Democrats politicized Alaska investigation

CNN:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will not cooperate with a "tainted" legislative investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin campaign announced Monday, accusing supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama of manipulating the probe for political motivations.

Former Palin Press Secretary Meg Stapleton told reporters in Anchorage that the power probe has been "hijacked" by "Obama operatives" for the Democratic presidential nominee -- namely, Alaska state Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic lawmaker managing the investigation and an Obama supporter. French has denied working on behalf of the Obama campaign.

The Obama campaign described Stapleton's charge as "complete paranoia." It has denied sending campaign staff to Alaska to work with the legislative committee's investigation.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said, "I think it's fair to say that the governor is not going to cooperate with that investigation so long as it remained tainted and run by partisan individuals who have a predetermined conclusion," referring to a comment by French this month that the case could produce criminal charges or an "October Surprise" for the GOP ticket.

He added that no "time period" has been set for Palin to be interviewed by independent counsel Stephen Branchflower. She has not been subpoenaed, though on Friday Alaska lawmakers voted to subpoena Palin's husband, several aides and phone records in their investigation.

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Monegan says while no one directly demanded Trooper Mike Wooten's dismissal, he felt pressured to do so by Palin, her husband and staff. He believes his refusal to fire the trooper led to his own firing. Upon the dismissal, Monegan was offered a position as executive director of the Alcohol Beverage and Control Board, but turned it down.

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Monegan appears to have confessed he has no case, but with the Democrats you know it is always "the seriousness of the charge" that requires an investigation of Republicans. His case is further damaged by a release of emails by Palin. Amanda Carpenter reports:

The latest revelation in the investigation on Sarah Palin’s decision to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan reinforces her credentials as a reformer, who strived to abide by her state budget and maintain dignity within the ranks of her law enforcement as Governor of Alaska.

Emails released by Palin’s lawyer in the evolving “Troopergate” investigation show Palin fired her Public Safety Commissione Walt Monegan because he routinely undermined her on budget issues, not because of his refusal to fire Palin’s ex brother-in-law, Mike Wooten.

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Palin’s legal counsel, Thomas Van Flein submitted a report to Alaskan lawmakers investigating whether Palin abused her power in firing Monegan that said Monegan was terminated due to his “outright insubordination.” Monegan defied the Governor by making public requests for projects Palin did not support in her budget, such as an $1.8 million increase for the Anchorage Community Land Trust (a project Palin had previously vetoed) and planning an unauthorized trip to Washington to lobby the Alaskan delegation for millions to rehire retired troopers while 56 vacancies remained unfilled within his ranks.

Flein included an avalanche of emails from Palin’s staff that discussed Monegan’s, a political appointee who served at the Governor’s pleasure, disruptive agenda in his report. None of the emails mentioned Wooten.

Palin did, however, write an email to Monegan regarding Wooten in 2007. In it, she asked Monegan to provide comment about a bill to ban the sale of guns to individuals who are considered a threat to public safety. She said the bill raised concerns about her “ex brother in law, the trooper who threatened to kill my dad yet was not even reprimanded by his bosses and still to this day carries a gun, of course.”

“Remember when the death threat was reported,” Palin told Monegan “and follow-on threats from Mike that he was going to ‘bring Sarah and her family down’—instead of any reprimand WEW were told by the trooper union and the personnel that we’d be sued if we talked about those threats. Amazing. And he’s still a trooper, and he still carries a gun, and he still tells anyone who will listen that he will never work for that b**** (me) because he has such anger and disdain towards my family. So consistency is needed here. No one’s above the law. If the law needs to be changed to now allow access to funs (sic) for people threatening to kill someone, it must apply to everyone.”

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This is looking like a dubious political attempt to discredit a popular governor. Between Monegans admissions against interest and the evidence produced here this is looking like an embarrassment for the people pushing it.