They Were Obsessed

Conor Clarke read the entire Troopergate report. Does this sound like the behavior of people with their head on straight?

In support of its contention that Palin acted unethically, the report cites 18 separate events in which Palin, her husband Todd, or one of her employees put pressure on Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan to fire Trooper Michael Wooten, the ex-husband of Palin's sister. Of these my favorite is an occasion in fall of 2007 in which Wooten "was seen [by Todd Palin] dropping off one of his children at school" in his patrol car. Palin called Wooten's supervisor and complained in the hopes of getting him fired. Months later a top Palin aide saw Wooten "driving around the Good Shepherd Church early in the morning dropping off one of his kids in a marked patrol vehicle." The aide also called and complained. Both calls were made in the fervent hope that dropping children at school or church in one's work vehicle was a sackable offense. And on both occasions it was found that Trooper Wooten had obtained permission to drop off his kids.

The McCain campaign tries gamely to put the law-and-order spin on this sort of thing by noting that the Palin family was "Understandably concerned about a pattern of behavior demonstrated by someone entrusted with the responsibilities of law enforcement," and thus "reported the behavior to the appropriate authorities." Nice try. Perhaps the Palins really thought Trooper Wooten was a threat to Alaska's first family and an embarrassment to the state, but if you're afraid of someone it's probably not a great idea to hang around outside the school to understand the manner in which he drops off the offspring.

So they stalked the trooper and then said they feared for their lives. These people are clinically unfit to be near the White House.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

McCain Should Read A Newspaper

McCain in an interview yesterday with CNN:

This crisis, this conflagration, was ignited by the housing crisis. And it was Fannie and Freddie, and Wall Street, and corruption -- or certainly cronyism in Washington, D.C. that caused it.

But private sector loans that caused the crisis, with no evidence of corruption or cronyism to be found. These being facts they obviously get in the way of McCain's fictional narrative, but they ought not get in the way of journalists, who seem constitutionally unable to ask follow-up questions when politicians lie to their faces.

McCain Hearing Things?

Isn't one of the signs of old age hearing things that aren't there? How else to explain McCain's claim that he's heard people at Obama rallies calling for him to be killed.

Palin Keeps Lying, Media Takes Notice

Remember the first finding in the Troopergate report? Here it is just in case you forgot:

Governor Sarah Palin abused her power as Governor in that her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act, which provides "The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

So on MSNBC this afternoon, Andrea Mitchell asked Palin campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton if Palin was overstating her innocence when she said she did nothing unethical or unlawful. A fair question, given that the first finding of the report clearly states that Palin acted unethically and violated the Ethics Act (which is a law). Stapleton's response?

“This Governor did nothing wrong and did nothing unlawful.”

Monday, October 13, 2008