McCain's VP:

Exclusive: New Doubts Over Palin's Troopergate Claims
Internal Government Document Contradicts Sarah Palin, Campaign

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5844710&page=1

Who wants to calculate the odds that the McCain campaign will angrily and vindictively call ABC, chew ass, and vow never to allow ABC to interview the candidates ever again!

Debra Law:
What are you talking about? Get your facts straight. The REPUBLICAN party is the party that espoused the virtues of the "free market" and dismantled the depression era regulations that once served to protect the economy.

...Alaskans interviewed by CNN say Todd Palin has plenty of influence.

He's not on the state payroll, but lawmakers say he is a central figure in his wife's policy agenda....

CNN has seen thousands of e-mails released this year from the governor's office that show that Todd Palin was copied on hundreds of them. The topics of the e-mails ranged from public criticism of Sarah Palin to her meetings with corporate leaders.

Andrew Halcro, who ran as an independent against Sarah Palin for governor in 2006 and is a critic of the Palins, wants to know why Todd Palin was being copied on state correspondence....

By Alec MacGillis and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 22, 2008; Page A01

ANCHORAGE -- Todd Palin grew up as the archetypal Alaskan -- salmon fisherman, champion snowmobiler, North Slope oil worker. But since his wife became governor 20 months ago, his portfolio has broadened: househusband, babysitter, senior adviser, legislative liaison, and -- when the occasion warrants -- enforcer and protector.

He has supervised renovations to the governor's mansion and hopscotched by plane back and forth to Juneau to juggle duties as father and "First Dude," as he has come to be known. And to a degree that has surprised many state government observers, Todd Palin also has become involved in policy, sitting in on his wife's meetings, traveling on state business and weighing in on some legislative issues.

WASILLA, Alaska " Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”

. . .

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

. . .

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. 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.

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages " through a federal records request " he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.

“Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said.

. . .

Restless ambition defined Ms. Palin in the early years of this decade. She raised money for Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from the state; finished second in the 2002 Republican primary for lieutenant governor; and sought to fill the seat of Senator Frank H. Murkowski when he ran for governor.

Mr. Murkowski appointed his daughter to the seat, but as a consolation prize, he gave Ms. Palin the $125,000-a-year chairmanship of a state commission overseeing oil and gas drilling.

Ms. Palin discovered that the state Republican leader, Randy Ruedrich, a commission member, was conducting party business on state time and favoring regulated companies. When Mr. Murkowski failed to act on her complaints, she quit and went public. . . .

Ms. Palin entered the 2006 primary for governor as a formidable candidate.

In the middle of the primary, a conservative columnist in the state, Paul Jenkins, unearthed e-mail messages showing that Ms. Palin had conducted campaign business from the mayor’s office. Ms. Palin handled the crisis with a street fighter’s guile.

“I told her it looks like she did the same thing that Randy Ruedrich did,” Mr. Jenkins recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah, what I did was wrong.’ ”

Mr. Jenkins hung up and decided to forgo writing about it. His phone rang soon after.

Mr. Jenkins said a reporter from Fairbanks, reading from a Palin news release, demanded to know why he was “smearing” her. “Now I look at her and think: ‘Man, you’re slick,’ ” he said.

. . .

While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret. Her inner circle discussed the benefit of using private e-mail addresses. An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a BlackBerry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”

. . .

Many lawmakers contend that Ms. Palin is overly reliant on a small inner circle that leaves her isolated. Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.

During the last legislative session, some lawmakers became so frustrated with her absences that they took to wearing “Where’s Sarah?” pins.

Many politicians say they typically learn of her initiatives " and vetoes " from news releases. . . .

Troopergate demonstrates Alaska's need for an elected attorney general

IF EVER THERE were an argument for an elected attorney general in this state, the Troopergate clown car emptying out in Juneau must take the cake. It is, politely, an embarrassment for the state when neither the governor nor the attorney general seem to have a clue about what they are doing.

As it stands now, under the state constitution, Attorney General Talis Colberg represents Gov. Sarah Palin, not the people of Alaska.

Alaska’s Constitution was crafted so that a strong executive branch could get things going in the new state, with minimal interference. Having an appointed attorney general who was the governor’s mouthpiece just made sense. It fit the time; it fit the circumstance.

But that was then; this is now. A quick look at Juneau nowadays should tip you off that something has changed.

Palin " now a vice presidential candidate " is under investigation by the Legislature to determine whether she misused her office in firing former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. He said he felt pressured by the governor, along with her family and staff to dismiss a trooper who was involved in a nasty divorce and child custody battle with Palin’s sister. The Legislature has issued 13 subpoenaes, including one for Todd Palin, the governor’s husband. Colberg has gone to far as to recommend those summoned refuse to appear, in violation of Alaska law.

The attorney general " who himself, unbelievably, once called Monegan about the trooper in question " instead of looking out for the interests of ordinary Alaskans and getting to the bottom of this mess which borders on a constitutional crisis, has decided he and his Department of Law will join the governor, the McCain-Palin campaign and anybody else in stalling and thwarting the Legislature’s investigation.

Instead of allowing the Legislature to do its job, he says the investigation should be handled by the state Personnel Board, which is controlled by Palin. In essence, it would have Sarah Palin investigating herself.

It is always comical to listen to those opposed to an elected attorney general. Oh, me, oh, my, they say. It would introduce politics into the mix; it would invite political ambition.

Are you kidding us? Take a look around. The governor can hire her own lawyer, leaving this question: Who, exactly, is looking out for Alaskans?

Falling oil prices threaten state budget
By PAUL JENKINS

As we watch the lovely Sarah P. ziggin’ and zaggin’ to stall the Legislature’s investigation into whether she went over the line in summarily firing former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, consider this: She may be a lot smarter than anybody guessed. No. Really. Despite her being a journalism school graduate.

To quickly summarize her views of the past few weeks and get us all up to speed: I did nothing wrong. Hold me to account. I’ll cooperate. No, I won’t. You stink. You’re a hater. Oh, I’m a big-time vice presidential candidate now, I’ll investigate myself. I’ll have all my little friends sue to completely screw up the works and buy more time. Justice, schmustice. I do love earmarks. No I don’t. Yes, I do. Or, maybe not. I can’t remember. I have built a gas line. Honest. Have a cookie.

If she can just derail the Legislature’s investigation for the next 47 days, she is home free and actually may get to move to Washington, D.C., and live huge. Parties. Receptions. Maybe she can have another kid and name it something like “Dome” or “Statue.” And what an absolutely perfect time for her to decamp. The giant fan is whirling, but there is nothing in it " yet.

The rest of us? Well, we may not be so lucky. We’ll be stuck here, victims of, to put it kindly, Sarah.

Her state budget is up. State spending is up. We’re giving away more money than the budgets of many small countries, all to pay for cargo ships full of gigantic TVs and booze. And oil? Well, the West Coast price of Alaska North Slope crude this week slipped to $89.65 a barrel.

A reasonable assumption is that it takes oil at $70 a barrel, or a little more, to make ends meet in our fair state. That’s less than $20 away. If the price dips below that magic number, whatever it may be, the party is kaputski.

While there is no need yet to crawl out onto a window ledge, and the situation may never occur, it merits at least some of our attention, if we can just tear ourselves away from the tawdry spectacle of Palin trying to save her political patoot by having the John McCain campaign somehow protect her from Alaskans.

We have bushels of money in savings, but how far will it go? And our well-thought-out fiscal plan put together when times were good for just such bleak contingencies? Surely you remember the plan, the one we hammered out during the last big fiscal blowout that made the words Frank Murkowski two nouns in a frothing sea of expletives?

Oh, that’s right, we don’t really have a plan. I forgot. And the idea of cutting government spending or using Permanent Fund earnings in a pinch? Get real.

Turns out Sarah P. was too busy spending state public relations dollars getting onto the covers of everything from “People” to “Rusted Wrench Monthly” to spend much time on that leadership thing.

What we are looking at, if the price of oil continues to dribble downward, is the Alaska of only a few years ago " the one with rivers of red ink, tumbling bond ratings, sidelined municipal revenue-sharing and governments left holding the bag on retirement system payments.

Add to that incredibly poor and short-sighted public policy put together by folks who simply cannot stop spending or find ways to save. (Instead of doing that, you can bet the farm they will look concerned and begin whispering about income taxes.)

With all of that maybe looming right around the corner, who in his or her right mind would want to be governor of the great state of Alaska? It may be like being in charge of Enron right at the end.

I would want to be far away, too. Getting a clear and transparent shot at the vice presidency might be the best thing to ever happen to Palin, who may be able to get out of town one step ahead of the lynch mob.

The rest of us? Well, if it happens like last time, many of us are going to suffer, and maybe we have it coming for not paying more attention to what we are doing at the ballot box.

If we do not demand leadership and intelligence and a plan, how can we whine when our elected officials leave us holding a bag of really trite sayings and overdue bills?

So, you may want to ask yourself, how do I get into journalism school?