We are having an election. Part of that process involves reviewing what the contestants have accomplished, and everybody involved wants to look good. Everybody has their own agenda. Everybody has his or her own story. That includes Sarah Palin, Walt Monegan, and Mike Wooten. It also includes the news media; these people make a buck peddling all the various tales.
Why did Gov Sarah Palin fire Walt Monegan? We have the allegation that Palin fired Monegan because he would not fire Wooten. Is that true? It is apparent that Palin’s sister did not want Wooten anywhere near herself or her children. We can also infer that Todd and Sarah Palin did not want Wooten anywhere near anybody. Nonetheless, whether Monegan’s replacement as Alaska’s top cop had anything to do with that matter is debatable. Palin gave other reasons for showing Monegan the door. Moreover, Monegan did not immediately contest the matter.
Gov. Sarah Palin appointed Walt Monegan as commissioner of public safety shortly after her election in 2006. On Friday, Palin’s chief of staff told Monegan he was being replaced.
The news came “out of the blue,” said Monegan, a former Anchorage police chief.
“If the governor was upset with me for one thing or another, it had never been communicated to me,” he said in an interview Saturday evening.
The big question — why? — went largely unanswered Saturday. (from here)
What about the reason Palin dismissed Monegan? Is there any possibility that we ought to give that matter a little thought? Well, let’s consider who was most upset with Monegan’s dismissal.
The head of the union that represents state troopers, one of the agencies Monegan oversaw, said replacing him was the wrong move and that troopers were happy with department leadership “for the first time in years.”
Palin has called for cuts to the public safety budget, while Monegan wanted more troopers, said John Cyr, executive director of the Public Safety Employees Association.
“Her basic mission is to cut the basic cost of government,” he said. “I understand that. But when you do that with public safety, that means that people are less safe in their homes.” (from here)
Palin is a Republican. Monegan is her appointee. Palin wants to keep the budget under control, but, oddly, her appointee appears to be popular with a public employees’ union. What kind of budget do you think this guy has been submitting? Anybody want to guess?
But as far as the news media and the Democrats are concerned, Monegan’s job performance is not the issue. Instead, they want us to feel ever so sorry for a man who tasers a child. Have these people lost their minds?
Go to YouTube and watch the Wooten Gate videos. You will see and hear Walt explain in one of the interviews how Palin had asked him, in person, about firing her ex brother-in-law, and that Walt had advised her that telling him to do that was improper and that she should not talk directly to him about Wooten again in order to protect her from ethics charges. Other videos actually have recorded conversations of a few of Palin’s lackeys calling Walt’s office making implied threats about how, if Wooten wasn’t fired, the Governor would not be happy and therefore, heads would roll.
Palin is as crooked as Nixon, albeit her Wooten Gate, is on a smaller, more personal scale, than Nixon’s plumbers break-in at the Watergate.
If these same actions by Palin were done by a Mississippi political boss, the Department of Justice would have rolled into town and tossed most of the government into the slammer. Because, in this case, “Boss Hog” is not a 300 pound good ol’ boy chomping a cigar, but is someone who was born with the XX chromosome, Sara “Tammy Faye” Palin, then our GOP leadership chose to look the other way.
Many of us would like to support John McCain, but this Palin thing stinks to high heaven.
Palin’s abuse of power is repugnant enough, but the really creepy part of her admitted behavior was the way she listened in on phone conversations between her sister and brother-in law, then she admits to acting like a common voyeur, by going to her brother-in-law’s house and spying on them through a window.
What chief executive of any city, county or state would be retained in office after admitting to such egregious behavior while in office?
Does anyone think that someone who has acted like Palin would show any respect for the increasingly few and thin protections our citizens have remaining under our Constitution?
Uh, Ty, Monegan has alread stated Palin never told him to fire Wooten. As for the rest, heaven forfend she should try to protect her sister against a guy who threatened her dad and tasered his kid.
Nice try, though.
Looks like Monegan “went native” in his post, and got canned. Besides, if Palin was soooo determined to get rid of Wooten, why does he still have his job? Clearly the current Commissioner isn’t following orders.
Or perhaps the orders were never delivered.
I can on;y imagine how Ty would have reacted to all this if Todd Palin didn’t have any Native American blood.
This really sounds like more of a family dispute than a highly publicized political issue being used as propaganda.
If it weren’t for McCain’s propensity for war and S. Palin, I might consider voting for McCain. But I can’t. So long as we are wasting our money in Iraq, we will continue to ignore domestic policy and fix our home turf the way it needs to be.
I have another take on this election. Please check:
http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/Blair_or_Fox.htm
When it comes to selection of Palin, my comment was:
http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/Emergency_response.htm
Had rwl bothered to watch the Wooten Gate videos on YouTube, you would have seen and heard Walt saying that he stopped Palin, mid- sentence, as she tried to pressure him to fire Trooper Wooten, by telling her that she was over-stepping her authority. He urged Palin not to talk directly to him regarding the personnel matter because she would be seen as abusing her position as Governor. After that conversation, Walt was called over and over by Palin’s staff, warning him that there would be consequences if Wooten wasn’t fired.
Now Walt has been fired. Trooper Wooten remains on the job because of the public outcry over Palin’s use of State power for vengeance. Walt’s firing is part of the on-going investigation. While Palin has the “right” to “fire” Commissioners, she remains accountable for the lack of good judgment and her nefarious motivations for her actions. Walt will very likely be re-instated, if he wants his old job back.
Any normal person would want to protect a family member if harm was suspected. However, normal citizens, if they were also serving as Governor, would NOT have resorted to illegal wire-tapping or to becoming a common voyeur, in order to snoop on the private interactions between a married couple.
Any normal citizen would have, if there was any substance to these supposed fears, consulted with the individuals involved, or if that was not effective and there was a real possibility of imminent danger, a normal citizen would have contacted the local police. Normal people don’t wire-tap and spy on others through windows.
Palin demonstrated that she is quick to disregard the law and hold herself above the law, then try to explain her abuse of power by further trashing the reputation of a State Trooper; who continues to serve the citizens of Alaska.
As for that comment regarding Todd Palin: Who cares what his genetic background is? Twice you have tried to imply that there must be some prejudicial basis for anyone who points out Sarah Palin’s abuse of her position and illegal behavior. They tried the same tactic in the early days of Watergate, claiming that anyone who pointed out Nixon’s criminal activity was a “commie” or “lefty.”
Palin is guilty as Hell and it doesn’t matter who points out the facts, since the facts are already in the public domain. Even the dullest witted citizens can see the Youtube videos where the key people in this debacle, such as Walt are interviewed. You may have to watch a few different clips to get all of the key points, but you will eventually see that Palin clearly abused her position.
Palin admits to spying through the windows and listening-in on phone conversations. Since she was a government official at the time, her actions with regard to the phone conversations constitute an illegal wire-tap, and her voyeurism is, both creepy and a violation of the Constitutional rights of the couple.
Those of us who are disgusted by ANY politician who use the power of the State for personal vengeance are repulsed by Palin’s criminal abuse of her office. Many in the GOP have openly condemned Palin’s abuses and illegal activity as Governor.
What is perhaps as repugnant as Palin’s criminal behavior in office, is the way a few GOP mouthpieces have so quickly forgotten the lessons of the Nixon-Watergate years and instead of condemning the obviously criminal behavior by Palin, continue to present fantasies in a doomed attempt to paper over this turd of a VP pick.
The Republican Party proudly proclaims to be, “The Party of Principle.” In this case, principled people will not stand idle while Palin, a person who has demonstrated disregard for the rule of law, ethical behavior and, indeed, common decency, is held forth under false pretenses as being suitable for a station that is a mere heartbeat away from the Presidency.
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Read the report, as tedious as it turned out to be. My opinion:
1. Waste of Alaskan taxpayer’s money
2. Monegan was out of control. What idiot goes behind their bosses back and tries to cut a deal with a legislator to advance his own agenda. Not to mention critizes the Govenor in a public venue!
3. The strectch (a very long one) to tie what happened into an ethics violation was simply incredible and a bit amusing.
In the end it was political theater at its best. More importantly, it was a total waste of time and has distracted Americans from more important topics.