TPM: Getting Real About Palin (Why Troopergate Matters with timeline)

[dkf]

You need to read the whole thing to see the bigger picture. JMM's Summary:

We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. It's called an abuse of power. There is ample evidence that Palin used her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. When his boss refused to fire him, she fired him. She first denied Monegan's claims of pressure to fire Wooten and then had to amend her story when evidence proved otherwise. The 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.

These are, to put it mildly, not the traits or temperament you want in someone who could hold the executive power of the federal government.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/211769.php

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Josh is awesome on his analysis

A Poignant Piece that gets to heart of the matter.

[gemlake]

2. Thank you. Excellent work by TPM. n/m

[scarletwoman]

3. Rec'd! THAT'S what I'm talking about! Go after Palin on the empirically provable stuff!

She's a target rich environment, there's no need to debate her motherhood when you can go after her as a politician!

sw

[MasonJar]

4. She sounds like a regular GWB.

[neomonkey]

5. Good stuff

...and this is really where our energy needs to be directed. Baby-gate is a dead end and will buy us no leverage whatsoever.

Trooper-gate is much more serious and has tendrils, which if unearthed, can even extend into other sinister aspects of SP's life (Dominionism, role of hubby Todd, etc.)

[Gregorian]

6. Olberman minimized this.

Thank you TPM. There are proper ways to do things. I see the authoritarian in these people. It's more than frightening. It's what America was founded in opposition to.

[dkf]

12. He thought people would get on the side of Palin because

of the taser story...Wooten tasered a stepson, but not to punish. It was a boneheaded acquiescence to the kids request to see how it felt in "test" mode.

[Gregorian]

15. Really. That's a rather significant difference.

Thank you. That puts a different perspective on the whole story.

[sunnystarr]

7. I'd like to see Josh Marshall confirm this:

Consider the story of one of Governor Palin's former trusted advisors, John Bitney.

Bitney grew up with the governor, often telling the story of being in the same band class. He served as her Issues Coordinator during her successful gubernatorial campaign in 2006, spokesman for her transition team after the election and on December 1, 2006 he was named her Legislative Liaison.
Bitney was respected as a hard worker by people who knew him and worked with him. In six months, Bitney guided the governor's policies through the legislature, including her hallmark legislation; AGIA.

But John Bitney made the fatal employment mistake; he got on the bad side of Todd Palin.
In June of 2007, it became known that Bitney was dating the soon to be ex-wife of Todd Palin's good friend. Palin reportedly began demanding that Bitney be fired.

After a short time, Bitney realized that he couldn't remain in the governor's office due to the constant pressure and he worked out a deal with Chief of Staff Mike Tibbles to take a transfer to another department.

On July 3, Bitney was in the process of driving his vehicle back to Juneau when he couldn't get his state issued Blackberry to work. When he arrived in Tok he called his office and was told that his Blackberry had been turned off and that his name had been removed from the state employee directory.
His call was then transferred into Tibbles who told him the proposal they talked about was a no deal and the governor ordered him fired immediately. John Bitney was never given a reason why he was fired and never given a chance to make a graceful exit.

However reading the press statements from the Palin administration, you'd think otherwise.
According to the APRN on July 9, 2007, Governor Palin's spokeswomen Sharon Leighow said Bitney left for "personal reasons" and the departure was "amicable."

The Associated Press reported on July 10, 2007, "A spokeswoman for the governor says Bitney and Palin mutually agreed he would leave his post for personal reasons."

Bitney didn't leave his post, he was unfairly and unceremoniously fired and even after serving as a loyal employee was never given an answer as to why he was dismissed by the governor.

According to Bitney, "Todd's words have so much weight".

....

This was not a matter of any state policy being breached. This is an incident right out of high school--"You're seeing my ex-girlfriend and me and my gang will get you." The Palins decided to go after Bitney because Scott Richter, Todd's friend and Sarah's ex-boyfriend asked them to. Richter is also a business partner with the Palins in investment property in the Mat-Su Valley. The Palins and Scott Richter would not let it go after John Bitney was hired by Rep. Harris. Richter wanted him fired from his new job and the Palins tried to apply pressure to make this happen. They underestimated Rep. Harris who is tough and honorable--qualities foreign to the Palins. This tawdry affair should sicken Alaskans who care about their State. We elected an individual with no moral compass, no education, no background, no experience, just a blinding need to be the most popular girl in school. "Cute" can only take you so far then the veneer starts to peel.

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/shadow_governor

Seems there are emails on record.

[Cha]

8. Yeah, that needs more investigations because I don't

know about anyone else but I see a vicious pattern here.

[sunnystarr]

18. Also

I had read that she fired the guy who recorded the phone conversations proving that pressure coming from the Governors office. I know I've saved it with a link but I'd have to go through many many saved pages to find it.

[dkf]

9. Plus the librarian and chief of police in Wasilla. It gets worse and worse.

[BeyondGeography]

16. That should be its own thread

These people are total creeps.

[TexasObserver]

10. She's like the mayor of Ft Worth, Texas or some similar city.

She's got a total constituency of about 700,000, about the same as every congressman and woman in America, all 435 of them.

She clearly has abused her power, and it's pretty obvious she did so as a favor to sis.

[dkf]

11. Sometimes its simply a desire to squash people because you can.

[scarletwoman]

13. Kick, so that people can see there's other stuff to go after Palin with besides idiotic theorizing

about her pregnancy.

sw

[neomonkey]

14. Babygate is the least of my worries

Although I believe it's indicative of much more sinister skeletons in her holy closet.

[autorank]

17. Experience and THIS are the issues. THIS is huge. Great grab & great TPM. n/t