wooten's worker's compensation claim. Bailey, later in the call, then brought up Monegan again.
"I'm telling you honestly, you know, she really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue, she feels like it's, she doesn't know why there is absolutely no action for a year on this issue. It's very, very troubling to her and the family. I could definitely relay that," Bailey said.
In fact, members of Palin's staff have made at least two dozen contacts with public safety officials about Wooten:
The majority of the calls came from Palin's chief of staff at the time, Mike Tibbles, according to information gathered by the state attorney general's office. Attorney General Talis Colberg and Palin's husband, Todd, also contacted Monegan about the trooper.
And Palin's response about Bailey's call?
The governor admitted the call could be perceived as her office pressuring the Public Safety Department, but says that's not what actually happened.
Um, Oked-dokey, if you say so.
As for Bailey, he said that "no one asked him to make the call and he doesn't know why he indicated in the call that he was speaking on behalf of the Palins."
I guess the devil made him do it.
If you want to learn more about Sarah Palin's troopergate, the Anchorage Daily News has an entire section devoted to troopergate here, including the audio recording of Bailey's phone call to the trooper.
Yes indeed, it looks like McCain has got himself one super-duper running mate. Between Palin's troopergate and McCain's lifetime history of ethical challenges, going back to the Keating 5, it looks like they'll make a great team!