Palin's Power Problem

Spotlight: Sarah Palin:

A special commision was put in charge of the "Abuse of Power" allegations against Sarah Palin. Now that we have the findings of a bipartisan report to pave the way on Sarah Palin's abuse of power, let's get serious.

First let's go over the charges made.

"The Palin family had a feud with Wooten prior to her becoming governor. They put together a list of 14 accusations which they took to the state police to investigate -- a list that ranged from the quite serious to the truly absurd. The state police did an investigation, decided that 5 of the charges had some merit and suspended Wooten for ten days -- a suspension later reduced to five days. The Palin's weren't satisfied but there wasn't much they could do.

When Palin became governor they went for another bite at the apple. Palin, her husband and several members of her staff began pressuring Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan -- a respected former Chief of the Anchorage police department -- to can Wooten. Monegan resisted, arguing that the official process regarding Wooten was closed. And there was nothing more that could be done. In fact, during one of the conversations in which Palin's husband Todd was putting on the squeeze, Monegan told Todd Palin, "You can't head hunt like this. What you need to do is back off, because if the trooper does make a mistake, and it is a terminable offense, it can look like political interference."

Eventually, Palin got fed up and fired Monegan from his job. (Palin claims, not credibly, that she fired Monegan over general differences in law enforcement priorities.) This is an important point. Wooten never got fired. To the best of my knowledge, he's is still on the job. The central bad act was firing the state's top police official because he refused to bend to political pressure from the governor and her family to fire a public employee against whom the governor was pursuing a vendetta -- whether the vendetta was justified or not.

After Monegan made his accusations, Palin insisted there was no truth whatsoever to his claims. Nonetheless, a bipartisan committee of the state legislature approved an investigation. In response, Palin asked the Attorney General to start his own investigation which many in the state interpreted as an effort to either keep tabs on or tamper with the legislature's investigation. Again, very questionable judgment in someone who aspires to be first in line to the presidency."

Now, after all that being said, Sarah Palin had to change her story because of the Attorney General turning up evidence that Palin's initial claims were false. Apparently quite a few staff members had raised concerns over Wooten's employment by Monegan. The real kicker is that the state actually has a recording. If you don't care to read about it, click HERE to listen to the actual MP3 audio.

The bottom line on "TrooperGate" is that we expect our elected officials to not take advantage of their power as a governing official. We expect them to uphold a code of Ethics and a general Morality that the majority of people share in this great country of ours. Sarah Palin did not. The currently available evidence now suggests that she 1) tried to have an ex-relative fired from his job for personal reasons, something that was clearly inappropriate, and perhaps illegal, though possibly understandable in human terms, 2) fired a state official for not himself acting inappropriately by firing the relative, 3) lied to the public about what happened and 4) continues to lie about what happened.

Why is it that all politicians won't come clean until the evidence forces them to do so? Bill Clinton did it, Nixon did it, Reagan never had to (Iran-Contra) because Ollie North took the fall for him. Yet Sarah Palin continues to lie about her involvement? Can we ever get the truth from these people? Do we really want someone with this obvious "lie to your face" mentality to be a heartbeat away from running our federal government?

But that's not all:

Yes there is more to Sarah's abuse of her status as Governor of Alaska. The Palin's two-story, four bedroom, four bath home on Lake Lucille is worth $552,000.

"Todd Palin built the house with friends who were contractors, he said in a recent television interview."

Why is this important? It's important because at the same time Todd was building the new Palin house, just down the street the Wasilla Sports Complex was under construction.

The real question now becomes "Who were those contractors that did a favor for the Palin's by building their house? Was it done because of sports complex contracts they provided? Wayne Barnett of the Village Voice asks the question.

Wayne Barrett reports that after the $12.5 million Wasilla Sports Complex was approved, the design contract went to architect Blase Burkhart, "son of Roy Burkhart, who is described as a "mentor" of Sarah Palin and was head of the Republican Party in Wasilla." Roy Burkhart was also a Palin campaign contributor. Then Palin appointed Blase Burkhart to the builder-selection committee, which gave the construction contract to "Howdie Inc., a residential contractor owned at the time by Howard Nugent." Nugent was a Palin campaign contributor, also. Suprised? I'm not.

What happened next is what gets the juices flowing. Barnett:

"A list of subcontractors on the [sports complex] job, obtained by the Voice, includes many with Palin ties. One was Spenard Builders Supply, the state's leading supplier of wood, floor, roof, and other "pre-engineered components." In addition to being a sponsor of Todd Palin's snow-machine team that has earned tens of thousands for the Palin family, Spenard hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004. When the Palins began building a new family home off Lake Lucille in 2002—at the same time that Palin was running for lieutenant governor and in her final months as mayor—Spenard supplied the materials, according to Antoine Bricks, who works in its Wasilla office. Spenard actually filed a notice "of its right to assert a lien" on the deed for the Palin property after contracting for labor and materials for the site. Spenard's name has popped up in the trial of Senator Stevens—it worked on the house that is at the center of the VECO scandal as well.

Todd Palin told Fox News that he built the two-story, 3,450-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, wood house himself, with the help of contractors he described as "buddies." As mayor, Sarah Palin blocked an effort to require the filing of building permits in the wide-open city, and there is no public record of who the "buddies" were. The house was built very near the complex, on a site whose city purchase led to years of unsuccessful litigation and, now, $1.3 million in additional costs, with a law firm that's also donated to Palin collecting costly fees from the city.

Dorwin and Joanne Smith, the principals of complex subcontractor DJ Excavation & Development, have donated $7,100 to Palin and her allied candidate Charlie Fannon (Joanne is a Palin appointee on the state Board of Nursing). Sheldon Ewing, who owns another complex subcontractor, Weld Air, has donated $1,300, and PN&D, an engineering firm on the complex, has contributed $699.

Ewing was one of the few sports-complex contractors, aside from Spenard, willing to address the question of whether he worked on the house as well, but he had little to say: "I doubt that it occurred, but if it did indirectly, how would I know anyhow?" The odd timing of Palin's house construction—it was completed two months before she left City Hall and while she and Todd Palin were campaigning statewide for the first time—raises questions, especially considering its synergy with the complex."

Does any of this seem a little off to you? Large construction contracts are being handed out to campaign contributers at the same time Todd's "buddies," who just happen to be contractors, are helping Todd build the new Palin house. At the same time Sarah is making sure there will be no public record of building permits. To me, this is a very similar situation that Ted Stevens is currently in. The main difference is that Sarah, as Governor of Alaska, can hide things a bit easier.

Here is the interview with Todd Palin on Fox News (of course).



Conclusion:

To me all of this seems to point to a family with ethics issues. Do we really want someone who so easily takes handouts and abuses power as our next Vice President? I want someone with who is a positive thinker, tells the truth and speaks to me with honesty. Sarah Palin is not that person. I will leave you with 2 women from Alaska speaking about Gov. Palin.