Political Jackass

VP nominee Sarah Palin has come under investigation, yet again.  NBC is reporting that an ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed Wednesday by the police officers union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper Mike Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law of Palin who is at the center of the “Troopergate” scandal.

The complaint says that Palin may have improperly disclosed information from Wooten’s personell file.  The issue concerns disclosures about Wooten’s records made by a Palin aide – Frank Bailey – in a February 2008 phone conversation. The police officers’ union complaint claims the transcript of that conversation clearly indicates there was improper access to Wooten’s records.

Do you really think this woman is any different?  She is not the change we need.  She is part of the same old corruption that we’ve seen from the Republicans for the past 8 years.  Everything about her is a total lie.  It’s quite telling that McCain had to resort to adding her to the ticket and caving to the far right of his party just to get support.  He is not the maverick he claims to be and it’s clear Palin is not a reformer, no matter how many times the McCain campaign repeats it.

These people are really corrupt. Not only were they trying to delay the Troopergate investigation, trying to get a panel of her choosing to investigate, refusing to cooperate with investigators, now they are witness tampering.

A key witness in the Alaska State Senate Ethics investigation of Gov. Palin has backed out of testifying today, the state senator in charge of the investigation tells NBC News. The senator — Democrat Hollis French — says Frank Bailey’s decision not to testify will slow down the “Troopergate” investigation into the current candidate. Source

So now they are preventing the witness, a former Palin aid, from testifying after he already agreed to. These people are sickening and if anyone votes for this corruption, then they are wanting the corruption to continue in the White House.

Frank Bailey, a member of Palin’s administration, was caught on tape in August 2008 on a phone call with another trooper in which he questioned why Wooten was still on staff, seemingly speaking on behalf of Palin. The release of this tape proved embarrassing for Palin, who was forced to backtrack on her earlier statements, in which she had maintained neither she, nor her family, nor staff, ever pressured Monegan or anyone else to fire Wooten.

Bailey was put on paid leave from the administration following the release of that tape.

Since becoming the VP nominee, Palin has challenged jurisdiction of the ethics investigation. Bailey cites that jurisdictional uncertainty as his reason for not testifying.

State Sen. French says no one in the investigation, including Bailey and Gov. Palin, was subpoenaed to testify because all had previously agreed to cooperate voluntarily.

I hope he does subpoena them. They deserve it, and the people deserve to know what type of person Palin really is.

ABC News is reporting that the McCain Campaign is stalling an investigation into Sarah Palin.

Is the McCain campaign afraid of an ‘October surprise’ involving vice-presidential pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska?

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

“It’s likely to be damaging to the Governor,” said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired.

Meanwhile, an Alaskan newspaper is reporting that Palin’s state paid for private lawyer is trying to move the jurisdiction of the investigation to a board that was appointed by the governor herself! Do these people have no shame? Hindering investigations, stalling tactics, doing whatever they can to cheat the American people from the truth. This is pathetic. They really need to be brought up on charges for obstruction of justice.

The state has hired a private lawyer to represent Gov. Sarah Palin’s office in the Legislature’s investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

The state Department of Law hired Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage attorney with expertise in employment law and professional liability, because Attorney General Talis Colberg has a potential conflict of interest and shouldn’t represent the governor, Van Flein said Monday.

His work started Aug. 21. He’s being paid $185 an hour, lower than his usual rate, to represent Palin and others in the governor’s office, he said. He is initially authorized to spend up to $95,000…

Branchflower [the lead investigator] hasn’t been able to set up an interview with Palin. French said the state will fly Branchflower to wherever Palin is on the campaign trail if needed.

“Clearly the governor’s new political role will make it more challenging for her to make time for this investigation,” French wrote. But Palin needs to be interviewed sometime in September, he said.

Van Flein said the investigation is “bad timing” in the middle of a presidential campaign. He said he couldn’t guarantee her availability this month.

If witnesses aren’t available, French wrote, he’ll ask the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, to issue subpoenas.

Sounds like Palin is really cooperating. Yeah right. Expecting McBush to nominate a VP candidate that isn’t corrupt is just foolish. Just as foolish as people thinking McCain would be a good president.

Politics as usual for the McCain campaign. His VP pick, Sarah Palin, is no different than the rest of the Republicans. In fact, the only reason McCain picked her is to try and woo some of the Hillary Clinton supporters. He can no longer criticize Obama for lack of experience when his own VP candidate has even less. Not only is she a Hail Mary pass by the Republicans, she is involved in a scandal of her own in Alaska. She is under investigation for her firing of a state official, Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. She has been instructed to hand over documents and recordings of telephone conversations as part of the probe, which grew out of allegations she sacked Monegan for refusing to fire her former brother-in-law from the state police.

Alaska legislators on Monday voted to spend up to $100,000 to investigate Gov. Sarah Palin’s controversial firing of former state Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Read more.

Nice to see it’s politics as usual for the Republican Party. We need a change. Barack Obama is that change.