Governor-Appointed Panel Clears Governor of Wrong-Doing
The Personnel investigation into the firing of Walt Monegan–the one conducted by three governor appointees (Sarah didn’t hire all of them, but she can fire any of them)–has cleared Sarah Palin of any wrong-doing.
Since this outcome is almost certainly too little too late to help the McCain-Palin ticket, I’ll review the report sometime after we elect a new president. But this explains how the Personnel board came to the contradictory conclusion from what Stephen Branchflower did:
These findings differ from those of the Branchflower Report because Independent Counsel has concluded the wrong statute was used as a basis for the conclusions contained in the Branchflower Report, the Branchflower report misconstrued the available evidence and did not consider or obtain all of the material evidence that is required to properly reach findings.
So the governor’s appointees say Branchflower just answered the wrong question. And didn’t consider all the evidence–which is not surprising, of course, since Palin reneged on her promise to cooperate with the Branchflower investigation and the governor’s office refused to turn over emails clearly relevant to the attempts to fire Monegan.
Also, the executive summary makes no mention of whether it was appropriate or not for Sarah Palin to allow her husband to use government resources to stalk her ex-brother-in-law.
You’d think the Alaskan personnel board would be interested in addressing questions like how personnel files are handled and who gains access.
Whether of not Branchflower answered the right question, The Alaskan Personnel Board clearly did not answer all the right questions.
I’m thinking that not only did the Personnel Board not answer the right questions; I don’t think they even asked the right questions. Which then allowed them to “exonerate” her as a good little group of folks whose jobs depended on her.
The French president is going to call her up to congratulate her….
LOL!
The Jerky Boys could have produced a more credible report.
Let us start off with consideration of the thought that, if there is not even probable cause for any of these allegations, then the complaining party ought to be personally liable for all costs, expenses and fees incurred from the spurious filing of the complaint. Hmmm, I wonder who filed the complaint here???
Oh, wait, I remember it was someone named Palin, Sarah.
As I read through this “thing”, what comes to mind is that this is nothing more than a bought-and-paid-for whitewash.
You know the kind I mean. The kind where you put your hands over your eyes and say “I can’t see anything”, so ipso facto, there is nothing to see.
The author of this report is so full of shit his eyes are brown. Let us consider a second point. If this were truly an “independent report”, why is the whole thing couched in terms of, and parried off of, the Branchflower Report?
Seriously. An independent report would entertain no consideration of, nor make mention of, the Branchflower Report. The Branchflower Report would, indeed, be irrelevant because, you know, this is independent. A truly independent report would lay out it’s own determined fact set; assumptions, findings, and conclusions thereon.
This is nothing but a designed hit piece, and not a very well designed one at that, on the Branchflower Report. This is the furthest thing from an independent report imaginable. Oh, and by the way, the discussion on page 23 et.seq. of the proposition that Branchflower considered the “wrong statute” is laughably childish in it’s construction. This guy is a lawyer? He better not show up with this kind of shit in any court I have ever been in.
Page 6 of the report:
Talk about the kettle calling the pot black.
From Footnote 6 on Page 6:
More kettle calling the pot black.
EW,
Thanks for your analysis of this. I had a “WTF?” response when I first saw this news report.
But what about this “wrong statute” argument? Has Branchflower responded to this accusation?
Thanks,
Bob in HI
No wonder Cheney gave his thumbs up to the dynamic duo. He couldn’t have done better if his hands had been in this clusterfuck. Just saying.
NBC has an SNL special on at 9 pm et
Why’d they even bother to hustle to get this out before the 4th?
To lend her credibility ?
With that colossal 0.05% of the voters who were hanging on the outcome?
That was snark on my part … great comeback !
(positive smiley) I always assume we’re all in this together here.
Together Forever !
DOH! Rickrolled yet again… (actually I was thinking more of Robert DeNiro in Brazil)
Sorry, I blame teh Cosmos !
Because she could fire them if they didn’t.
Dismal, that. I think RedX @ 18 has it right, it’s one more element in a whole fusillade of last-minute info-bombs emerging too late to refute with any facts before people vote. Though who knows, maybe Obama08’s war room is on the case.
Did we really expect anything different from the hand picked Board? I think not and did you notice that is was expressly released on the eve of the election… smells like the RNC had this just waiting in the wings to try and refute the earlier results that said SHE was guilty!!
did this investigation cover the complaint from the troopers union concerning the accessing of the brother-in-laws personnel file, or is that a separate investigation? they may have just conveniently “cleared” her on a very narrow portion of the case pre-election with the more damaging parts to come later.
OT — Why will no charges be filed for this vote suppression attempt?
could this be why?
While distribution of false information to voters is a misdemeanor, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says no charges would be filed.
Actually that quote was exactly what made me ask the question. Why not? Never been a huge fan of the answer “Because I say so.”
Thanks ew.
digg
Thanks Boo for the Digg Link! Is that your Digg screen name?
This “report” is so pathetic in terms of the Prez race that it must be part of Palinpalooza 2012. FiveThirtyEight.com just put McInsane’s chances of winning tomorrow at 1.9%, the lowest it’s ever been by far.
Goodnight John-boy.
Let’s see just a cursory look at the phone in (pudits talking comeback kid aside).
– terror conviction day before the election (2 of about 4000 original gitmo, the other came before an election)
– Obama’s aunt immigration status 3 days before election
– Palin appointed board finds her “innocent”.
– the story on TV is the hidden “math” and the comeback kid
– CNN showing 4000 complaints already on their voter hot-line; and that’s one station and its not even Tuesday.
Thanks for the heads-up. I didn’t know there had been a GTMO conviction.
When are our elections gonna be this exciting ?
Man, that is a painful question. Given the current crop of Liberals, not in my lifetime.
That’s why we’re here, eh?
Did you hear that they’re trying to draw Mike “Pinball” Clemons into Politics, as “our” Obama ?
When they make it a national holiday and serve refreshments while you are waiting to vote in a fool proof voting system with paper trails. Withcareer civil servants running the polling stations so there is absolutely no political hacking/bias going on with the voting and the people can be totally assured that their vote WILL be counted!! (:>)) Thats when!!
But we already do that. Well, most of it (no national holiday, and nobody offered me a hot dog this time ’round). We’re real low-tech. We use a pencil and a piece of paper. So far. I’m sure Steve has plans, though.
Carol Rosenberg on the news from GTMO. I’m too tired to think any more tonight.
Did my email get through to you the other day?
Oh, gosh, bmaz, no. Could Thunderbird have taken you for spam? I’ll go look. (Not that I know what I’m looking for.)
I resent just now – was re: Marie Roget
Found it. So sorry to have missed it last week, bmaz. Going to read and reply.
Is it worth the paper it is written on? Probably not, so another tree sacrifice to the Killer of Bullwinkle’s cousins.
From really looking at the reports when they are actually honest its going to be massive voter supression tomorrow. For the love of GOD there are 8 hour waits to turn in absentee ballots.
CNN showed 20% of there complaints that Absentee Ballots NEVER showed up.
If we are LUCKY this election will establish that if the Dems can win USA wide by about 10% they might be able to squeek out a victory.
statistically don’t absentee ballots tilt Republican though while early voting tilts toward us? not that I think it’s OK to suppress rethug votes or anything like that ;-p
Please don’t.
It and she will be totally irrelevant when the polls close tomorrow.
The sooner her 15 minutes are up, the better.
It is kind of stake-through-the-heart thingy. You don’t want the undead to keep popping up like Ronnie Reagan.
Question: Who is the “Independent Counsel” who concluded the wrong statute was used by Branchflower? IC for the Personnel Board? If so, who selected? Republican?
Sounds like Legislature IC vs. Personnel IC. Or, as MadDog wrote @ 7, pot vs. kettle.
OT — Mc’s people trying to keep VA results open ’til 11/14?
why? they need 10 days to reprogram the diebold machines?
Both sides are deploying, to every state, the largest legal teams ever assembled for the purposes of mounting, or defending against, challenges to the reported outcomes where/as necessary. I would see this as an element in their side’s strategy. Curiously, they told a judge in FL today, in advance, that there will be no blanket challenges there. But then again, they lie.
Tomorrow, I shall appoint a panel to rule on all my future wrongdoing.
Who would like to be on it? The only qualification is a willingness to clear me of all wrongdoing.
How hard can that be?
The Personnel Board’s “Independent” Counsel reads like either a Defense Attorney for Sarah Palin (no reflection on others who may be so inclined) or some PR flack.
At least the Legislative Council was composed of both Republican and Democratic legislators, and by a wide margin, this true jury of Sarah Palin’s peers, heard and read the evidence and then affirmatively found that she violated Alaska law.
The Personnel Board? Sounds just like Junya’s DOJ. It’s always no laws have been broken, and even if there were, we ain’t gonna charge ‘em.
Teddy, I certify that you are innocent of all charges.
And while I realize this isn’t one of bmaz’s Trash Talk posts, may I say that ESPN’s Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser are simply execrable?
They remind me of a couple of bombed out of their minds winos trying to do play by play in some seedy dive.
Jaws is alright as the color, but Tirico and Kornheiser are from the absolute bottom of the barrel.
I realize that ESPN is a low-rent outfit, but come-on already!
Had to share the following from Josh over at TPM:
I don’t know if I’d agree with that.
They seem like two peas from the same pod to me.
State officials do seem to tend to the Toolishly Looney Toons end of the spectrum rather frequently.
And since I’m going all OT and orange, new lows from Michelle Bachmann.
It’s not just my increasingly collander-like memory, is it? This year really is just plain crazy over-the-top with the R-wing violence rhetoric from people in positions we used to be able to assume were being filled by fully functional adults. They’ll be ashamed in the morning. Presuming they still have that gene. Huh, natural selection. Maybe this is how speciation starts. I notice R’s and D’s never mate together…
Matalin/Carville?
Hard to tell who got the raw end of that deal. I hope for their kids sake that they were adopted.
Brain bleach, stat!!!
And the “only” exception that proves the rule is James Carville and Mary Matalin.
Their offspring are likely candidates for long-term psych counseling.
If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time a McCain team tactic actually accomplished it’s intended goal.
Petumenos whitewashes important facts. For example, see his report, p. 13. He says the Palins met with AST in 11/06 and expressed their concern that Wooten was “a security threat.”
Now look at the Branchflower report, p. 44, regarding the testimony of Gary Wheeler. He was at this meeting, and specifically asked the Palins “whether they perceived any threats from any individual or were afraid of any individual.” Wheeler said “I got a negative response … they basically said no.”
Wheeler has been a trooper since 1981. His sworn account directly contracts the claim made by the Palins, as reported by Petumenos. Did Petumenos interview Wheeler? No. (See Petumenos p. 9 for the list of people he interviewed.) Petumenos claims that he carefully took into account all the testimony that Branchflower gathered, but Petumenos is obviously ignoring this blatant and material contradiction between what Wheeler said and what the Palins said.
Wheeler’s testimony is important, because it shows that the Palins were not sincerely concerned that Wooten was a threat. Because of Wheeler’s testimony and other facts, Branchflower concluded that the Palins’ “claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins’ real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons.”
Nowhere does Petumenos mention Wheeler’s testimony, or address this contradiction. This is an example of how sloppy, incomplete and slanted the Petumenos report is.
Keep at it. We’ve got some people up here comparing too. I haven’t had time to do that yet. This was a weird day for the report to come out anyway, no matter which way it would have judged.
Happy Birthday and wishes for many more.
Sweeeeeet……..
ET is it your birthday? Happy Birthday! Don’t know if you saw my comments at 22 and 44 above, but, in a nutshell, this report is a joke. I don’t know what kind or stature of lawyer this guy is, but this report does not reflect well on his skills at all. Irrespective of the conclusions, it is a sloppy piece of contrived junk. Laughable.
I dealt with both Petumenos and Branchflower when I worked in public safety.
They’re both very decent. But I’m seeing more and more analysis on his report – I leave that stuff to better hands – and his carelessness is troubling. His report should have been wider than Branchflower’s, not narrower, IMHO.
Oh – and thanks for the wishes! 62……..
Back from waving signs for two hours at the intersection of the Palmer-Wasilla HWY and Trunk Rd. At first we just had local candidates’ signs for state house and senate, and Begich and Berkowitz signs. Candidates from both parties there, talking to each other sometimes. A lot of honks and waves from cars. All totally positive American community politics experience.
Then a couple of people came with Obama signs. Within a minute some people driving by rolled down their windows, flipping us off. Within five minutes I heard my first “fucking nigger commie!” yell. And so on….
I hold Sarah Palin as responsible for this as anyone.
Like to see a little MSM coverage of that last bit. Don’t suppose there was video? Thanks much for your many valuable contributions, ET.
Speaking of it not being over Tuesday night, CO may not have a total ’til Wednesday.
Watching the ads on the Monday night game, Obama’s look to be mostly positive, with a couple of negatives. McCain’s ads are negative, in fact, I can’t remember a single positive McCain ad, though surely there are some.
The Ohio state candidate ads are so negative they make your teeth hurt, and I can’t even figure out which party most of them belong to.
Distribution of false info to voters is a misdemeanor?
Shocking!
More lies and contradictions.
The Branchflower Report includes testimony by John Glass, Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety. Glass testified that he told Todd Palin “that Wooten had already been penalized for his actions that he had taken.” See Branchflower, p. 63.
Now see Petumenos, p. 34. Todd claims “he did not ever learn, from anyone, that any consequence of significance” had been imposed on Wooten.
Of course Petumenos did not interview Glass or make any attempt to explain this contradiction.
Petumenos and the Palins are basically saying this: “just assume we’re telling the truth, even though there are various credible witness who swear we’re lying.”