McCain's VP:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will not cooperate with a legislative investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin presidential campaign announced Monday, accusing supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama of manipulating the inquiry for political motivations.

Gov. Sarah Palin is fighting allegations she improperly tried to force the firing of her former brother-in-law.

Former Palin Press Secretary Meg Stapleton told reporters in Anchorage that the investigation has been "hijacked" by "Obama operatives" for the Democratic presidential nominee -- namely, Alaska state Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic lawmaker managing the investigation and an Obama supporter. French has denied working on behalf of the Obama campaign.

The Obama campaign described Stapleton's charge as "complete paranoia." It has denied sending campaign staff to Alaska to work with the legislative committee's investigation.

Palin's Favorability Numbers Eroding

As voters have taken a second look at Sarah Palin in venues like the Charlie Gibson interview and even Tina Fey's SNL sketch, they may not be as enamored of what they're seeing.

The Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos now has Palin's favorability-unfavorability scores at 45-44 -- just a +1. Six days ago, when the poll, launched, she was at a 52-35, a +17.

And I know that some of you don't like or don't trust this poll -- for reasons that I think are a little silly -- but there is a similar decline in her numbers in the Diageo/Hotline poll. Her favorability numbers in yesterday's Hotline poll -- today's isn't out yet -- were a 48-36, or a +12. But a week ago, on September 8, she had been at a 48-24, a +24.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will not cooperate with a legislative investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin presidential campaign announced Monday, accusing supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama of manipulating the inquiry for political motivations.

How Transparent Will Palin Be?

September 16, 2008 12:49 PM

GOLDEN, COLO. -- "We're going to make everything more open," Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said here yesterday, "and more accountable, and more attractive to those who want to serve."

Good government groups have told me that in general, when it comes to transparency issues, they're very happy with both candidates on the top of the ticket. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., are both seen as "reformers" by these groups. Sure, there have been glitches here and there (Obama's broken promises on public financing comes to mind) but in general they see both men as allies.

Enter Gov Palin.

She has a case to make that she's a maverick.

She has a case to make that she's a reformer.

But is she a transparency advocate?

“E-mails from the Palin administration are being withheld from the public and the governor is citing executive privilege," reported Alaska TV station KTUU last month. "With subject lines like ‘Fagan,’ ‘Andrew Halcro’ and even ‘Alaska Ear,’ it makes some wonder how those topics could possibly be policy related; especially since those same e-mails were copied to the governor's husband...Officials say the private e-mails within the Palin administration won't be released.”

“Palin routinely uses a private Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business," the Anchorage Daily News reported a few days ago. "Others in the governor's office sometimes use personal e-mail accounts too. The practice raises questions about backdoor secrecy in an administration that vowed during the 2006 campaign to be ‘open and transparent.’…

"Where you've got a governor apparently using a Yahoo account for state business, that's kind of a complete inversion of what ought to be happening in terms of public records,’ said Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and a Missouri journalism associate professor. ‘E-mail that's public business ought to be done on public accounts that can become public record,’ he said.”

Using a personal email account to conduct official business is what officials of the Bush administration -- perhaps most notoriously Karl Rove -- in an apparent attempt to circumvent any subpoenas.

Is following that model "transparent"?

In December 2006, newly-elected Gov. Palin and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, Department of Revenue Commissioner Patrick Galvin and acting Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Marty Rutherford met with three oil producers to discuss the new gas pipeline. The previous governor, Frank Murkowski, had negotiated a deal with BP, Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil, though the plan had never been ratified by the Legislature. Palin said her new administration would open up the process to other companies.

Wrote the Anchorage Daily News, "Palin promised her pipeline contract negotiations would be open and transparent -- although the meetings starting today won't be…"

"Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy," reported the New York Times this month. "The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.”

When Palin started as mayor in Wasilla in 1996, she was similarly criticized.

“She’s also been criticized by the local semiweekly newspaper for a new policy requiring department heads to get the mayor’s approval before talking to reporters," the Anchorage Daily News noted. "An editorial in The Frontiersman labeled it a ‘gag order.’ Palin said it’s a temporary rule to smooth the way until department heads have a better sense of the administration’s policies.”

The accumulation of all these actions would undermine how transparent and open Palin's instincts are.

And I suppose it goes without saying that Palin was introduced to the public 18 days ago and has yet to hold a press conference.

- jpt

Palin supports $600 million 'other' bridge project

Not a bridge too far: Palin still supports $600 million, hometown bridge construction

GARANCE BURKE
AP News

Sep 16, 2008 05:58 EST

Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said "no thanks" to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere.

But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story.

A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.

Local officials already have spent $42 million on plans to route traffic across the Knik Arm inlet, a narrow finger of water extending roughly 25 miles northeast of Anchorage toward Wasilla. The proposal exists thanks to an earmark request by Republican Rep. Don Young, whose son-in-law has a small stake in property near the bridge's proposed western span.

A Democratic council member in Anchorage will try Tuesday to spike the city's sponsorship of the project, which Palin supports with some reservations.

"This is basically an incredibly expensive project that doesn't help commuters, doesn't help create jobs and may drive whales to extinction," said Justin Massey, an attorney advising environmentalists opposed to the proposal. "It is also a project that serves the area where the governor is from, which is near and dear to her heart."

The Knik Arm was one of two bridge proposals in Alaska awarded more than $450 million from lawmakers who requested money for special projects in 2005, when Young chaired the House Transportation Committee. Young, Alaska's 18-term congressman, has said Alaska still lacks basic roads, railroads and bridges that were developed long ago in older and less spacious states.

At the time, Palin's running mate for the Republican ticket, Arizona Sen. John McCain, derided both projects as wasteful. He called Young's highway bill a "monstrosity" that was "terrifying in its fiscal consequences."

"I want no part of this," McCain said in a July 2005 statement. "This legislation is not " I emphasize not " my way of legislating."

The governor initially championed the first so-called Bridge to Nowhere, which would have connected the southeastern Alaska town of Ketchikan to its airport on nearby Gravina Island. She later pulled the plug on the project after it became a national symbol of extravagant federal spending.

Palin's record on the Bridge to Nowhere has emerged as a central point of controversy in the campaign over her recent public claims that she had opposed it, aligning herself with McCain's anti-earmarks philosophy.

Palin still supports the second bridge, officially named Don Young's Way in honor of the congressman. She called for a review of the bridge's financing plans and raised concerns about its financial risks for the state. Still, the planning process is marching forward.

"Governor Palin's demand for accountability and transparency around this project is exactly what she has called for across the board to ensure taxpayers' dollars are being used wisely," spokeswoman Maria Comella said.

Dianne Keller, who succeeded Palin as mayor in Wasilla, has said the new $600 million crossing could lower traffic congestion in the fast-growing community. A Federal Highway Administration study shows the project would cut down some area commutes, but could add to others as more people move to the suburbs.

The average commuter trip to work for Wasilla residents is 34 minutes, compared to an average of 25 minutes for the rest of the United States, according to 2000 Census figures, the most recent available.

The bridge is popular with property developers " including a group comprised of Young's son-in-law, the former legislative director for indicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens and three others " who own land across from Anchorage on the inlet's western side.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is evaluating whether the isolated beluga whales that breed and feed in the waterway's strong tides should be listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Palin has publicly urged the government not to list Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered.

Anchorage Assembly members Patrick Flynn and Matt Claman, both Democrats, plan to introduce a proposal to kill the bridge on Tuesday. They argue the money would be better used to set up commuter van pools and fix Alaska's existing highways, some of which are so rutted that cars go skidding off the road.

"She clearly hasn't said 'no thanks' to this particular bridge," Claman said. "If money were not an issue and we had no limits, maybe we'd build a bridge. But this is not a pragmatic or efficient way to spend scarce resources."

A court filing made yesterday by Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, asserts that Palin fired Monegan as the state's public safety commissioner because of a series of instances of Monegan's insubordination on budget issues, including Monegan working with an Alaska legislator to seek funding for a project Governor Palin had already vetoed. This alleged pattern of "outright insubordination" is said to have culminated in Monegan planning a trip to Washington to go after federal funds for an initiative to fight sexual assault crimes, which had not yet been approved by the governor. (Van Flein's account was in sync with the line taken last night by a McCain campaign spokesman at a press conference in Alaska.)

The issue of Monegan's work on the sexual assault initiative doesn't come completely out of the blue. In a lengthy exploration of Palin's record on combating sexual assault crimes, ABC News reported yesterday that Monegan was the "chief proponent" for an "ambitious, multi-million dollar initiative to seriously tackle sex crimes in the state," and that Palin's office "put the plan on hold in July," just days before Monegan's firing.

But whatever the role of the sexual assault initiative in Monegan's departure from state government, this is by now the third substantive explanation given by Palin for that departure. And, to one degree or another, all those explanations contradict each other. . . .

Update: According to TPMmuckraker's reporting, the initiative to combat sexual assault that Palin now claims she fired Monegan for trying to get federal money for, was designed to go after child sex abusers.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska's attorney general says state employees subpoenaed in the investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin will not testify.

In a letter to the Democratic state senator overseeing the investigation, Attorney General Talis Colberg asks that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He also says the employees will not appear before the investigator unless either the full state Senate or the entire Alaska Legislature votes to compel their testimony.

Last week, a committee of lawmakers issued subpoenas for 13 people, including Todd Palin, the governor's husband, in the investigation of whether the governor fired her public safety chief for refusing to dismiss her former brother-in-law, an Alaska State Trooper.

All those summoned are state employees, except Todd Palin

Ya all remember how Palin wants to spread Alaska's way of doing business around the lower 48 right? Now we know that "Alaska's way" is supported in part with fists full of federal pork, that "Alaska's way" includes corrupt public officials, and so on, but get this;

Quote:

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska's attorney general says state employees subpoenaed in the investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin will not testify.

In a letter to the Democratic state senator overseeing the investigation, Attorney General Talis Colberg asks that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He also says the employees will not appear before the investigator unless either the full state Senate or the entire Alaska Legislature votes to compel their testimony.

Last week, a committee of lawmakers issued subpoenas for 13 people, including Todd Palin, the governor's husband, in the investigation of whether the governor fired her public safety chief for refusing to dismiss her former brother-in-law, an Alaska State Trooper.

All those summoned are state employees, except Todd Palin

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Palin-Troopergate.html

it turns out the the "Alaska way" includes state employees disregarding state subpoenas unless they happen to want to fulfill them. Ya, lets have more of that kind of disregard for the law and society down here, it will be good for us, and Palin is just the person to lead us there.