If someone has a legal drivers license, follows all the rules of the road while driving to the bank, but then robs that bank, that person still broke the law.
That is a basic analogy which might be useful in un-spinning the spin the McCain/Palin camp is pushing about the findings in the damning report from special investigator Stephen Branchflower to Alaska's Legislative Council on the "troopergate" scandal which was made public yesterday.
The Fright-Wing is attempting to spin it that Governor Sarah Palin violated no laws when firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, and the push-back is pretty simple really as long as you keep the above car-bank robbery analogy in mind.
Carrying out a personal vendetta is against the ethics laws of Alaska, specifically Alaska Statute 39.52.11(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, regardless of wether she had the legal power to fire commissioners or not. The Ethics Act, basically says that it is illegal to use your office to carry out a personal vendetta, since using your office to carrying out a personal vendetta is abuse of the public trust. Just like driving a car can be legal, but using that car to drive somewhere in order to commit a crime does not absolve you of committing that crime simply because you could legally drive to where you committed said crime.
Having the legal power to fire a commissioner for whatever reason, doesn't make it legal to use that power to do something illegal such as using her office to carry out a personal vendetta. So don't miss the forrest for the trees and keep the focus on the distinctions involved here, from the reports findings as the McCain camp and Palin boosters try to muddy it up and spin it away.