Red Herring (TPM on Troopergate)

[IndianaGreen]

Red Herring

You can already see, in the McCain camp's first statement on the Trooper-Gate report, that the McCain campaign will spin it as actually letting Gov. Palin off the hook for firing Monegan because it finds that she had the power to fire him.

That's ridiculous. Monegan's firing was just the tip of iceberg.

The report details the extraordinary lengths that Gov. Palin, largely through her husband Todd, went to get her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired because of personal family reasons (namely, his nasty divorce from Palin's sister). It was this effort, which led to pressure being improperly brought to bear on numerous state employees, which constituted an abuse of power by Palin. As it should be. State employees should not be subject to personal vendettas from elected officials.

While the report also finds that the governor in Alaska has the inherent power to fire her department heads for any reason or for no reason, it concludes that Monegan's refusal to fire one of his state troopers at the insistence of the governor and her family was a contributing factor in his own firing.

So rather than the firing of Monegan itself being the abuse of power, the wide-ranging effort to retaliate against her sister's ex-husband, of which Monegan's firing was merely a part, was the real abuse. Monegan's firing is evidence of the broader scheme, not the scheme itself. Cold comfort if you're a McCain-Palin supporter.


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[The Wielding Truth]

1. I think I like your avatar. What does it say?

[IndianaGreen]

5. Barack Obama in Hebrew

I got a bumper sticker just like it on my car.

[The Wielding Truth]

7. Is it like JFK's "we are all Berliners"?

[gateley]

2. I want them to pursue Todd's role in this -- under what authority was he

acting. How does he have the right to access personnel files? THAT is a big part of this, to me, that hasn't been addressed. He's not on the payroll, is he?

Can you imagine if we were to bring our spouse/partner into our place of business and turn over some responsibilities to him/her? That is absolutely outrageous.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. The Repugs have short memory

They seem to have conveniently forgotten about their outrage about Hillary Clinton's supposed involvement in the travel office firings and her overall strong activist role in her husband's administration - except, of course, AFAIK she didn't do anything illegal or abusive.

*sigh* Oh well, we just have to accept the fact that laws simply don't apply to any Repuglican office holders - just us mere mortals (and Democrats).

[gateley]

4. Yeah, good point. I keep forgetting the rules. nt

[Duer 157099]

6. I'll be interested to see what David Iglesias has to say about all this

this is so parallel to the US attorney firings that it seems like Palin was inspired (but that would require her having to pay attention to politics outside of Alaska which I doubt she did ever before she got the VP nod)