You Call This Leadership?

September 8, 2008 | Posted by admin

Well, I guess it’s a form of leadership: Bad leadership.

The LA Times has an article talking about the type of leader Palin became once elected governor. Apparently, she talks good talk but doesn’t walk the walk. Not surprising here. When reform time came, she was absent.

The public acclaim that followed helped propel her into the governor’s office a year later with promises of reform and a more open, accountable government that would stand up to entrenched interests, including the big oil companies.

Yet a strange thing happened on the ethics issue once Palin became governor: She appeared to lose interest in completing the task of legislating comprehensive reform, some who supported the cleanup say.

When she did get involved in, I don’t know, trying to keep her campaign promises, it became a joke. The proposals had more holes than Swiss cheese.

The ethics bill she offered was so incomplete that its supporters had to undertake a significant rewrite. Moreover, when it came to building support for the bill, politicians in both parties say the new governor was often unaccountably absent from the fray.

So where exactly was Sarah when a debate arose over oil refund checks?

Some lawmakers were so perplexed by her absence from a recent debate over sending oil rebate checks to Alaskans, for example, that they sported buttons at the state Capitol reading “Where’s Sarah?”

Is she really any different than Bush? Her administration has not been transparent in the least and has claimed executive privilege on numerous occasions.

Her administration has not been marked by the transparency she promised: She invoked executive privilege in refusing to disclose information about one ethics case, and last week she moved to hobble a legislative inquiry into her role in the firing of a state public safety official.

She loves to hear all sides in a debate, as long as by all sides you mean you have to agree with her. Sarah Palin doesn’t like to live in a pluralistic society. It’s her way or the bridge to nowhere highway.

Several legislators also say the governor’s office is not a place for open debate: Palin does not tolerate much dissent, they say, sometimes cutting off relations with those deemed unhelpful or critical.

And she shows only marginal interest in crafting policy proposals and getting them passed, these critics say.

“Her ethics proposal had to be beefed up substantially with very basic additions,” said state Rep. Les Gara, an Anchorage Democrat who tried to get the governor’s attention on ethics and other issues.

…When it comes to the real work of crafting policy, she’s often not there,” Gara said. He acknowledged her broad accomplishments, but added: “I don’t know if she’s disinterested in details or not comfortable with them, but the bottom line is: She is not truly a hands-on governor.”

I could go on and on and on, but read the entire article for yourself here. This is what ALL of the media should be reporting. Do your job guys!

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