There’s a couple Sarah Palin stories that I want to get out of the way, much like history will do with her candidacy.
First I’ll mention how the McCain /Palin Campaign pre-emptively cleared Palin from wrongdoing (much like Bush pre-emptively invaded Iraq). Then I’m going to mention the actual Branchflower Report, which found she had abused her power in an unethical manner [available here in PDF form].
After that I’ll talk about her reality-denying interview regarding the Alaskan probe. Then I’ll point out who she really blames for the problem. Finally I’ll point out how her recent, insane rhetoric has backfired, how her tone has allegedly changed, and how it’s still a joke.
First: The McCain / Palin Campaign clears themselves of any wrongdoing.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska [Thursday] October 9, 2008 (AP)
Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.
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Lawmakers are expected to release their own findings Friday. Campaign officials have yet to see that report — the result of an investigation that began before she was tapped as McCain’s running mate — but said the investigation has falsely portrayed a legitimate policy dispute between a governor and her commissioner as something inappropriate.
“The following document will prove Walt Monegan’s dismissal was a result of his insubordination and budgetary clashes with Governor Palin and her administration,” campaign officials wrote. “Trooper Wooten is a separate issue.”
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“I just hope that the truth is figured out,” Monegan told The Associated Press on Thursday. “That the governor did want me to fire him, and I chose to not. You just can’t walk up to someone and say, ‘I fire you.’ He didn’t do anything under my watch to result in termination.”
[full story]
Nice move. Very Bush-like. Hmm, how’d that work out for us?
Well, let’s see what the ACTUAL report says. This one is easily illustrated with th e picture below , and this soundbyte.
Palin Probe Reveals Ethical Lapses
Here’s the relevant parts of the interview… I’ll go ahead and put the obvious bullshit in italics.
[Opening Statement]
Palin: OK cool.
Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.
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[Todd] did what any – I think — any rational person would do so again, nothing to apologize there with Todd’s actions and again very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing.
[First Question]
ADN: Governor, finding No.1 on the report was that you abused your power by violating state law. Do you think you did anything wrong at all in this Troopergate case?
Palin: Not at all and I’ll tell you…
…
So no, not having done anything wrong, and again very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all.
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[Second Question]
ADN: Have you read the whole report? (No response; Stapleton [Palin’s Aide] invites question from KTVA reporter).
KTVA-Channel 11: … The report that came out yesterday, do you think that the end result is partisan?
Yes, you read that right. They cut off the reporter who was asking the simple follow-up…”Did you read the report?” The reporter asked this because Palin stated something that was completely the opposite of what the report just said, much like their pre-emptive report did. She then contines to do so, after blaming everyone else for her ethical lapse.
She did single out one person, above all else, to blame for this mess….here’s the focused version…from a comment on Fark…
Well, it’s certainly consistent with their First-Dude-Takes-the-Heat defense strategy:
Todd did what anyone would have done given this state trooper’s very, very troubling behavior and his dangerous threats against our family.
Todd did what I think any Alaskan would do. And he,
Todd did what the state’s Department of Law Web site tells anyone to do if they have a concern about a state trooper. And that’s you go to the commissioner and you express your concern. And
Todd did what our personal detail asked him to do. Bob Cockrell early on as I was elected and was asked are there any threats against you, and
Todd brought the concern as I did to Commissioner Monegan about the state trooper’s threats.
He did what any – I think — any rational person would do so again, nothing to apologize there with
Todd’s actions and again very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing.
Note also that thinking it is “rational” and normal for someone to use the Governor’s office to call directly and talk to a commissioner directly about their ex-brother-in-law is completely insane. The access that Sarah gave Todd makes it plenty evident that she drew no boundaries regarding his access to her personnel and her authority as Governor. It is idiotic to try and argue that it was without her knowledge and not part of her agenda. But that’s their argument.
To go and get caught red-handed and then throw your own husband under the bus…all the while denying you did anything wrong?
C’mon, Plain [sp], give us a break. No wonder you got booed.
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So that’s one example of how detached this person is. Let’s look at one more example to put this argument to bed.
Sarah begins…
[quotes taken from this article]
“It’s not negative and it’s not mean-spirited in a campaign for me to ask you to check out our opponent’s record, and I would ask you to check out our opponent’s record ….”
And you know she’s going for the Ayer’s thing, right? Like she did last week, right? LIke how she said Obama was hanging around with terrorists? You folks remember this, right? Because that’s not what happend at all…
“…check out our opponent’s record on a couple of the legislative opportunities that Barack Obama has had to reflect his feelings on the same issue that I just talked about,” Palin said. “I’m not being negative, not mean-spirited, but please check out his record on partial birth abortion and on the Child Born-Alive Act, and I’ll let you judge for yourself.”
Oooh, good one. Going for the “Obama is a Baby Killer” argument. Nah, that’s not negative or mean-spirited.
And neither is this…
“All across America, I know that there’s a lot of anger right now,” Palin said.
Right, right, I know, people are pissed the “Arab” terrorist might win the election, right?
What? No? Then what is it?
“There’s anger about the insider dealing of lobbyists and anger at the greed of Wall Street, and anger about the arrogance of the Washington elite. And with serious reforms to change Washington, John McCain is going to turn your anger into action.”
Aaah, I see. People are mad the “Washington elite”. You know. People born and bred in Washington. The sons of Admirals and Vice Presidents. Ya know…those elites…Republican presidential candidates.
She goes to talk about the good guys and bad guys.
“Help me Ohio to help put John McCain in the White House,” Palin said. “He understands… For one thing, we know who the bad guys are, OK? We know, we know that in the war, it’s terrorists, terrorists who hate America and her allies and would seek to destroy us, and the bad guys are those who would support and sympathize with the terrorists. They do not like America because of what we stand for: liberty, freedom, equal rights. Those who sympathize and support those terrorists who would seek to destroy all that it is that we value, those are the bad guys, ok?”
This is toning it down? Last week she says that Obama sympathizes and pals around with terrorists. This week she says that the terrorist are the bad guys (along with lobbyists like a young John McCain and “Greedy Wall Street” types, i.e. jews).
Her followers know what she really means. Obama is the Bad Guy.
I guess when you are completely ignorant of, or just flat out ignore history and facts and such. And don’t feel the need to “look to the past” as she’s so fond of saying….you can make such ridiculous claims in public with a straight face.
When you study history and know that the term “Founding Fathers” is damn near synonymous with “Elitist Lawyers” and then look at what this country has had to go through to get to where it is, I don’t think you could.
Many of the men who started this country were out-of-the-closet INTELLECTUALS. And LIBERAL ONES too.
I completely understand that the “liberal” and “conservative” of over 200 years ago bears little resemblance to that of today, but this culture war against knowledge and history and science needs to stop. This thinly vieled argument that Barack Obama is a Terrorist Who Hates America really needs to stop.
This kind of politics needs to stop now. If it doesn’t, we can make absolutely sure this kind of politics stops in a few weeks, when we get a chance to exercise the power that a bunch of rich, elitist, patriotic laywers and slave-owning intellectuals decided in their slightly-less-than-infinite wisdom to give to the common people.
Infinite wisdom is reserved for the Almighty and I think we can all agree now, as Americans, that Almighty we are not.
Robot Pirate Ninja 