UPDATE #2: Here is a list of all the left’s attacks on Sarah along with appropriate rebuttals. They have gone nuts.
UPDATE: This is my favorite comment about Sarah Palin so far:
Gov. Sarah Palin (soon to be VPOTUS) is known to hunt, kill, gut and eat her prey -GO Sarah!!!
Look out, Joe !
The left is frantic to find a handle on Sarah Palin, especially since her nomination has proved to be wildly popular. Expect to hear a lot about this story. Excerpts:
1. The brother-in-law trooper was out of control and threatening family members BEFORE Sarah Palin was governor. The investigation also began before she was governor. He was suspended but the union got the suspension reduced to five days.
2. Palin appointed Monegan, the Public Safety Commissioner, AFTER the Wooten story began.
First, the video accusation is that the Governor’s office has questionable reasons (meaning removing Wooten from the AST) for firing Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan in July 2008. As we know, documented complaints from Palin about Wooten started prior to Monegan’s appointment… which Monegan may, or may not have been aware.
Yet Monegan was appointed by Palin. She is certainly within her rights to fire him. And if complaints were already lodged about Wooten to the immediate superior, Col. Julia Grimes, why did she need to pressure him to fire Wooten? Afterall, if Palin was going to “abuse” her power to get Wooten fired, why not direct that power over Grimes as the superior of the Troopers?
And if getting Wooten fired was her quest, why did she not take steps to do that in 2005 during the complaint period, instead of specifically stating under deposition she was staying silent in order not to put his job at risk? Not to mention the gap in time… why would it take her two and a half years to fire Monegan because of Wooten?
3. The reasons Palin fired Monegan were unrelated to the Wooten story.
Andrew Halcro, who was defeated by Palin in the gubernatorial primary, lists the reasons why Monegan was fired.
When Walt Monegan was appointed, he realized the deep problems at DPS including low morale, understaffed detachments and the lack of a funding commitment to a long term vision.
He also recognized, that along with the strategic plan his department developed and introduced just months ago, there needed to be a commitment of resources to follow through on the public safety needs for Alaskans.
“We want out employees to know that help is on the way; that we are planning to grow our staff to provide both the needed services for this vast state, and the appropriate training necessary to do it”, Monegan wrote in his 2008-17 Strategic Plan.
But the Palin administration wanted Monegan to go in another direction. They wanted him to cut corners on a budget that had already fallen behind over the last decade. Under Former Governor Murkwoski there was significant investment made to try and catch up with growing costs but Palin’s budgets have again started to starve the agency.
To make matters worse, the change to the state’s retirement benefit program adopted by the legislature in 2004 has had a negative effect on the departments ability to recruit new Troopers.
OK. You have to read between the lines here. This guy is the one who filed the complaint against Palin yet he lists the reasons for the firing and Wooten wasn’t one of them. Murkowski, the former governor and mired in scandal, is his hero. That gives a clue.
Monegan was fired because he refused to take another job in the administration once Palin realized he was not solving the problems of the Public Safety office. She offered to make him head of the Alcoholic Beverage Commission, in a job she felt he was better suited for. He refused.
The problem for Palin was that Monegan was vocal about his concerns about the growing problems in rural Alaska due to alcohol and drug abuse and recognized that the state needed to invest more in protecting the public.
She recognized that he was better suited for that problem but he turned it down. I have never seen a police agency that thought it had enough money.
This story will run for a while but the summary provided by Flopping Aces is the best source. Once again the blogosphere beats the MSM.
Of course, the left thinks it has a scoop. They should keep crooning these lullabies to themselves. Right up to the debate.
Tags: Alaska, McCain, Obama, Sarah Palin