Sarah Palin fired Alaska’s Department of Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, for not bending to her pressure. He was dismissed on July 11, 2008.
She and the right-wing’s media cronies are in full denial, but the truth is well detailed in a 263-page report by Stephen Branchflower, a retired prosecutor, who was tasked with investigating Monegan’s dismissal.
The report, given to the Alaskan Legislative Council on Oct. 10, states, “I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power.”
Her attempt to personally benefit through official action — it turns out — does not comply with Alaska’s ethics law.
Seems Palin puts the guber in gubernatorial. Zing.
The crux of “Fiasco de Palin” — a self-coined term, much more clever than “Troopergate” — is that Palin wanted her ex brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper, Mike Wooten, fired.
He was going through a “messy” divorce with the Governor’s sister, Molly (you never hear about any “clean” divorces). In April 2005, Chuck Heath, Palin’s father, issued a complaint against Wooten. He was disciplined but not dismissed.
Shortly after winning the 2006 election, guber-elect Palin issued a flattering press release about her appointee, Walt Monegan, as Department of Public Safety Commissioner.
The guber-inaugural was Dec. 5, 2006, and before the end of the month, Monegan was contacted on behalf of Todd Palin to arrange a meeting for Jan. 4. The meeting was held at the Governor’s Office in Anchorage — without her presence — a co-guber-perktorial (Ok, that was a stretch).
The sole purpose of this meeting, according to Monegan’s testimony, was for Todd Palin to pour his frustration, regarding Wooten, all over the governor’s table.
Todd Palin provided pictures of Wooten and his wife — the guber-sistorial — with a dead moose. Allegedly, Wooten pulled the trigger, but it was his wife’s permit, and technically illegal.
Days after the meeting, Monegan phoned Todd Palin to inform him no new information was presented, and the investigation was over. Palin did not like this answer and brought up the dead moose.
Confronted with the possibility that more than the trigger-puller would be accountable — including the governor’s father who butchered the moose — Todd Palin balked and insisted that only Wooten himself should be prosecuted.
Within a few days Monegan received a call from the guber herself, Sarah Palin, who also expressed frustration and her perception that Wooten should not be employed with the state of Alaska any longer.
Monegan was beginning to sense his job was not entirely secure.
“If I keep telling them things that are going to frustrate them, I may not be long for the job,” he told Branchflower.
The calls persisted.
Monegan received calls from the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Mike Tibbles, the Department of Administration Commissioner, Annette Kreitzer, and the Attorney General, Talis Colber, concerning the Wooten investigation.
These calls, one can assume, were urged by the Palin family. Monegan was not the only person receiving calls. In fact, more than two dozen contacts had been made with state employees. Sarah Palin, in an August 2008 press conference said,
“The serial nature of the contacts understandably could be perceived as some kind of pressure presumably at my direction.”
For the lack of a better word, and perhaps one she will understand, duh.
Branchflower cites 18 specific events demonstrating, “That Governor Palin and Todd Palin and her family have, over an extended period of time, endeavored to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired from his job as an Alaska State Trooper.”
He lightens up when coming to the conclusion that while Monegan’s refusal to fire Wooten was, “Likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety … (it) was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.”
This, as he reports, is largely based on two premises. First, he explains that Sarah Palin appoints the position and legally could fire the appointee without any reason at all.
The second, according to Branchflower, is that although she needed no cause, Palin did have some. Unfortunately, Palin and fellow guber-relatives, would not talk to Branchflower. Instead, he cites what he read the governor had to say on the matter.
The complaints were that Monegan was a “rogue” that did not like bureaucracy. That may sound familiar, as it is the platform Palin stands on at every press conference, touting the same rhetoric about John McCain.
While the governor was unwilling to talk, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich was. Monegan served as chief of police under the mayor, before taking his position with the state.
Regarding Monegan, Begich said he, “had a lot of good community rapport.” He went on to say that Monegan was very skilled, dedicated and the right choice as chief of police.
Final Thought: According to John McCain’s official Web site, Palin fought corruption while serving as an ethics commissioner in Alaska.
How guber-ironic, don’t you think?
