Before being chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee, Gov. Palin had pledged to cooperate with this inquiry. Had she gone forward with that cooperation, I think this would be much more of a non-story.

I think this is another example of the McCain campaign thinking that doing what the base wants is the same thing that will play well with the electorate as a whole.

I suspect that they’re wrong.

I don’t know if there’s an intrade category for this yet, but I’d say the percentage that Sarah Palin will not be the Governor of Alaska at this time next year should be pretty high. (decreasing chance of becoming Vice President + increasing chance of something eventually coming out of this scandal = good chance of not being in Juneau)

Remember, with most political scandals, the biggest trouble usually results from the attempted cover-up … whether there was an actual underlying “crime” or not.

Just my two pennies,
Todd

It may not be a legal necessity, but since when did voters only care about legal necessities. We are screening her for a vice-presidential position not a judgeship.

Since you have been doing an exemplary job of headlining one side (ethics advisers, husband subpoenas) I am headlining the other.

So you’ve decided to repeat any lie passed on by people who have tanked, like Morrissey? Is this what you are admitting to?

Have you recently patented a “soul reading machine”? I didnt know needing to be “true of heart” was a legal necessity.

News
Republican controlled Legislative Council decides to investigate Republican Governor.
Governor refuse to cooperate.
Governor releases four different versions of the story of what happened.
Governor is caught in a bunch of lies about earmarks and tele-prompters and….

Nonsense
The assertion that a couple memos completely exonerate the Governor when she has systematically refused to release emails and testify.

OK, this is a blog and everyone is allowed their own opinion, but really. There is no “there” in this post, just a lot of nonsense.

It has only been recently (sometime today?) that this stuff came out. You posted before I even had a chance to look at it, although I would have posted it.

Alaska’s Legislative Council, made up of 4 Dems and 8 Repubs, voted unanimously to open up an investigation into the numerous phone calls and emails to Walt Monegan about Trooper Wooten. And this was a trail so long that even Palin’s ethics adviser said she should apologize for it.

I do think this latest evidence makes a compelling case for her side of the story, but I find it sad I have to remind you that this is ONE side of the story. And as I’m sure you’re well aware how these things work, BOTH sides need to have their sides presented.

So, I’d reserve the “I told you so”s until this is all said and done.

Fiorina: Palin, McCain not qualified to run company
Posted: 05:00 PM ET

From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby

Carly Fiorina spoke at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
WARREN, Ohio (CNN) – Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO turned John McCain Victory chair, said Tuesday that Sarah Palin isn’t qualified to run her old company.

Appearing on a KTRS Radio show in St. Louis, Fiorina was asked by the host, “Do you think she has the experience to run a major company like Hewlett Packard?”

“No, I don’t,” Fiorina answered. “But that’s not what she’s running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things.”

“I would just remind you that it is Barack Obama who is running for president,” she continued. “John McCain who is running for president.”

Fiorina contended that while Palin may not be up the task of running a multi-billion dollar IT company, she does have more relevant governing experience than Obama.

I’d be pissed if my governor just threw money at some problem without asking why he couldn’t manage it with the money for vacancies for which he hadn’t filled. Where’s that money going?

I am not disputing her legal right to fire monegan. What i am saying though is that the reason she chose to fire him, budget priorities, will look worse when that budget priority is targeting sex crimes an especially large problem in alaska.

Alaska leads the nation in reported forcible rapes per capita, according to the FBI, with a rate two and a half times the national average  a ranking it has held for many years. Children are no safer: Public safety experts believe that the prevalence of rape and sexual assault of minors in Alaska makes the state’s record one of the worst in the U.S. And while solid statistics on domestic violence are hard to come by, most  including Gov. Palin  agree it is an “epidemic.”

http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=5804581

People might have let her go on the wooten thing because wooten seems like someone who might have needed firing. She had the moral justification. When it looks like she did not feel that sex crimes deserved to be a budget priority in a state like alaska that sends some bad signals. She is arguing that she had a legal right because he did not stick to process. However people might see monegan as having a just cause in the targeting of sex crimes. A process argument versus a justice argument loses. People will bend the law to suit a just out come.

[insert mw talking point about how the majority Republican investigative panel is tainted]

It’s not that they think it’s a bad idea, she just wanted DPS to provide all the estimated costs and how it would be paid for.

At 10 to 20 million a year, it’s a fair request.

Not to mention Monegan had 37 unfilled vacancies budgeted (but he was using that money else where). He could have used those budget from there to fund the initiative, but instead he wanted to pull an end run and embarrass the governor into capitulating, by saying she doesn’t care about rape victims and children.

Real classy guy…

Monegan called her on it. She didn’t like it.

To say there is no there there is inaccurate. It’s just not only about firing him for not canning her ex-brother-in-law.

There is a there there, so there.