Ethics probe hits hardest at Todd, not Sarah Palin

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

Ethics probe hits hardest at Todd, not Sarah Palin
By MATT APUZZO – 12 minutes ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A month after she became governor, Sarah Palin's staff ushered Alaska's public safety commissioner into her private office.

But Palin wasn't there. Her husband, Todd, had called the meeting. He was frustrated that his former brother-in-law remained on the job as a state trooper, and he prevailed upon the commissioner to get rid of him.

"I thought that was odd and made me a little comfortable," said Walter Monegan, the commissioner, who later was fired by Gov. Palin. "We're having it in the governor's office, and he's not the governor. I think he was trying to use state trappings to handle a personal issue."

The January 2007 meeting was part of a long pattern of pressure that she and her husband applied on state officials to try to get the trooper fired, according to an Alaska legislative report released Friday. The report said those contacts amounted to an abuse of power and a violation of the state's ethics laws, which prohibit using public office for personal benefit.


Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOTk11gvqDAgD0cY3i4WjI_2YOxwD93OI6UG0

[McCCain4retirment]

1. Todd has always gave me chills up my spine

he's kinda........creepy

[Tansy_Gold]

2. More than "kinda" n/t

.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Uh...no. nice try, AP. Todd is not an elected official, and she is responsible

for the fact that he had a table in her office where he spent shitloads of time trying to get Wooten fired.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. That's correct.

We've all been shocked, to say the least, to hear how much time Todd spent in the Governor's office during official meetings. We didn't elect him.

[City Lights]

8. Exactly. Tawd is a private citizen. The fact that the state is even looking

at Tawd's role in this is because of Sarah's poor judgment and lack of ethics.

(She should have shoo-shooed him away when he wanted to invade her office, just like she does when she discovers Russians on her front lawn when she wakes up in the morning. ;-))

[MarjorieG]

5. Sarah refuses to testify, and Todd admits pressuring calls, taking the fall.

[wishlist]

6. NBC news right now is doing a hardhitting report about the scandal

On the NBC evening news just now they did not softpedal the report, but explained the extent of Todd's improper involvement and the criticism of her for violating ethics and allowing Todd to be so involved.

[Kalifornia.Kid]

7. Who is the Clown and Who is the Puppeteer

Todd's been pulling her strings all along as she is as sharp as a bag of wet hair.
She's the clown and todd's the puppeteer.
The whole family's a freak show.

[Patriot Abroad]

9. Nice visual

Did you go out and paint that for just this one post? Kudos!

[Kalifornia.Kid]

10. Note That The Puppeteer Has Four Arms Pulling The Clown's (Sarah's) Strings

AIP and Todd...
Witch doctor and Todd ...
"Fill in the blank" and Todd ...

That was a pretty good resembalance to Sarah.

[progressivebydesign]

11. BUT Sarah is the Governor, and she ALLOWED this!!! She should be charged for that..

she gave access to governmental PERSONNEL files that Todd had NO business touching. He should be sued, and she should be impeached. You do NOT let anyone outside of a handful of people who need to know, access to personnel files. EVER.

Can you just imagine if this was a Democrat who had done that?

[struggle4progress]

12. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, was a fixture at governor's office

Source: LA Times

The 'first gentleman' also read official correspondence and went to closed Cabinet meetings, records and an investigation indicate.
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 12, 2008
Barely two weeks after Sarah Palin had been sworn in as Alaska's governor, in December 2006, then-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's executive secretary got a confusing phone call from Palin's office: The first gentleman would like to schedule a meeting with her boss.

"I was not familiar with the term 'first gentleman,' or didn't hear her correctly, so I kept asking her, 'Who?' " the secretary, Cassandra Byrne, testified recently. "And she eventually said, 'Todd Palin.' "

The appointment was fixed, and Monegan arrived in the governor's office to find himself alone with the brawny, popular fisherman and snowmobile champion, who was sitting at a 12-foot-long conference table, surrounded by stacks of documents. One of the documents had the logo and letterhead of Monegan's own Department of Public Safety.

The subject, it turned out, was Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a messy divorce with the governor's sister. The Palins, Todd made clear, wanted Wooten fired for a long record of behavior they saw as inappropriate for a police officer ...

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-todd12-2008oct12,0,1274033.story

---

If it should happen (heaven forbid!) that McThuselah went west, it seems Todd could be our de facto unelected President

[truthisfreedom]

13. His "department" was supplied with a phone and a table where he could work on the primary objective.

Getting the bro-in-law fired.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. What man spends half his time at his wife's office? What's up with that?

I thought he was Mr. Mom.

[Hekate]

15. Who, exactly, IS taking care of those kids? For the love of Pete. Oh and btw, abuse of power...

... in the governor's office, too.

Hekate

[Odin2005]

23. Probably Bristol, I'd say. n/t.

[Zookeeper]

16. No, Todd surprised Sarah by deciding after a week or so....

of being "Mr. Mom," that he didn't want to do it anymore and didn't agree to do it in the first place. (There are snow machines just waitin' to be raced, ya know. Priorities.)

[EFerrari]

17. There's something very spooky in that family.

It's like there's no "center" there, anywhere.

[Zookeeper]

20. Bingo. I feel sorry for the kids. I'll bet Bristol is hoping her...

her mom doesn't get elected, so she doesn't have to marry Mr. "I like f**king snowmobiles, kicking f**king ass, and I don't want kids."

It's so odd that the party of "family values" seems to be made up of so many dysfunctional ones.

(Hi, sweetie! :hi:)

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. he's got a union job, races snowmobiles, has a fishing business, and spends 1/2 his time at Palin's

office? WTF?

[Zookeeper]

21. I'd like to see more publicity about Todd's apparently active...

role in Sarah's mayoral and gubernatorial duties. I thought she was supposed to be super-woman, balancing her career and family on her own two shoulders?

I doubt that most of her supporters would be uncomfortable with her hubbie sharing the power, though.

[ColbertWatcher]

22. I thought that the plan was too have the First Dud run things out of the reach of accountability!

Seems like the Palins are not as mavericky after all!

[SpiralHawk]

24. Todd is the Shadow Governor

One of the occult facts of this particular republicon FAIL formula.

Sarah is just the Friendly Face of Republicon Fascism up front.

Todd calls the shots.

[ReadTomPaine]

18. Yes - he was the toilet fixture.