Sarah, stop the slander

I honestly am just so frustrated with what Gov. Palin has been doing and saying, I cannot write what I was going to write. What she is attempting to do with Walt Monegan - shift the blame and public disgust to him, rather than be "open" and "welcome the investigation" as she has repeatedly promised in the past - is just beyond digust to me.

For those of you that do not know, Walt Monegan is the central figure in the Troopergate situation. His firing was a shock to many, and gained attention it specifically BECAUSE OF THIS MAN'S EXCELLENT REPUTATION and propensity to fight for those who needed it the most. Nobody saw the firing coming. Palin has fired many people before, and it did not gain a quarter of the attention that firing such a stand-up guy did.

I was dismayed to read in comments from around the nation, that this smear is working, at least for some people. I urge you, please look at all the facts, from the beginning of this whole mess, before you pass judgement on a man who did nothing but do his job, and do it well.

A few facts:

- People who don't know the situation are criticizing Monegan for not firing Wooten - but Walt Monegan was not Wooten's boss at the time of the incidents Palin describes, or at the time of the Wooten investigation. Nobody is defending Wooten except the union - everyone pretty much agrees he's a creep. But the actions he committed were investigated for quite a while, and diciplinary actions taken against him. It wasn't enough, but that wasn't Monegan's call.

Monegan was not Wooten's "boss" until Palin took office - WELL after everything she described happened. On her urging, he did look at the file, but I would be alarmed if anyone tried to repunish anyone for a crime they already committed. He found NO new evidence - and Palin has never presented any past what happened when her sister and brother-in-law were going through a divorce. PLEASE, take in the phrase "double jeopardy." Monegan acted with utmost integrity for his badge by following exactly what justice dictates. I do not agree with half of the sentences given out for crimes - but then where is our justice if a judge, years after the criminal has been convicted, sentenced, and completed it, decides that wasn't really enough time after all, and he should do more? We would be outraged, and justice crumbles.

- This investigation started well before anyone thought Palin was even half a factor in the VP bid. It was not something cooked up by Obama's campaign - Palin did this all by herself.

- Monegan was offered another job by Palin, instead of getting fired. She now claims that one of her problems with him was that he wasn't going aggressively enough after the high alcoholism rates in Alaska. The job she offered him? Executive Director of the State Alcohol Beverage Control Board.

-On the subject of offering him a new job, Palin now claims she offered it to him because of the esteem the "public" held for him, instead of just firing him outright (she's right about the esteem we hold for him anyways.) But really, he was showing "rogue mentality," "outright insubordination" and "escalating patterns of insubordination"... so she offered him another job? Even if he was showing all these horrifing traits, my word, I would hope I could have governor who wouldn't keep such a guy on because other people liked him!

-Another of the reasons Palin came up with, after the fact, for firing Monegan- he wasn't doing enough to hire more troopers. Yet his budgetary plan for the troopers was focused on recruitment efforts, more funding to get them, more funding to keep them. Meanwhile, Palin is trying to lop off $2.5 million from the trooper budget, even now.

- She says, only since Monday, that he showed a "rogue mentality" and "outright insurbordination." But where is the progressive action? Where are the warnings, the meetings with him to discuss his actions? She claims there was an "escalating pattern of insubordination" - but she cannot provide the evidence to show her own pattern of corrective action against him. Wasn't he warned? The "evidence" she provided this week show a selective handful of e-mails from other people that complain about Monegan or his department. Like every single high-level department head of any state government doesn't have a slew of complaints about how they should be doing things differently. NOTHING on where Palin corrected Monegan, told him to stop, NOTHING on where Monegan was told his actions were wrong, nothing, that is, except the numerous phone calls, e-mails and reminders about Palin's ex-brother in law.

- At first Palin welcomed the investigation - said there was nothing to hide. Now? She is "unlikely to cooperate." The first was said before evidence was found, and before she was selected to run as McCain's running mate. The second was said after the evidence was found, and after she was selected.


Even Republican friends I have are shocked at this new treatment - not at what has been "discovered" now about Monegan, but about the ruthless way Palin is willing to claw at a good man's reputation so she won't sink. The nation hasn't had Monegan around forever, they don't know all the good he's done, and the honest and open way he's done it. It is horrifying to me what we are witnessing now on a national stage. It is clear that the McCain's camp is running the show - all questions are being routed to them, and the investigation took a crazy spin the second she was announced.

Whatever you believe about Sarah Palin and this investigation, I just ask you to not believe what is being said about Walt Monegan now. There is a surge of support for this man, and not from paid lawyers and political colleagues who might benefit or lose, depending on the outcome. People from all around the state are behind him, democrats, republicans, independendants. We hope the nation will hear what his supporters have to say - not just the opposition, who have much to gain by thiis man's destruction.

Palin hires Commissioner Number Three

The world could be righting itself, just a little.

The new Public Safety Commissioner was announced today, former Trooper Joe Masters. From Palin's statement that Celtic Diva sent me:

September 12, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today named Joseph A. Masters, security director of Doyon Universal Services and affiliate professor at University of Alaska Southeast, as commissioner of the Department of Public Safety...

...Masters, 44, of Anchorage, has 24 years of public safety experience. He has more than 20 years of service with the Department of Public Safety in various roles including supervising trooper recruitment and training. Masters served as deputy director of the Alaska State Troopers from June 2003 through May 2005. Prior to his service with the Troopers, Masters was a commander in Fish & Wildlife Protection...

...He serves on the board of directors for the Alaska Native Justice Center, the Fraternal Order of Alaska State Troopers and other organizations, and serves on working groups of the Alaska Rural Justice Commission..."

This is a great guy (and no, not just because he's Alaska Native... 'course, that doesn't hurt...) I think he'll really get some things done for Alaska, and spend real time on the incredibly high rates of crime in Rural Alaska. Now they just have to let him DO it...

I doubt that appointing a commissioner of public safety would be of national interest if this was not one of the continuing chapters of the "Troopergate" investigation Palin is involved in.

As a refresher:

The only reason a governor hiring a public safety commissioner could be of any national interest is that this is just another chapter in the whole Troopergate investigation. (Some things really heated up in that investigation today, by the way.)

The first commissioner she hired, Walt Monegan, was a great guy and did his job well. It came as a surprise to him and to pretty much everyone else when he was abruptly fired. Rumors, and the facts, came forward to show Palin may have fired him because he would not fire her Trooper former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten.

An important fact in this is that she first tried to hire him for another position - her assertions now that she was actually letting him go because he wasn't doing a good job either means she's lying (my vote) or she was willing to put a guy in another job that she thought was doing a bad job. Her assertions aren't making believers of anyone, anyways.

So Palin immediately hired Chuck "I am not a sex harrasser" Kopp, a sex harrasser. Claims that he had sexually harrassed his assistant were substantiated years before, and he was only Commissioner for about two seconds before he "resigned" with a $10,000 check in his pocket from the state. The McCain/Palin vetting team's less highlighted first failure.

Kopp as a Commissioner was truly a fear during his short stint - my concern for abuse and violence in Native Alaska - especially against women - is always present, and a guy who sexually harrasses women does not inspire confidence that he will aggressively go after this issue.

More and more has come out about this, including - after her statements that her administration never pressured Monegan about Wooten - proof in the form of audio tapes that her administration had pressured Monegan about Wooten.

My concern during this time was that she had fired a guy who was really getting involved in the high rate of abuse and violence in Rural Alaska. He had literally just returned from checking out how things were going on in Rural Alaska, overseeing operations in some of the hardest hit areas, when he was called in and fired - because Palin wanted to go in a "new direction". She's never said what that new direction is.

Fortunately she has hired someone who can really go after these issues, as long as she gives him the time and resources to do so. Unfortunately, it came after some major screw ups on her part, and no small amount of community pressure.

I'm really rooting for this one, and hoping that we can see some real change in our public safety.