Abuse of power has been the hallmark of the Bush administration, so we shouldn't be surprised that John McCain overlooked a little abuse-of-power scandal involving his VP pick, Gov. Sarah Palin, in his campaign for Bush's third term. Palin is accused of firing Alaska state police chief Walt Monegan for refusing to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law Mike Wooten after the State Police had investigated charges against him and suspended him for ten days. Palin claims that she fired Monegan over a disagreement about the state budget and that Monegan serves at the pleasure of the Governor anyway, an excuse similar to one we've heard before in the firings of US attorneys.
Do we really need a Vice President who ignores findings they disagree with, is willing to use her office to carry out personal vendettas and apparently thinks that Alberto Gonzalez is a role model?
Palin's defenders are already offering up the excuse that Wooten was a scumbag. Here's an example from the ironically named American Thinker
Even if this investigation shows that someone in Palin's office did pressure the Public Safety Commissioner to fire Wooten, this is a fight that we should relish having with the white male hierarchy of the Democratic Party and the drive-by media. Let's get all of the dirt about Wooten out in the open.
The issue is not Wooten's character. The issue is that Palin would not accept her own State Police's conclusions.
[Emphasis mine]...[T]he AST finally did release the following Report [PDF] ...[I]t finds that the threats against the father's life were not illegal, because they were made to others outside of his presence and he was not informed of those threats immediately... On that grounds the conduct unbecoming charge and poor personal conduct charges were upheld but failure to conform to laws charges were dismissed.
The report accepted the results of a drug test privately obtained by the accused despite acknowledging that they did not know if the test covered the full range of illegal steroids. Thus another charge of failure to conform to laws was dismissed.
All charges related to the alleged altercation in a bar were dismissed based on inconsistent statements by the bartender, who both said that Wooten was intoxicated and then said he was probably below the legal limit and showing no outward signs of intoxication.
Charges of domestic violence were dismissed on the grounds that they were not brought forward until divorce proceedings began, and the credibility of Palin and her son was questioned based on inconsistencies between their respective stories unrelated to the actual threats and violence themselves- specifically the son giving a contradictory reason for listening in on the conversation in question.
The Tazering of his son was described as being done "in a training capacity" but still resulted in conduct unbecoming and a few other minor charges.
Subsequently on Feb 1st 2006 Colonel Grimes overturned portions of that Report, deciding that Wooten probably did commit DUI.
Ultimately a 10 day suspension was imposed by Grimes, but that was reduced to 5 days upon appeal by the union.
Link
The State Police found Palin not to be credible. Her credibility was further strained when recordings of calls from her staffers to Monegan became public.
Palin, who has previously said her administration didn't exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten, also disclosed that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper.
"I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said.
...
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.
Palin said she'd only known about some of the contacts and never asked anyone on her staff to get in touch with state public safety officials about Wooten.
"Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction," she said.
...
The Bailey phone call was the only one that Palin singled out as being wrong. Assistant Attorney General Mike Barnhill said all the calls from then-chief of staff Tibbles, who is now running Sen. Ted Stevens' re-election campaign, regarding Wooten looked to be appropriate.
Link
So, to Palin, it's all about perceptions.
Now, what does all of this say about how Palin's might operate as Vice President?
- She will ignore findings that are contary to her beliefs.
- She believes that perception is reality.
- She will use her political power against those she dislikes.
- She will hide evidence of misfeasance (at the least) until she gets caught.
- She does not accept due process.
In other words - it's more of the same. ENOUGH!