Palin's Troopergate Moves Getting Bad Reviews in Alaska

[struggle4progress]

Palin won't actually cooperate with the original investigation — the one approved unanimously by a majority Republican committee in the state legislature this summer, which Palin welcomed in a spirit of transparency and accountability before she became the Republican Party's Vice Presidential nominee ...

Instead, Palin plans to cooperate with an investigator from the State Personnel Board. That investigator is a Democrat but the board's three members are political appointees who ultimately answer to the governor herself. (One was appointed by Palin, the other two by her predecessor). They got involved only after Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself in early September to spark an investigation that her lawyers hoped would overshadow — and effectively kill — the legislature's inquiry ...

But the Senate inquiry is moving ahead ...

For many Alaskans, all this maneuvering is a bit too clever. Palin's jockeying doesn't just clash with her previous image as a good-government reformer. It strikes some here almost as a matter of state sovereignty. There was grumbling when the McCain campaign brought in a high-powered cheechako (that's an outsider) ... Ed O'Callaghan, to dictate the governor's strategy and deal with the media. Spokeswoman Stapleton says that O'Callaghan is in Alaska because she and Van Flein need the extra help, and that the media has made this a national issue, so bringing in advisers from outside of Alaska is only appropriate. But the campaign's public bashing of Monegan, a widely respected longtime public official in the state, also didn't help its case. Now that O'Callaghan's hardball tactics are becoming clearer, the complaints have grown louder, from all sides of the political spectrum ...

As the Anchorage Daily News wrote in a blistering op—ed over the weekend: "Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?" ...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1843678-2,00.html

[thereismore]

1. The more you dig into a piece of shit the more it stinks. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

2. O'Callaghan doesn't even qualify as a cheechako

A cheechako is a newcomer to Alaska, but the general assumption is that they will be staying. Generous Alaskans will lift the "cheechako" appellation after a person has spent a winter here. For others, you're a cheechako if you came after the '64 Quake. :)

O'Callaghan will be gone after November 4 -- thank God -- and I for one will not be at all sad to see him go. Sarah will be eating much crow (or raven) when she gets back here.

[Demeter]

3. Well, Then, Let Alaska Give Palin the Boot

That would free her up for more campaign interviews with the press....

[curious one]

4. She is not winning this, isn't she? The more she drags this, the worse it gets for her.