Palin Posse couldn't shoot straight

Despite Sarah Palin's attempts to say she did nothing wrong, the bipartisan investigation determined that Palin broke state ethics laws:

From Kevin Drum:

TROOPERGATE FINALE.... I read most of the Branchflower report on Troopergate last night, but the MSM seemed to be doing a fine job of reporting the results all
its own so I never got around to posting about it.

The basic story, of course, revolves around Todd and Sarah Palin's crusade to get their ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, fired from his job as a state trooper, and their efforts to get Alaska's Commissioner of Public Safety, Walt Monegan, to do the firing. Most of this story is pretty well known already. However, Time's Nathan Thornburgh points out the aspect of the report that struck me as the most remarkable:

The result is not a mortal wound to Palin.... But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly
so.

The 263 pages of the report show a co-ordinated application of pressure on Monegan so transparent and ham-handed that it was almost certain to end in public embarrassment for the governor.

.... Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful. Still, the emails and calls continued — in at least one instance on recorded state trooper phone lines.

The state's head of personnel, Annette Kreitzer, called Monegan and had to be warned that personnel issues were confidential. The state's attorney general, Talis Colberg, called Monegan and had to be reminded that the call was putting both men in legal jeopardy, should Wooten decide to sue. The governor's chief of staff met with Monegan and had to be reminded by Monegan that, "This conversation is discoverable ... You don't want Wooten to own your house, do you?"

Monegan pointed out to a steady stream of people that (a) Wooten was protected by civil service and there was nothing more that could be done since he'd already gone through a formal disciplinary procedure, and (b) any conversation about Wooten was discoverable in court if Wooten ever got tired of being hounded and decided to file a civil suit. And yet the contacts kept coming and coming and coming — and coming and coming. And Branchflower documents them in painful detail. It's all quite
remarkable.

In fact, here's the part that really puzzles me: what exactly did Todd and Sarah Palin hope to accomplish? Surely they knew perfectly well that Monegan was right: he couldn't have fired Wooten even if he wanted to. And they must also have known that even if Monegan were replaced, any replacement would quickly check into the situation and report back the same thing. Wooten had already been disciplined, and unless something new cropped up there was simply nothing that anyone could do to force him out of his job. In fact, the Palins' efforts probably made it nearly impossible even to reassign Wooten since it would so obviously have been politically motivated. It was a completely futile crusade they were on.

So what were they thinking? Or were they?

They did it because they thought no one would dare to challenge them. They were used to strong-arming or sliming the opposition and winning, they thought this would be the same at the state level.

Here is a much more detailed analysis from Hilzoy.
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Dangerous and Corrosive

Troopergate is still looming out there for the Palins. Here is Josh Marshall:

Desperate
By Josh Marshall

Republican state legislators, at the behest of the McCain campaign, have now filed an emergency appeal with the Alaska Supreme Court trying to shutdown the Troopergate' investigation. The plaintiffs (echoing the Bush v. Gore decision) claim "the plaintiffs and Alaskans will suffer irreparable harm" if the Branchflower report is released, as scheduled, next Friday, October 10th.

Bear in mind, the people in charge of the investigation moved the release date up so as not to have it released on the eve of the election. That was the original schedule long before Palin was chosen as veep nominee. And the GOP lawyers the McCain campaign sent to Alaska have succeeded in having almost all the parties connected to Palin refuse to cooperate with the investigation. So it's not completely clear just what Branchflower is going to be able to come up with, either inculpating or exculpating.

But this is an opportunity to refocus our attention on something that has been lost in the nonstop coverage of Palin's campaign trail lies and botched interviews: her record in Alaska strongly suggests she lacks the character to be trusted with high office. Though the troopergate scandal is tied narrowly to Palin's firing of Alaska's top cop, Walt Monegan, the heart of the story is about a private vendetta that Palin tried to settle using her new powers as the chief executive of the state of Alaska. Thwarted in doing so, all evidence suggests she fired the public official who refused to execute her plan.

Nor is it the only example. Both as mayor and governor, Palin has shown the tell-tale signs of a politician who hires cronies and fires or blackballs critics. This part of Palin's record gets deep in the weeds. So it's not as flashy as the boffo interviews or and irresistible as the straight-up lies she's been caught in. But we need no closer example than the Bush administration to know that people like this are dangerous and corrosive to our public institutions.

Funny Money

OK, below is the video of John McCain bringing up his P.O.W. experience in response to a question about his inability to remember or even know how many homes he and Cindy own. But there is something else to note in the video. He also uses the military experience of his father-in-law to deflect the criticism. But now he has opened the door wider for people to take a close look at Cindy's father, Jim Hensley, and his divorce, his wealth and how he got it (are there ties to organized crime?).

It is a story that most of the Big Money Media is ignoring, but the New York Times hit the story hard on Saturday. Check out the entire article here:

"But the Hensley family wealth, from its rough-and-tumble origins to prominence in Arizona’s corporate world, is also the fortune that propelled John McCain into national politics. A clearer picture of that fortune emerges from a review of public records and interviews with employees, business associates, friends and relatives."

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The Cancer Eating America's Soul

After eight years of a Bush/Cheney co-presidency the new President and Congress will have some difficult choices to make. Beyond the immediate concerns, we have tremendous problems staring us right in the face over the next few years. So, the tendency for some will be to adopt the "let's move on" mantra that will push for ignoring the lawbreaking and corruption of the Bush/Cheney administration in order to be able to truly focus on the future.
This is what many people said after Watergate, and President Ford moved this meme along by issuing a pardon. But there are some who point to that pardon and the insistence that moving on was the best medicine and say that it was really just a treatment of the symptoms, not the cancer. The black disease was left behind and spread throughout the Republican Party and emerged unchecked under the guise of a Unitary Executive philosophy of governance promoted by Dick Cheney and others.
I fear that as President Barack Obama will encourage a "let's move on" course. I know a President McCain would.
But I hope, that as Obama says those things to soothe a damaged public psyche that behind the scenes his administration and Congressional leaders will begin the process of finally learning the truth behind the corruption and malfeasance of the Bush/Cheney years.
As it emerged from the darkness of apartheid South Africa formed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help the victims and the perpetrators find justice, healing and forgiveness.
America needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times wrote about this yesterday:

"The first step of accountability isn’t prosecutions. Rather, we need a national Truth Commission to lead a process of soul searching and national cleansing. That was what South Africa did after apartheid, with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and it is what the United States did with the Kerner Commission on race and the 1980s commission that examined the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Today, we need a similar Truth Commission, with subpoena power, to investigate the abuses in the aftermath of 9/11."

This country will remain polarized as long as it refuses to fight and treat the cancers that are eating it up from within. We have to move forward and deal with the difficulties ahead, but we also have the resources and the time to take an honest look back at our failures and face our shame that is in our recent past.

Another failed war ...

Nice post here by Libby at NewsHoggers on America's Real Drug Problem:

"America's real drug problem is its addiction to prohibition. It hasn't worked in the last 40 and more years and it won't ever work. For a fraction of the billions we spend on failed policies that rely on radication, interdiction and incarceration, we could invest in treatment facilities that would actually solve the problems of addiction and abuse, which are the only real dangers of drug use and allow responsible substance consumers to live in peace and productivity."

Another black eye for a "Family Values" politician?

Arizona Congressman John Shadegg announced this week that he would not be running for another term this November. It was a surprise announcement and it prompted more than 130 House Republicans to sign a letter to Shadegg asking him to reconsider. So, as he mulls over his options, some people in Arizona (fellow Republicans?) are trying to make sure he spurns their pleas and stays out of the race by sharing dirt on the randy representative. This comes from a book by John L. Jackley's called Below The Beltway and was featured in the blog Down with Tyranny:

The brief part about Shadegg, however, is deadly ... It details the adultery, sex, and violence scandal that Shadegg-- and even more so an enraged Mrs. Shadegg-- do not want to come to light and is exactly why he retired and won't be running for re-election to Congress, nor for poor old McCain's Senate seat. Republican officials in Phoenix aren't talking about anything else today but this:

Read the sordid details here!

Gee, I wonder why the Arizona Republic hasn't written much about this? Hello Phoenix New Times?

Deep inside the bunker ...

Today the White House revealed that at one point it had a practice of recycling its backup computer tapes of sent and received e-mails, meaning possibly millions of messages were likely taped over and are now lost forever. The electronic file and document retention rules have been in place a long time and the White House had to know they were likely violating laws designed to preserve presidential records. These “lost” e-mail messages have been a story for a long time, and they likely cover “a period in which the U.S. decided to go to war with Iraq, White House officials leaked the identity of Valerie Plame and the Justice Department started a criminal investigation of the White House."

"It appears that the White House has now destroyed the evidence of its misconduct," said Anne Weismann, the chief counsel for the ethics group.

It is one more demonstration of how the members of the Bush/Cheney administration do whatever the hell they want to. And they will continue to do so until someone holds them accountable.