Sarah Is incapable of telling the truth.
Fired Official: Governor Sarah Palin Did Not Tell the Truth to ABC
Walt Monegan Says He Was Called to Gov.'s Office Over a "Private Family Matter"
By RHONDA SCHWARTZ and JUSTIN ROOD
September 15, 2008
"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as "Troopergate". "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."
Gov. Sarah Palin lied to ABC News, says former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan says that Palin and her husband did pressure him to fire a state trooper, despite what Palin told ABC News' Charles Gibson.
(AP)
In an exclusive interview with ABC News.com, former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan said he resisted pressure by the First Couple to re-open an old case against a state trooper, who was in a hotly contested divorce and custody battle with the Governor's sister Molly.
Alaskan lawmakers are investigating whether Palin and her husband used the power of the Governor's office to conduct a personal vendetta against their former brother-in-law, whose behavior during the 2005 divorce was described by the Palin family as " threatening."
In a 20/20 interview, Palin told ABC's Charles Gibson she dismissed Monegan for poor job performance and that neither she nor her husband pressured Monegan to fire State Trooper Wooten. "We never did. I never pressured him to hire or fire anybody," Palin said.
But Monegan told ABC News.com he was summoned to a meeting with Todd Palin in December 2006, shortly after Sarah Palin became governor.
"I was called to her Anchorage formal Governor's office to talk with Todd Palin about an issue that was a private family matter," recounted Monegan. Todd became "upset," Monegan recalled, when told the allegations had already been investigated and the case would not be re-opened.
"When Sarah later called to tell me the same thing, I thought to myself, 'I may not be long for this job.'" But, Monegan said, he stood by his position. "I held the public trust. As Chief, I was responsible."
Governor Palin initially agreed to "cooperate fully" with the Alaska state legislative investigation but since being chosen as John McCain's running mate both she and her husband have refused to testify voluntarily. Friday the legislature issued a subpoena for Todd Palin.
Monegan said he tried to persuade the first couple to drop the matter. "As a cop for 35 years I'm pretty familiar with issues that come up in divorce cases," and said his argument to both Todd and Sarah was, "if this was so egregious, why didn't you bring it up sooner? Why did you wait until several years later?"
Monegan, who gave sworn testimony behind closed doors for nearly eight hours last week, said he also provided the State's investigator with copies of e-mails he received from the Governor in which she referred in disparaging terms to her former brother-in-law.
"This is not a 'he said she said' situation. Others were contacted by Todd and Sarah as well," according to Monegan, who said he was confident the investigation would find adequate do entation to corroborate his testimony.
The former Public Safety Commissioner also strongly defended his job performance in response to Palin's complaints about his work to ABC's Gibson.
"After two years he wasn't meeting the goals I wanted met in that area of public service, there were a lot of things we were lacking and a lot of goals weren't being met." Palin said on 20/20.
"No goals were conveyed to me by the Governor at any time," said Monegan.
"All of the Commissioners who worked for the Governor would say the same. She was preoccupied with her pipeline proposal," Monegan said. "All of us were waiting to hear what goals she would set for our departments."
Monegan said the Governor never sat down to talk with him about public safety priorities. "She met with us perhaps four times," he said, "and half the time the Governor was busy on her Blackberry. In one meeting she took a phone call and left the room, directing us to talk to her aide."
The only goals that were set for his department, said Monegan, "we incorporated through the Department of Public Safety Strategic Plan, which we ran past her, she approved and we posted on our website."
The former Commissioner said under his leadership the department was pursuing several new initiatives, but that efforts were slowed down by union contract negotiations.
Monegan stressed he was not upset and did hold any animosity toward his former boss. "I like the lady," said Monegan. "I bear her no animosity, I admire her intelligence and initiative. I wish I could respect her more for her integrity."
Meanwhile the Governor has requested her own investigation of Monegan's dismissal by the State Personnel Board and Anchorage attorney Thomas V. Von Flein has been retained to represent the First Couple in the state legislature's investigating committee.
When asked how he came to represent the Palins, Von Flein told ABC News he could not reveal who hired him due to attorney client privilege but that "he worked through word of mouth."
Von Flein said he questioned the validity of the legislature's subpoena power and expressed his concerns that the committee's investigation had become "a highly politicized investigation conducted in secret " reminiscent of "the McCarthy era."
The trooper;
Drank on the job (while driving on the job, that is)
Threatened to kill his father in law
Tasered his Son
etc.
And STILL has a job.
Governor, and everybody else in the Alaskan govt. needs to be investigated not for pressuring to get this a-hole fired, but BECAUSE he has not BEEN!
and Obama lied in his autobiographies
It's what all the cool kids do.
IT's funny how the media keep neglecting to mention he's been married 4 times.
I will tell you something I have noticed in my time on this planet...you generally have to be a huge asshole for a girl that was raised Roman Catholic to divorce you. They are the least likely women to want a divorce in all of womandom.
Damn.
Typical right wing deflection.
The issue here is not the officer himself that ed up. It's that Palin fired a well-liked police chief because he would not fire him. The chief felt he had reprimanded the officer enough, but Palin was not satisfied with that. You just can't go around hiring/firing people at will. She abused her power to get what she wanted.
Actually, you probably can in Alaska. I know you can in TX, being a right to work state and all.
Palin was totally within her rights to fire the COP as Govenor...for whatever reasons she wants to cite....even if it's just that she didn't like him. That's her right as Govenor.
Typical left wing hypocrisy. If it was a white cop in LA who tasered a 10 year old black kid just to teach him a lesson then every democrat around would be demanding that the entire LA police department be fired.
Uh, her approval rating is 86% in Alaska. You can't get much more "well-liked" than that.
This is a non-story...but, go ahead and have fun with it if it eases the pain.
Oh, and let me fix the le to that article:
Disgruntled former employee with an axe to grind: Governor Sarah Palin Did Not Tell the Truth to ABC
Yeah, it's pretty good but, I think Obama threw Hillary under the Jeep a few blocks back. Mic e is getting ready to grab Joe by his hair plugs and do the same. Then they're going to go back, pick up Hillary, and buy her a new pants suit.
You can't fire people without covering your ass with a mountain of paper-work and in this case it looks like Palin didn't follow proper procedures...
Don't lite a fire around your strawman...
It'll get about as far as Hillary's firing of the Travel Office...if that.
Doesn't matter, just as long as Palin gets a little dirt on her....the rest will take care of itselfIt'll get about as far as Hillary's firing of the Travel Office...if that.
That applies for private jobs (at-will employment where you can legally fire someone for any reason that isnt discriminatory).
For the US government and the vast majority of state governments (I am not sure with Alaskan rules) employees are "for cause", meaning you need a job performance related reason to terminte them. You don't just get fired from government jobs like that in most cases.
The larger issue isn't whether Palin broke the law (although she may have, we will see after the investigation) but her integrity. Remember, she also imposed "loyalty tests" of all department heads as Mayor. There are as such multiple instances where she's arguably stretched the reach of her power.
It wasn't the trooper who was fired here but the trooper's boss and allegedly because he refused to fire the trooper. That's what many are failing to grasp. The Commissioner wasn't the one drinking, allegedly making threats, etc. He was the one who got punished though.
Looks like Palin already has a little of Bush in her....now if she would only have a lot of me in her...
MSNBCANCHORAGE, Alaska - A campaign spokesman says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.
McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.
The campaign insists the investigation has been hijacked by Democrats. It says it can prove Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired because of insubordination on budget issues -- not because he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.
...that's reform you can believe in!
This is a non-issue that Alaskans have known about and aren't buying. If they believed she was still corrupt and weren't keen on the real situation, she wouldn't have maintained her high approval ratings.
It's more fodder for Palin's bitter political opponents to try to use against her, because they resent Palin's success as governor.
No doubt Moneghan is cooperating with the corrupt opponents.
This is an issue of the abuse of the trooper union.
Technically Palin didn't do anything wrong because one: Moneghan said "she never said fire the trooper directly" two, the husband and family admittedly suggested "why is this guy still a trooper"
the fact that the governor can't fire the trooper directly, and actually wants standards for the trooper force and she ends up paying for it? this is an example of a flawed system; almost straight out of 'Dirty Harry'.
It was her prerogative to fire the commissioner and anybody she wants, and it's ridiculous that a good governor can't throw out a rogue cop due to an abuse of the union who had hundreds of bad behavior. The commissioner was probably a do nothing passive , yielding to his old' boy network backing up that bag wifebeating trooper.
He should have gotten fired for his first violations instead the union got it reduced to a five day suspension. The rest of the testimony on Moneghan is paid.
The dude wasn't even fired to begin with, he was actually transferred to another department by Palin. He didn't lose his job.
The only thing where I believe Palin might be guilty of is her reasons for firing Moneghan, then again, it's likely she fired him within the law, and it is her prerogative. Their trooper force according to the Alaskan newspapers have been running thin.
To me it seems like a political hit job. Three Obama supporting politicians are on the investigation btw.
You can keep saying it's a non-issue, but that is not going to keep this kind of stuff out of the headlines. It's the same thing with the whole "lipstick on a pig" comment. It's good fodder for the media so you can be sure it will be front and center if it breaks.
Yeah it 's the democrats fault.....
That depends on the situation. A lot of appointed positions are considered "at the pleasure of" the head executive. Palin, at least, has stated that's the case with this position, and has been backed up with that by several other people. (Doesn't necessarily make it true, I'm not familiar with Alaskan law, so couldn't tell you).
Even if cause is needed, refusing to fire someone for gross and dangerous behavior qualifies as poor management, anyway.
I don't like the loyalty test crap she's pulled. Heck, I don't really like her politically anyway.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
