"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Palin Emails

I won't go into all of the details of Troopergate here; they're obviously important to the understanding of this post but if you want to educate yourself you can do that at this site. I'm just calling attention to the glaring discrepancies in Sarah Palin's account of those events. Her official statement on the controversy:

Palin has said previously that she discussed Wooten with Monegan only in the context of security concerns for the family. Monegan has said that Palin never directly told him to fire Wooten but that the message was clearly conveyed through repeated messages from Palin, her husband and three members of her Cabinet.

"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.

In August, Palin acknowledged that "pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it."

I believe that she should be taken at her word on this unless there is evidence that she isn't telling the truth about the matter. Oh right, the emails:

"This trooper is still out on the street, in fact he's been promoted," said a Feb. 7, 2007, e-mail sent from Palin's personal Yahoo account and written to give Monegan permission to speak on a violent-crime bill before the state legislature...

"He's still bragging about it in my hometown and after another cop confessed to witnessing the [moose] kill, the trooper was 'investigated' for over a year and merely given a slap on the wrist," the e-mail said. "Though he's out there arresting people today for the same crime!"

"He threatened to kill his estranged wife's parent, refused to be transferred to rural Alaska and continued to disparage Natives in words and tone, he continues to harass and intimidate his ex. -- even after being slapped with a restraining order that was lifted when his supervisors intervened," the e-mail said. "He threatens to always be able to come out on top because he's 'got the badge', etc. etc. etc.)"

I'm not saying that these lies should disqualify her from being the vice-president of the United States but I do think that the publicized lies and denials about her abuse of power as governor do speak directly to her character as a public servant while also underlying McCain's imprudence in choosing her as his running mate to satiate the Christianist base of the modern Republican party without performing due diligence in the vetting process of her history and record. Character counts; it's definitely not the most important trait I look at in a person running for office but it does count.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting story. Relatively low on my "abuse of power" list, but I suppose it should be on there.

And if you think the Palin choice was made to "satiate the Christianist base of the modern Republican party" then I could not disagree with you more. I think you're flatly wrong on that one. There are a number of reasons why McCain chose Palin. Appeasing Christians has got to be one of the very least.

JBW said...

I respect your opinion on this one and maybe you have a different perspective on the ground in TX but everything I hear and read leads me to this conclusion. The religious right has never trusted McCain, starting with his remarks back in 2000 equating Oral Roberts and Jerry Falwell with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as "agents of intolerance", calling them divisive and even un-American. James Dobson has said multiple times that he won't vote for McCain because he doesn't represent Christian values but has now done a 180 since the addition of Palin to the ticket. Apparently I'm not the only one to see this.

JBW said...

The link in my last comment takes you to a registration page. Google "mccain dobson" to read the whole NYT story.