Alaska Paper Slams Palin for Troopergate Response

According to the 263-page report I read, the findings of independent investigator Stephen Branchflower were clear: While it is within the governor’s power to fire at will, in the case of the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, Sarah Palin abused that power for personal gain, and thus violated the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

Yet Palin’s response is that she was found to have done nothing illegal or uethical? And people are supposed to let that statement pass?

The Anchorage Daily News says no. In an editorial today, the newspaper called Palin’s reaction “an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.”

She claims the report “vindicates” her. She said that the investigation found “no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.”

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: “I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”

In plain English, she did something “unlawful.” She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

That’s the charitable interpretation.

 

Because if she had actually read it, she couldn’t claim “vindication” with a straight face.

 

Palin asserted that the report found “there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired.”

In fact, the report concluded that “impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.”

Palin’s response is the kind of political “big lie” that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

Gov. Palin and her camp trumpeted the report’s second finding: that she was within her legal authority to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. But the report also said it’s likely one of the reasons she fired him was his failure to get rid of her ex-brother-in-law trooper.

That’s not “vindication,” and surely Gov. Palin knows it.

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