The truth about the Alaskan Palin abuse of power investigation

Via Bill Dyar at Hugh Hewitt's place:

Democratic state senator and staunch Barack Obama supporter Hollis French of Alaska boasted in early September that he would provide an "October Surprise" which would upset the McCain-Palin campaign. Indeed, he originally planned to time it for October 31, four days before the election, for maximum impact, until other legislators forced him to abandon that particular strategy.

Today, however, in an episode of political theater that would make Josef Stalin blush, French gave it his very best shot: The investigator he hired and directed, Steve Branchflower, has labored mightily and given birth to a bloated and redundant 263-page report which boils down, for purposes of the ongoing presidential campaign, to two paragraphs that completely contradict one another. And the one of them that's unfavorable ignores the most important — indeed conclusive — evidence on point, but goes on to provide Branchflower's guess as to whether Gov. Palin has done anything improper.

Please understand this, if you take nothing else away from reading this post: The Branchflower Report is a series of guess and insupportable conclusions drawn by exactly one guy, and it hasn't been approved or adopted or endorsed by so much as a single sub-committee of the Alaska Legislature, much less any kind of commission, court, jury, or other proper adjudicatory body. It contains no new bombshells in terms of factual revelations. Rather, it's just Steve Branchflower's opinion — after being hired and directed by one of Gov. Palin's most vocal opponents and one of Alaska's staunchest Obama supporters — that he thinks Gov. Palin had, at worst, mixed motives for an action that even Branchflower admits she unquestionably had both (a) the complete right to perform and (b) other very good reasons to perform.

Here are the two key "findings," however (from page 8 of the .pdf file; boldface mine):

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

Finding Number Two

I find that, although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

Notice the "I find" in the first finding.  Then notice what the second finding concludes.

What you have here is a most partisan decision led by a most partisan hack attempting to make partisan points all intended to embarrass the McCain campaign and bolster the Obama campaign.  There's no other way to conclude anything else unless...

... you're a gullible member of the Religious Left:

hmmm, now Palin has been found by a bipartisan committee to have abused her power in Troopergate. Bummer. Let's see how the spin dr's will spin this one, let me count the ways:
sexism
liberal bashers
mainstream media
all political smearing
etc. etc. etc.

YAWN

-Rev. Susan in Ca.

Facts don't matter to the faithful... and faith in the Obamessiah is strong... he is, after all, The One. 

Do read the rest of Dyar's piece and do pass it on to those who've not yet downed the Koolaid.

And pray for those who come under the influence of those who are overdosing on it.   

Comments

[Mommynator]

Let's see if I got this right.

A Palin family member breaks rules/laws and abuses his authority.

Instead of rewarding him with promotion, money or anything else, the Palin family makes sure his ass gets fired, and uses their influence to make sure he's fired so he a.) stops breaking rules/laws, and b.) doesn't cause any more embarassment to the family.

What exactly is the problem?

[Mommytoo]

The employment was "at-will". That is independent of the investigator's finding that Palin abused her office and the public trust. The abuse was not whether or not she fired Monegan, but whether or not she pressured those under her and abused her executive powers in her campaign to do so.

The report is clear that she did. Also, this investigation was initiated by Republicans, not Democrats. There are ethical Republicans, lest we forget.

[ceebee]

I'm not sure what is contradictory. Palin has the legal right to sack people, but doing this on shakey grounds could be seen as an abuse of power.

[Mommynator]

ceebee, that would be summarized by, damned if you do, damned if you don't especially if you're a republican and more particularly, if you're Sarah Palin.

[Paul]

Undeclared registered voter here. Let’s see: Judicial Council of mostly REPUBLICANS started investigation BEFORE McCain picked her and she agreed to it…”hold me accountable”…she said, then McCain picked her and immediately it became a Partisan witch hunt, cooperation stopped, stonewalling began, suits to suppress were filed but were rejected by REPUBLICAN judges, then report was reviewed by 8 REPUBLICANS and 4 Democrats…and the vote was UNANIMOUS 12-0 to accept the conclusion that Sarah Palin abused her power as Governor to try to get Wooten fired…a violation of Alaska ethics law…use of Governor’s Office to settle personal vendetta. In what political universe is it deemed that an investigation sanctioned by a mostly REPUBLICAN panel, ruled valid by REPUBLICAN judges, and approved as valid by 8 REPUBLICANS and only 4 Democrats is considered a biased investigation against a Republican? If that is your universe then I am afraid you are seriously delusional. As for the trooper needing to be fired. He went through the disciplinary process and was held accountable and disciplined way before Palin became governor. Case closed. No one is entitled to come along later and re-open a case just because they didn’t like the result. New cause of action is needed and only the new cause of action should be considered not just go back to dirt from years back and already considered. You would want that if it was your job being reviewed and so would I. By the way, I am still voting for McCain even though he has changed into a serial liar and Palin is the most dangerous thing that could happen to our country. Why? First, I will not ever vote for a black man in the White House. More importantly, I believe our country is now just too rotten to the core and absolutely needs to be destroyed for the good of the world. McCain/Palin are perfect to complete the job. Besides, I am not worried…the Rapture will prevent me from suffering any of the destruction.