Palin Abused Power of Her Office

The “Troopergate” report came out Friday afternoon, and it was more or less what everyone expected. The 14-member panel investigating the issue decided that Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin abused the power of her office in an attempt to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired. When she didn’t get that done, she sacked the Alaskan police commissioner. Oddly, the panel also decided not to pursue the case any farther.

Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign dismissed the report as the product of “a partisan-led inquiry run by Obama supporters.” If that isn’t a lie, it is at least a misstatement of the facts. The panel has 10 Republican members and 4 Democratic members. Quite how that makes it a pro-Obama inquisition is beyond understanding. Moreover, when the panel was formed, Sarah Palin was not on a national ticket.

The Branchflower Report, as it is known, states that the governor knowingly, “permitted [her husband] Todd to use the governor’s office and the resources of the governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten [the ex-brother-in-law] fired.”

And it appears that Todd Palin has been more than “First Dude,” as he calls himself. The Los Angeles Times stated, “Testimony compiled as part of the inquiry, and The Times' own review of e-mail logs from the administration, show that Todd Palin was a fixture in the governor's office, spending about half of his time there. He attended Cabinet meetings that are supposed to be closed to the public, and was copied on a wide variety of high-level government correspondence on issues such as contract negotiations with the police officers union, Alaska Native issues and the privatization of a dairy near the Palins’ hometown of Wasilla.”

The Associated Press noted, “Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Lawmakers don't have the authority to sanction her for such a violation, and they gave no indication they would take any action against her. Under Alaska law, it is up to the state's Personnel Board — which is conducting its own investigation into the matter — to decide whether Palin violated state law and, if so, must refer it to the Senate president for disciplinary action. Violations also carry a possible fine of up to $5,000.” This isn’t over, but given that the governor appoints the Personnel Board, it may as well be.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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