Reply With Quote
but it was biden who brought up.... sheesh...
It's called " , nothing else is working, let's switch topics and hope nobody notices."
but it was biden who brought up.... sheesh...
consortiumnews.com
Alaskan Officials Allege Palin Cover-up
By Jason Leopold
September 26, 2008
An attorney for Alaska’s legislative investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin says John McCain’s presidential campaign is seeking to derail the inquiry because its findings could “cause serious damage to the Republican ticket.”
Attorney Peter Maassen, representing Alaska’s Legislative Council, defended the investigation in a 17-page court filing in response to last week’s lawsuit by five Republican lawmakers trying to stop the probe into whether Palin improperly fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan in July.
Monegan has said he was pressured by Gov. Palin, several of her aides, and her husband, Todd Palin, to fire Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who was embroiled in a bitter divorce and child custody dispute with Palin’s sister. The investigation centers on whether Palin fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten.
Palin initially welcomed the investigation, which was approved unanimously in July by the state’s Legislative Council, which has a Republican majority. Former federal prosecutor Steven Branchflower was picked to head the probe under the supervision of Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat who chairs the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee.
However, after McCain picked Palin in late August to be his vice presidential running mate, national and state Republicans began suggesting that the investigation was a partisan witch hunt against Palin.
( well, those witch-hunters are well qualified to recognize a witch hunt!)
Palin sought to shift the inquiry to the state personnel board whose members are appointed by the governor. Then, last week, five Republican lawmakers sued Branchflower and French as well as the Alaska Legislative Council and its Democratic chair, Sen. Kim Elton.
The Republican lawmakers complained that the Palin investigation was an uncons utional interference in the hiring-and-firing prerogatives of the governor. They also claimed that Branchflower previously worked with Monegan and thus should be removed.
Maassen – the lawyer representing French, Elton and Branchflower – said the GOP lawmakers’ claims were “meritless” and threatened the concept of legislative oversight of the executive.
“It is hard to find a lawsuit more dangerous” to Alaska’s cons utional checks and balances than “one that asks the courts to instruct the Legislature that there are certain executive actions off-limits to legislative inquiry, certain legislators who are ‘too partisan’ to be assigned responsibility in legislative investigations, and certain people whom the Legislature cannot employ as investigators,” Maassen said.
‘Serious Damage’
The “McCain campaign and its supporters, having apparently convinced themselves that the facts would cause serious damage to the Republican ticket if publicly known before the national election, are now moving on many fronts — including this one — to slow and stop Mr. Branchflower’s fact-finding inquiry and to prevent his issuance of the report authorized by the Legislative Council,” Maassen added.
In his court motion, Maassen referenced high-profile, historic examples – on the national level – of Congress examining abuses by the Executive Branch.
The lawyer said the notion that the legislature doesn’t have the authority to examine abuses of power by the executive “should come as an unsettling surprise to generations of Americans who have watched congressional hearings into CIA abuse (the Church hearings), Iran-Contra, the U.S. Attorney firings, and countless other executive ‘decisions and actions’ that the people’s elected representatives believed should be investigated, whether or not the executive agreed with them.”
Despite pressure from the McCain-Palin campaign – and the refusal of Todd Palin and some Palin aides to honor subpoenas seeking their depositions – senior Alaskan legislators said Branchflower still intended to finish his report on the controversy by Oct. 10.
There is also the prospect that contempt proceedings could be initiated against Palin’s husband and Palin’s aides early next year when the Alaska legislature returns to session.
The McCain-Palin campaign’s attacks on the investigation have prompted other protests in Alaska, including a request to the state police from state Rep. Les Gara, a Democrat, for an investigation into possible witness tampering by people associated with the McCain-Palin campaign.
"Starting after Aug. 29, certain staff for the McCain campaign came to Alaska in an effort to block this investigation," Gara wrote in a letter to Audie Holloway, director of the Alaska state troopers.
"There are rumors that upwards of 30 staffers have come to the state since that date," Gara said. "Campaign representatives Ed O'Callaghan and Meghan Stapleton have held numerous press conferences in Anchorage to block the investigation. Since then three witnesses have failed to comply with legislative subpoenas, and up to seven more may do the same …
"Something has caused, or in the words of the statute, may have ‘induced’ these witnesses to change their position. … It seems a witness would not risk possible jail time that comes with the violations of a subpoena without advice of others."
The five Republican lawmakers, who filed suit to stop the Palin investigation, argue that the legislative inquiry should be put on hold until after the November presidential election and at that point be taken up by the state’s personnel board.
Their attorney, Kevin Clarkson, said "the only reason to complete this investigation before Nov. 4 is to try to impact the outcome of the election."
Doug Pope, an attorney who pursued a similar case three decades ago, predicted that the courts would not intervene to block the investigation.
"If there's an issue about who should be in charge, the court's not going to get involved,” said Pope in an interview with Reuters. “It's a political question. It's not a legal question."
Pope said the legislature has the inherent right to probe the executive branch at any time. He called the argument that the Alaska legislature lacks authority "a red herring."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2008/092608a.html
Yeah. On second thought. I thought she did great too. Once I got rid of Katie Couric and her biased glances everything made so much more sense.Couric: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?
Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada. It’s funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don’t know, you know … reporters.
Couric: Mocked?
Palin: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.
Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.
Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…
Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state..
It's sickening that you republican assholes actually watch literal nonsense like that, and your first impulse is to blame Couric. America's in big, big trouble if politicians like Palin are managing to find even meager support.
I don't see how anybody can think she did OK. I guess if the repubs put in an idiot that only tows the party line is OK. She was horrible and look completely flustered. It wasn't that hard of a question to answer and yet she went into talking points survival mode. She's probably smarter than how she looked in that interview, but probably not by much.
I am still trying to figure out how much foreign policy experience obama has...
I can't even imagine obama as commander in chief... thats scary enough...
See, I dont necessarily rate "foreign policy" all that high on my give-a- meter.
Dont get me wrong, its very important. But its waaaaaay down the slide of say 1. Economy and 2. Domestic policy/governing.
Bush made foreign policy look harder than it is. Thats his legacy.
The real problems and difficult hoops to jump thru are in between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
I completely understand if foreign policy is your sticking point as a voter, you are certainly en led to that and I would never belittle it. I wrote this just to juxtaposition your point, nothing more.
but dubya as CiC is unscary? even 4000+ dead, wasted miltary lives later?
well I just don't get how all of sudden the VP is suppose to be the foreign policy expert.. when she isn't even at the top of the ticket.. the top of the ticket decides foreign policy not the VP.. well unless your Darth Vader Cheney... lol
I guess some still can't figure out what a VP actually does...
.....including the candidate for vice-president.
well mr. all knowing peabody... what is the role of the VP... please inform us..
Besides casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate?
Well, that depends. The role of the vice-president has evolved over the past few decades. It used to be the case that the job was merely a ular position. That changed in 1976 with the Carter-Mondale administration. That administration gave us the first modern vice-president, Walter Mondale. Mondale was the first, I believe, to have his own staff, similar to the President. Since that time, the position has evolved into almost a deputy-President position - where the vice-President has an agenda he's responsible for and that agenda may include international relations, domestic issues, etc.
Disclosure - I just listened to an hour-long program on the position and role of the vice-President on NPR on Tuesday and am merely parroting what I heard on that program.
See. Sarah Palin should listen to more NPR.
Last edited by Mr. Peabody; 09-26-2008 at 02:58 PM.
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