...the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles.
The Palin campaign and her lawyer have already depicted the review by the personnel board as "unbiased," and "professional." In a news conference with Alaskan reporters Saturday, Palin emphasized that the Personnel Board was the right venue for the matter. This lends credence to whatever findings it reaches.
If the Personnel Review Board determines that Palin violated state law, they must then refer the matter to the Senate president for disciplinary action, which could include a hefty fine.
The Personnel Review Board, however, is legally required to keep its investigation confidential. According to former Gov. Tony Knowles, this means it does not have to publicize its findings. Palin did waive her right to confidentiality in the case, but Petumenos has continued to conduct everything in secret, because others in the case (her employees) have not waived their right to confidentiality. Additionally, as complainant, Palin can drop the complaint at any time (although this does not necessarily mean the complaint will be dropped).
An attorney in Anchorage is filing a lawsuit to contest Petumenos' secrecy:
Anchorage white collar attorney Margaret Simonian wants the board's independent counsel, Tim Petumenos, to conduct his probe in public and says she's planning a lawsuit to force him to do so.
Palin has been claiming that Branchflower's report vindicates her and says she did nothing wrong--despite the fact that it's first finding states that she violated Alaska's ethics laws. I wondered how Palin could say something so blatantly contradicted by the facts, and now we know:
Aides said Saturday that Palin had not read the report but had been "extensively briefed" on it.
Either one of two things are happening here; either she is too busy reading all the newspapers and magazines in the world to review the report or, more likely, in Bush-like fashion, her aides are afraid to tell her any bad news and neglected to mention that the report actually does find her guilty of breaking the law. The media doesn't seem that keen on pointing it out either. I think Palin's failure to read the report really calls into question her character. Apparently she was too busy getting ready for the Flyers hockey game to spend more than 5 minutes discussing the serious matter with Alaska's reporters. In her telephone press conference, reporters were not allowed to ask more than one question each.
If I were a citizen of Alaska, I would be very angered that she appears not to be taking the matter seriously.
Palin is scheduled to meet with the personnel board investigator next week; we will see if she makes it. There is no timeline for this investigation, and if the results are not released prior to the election (which I think seems unlikely the closer to election time it gets), it is going to be irrelevant nationally in the near future, although it may come up later should she decide to run for national office in the future. It could have greater impact in Alaska, when she runs for re-election.
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