I saw this video on the huffingtonpost.com site which was aired today on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer. Brian Ross, who busted the Mark Foley scandal wide open in 2006, is up in Alaska looking into Troopergate.
I was expecting ABC to cover for Palin, because I don't trust Charlie Gibson, and I think the network generally shills for Republicans, but this report was somewhat of a pleasant surprise.
Ross' report doesn't cover for Palin in this piece, but it is not a hit job either. It is a fairly professional piece that gets to the heart of the matter and provides important political context as to why Alaskans feel this is a big deal.
To resummarize the facts: Sarah Palin is the subject of an ethics investgation for having fired Alaska's top cop, the Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan. Monegan leads the Alaska State Troopers, who are probably the most important law enforcement authority in the gigantic, sprawling and sparsely populated state.
The issue is whether Palin abused her power to fire Monegan, and whether she lied to investigators about her actions.
[more below the flip]
Monegan had filed the ethics complaint alleging that Palin had improperly demanded that Monegan fire Palin's brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, who is an Alaskan State Trooper. Mike Wooten had been going through a messy divorce from Palin's sister, and the animosity between the two sides was intense, as evidenced in court filings.
Monegan refused to fire Wooten, as he did not feel that the Governor had sufficient grounds to demand such an action. Palin later fired Monegan (July 2008). Monegan alleges that Palin fired him as retribution for not firing Wooten as she had requested/demanded.
In Monegan's view, Palin was attempting to settle a family grudge by getting Wooten fired from his job. Governor Palin's office had initially denied making inquiries to Monegan about Wooten, but after at least one conversation was caught on tape, she admitted in an August 13, 2008 press conference that her administration had made over 20 calls to the Alaska Department of Public Safety inquiring about Wooten’s status. The Alaska Attorney General’s office states that there were more than two dozen calls made by Todd Palin and her staff to Monegan and other supervisors regarding Wooten. She claims many of the calls were perfectly appropriate and tried to distance herself from one of the taped calls, in which one of her aides, Frank Bailey, expressed Palin’s frustration that Wooten remained on the job.
Brian Ross' report has video of Palin publicly praising Monegan in April, 2008 for his work on domestic violence issues. She now claims that she fired Monegan because he wasn't a 'team player' on budget issues.
The ethics committee reviewing the matter was initially going to provide its report at the end of October, but later accelerated the timetable to late September/early October. The McCain campaign has attempted to discredit the committee, but as Ross points out the committee is 10-5 Republican.
Ross has been speaking with Monegan, and Monegan told ABC that he testified before investigators on Wednesday, and maintained his story that Palin fired him for refusing to fire Wooten. He also told ABC News that he had proof to support his claim. Ross quotes a Democratic State Senator, Hollis French, who is heading the investigation, states that Palin had at least 2 conversations with Monegan and she sent him emails (presumably on the subject of Wooten), and seems convinced that the Palin argument of ‘no contact/no pressure’ doesn’t withstand scrutiny. I don’t know how appropriate it is for French to comment so publicly on the evidence in an on-going investigation, but he seemed comfortable speaking with Ross.
The other part of Ross’ piece is that the reason the story is a big deal in Alaska (and was so even before Palin was named McCain’s VP selection) is that Monegan is very well regarded in the State. Women’s groups in Alaska are publicly expressing support for Monegan because he made combating domestic violence a priority. Alaska has the highest rate of rape in the US and the second highest murder rate of women by men. Even Palin admits, as evidenced in the clip of a speech featured in Ross’ piece, that Monegan was viewed as an ally in combating domestic violence. Ross goes on to state that women’s groups thought he was more of an ally than she. Women’s groups are skeptical of Palin’s commitment to the issue.
I see some significance in these developments.
- Alaskans are not so caught up in Palinmania or this election to shut down this investigation. There appears to be no major public outcry to protect Sarah. I guess not everyone sees things the way they do in the beltway.
- The ethics committee seems to be doing its job and maintaining the schedule.
- Palin has tried to deflect attention on the issue by having her surrogates focus on Wooten, who doesn’t have clean hands. However, the focus of Ross’ report and Alaskans is Monegan, who appears to be a good public servant. In fact, Monegan may be better regarded than Palin, and that puts Palin in a difficult situation in terms of spin control.
- Every time we get one of these scandals, invariably the GOP gets away with it because investigations get shut down, witnesses renege on their initial positions, or play the fall guy and shield the real target from further blame. In this case, however, Monegan is sticking to his guns and has apparently provided the evidence to the ethics committee. The head of the committee appears to be a pro-Obama Democrat, and for now has the support of the 10 Republicans.
- The McCain campaign will probably lean hard on the GOP members of the Committee to protect Palin. Palin, herself, will probably try to use some executive authority to quash the investigation. Thus far, Monegan was able to say what he wanted to say and that could always be leaked by Hollis.
- Palin’s actions appear no different than the tactics used by Bush/Rove to purge government agencies of good public servants, or to go after dissenters like Valerie Plame, Richard Clarke, and Paul O’Neill. The firing of dedicated public servants for political reasons is a big part of the story of the Bush years. Palin would repeat that trend. If we tell the story correctly, we can increase her negatives and force her off the pedestal that right wing America has placed her on.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://www.ktuu.com/...