Taking one last (maybe) look at the Branchflower Report (as the Alaska State Personnel Board's investigation gets underway), I think it's informative to take note of how many times Sarah Palin, her stalker husband Todd, and members of her "administration" kept trying to force the Wooten issue onto Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's agenda. Not only that, but how many times Monegan and his deputy, John Glass, warned them that getting involved would create legal jeopardy both for the state and for them as individuals, not to mention political embarrassment when it all came out, as these things so often do.

Between this incessant pressure, the end-arounds Palin tries to pull by sending one member of her "administration" after another to Monegan with the same inquiry, and the other Palin stories that have come out over the past few days (her insistence on expanding the power of the vice presidency, her $150,000 wardrobe upgrade, etc.), I think it points to a strong sense of entitlement, and a dangerous unwillingness to take no for an answer, even when the answer is, "No, that's illegal."

To set us up, let's start with Branchflower's questioning of Monegan about his initial meeting with Todd Palin, who summoned him on his own (that is, not to a meeting called by Sarah which he attended) to a private sit-down within weeks of Sarah's assuming office, and that turned out to be all about launching the official vendetta against Wooten:

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Did he -- did Todd Palin give you something? Did he ask you to do something?
MR. MONEGAN: Yes, he did. Actually, there was -- those three stacks of paper, we combined. You know, the photos, the documentation, and the private investigator's report, he gave it to me as a packet and asked me to review it, so I told him I would.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Did he give you any specific request about those materials?
MR. MONEGAN: Just basically to look it over to see if we missed anything. Because he didn't think what transpired -- they didn't take the complaint seriously or something to that effect.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Okay. And what did you do with the stack of materials that he gave you?
MR. MONEGAN: I told him I'd have -- I told Todd that I would have the -- compare it to the investigation. So I took the stack with me at the end of the meeting, returned back to DPS, and I gave it to Major Matt Leveque and asked him do a page-by-page comparison, did we miss anything on this. And he said he would.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Did you make any promises to Todd Palin?
MR. MONEGAN: The only promise I made to him, or the only statement I made, is I would look into it.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: And what was his reaction when he heard you say that you would look into it?
MR. MONEGAN: He said, that's good, thanks.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: And what did you see as your job at that point with respect to these materials?
MR. MONEGAN: That -- was trying to resolve in this case a citizen's issue with a complaint and how it was investigated and handled.

And that was the last time either of the Palins made a reasonable request of Walt Monegan in this case.

Here's Monegan's testimony regarding a February 13, 2007 conversation with Sarah Palin:

MR. MONEGAN: ... So as we were walking down the stairs, the governor mentioned to me, she says, I'd like to talk to you about Wooten. And I said, ma'am, I need you to keep an arm's length at this -- on this issue. And if you have further complaints on him, I can deal with Todd on it. And she goes, that's a better idea.

Things quickly begin to snowball. Here's Monegan's testimony regarding a subsequent February 2007 discussion with Palin's Chief of Staff, Mike Tibbles:

MR. MONEGAN: Yeah. It was an impromptu meeting. Mike called. I happened to be in Juneau. And in fact, he asked me that. So he said, if you've got a few minutes, why don't you come up to my office. So I did. I walked into his office. It was just him and I. We were alone. He closed the doors, and he brought up -- he says, I under stand you have -- you have a Trooper Mike Wooten on the force.

And I started to explain to him that the investigation on Wooten was completed. It had been done by the last administration. It is all done;
there is no issues. We had the case reviewed at the request of Todd, and that this is an issue that is closed.

And then I went to say that it is my understanding that should there be
any litigation brought on by Trooper Wooten, this conversation is
discoverable, and that -- and the way I understand state law, having
been sued a couple of times, is that we are certainly liable, certainly as
state employees, but also could be as individuals if we intentionally break this law. So we shouldn't be talking about this. You don't want Wooten to own your house, do you?

He goes no, I don' t. Then we shouldn't talk about this. So that's how the conversation ended.

And parts of Monegan's testimony regarding a call from Department of Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer about -- what else? -- Mike Wooten:

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: And did there come a time that you received a telephone call from Annette Kreitzer about Michael Wooten?
MR. MONEGAN: I did. I was in my office -- my Anchorage office. I got a phone call. And I can't remember the date or time. I didn't keep a log. And it was from Annette. She wanted to know about Trooper Wooten. And so what I did is I kind of did much like I did with Mike Tibbles. I kind of cautioned her that our conversations were discoverable, that we are liable, we shouldn't be talking about this stuff, and that -- and I closed by saying, I will handle it. I can handle this.

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Earlier , you talked about, in the context of
your conversation with Mike Tibbles, how these kinds of conversations might be discoverable. In other words, how lawyers for Mr. Wooten might just find out about these goings on. Did that topic -- did you discuss that topic with Ms. Kreitzer?
MR. MONEGAN: I did.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: What did you tell her?
MR. MONEGAN: I told her that this conversation, in fact, could be discoverable, that -- and it puts the State and us personally at risk for -- liability- wise and in litigation.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Did she ever tell you why she was calling?
MR. MONEGAN: No. Nor did I ask.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: And what was your feeling at the time in shutting her -- shutting her out of this complication -- this matter, I should say?
MR. MONEGAN: That I too thought she should know better than this. If she's going to -- part of her department basically deals with personnel and all the personnel rules, regulations. They emanate from her shop, and that she should know that there are things like double jeopardy, that there are liability issues on this. But I perceived it much like I did with the Tibbles call or contact, as well as Kreitzer. It was -- he keeps popping up.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Do you know whet her Ms. Kreitzer called other people within the Palin administration about Trooper Wooten?
MR. MONEGAN: I found out later that she had, yes.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Who did Ms. Kreitzer contact about Trooper Wooten?
MR. MONEGAN: Kim Peterson, who is my special assistant and handled the HR issues.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Anyone else?
MR. MONEGAN: That Annette had called?
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Yeah.
MR. MONEGAN: I -- no, I don't believe anybody else.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: I think when we spoke about this earlier,
you said that Dianne --
MR. MONEGAN: Oh --
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: -- Kiesel had been called by Ms. Kreitzer.
MR. MONEGAN: I believe that -- that's correct.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: (Indiscernible) that?
MR. MONEGAN: No. That was what Kim told me. Kim basically told me that she was contacted by Annette Kreitzer, Dianne Kiesel, who is the Division of Personnel director who works for Annette, and that Kim also had been contacted by Todd Palin directly twice, all about Wooten.

Monegan's testimony regarding Todd Palin's call in October 2007 about Mike Wooten following a news event about a lawsuit involving another trooper:

MR. MONEGAN: This is an e-mail that was sent to me from Colonel [Audie] Holloway. It's dated October 3rd of '07. And t he subject is: Todd
Palin message.

At the time, I was attending the Special Olympics event, my wife and I, because I'm a board member. And we were in China.

And what he -- what Audie wanted to relate to me was that he had gotten a call from Todd Palin after the lawsuit that was out in [location] [specifics deleted as required by the confidentiality provisions
of AS 39.25.080] on Trooper [name of another Trooper]. [Specifics
deleted as required by the confidentiality provisions of AS 39.25.080] And he wanted -- Todd apparently wanted to let know -- wanted to know what we were doing about it, and felt that [name of another Trooper] [specifics deleted as required by the confidentiality provisions of AS 39.25.080] was a friend of Wooten, and why were we keeping an employee that's costing the State money. So I think that that was the thrust of the conversation of the first paragraph.

The second paragraph -- oh, in fact, Audie correctly informed Todd at the time, told him that candidly, it was none of his business, because this was a personnel matter. And Todd Palin was not in his chain of command. He said, I said it professionally, but I left no room for doubt.

Monegan's testimony about a call from Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg:

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: And during this period of time, in the fall of 2007, did you receive a telephone call from the attorney general about Mr. Wooten?
MR. MONEGAN: I did. It began pretty much like the contacts that I had with Mike Tibbles, as well as Annette Kreitzer.

He started the conversation, hi, Walt. Tell me about this Mike Wooten.

And so what I did is I addressed the issue like I had with Annette, like I had with Mike, basically saying this was an issue, that there was a complaint, it was investigated, it was -- it's done, it's complete. There is other complaints that come in, but you know, we address them as they come in. But more importantly, the conversations -- and I said, you're the civil attorney. You understand all this, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. But this conversation that's taking place at this moment is discoverable should he ever litigate against the state. Because it seems like you're asking about him.

And in that case, if he does bring the lawsuit against the State, not only does he affect our -- us as employees, but us as individuals, as well. So we're all on the hook for it. He goes, that's correct.

Well, then would you tell the boss -- it's only going to spill out. The more people get involved in this, the more people are going to -- the more the chance this is going to come on out in the public.

And he said, okay, I'll talk to them.

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: I'll talk to "them," plural?
MR. MONEGAN: Yeah.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Did he tell you who he had been talking to earlier before calling you?
MR. MONEGAN: No. Nor did I ask.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: And because he used the word "them," you assumed that he had been spoken to by both the governor and Mr. Palin?
MR. MONEGAN: I -- I would find it kind of incredulous that individually, you'd have a chief of staff and two commissioners just acting on their own and just asking about an employee.

Here's a revealing little excerpt from Deputy Public Safety Commissioner John Glass's testimony regarding Palin administration Director of Boards and Commissions Frank Bailey's telephone call to Trooper Rodney Dial on February 29, 2008. For some bizarre reason, Bailey calls a State Trooper stationed in Ketchikan, to complain to him about what a bad guy Wooten was. The reason given?

[Bailey] told me that he had felt very comfortable in calling Lieutenant Dial and I asked him why. I mean, how did you feel so comfortable in calling Lieutenant Dial in Ketchikan, and he stated to me that the Governor had gone to church with Lieutenant Dial when Lieutenant Dial was stationed out in the Valley and that the Governor was comfortable and felt good about Lieutenant Dial.

What? What planet are these people from?

Glass's testimony about his conversation with Bailey continues:

I kind of lit into him and told him that it was just improper for him to do that. I then went in and discussed the Wooten situation, that he just could not continue to do this, that Wooten had been already suspended for this action, that disciplinary action had been taken, that we have to follow the progressive discipline, that it was two and a half, three years ago that all these events had occurred, and you can't be going back and firing somebody for that.

If we did go back and fire him for that, it would be probably viewed upon by, you know, the courts and stuff that it would be a wrongful discharge. When you do fire somebody wrongfully like that and you do so outside the
scope of your employment, you then become personally liable for that. It's not the State that doesn't stand for that, it's you, and that could create problems for not only him but myself.

So, if we fire somebody, they have a grievance procedure to go through. Part of that grievance procedure is the bottom line, if we can't agree on the discipline that is applied, then it goes to an arbitrator. The arbitrator generally will rule in the favor of the employee, or they try to split the baby sometimes. But, a lot of times when it happens, we end up also paying for the arbitration and one of those arbitrations can be very expensive; anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000 for an arbitration. I did not want that to happen. And the other thing that I told Mr. Bailey is, if they persist, they had to stop trying to interfere in what the Department of Public Safety was going to do because it would create just an unbelievable amount of embarrassment for the Governor and everybody else and I did not want that.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Now, did you get a sense from what he was saying and the give and take o f the conversation that the Governor had directed Bailey to make that call to Trooper Dial?
MR. GLASS: I felt that phone call was as a result of a conversation that
the Governor had had with him, yes. I felt that it was just as if the
Governor had been talking to me.

From Glass's testimony regarding another call from Frank Bailey on March 6, 2008, this time regarding Mike Wooten's dropping off children in his patrol car:

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: So, what did you tell Bailey you would do?
MR. GLASS: I told him I would -- that I was in Memphis, Tennessee and
that I would have it looked into. I subsequently sent an email to Colonel
Holloway advising him to look into it. I did advise Bailey that it was not a firing offense for him to do that, but that he could receive -- I mean, that single event in and of itself was not something that he could be fired for.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: You told this to Bailey?
MR. GLASS: Yes.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: What was his reaction?
MR. GLASS: He, again, just went back into he's had all these other problems, you guys are protecting him, why aren't you doing something
about it. That was primarily what he ....

From Glass's testimony regarding a conversation in the spring of 2008 with Todd Palin, about Wooten:

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Now, who raised the question of Wooten and Wooten's prior conduct?
MR. GLASS: It may have been me because I was concerned still because of the contacts that I had been receiving, the contacts that I knew that was going on with Colonel Holloway over Wooten, and it was just a concern to me.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: I wonder if you could explain that? Had you heard that Todd Palin had been making inquiries elsewhere so you raised it up to him, or how did that go?
MR. GLASS: Yes. Yes, I knew that there had been an incident over a snow machine ride that Wooten was on, that Todd had taken pictures of that, and had brought that forth.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: So, this was a warning to Todd Palin or at least advice to Todd Palin that he needed to cease and desist pursuing that, that that was something that had already taken place in terms of the application of the discipline?
MR. GLASS: Absolutely. I wanted nothing more than to let them let us proceed with whatever would happen down the road with Trooper Wooten. If Trooper Wooten stepped out of line, we would correct it in our own process that is outlined in a Union contract and personnel rules.

Then, in April, Frank Bailey contacts Glass again about the incident with Wooten dropping off the kids in the patrol car:

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: So, apparently, he didn't heed your advice to leave it alone?
MR. GLASS: No.

Monegan's testimony regarding perceived pressure about Wooten:

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Okay. That's what I want to ask you about. Now, is that correct? Did you ever go to her and say, governor, you're pressuring me, or your husband's pressuring me, or Annette Kreitzer is pressuring me, or the attorney general is pressuring me, or Chris Perry is pressuring me, or any of the other numerous people that -- Mike Tibbles is pressuring me?
MR. MONEGAN: I --
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Did you ever do anything like that?
MR. MONEGAN: I never did.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: Why not?
MR. MONEGAN: Primarily because -- part of my rationale in trying to keep her at arm's length was to protect her from opening herself up to litigation by Wooten at some point for some political interference, doing something that officially she should not be involved in. And every time that conversation -- as I had told all the other people who had contacted me, that those conversations with discoverable, such too would be that same conversation if I brought it up, if I initiated it and talked to the governor about this, that, too, would be discoverable.
And to me, it defied -- I didn't want to bring harm to her by bringing it up.

MR. BRANCHFLOWER: I guess the last question I have -- a closing question I have for you is this. You testified about a number of contacts over a long period of time, 17 or 18 months, both starting with the first gentleman and in January of 2007 at the meeting at the governor's office, subsequent contacts that he made, personal calls from Governor Palin herself, calls from the director of her office here in Anchorage, Chris Perry, the commissioner of administration, the director of boards and --
MR. MONEGAN: Commissions.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: -- commissions, Frank Bailey, the attorney general, Talis Colberg, Mike Tibbles was the chief of staff. To what, in retrospect, do you attribute all of these calls and visits and concerns expressed to you by these high government officials about Wooten?
MR. MONEGAN: That they were -- by the fact that they were calling was placing pressure on me and my staff to do something about Mike Wooten. As a police officer, and we're supposed to be a little more skeptical, we want to know why the motive of doing this, the odds of all these individually contacting me all about the same issue over a period of 17 months, if they were random or if they were something that was more direct, direct would make more sense. So obviously, in my mind, the governor wanted me to fire Mike Wooten.
MR. BRANCHFLOWER: So you think all of these efforts to reach out to you originated with Governor Palin?
MR. MONEGAN: Yes.

Lastly, a question from Monegan's lawyer, Jeff Feldman:

MR. FELDMAN: Other than the -- the issues involving Trooper Wooten, was there any other issue that you can think of that was a source of friction between you and the governor or her staff?
MR. MONEGAN: You know, when I first got fired, obviously, I was confused. I had no idea. I suspected. But why I feel more certain now than I did in July is that I have watched through the media where she would make -- well, he didn't recruit enough, or he wasn't a budget player, or he wasn't concerned about the Bush enough.
And each one of those I know are inaccurate. So by her statements, it literally was a process of elimination for me. In my mind, what was the central figure? What was the central theme through the 17 months of my tenure at DPS? And that was Wooten, from the beginning to the end.

Coming off of eight years of black meaning white, up meaning down, and illegal meaning "oh yeah, you and what army?" can America even afford to consider installing this woman's outsized ego and micro-targeted vindictiveness in the Office that Cheney built?