While Sarah Palin was boarding her campaign bus this morning, a reporter seeking comment on the new Troopergate report shouted out to her, “Governor, did you abuse your power?” She responded:
If you read the report, you’ll see that there’s nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member. You’ve got to read the report, sir.As Jake Tapper notes, Palin is dodging the question and parsing her answer. “It’s true that there’s nothing ‘unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member’ in principle,” he writes, “but the report is not as Gov. Palin is presenting it.” The report explicitly states that she did abuse her power and acted unethically:
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 2952.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.Moreover, the report states that compliance with this Act “is not optional,” and that her conduct violated the Ethics Act.
This defense ["there’s nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member"] is familiar to us from the Bush years. With Valerie Plame’s being "outed" as a couvert C.I.A. Agent, yhe Administration officials involved at first denied any role. After it became obvious that they were involved, the changed their argument. Yes, they had "outed" her, but the didn’t know she was covert. Since the law said "knowingly," they hadn’t broken the law; therefore, they had done nothing "wrong." The standard for Presidential behavior in this rendition is criminality. That’s a mighty low standard for the leader of the free world.
Palin is making the same claim. Since firing Monegan’s for his refusal to fire Trooper Wooten, her former brother-in-law wasn’t against the law – she’s claiming that she’s lilly white. She doesn’t seem to care that she broke "ethical" rules, so long as she’s not guilty of a crime. Everything is just fine. I wonder if she knows what ethics are?
The campaign is saying that it was “a partisan invenstigation led by Obama supporters.”
The investigative commission was created by the Alaska Legislature, which is made up of 41 Republicans and 19 Democrats.
The commission had 10 Republican and 4 Democrat members.
Two were absent when they voted on releasing the report, but all the other 12 voted to release it.
The only way I can see it was controlled by Obama supporters is if they are Republicans.
I’m sure many of the people in jail are guilty, too, at least if you heard them tell it. What happened to the days where if you violate the laws/rules of the land you were out? I’ll tell you- Rove, Cheney and Bush happened. This is just more of the Rove/Cheney play book that we’ve had for the last 8 years. The only change McCain/Palin would bring is the names on the stationary.
She just makes me sick.
The absurdist Governor Palin must be eating tainted moose jerky, further clouding her tenuous grasp on rational capacity. That neither she nor Todd didn’t pay someone in the government service, that they didn’t stand to gain financially from Trooper Wooten’s getting sacked or whatever is a complete dodge of the wrongness of their actions once she became governor. The citizens of Alaska should get the recall petition started just as soon as possible.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law – Cite This Source – Share This
Main Entry: mis·fea·sance
Pronunciation: mis-‘fEz-&ns
Function: noun
Etymology: Anglo-French misfesance, from Middle French mesfaire to do wrong, from mes- wrongly + faire to make, do, from Latin facere
: the performance of a lawful action in an illegal or improper manner; specifically : the performance of an official duty in an improper or unlawful manner or with an improper or corrupt motive —compare MALFEASANCE, NONFEASANCE
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