Buried deep within the Troopergate affair may be the REAL REASON McPalin is doing her best to delegitimize and scuttle the duly authorized Branchflower investigation...and it's a doozy if Alaskan radio talk show host Dan Fagan is to be believed. It's the oldest trick in the book: revenge.
"So why would the governor sacrifice her reputation as an honest and different kind of politician just to cover the fact that she was doing something for the public good? Why do she and her new handlers in the McCain camp believe there is something in Troopergate that could cost them the election?
Follow me if you dare into this tangled web of Palinbaloney.
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"The reason Gov. Palin has abandoned her truth and transparent, open and honest aura with her foolish and obvious coverup and trail of lies is simple. Troopergate is not about trying to get her ex-brother-in-law, trooper Mike Wooten, fired. It's not even about the firing of her Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Troopergate is about something the public has not yet picked up on.
Wooten, Palin's ex-brother-in-law and state trooper, filed a Workers Comp claim. The claim was evaluated by Harbor Adjustors, a company in the running for lucrative state contracts. The story is that the governor's office pressured Harbor to deny Wooten's claim. Murlene Wilkes, the owner of Harbor, denies this. At the end of the day, it has been reported that Wooten was forced to settle for pennies. The state wouldn't even pick up his chiropractor bills.
However, Branchflower, the investigator for the Legislature, received a tip over the summer from an employee of Harbor that indeed, pressure had been applied to deny the claim. Apparently, this former employee has been deposed by Branchflower and the skinny is she has not changed her story.
Also, and equally as alarming, there is the allegation that the governor's aide, Frank Bailey, improperly accessed Wooten's Workers Comp file.
As Andrew Halcro (www.andrewhalcro.com) explains...
Workers compensation files are kept in the Department of Labor. Workers condition and treatment information is confidential and is protected by federal privacy laws called HIPAA. Bailey should have never seen that file let alone be talking about the files contents to another employee.
So then the question becomes...how did Frank Bailey access these files?
How about the First Dude?
Back to Halcro...
The Commissioner of the Department of Labor is Click Bishop. He was appointed by Governor Palin in 2007 after serving as an administrator for the Alaska Operating Engineers/Employers Training Trust and he has a close relationship with Todd Palin. According to state travel documents, Todd and Click have made several state paid trips together to promote work force development. Do you think the issue of Wooten's workers compensation file could have come up?
Now this is just speculation...but if this is proven, this could leave the state wide open to a whopper of a lawsuit by Wooten.
The Palin's family harassment of Wooten is well documented. Indeed, the Judge who presided over the nasty divorce/custody battle between Wooten and Sarah Palin's sister, had admonished the Palin's over bogus complaints concerning Wooten. The Judge even went so far as to label their badmouthing of Wooten to his children tantamount to "child abuse."
But going so far as to improperly interfere with the determination of Wooten's Workers Comp claim?
As Fagan puts it...
"It's one thing to try to get a trooper fired because you believe he is a danger to the public. But using your considerable power as governor to block the benefits of a former family member you have a long-running dispute with moves this scandal into a new realm."