Gov. Palin's initial ethics disclosure of 9/1/2008 was focused primarily on sliming Mike Wooten, whereas it praised Walt Monegan as a "distinguished law enforcement officer" with whom Palin merely had a series of "good-faith disagreements." So seeing that he still "had talents" Gov. Palin did not even fire him but instead offered him a "new position" in the administration, which he turned down.
But now that Monegan has made a series of unhelpful statements in the media, Gov. Palin has suddenly discovered that - guess what? - Monegan was actually let go for much more egregious reasons.
continued...
Yesterday Gov. Palin filed an additional brief with the Alaska Personnel Board (which by the way has already initiated its investigation into Troopergate). With this filing she now pivots from attacking Wooten to going directly at Walt Monegan.
I haven't been able to acquire a full copy yet, but according to the Anchorage Daily News the brief includes these new accusations:
"an escalating pattern of insubordination"
"outright insubordination"
"rogue mentality"
"sought out the governor's political opponents behind her back"
"constantly going off the reservation"
Now as far as I know the filing does not contain any truly nasty personal attacks against Monegan, but this is a slimy turn of events just the same. Palin's lawyer appears to have put this new filing together by scouring executive branch email servers in search of any little snippet of someone criticizing Monegan. That's a pretty tawdry way to treat a "talent[ed]" and "distinguished" former employee, no?
But of course the real story here is the shifting rationale for Monegan's firing.
Which member of the traditional media will be first to ask Gov. Palin why she - by her own account - offered a new position in her administration to a "rogue" employee who had engaged in "insubordination"? Why did she praise him in her 9/1/2008 filing but then suddenly change her tune on 9/15/2008? Did it possibly have something to do with the interviews he gave in the interim?
*** UPDATED 9/17/2008 ***
Here is a pdf copy of this latest filing that I found yesterday from this diary by Liberal Youth.
(end of diary)