Rachel Maddow reveals new info on Sarah Palin-Troopergate

Troopergate. The key issue is whether she used her state office to pressure the public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law. Here's what she stated on the record in mid-July if this year:

"To allege that I, or any member of my family . . . directed disciplinary action be taken against any employee of the Department of Public Safety, is, quite simply, outrageous," Palin said in a statement in mid-July after Monegan's dismissal.
Here's Wikipedia's account, with links to the original sources:

In July, Palin's ethics advisor urged her to apologize for "overreaching or perceived overreaching" to get Wooten fired.[120] Palin publicly acknowledged in August that "pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it,"[121] She also apologized to Alaskans for the distraction.[122][123]

On August 13, after an internal investigation, Palin acknowledged that her staff had contacted Monegan or his staff about two dozen times regarding Wooten.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-lies-of-s-1....
For the past two weeks serious commentators and columnists have been asked to take the candidacy of Sarah Palin for the vice-presidency of the United States seriously. Formerly sane people have written of the McCain campaigns selection of this running mate as if it represents a new face for Republicanism, an emblem of can-do western spirit, a brilliant ploy to win over Clinton voters, a new feminism, a reformist revolution, and a genius appeal to the religious right.

Im afraid I cannot join in. In fact I cannot say anything about this candidacy that takes it in any way seriously. It is a farce. It is absurd. It is an insult to all intelligent people. It is a sign of a candidate who has lost his mind.

Does Palin believe that the men who planned and carried out the 9/11 attack are in Iraq? The hijackers are all dead, but Bin Laden and Zawahiri and the rest of the gang are, as far as we know, in Pakistan. Nobody believes they are in Iraq.

Then we have the now mountain of lies that follow Palin everywhere she goes, lies she keeps repeating as if they are not subject to factual scrutiny. In her first interview she said it was common for vice-presidential candidates never to have met a single foreign leader. Untrue. Every living vice-presidential candidate has met some foreign leaders before being picked.

She said she did not deny that climate change was man-made. But she has clearly stated that on the record. A year ago she said: Im not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist, blaming the changes in our climate on human activity.

She keeps repeating as a defining political motif that she said: Thanks, but no thanks for the Bridge to Nowhere. But we now know that she originally lobbied for the bridge in Alaska paid for by federal funds. And she never returned the money. And she even wore a Nowhere, Alaska sweatshirt to push back against the McCains of this world who derided the bridge as a pointless boondoggle.

She boasts that she secured a new oil pipeline for Alaska, but closer inspection finds that nothing has even begun to be built, and that the state may end up owing billions if the pipeline is never constructed.

She says shes a fiscal conservative, but as mayor she increased her tiny towns debt service by 69%. When she took office, the town of Wasilla had no long-term debt. By the time her term was over, the debt amounted to $3,000 per citizen.

She is the biggest joke to be put on a ticket in national politics. The most accurate thing said about her in the past two weeks was said on the day she was picked. It was said by Alaskas Republican state senate president, Lyda Green: Shes not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice-president or president? Look at what shes done to this state. What would she do to the nation?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/arti...

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[bubba2612]

What happened to the open and transparent politics Palin stands for in the Trooper gate?

Rep's are blocking it as part of their sleazy campaign.

If she did not do anything wrong, why not cooperate?

She learned fast: once you a hart beat away of the White House, you do not have to keep your promise.

She knew already how to lie.

Monegan, good job: Tell the world what the truth is.

[Chirox82]

I'm sorry that you don't feel that way, but yes facts do tend to conglomerate around Wikipedia - Citations help a lot with that. Wooten was suspended for the Tasering, shooting the moose, and driving with an open container in 2006. Yes he should have known it was illegal, but framing that as if he poached regularly is not honest.

[SYNPlaymaker88]

Actual facts don't come from wikipedia, opinion does. I derived actual fact from the reporting of the Anchorage Daily news and the Investigation done by The Alaska State Troopers. He didn't torture the kid, although it needs to be pointed out that it's Wooten's claim and his only, it was against policy and on it's own should have resulted in suspension at least. As for the moose, I'm a hunter and everyone who hunts knows it is illegal to shoot an animal on someone else's tag, wife or not.

[Chirox82]

Look up the actual facts, separated from any political hype.

You're phrasing the tasering like he was torturing a random kid for fun. He "illegally shot a moose" when his wife (who had a hunting permit) choked while on a hunt before shooting and passed the gun to her husband (who didn't). Go to the Wikipedia page and follow some citations for the rest.

They would have resulted in his firing if they were anywhere as excessive as you portray them, but again - you're exaggerating the facts.

[SYNPlaymaker88]

Google "is wooten a good trooper". Youtube won't let me post the link.

The Alaska state troopers investigation found that wooten did taser the kid against policy, did commit poaching, did drink and drive at least twice, once in a cop car, did threaten to murder the governors father, and did intimidate his wife using verbal and mental abuse resulting in a protective order and causing the Alaska govt to demand he turn in his firearms. Any one of these should have resulted in his firing.

[Chirox82]

A) I never implied that she was not. I was correcting some horrendous falsehoods about the actual case.

B) That was said two years before the dismissal when he was suspended for 5 days for several very minor crimes including failure to use turn signals.

#(?) Wow, way to oversimplify and exaggerate. Nobody said he didn't taser the kid, his nephew asked for it and it was done on the Test mode! He drove with an open container in 2004. The Branchflower Report found no evidence for threats.

[SYNPlaymaker88]

Interesting, since:

A) Sarah Palin was exonerated on this issue.

B) the Commandant of the alaska state troopers says " The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession,"

#) since an investigation was done and Wooten was to have tasered the kid, to have driven drunk, to have threatened the governer's father.

[Chirox82]

Threatens to murder the Governor's family - After Palin claimed that she was afraid of Wooten (the trooper), she reduced her security escort. Investigations show no evidence of any threats he made against the Palins.

If I recall those criminals were two guys who misfiled their taxes. Don't quote me on it though.

Plotting to steal 8 Trillion dollars? I'm guessing that's a South Park reference.

[Chirox82]

Drinks on the job - Drove one mile with an open container of alcohol while out of uniform several years before being dismissed.

Tasers children - He tased his 11 year old nephew after he was asked, the kid wanted to know what it felt like. The taser was on its "Test" mode, the lowest possible.

Beats his wife - In a police report she explicitly said that he did not beat her. He was not found guilty of any charges.