Sarah Too Big of a Celebrity for Alaska
Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is juggling offers to write books, appear in Hollywood films and sit on dozens of interview couches at a rate astonishing for most movie stars, let alone a first-term governor.
Oprah wants her. So do David Letterman and Jay Leno.
The failed Republican vice presidential candidate crunched state budget numbers this past week in her 17th-floor office as tumbling oil prices hit Alaska’s revenues. Her staff, meanwhile, fielded television requests seeking the 44-year-old Palin for late-night banter and Sunday morning Washington policy.
Agents from the William Morris Agency and elsewhere, have come knocking. There even has been an offer to host a TV show.
“Tomorrow, Governor Palin could do an interview with any news media on the planet,” said her spokesman, Bill McAllister. “Tomorrow, she could probably sign any one of a dozen book deals. She could start talking to people about a documentary or a movie on her life. That’s the level we are at here.”
“Barbara Walters called me. George Stephanopoulos called me,” McAllister said. “I’ve had multiple conversations with producers for Oprah, Letterman, Leno and ‘The Daily Show.’”
Asked whether Winfrey was pursuing Palin for a sit-down, Michelle McIntyre, a spokeswoman for Winfrey’s Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc., said she was “unable to confirm any future plans” for the show.
Palin may have emerged from the campaign politically wounded, with questions about her preparedness for higher office and reports of an expensive wardrobe. But she has returned to Alaska with an expanded, if unofficial, title _ international celebrity.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=92f70dda-6200-4c8a-8ac6-12bfde094b65)
Sarah Palin Goes Back to Wasilla
Governor Sarah Palin, heralded by some conservatives as the future of the Republican Party, faces some cold political realities in her present-day Alaska.
Within days of the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket’s defeat earlier this month, the unsuccessful GOP (Republican) vice presidential nominee capped her tumultuous two months on the campaign trail with a whirlwind series of national media interviews and a headline-grabbing appearance at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida.
Now it’s back to her day job at the state capital in Juneau.
Palin’s state budget proposal is due in a month, with plummeting oil prices slashing Alaska’s revenues by billions of dollars.
The 1,700-mile natural gas pipeline she bragged about on the campaign trail _ “We began a nearly $40 billion-dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence,” she said at the Republican National Convention _ is nowhere near being built.
Some hard feelings linger over her administration’s initial decision to ignore subpoenas in the investigation of whether she abused her power in firing the public safety commissioner who wouldn’t oust her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.
“The main focus is going to be on the gas line and on the long-term financial issues,” said Democratic state Sen. Bill Wielechowski. “You’re going to see really a clampdown on government services.”
Uncertain is whether the bipartisanship that existed during Palin’s 20 months as governor can survive the heated rhetoric from the presidential campaign and her own political ambitions, with the 44-year-old clearly signaling that she’s open to a bid for president in 2012.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=495ac413-bfd4-463f-9712-b5b9ee97653b)
Sarah Palin’s Troopergate Exoneration Was a Lie
It was surely an odd bit of timing on Monday, November 3–just hours before one of the biggest presidential elections in American history–that the Alaska State Personnel Board issued a finding by its chief investigator, Timothy J. Petumenos, that Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, did not breach state ethics laws when she fired Alaska public safety commissioner Walt Monegan in July of this year.
This last minute finding appeared to exonerate Palin of any legal culpability in the so-called “Troopergate” scandal that dogged her throughout her ill-fated, two-month run on the Republican ticket. Palin boldly claimed it a “vindication,” while headlines throughout the world declared that she had been “cleared” of any wrongdoing.
That was hardly the case. Composed entirely of political appointees–and all Republican–the Personnel Board was hell-bent on clearing Palin from the get-go. Its findings were neither final nor impartial. And they leave many questions about her behavior, along with that of her husband and her staff, unanswered.
Perhaps the most significant questions that remain are whether or not Governor Palin and her husband, Todd, committed perjury in their sworn affidavits to the personnel board.
There is significant circumstantial evidence that they did.
Less than a month before the Personnel Board’s findings, of course, a Republican investigator of the bipartisan Alaska Legislative Council declared that while Palin broke no laws in firing Monegan, she had, in fact, violated the state’s Executive Ethics Act by actively pursuing the firing of her former brother-in-law, Alaska state trooper Mike Wooten.
Palin put the lean on Monegan to fire Wooten. He didn’t. So he was fired instead.
As Governor, Palin had the executive right to fire Monegan. On that fact, both the Legislative Council and Personnel Board agree.
What they disagree about is whether Palin, her husband, and her staff had the right to hound Monegan about the firing of Wooten. The Personnel Board said that she did have the right; the Legislative Council’s reading of the Alaska Ethics Act says she did not.
And hound they did. More than three dozen times in less than two years.
In the aftermath of Monegan’s dismissal, Palin gave at least four different reasons for it–all of which seem spurious, at best, and concocted, at worst. And there is strong evidence contradicting every one of her four explanations.
But even more troubling is the absolutely obsessive pattern of strong-arming Monegan about Wooten that began immediately once Palin took office. Within two months of her December 2006 inauguration, Palin and her husband, Todd, contacted Monegan a half-dozen times about firing Wooten. Then Palin’s staff members began the assault. Then more contacts from the Palins. Then more from staff.
The pressure was unrelenting and continued right up until the time that Monegan was fired. The record on that–emails, notes, even taped phone conversations–is quite clear.
Perhaps the most troubling piece of evidence is a February 7, 2007, email from Gov. Palin to Monegan. It’s a long, rambling missive that concludes with a return to her obsession with Wooten: “Just my opinion — I know you know I’ve experienced a lot of frustration with this issue. I know Todd’s even expressed to you a lot of concern about our family’s safety after this trooper threatened to kill a family member…”
Both Palin and her husband swore under oath that they did not have conversations with Monegan a month earlier (in January 2007) about the Wooten matter. Yet the February 2007 email proves concretely that Palin was aware that her husband had conveyed concerns to Monegan and, by implication (“I know you know”) that she had as well. It also clearly establishes the pattern of her trying to use her influence to get Wooten fired from her earliest days in office.
Palin further contradicted her own testimony by saying that her husband complained to her so frequently about the handling of the Wooten matter that she had to tell him to stop, and then shortly thereafter contended that she knew nothing about his activities to get Wooten fired.
Implausible? Absolutely. Perjury? That remains for a legal body to decide.
But will one?
I contacted Monegan’s talented attorney in Anchorage, Jeffrey Feldman, of Feldman, Orlansky & Sanders, to ask him about the state of the case and what were the next legal steps in this matter.
“No one knows the answer to that question,” he declared. Since the Personnel Board made a finding of “no probable cause” and denied Monegan’s request for a hearing, there “is nothing currently pending before the Personnel Board.”
Feldman indicated that Monegan’s legal options are also limited. He “could file an action in court either challenging his dismissal, asserting defamation claims, or seeking a due process name-clearing hearing,” but as of now that’s uncertain.
That leaves the Alaska Legislature. When it goes back into session in January, there are a variety of options it could pursue. Although there’s a bipartisan majority caucus in the state Senate, Feldman said, it’s uncertain whether Senate President-designate, Republican Gary Stevens (not related to the convicted U.S. Senator), will follow up on any matter dealing with Troopergate.
That, to me, would seem to be a dereliction of the Legislature’s duty. The Alaska Legislature has the right–and I believe the obligation–to follow-up on the findings of its own investigation and to censure Governor Palin for what was a clear pattern of abusing her power.
Moreover, the Legislature also has the power to seek contempt charges against Palin and other state officials who willingly ignored the Legislative Council’s subpoenas during its investigation of Troopergate. And it also has the power to hold hearings on whether or not Palin and her husband committed perjury. There’s troubling evidence that they did.
Come January, someone needs to show Alaska’s first family that they are not above the law.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5bb5eaa1-788f-467a-a310-888cf48679b8)
Sarah Palin – You Are All Jerks if You Criticize me
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin called her critics cowards and jerks Friday for deriding her anonymously and insisted she never asked for the expensive wardrobe purchased for her use on the presidential campaign.
“I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr. Pepper once in a while,” Palin said as she returned to the governor’s office from her two-month odyssey as the GOP vice presidential nominee. She said the Republican National Committee paid for the tens of thousands of dollars in designer clothes and accessories.
“Those are the RNC’s clothes. They’re not my clothes. I never forced anybody to buy anything,” she said.
Republican Party lawyers are still trying to determine exactly what clothing was purchased for Palin at such high-end stores as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, what was returned and what has become of the rest.
She particularly lashed out at the anonymous Republican campaign sources cited in a Fox News report who said she did not know Africa was a continent, not a country, and could not name the three countries in the North American Free Trade Agreement _ Canada, the United States and Mexico.
“I consider it cowardly” that they did not allow their names to be used, she said.
Palin said those allegations aren’t true. She recalled discussing Africa and NAFTA with aides who prepared her for the vice presidential debate with Democrat Joe Biden.
“If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context,” she said. “That’s cruel, It’s mean-spirited. It’s immature. It’s unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It’s not fair, and it’s not right.”
Republicans Want Sarah Palin to Run in 2012
Ninety-one percent (91%) of polled Republicans have a very favorable view of Sarah Palin, including sixty five percent 65% who say their view is Very Favorable. Only eight percent (8%) have an unfavorable view of Sarah Palin, including three percent (3%) Very Unfavorable.
When asked to choose among some of the GOP’s top names for their choice for the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, 64% say Palin. The next closest contenders are two former governors and unsuccessful challengers for the presidential nomination this year — Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas with 12% support and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 11%.
Three other sitting governors – Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Charlie Crist of Florida and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota – all pull low single-digit support.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2d54b061-44f1-4511-a1bb-b08ba5eb2c74)
