News-Miner Editorial
A timely investigation
Inquiry into Monegan issue must be finished by election
Published Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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Stumble It!The investigations of Gov. Palin’s firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan — both the Legislature’s and the administration’s investigations — need to be finished before the November presidential election. Perhaps that way the voters will end up with some mutually agreed-upon facts with which to judge this curious mess.
The governor’s decision to cooperate with her administration’s personnel board inquiry, while not surprising since she asked that it be launched, was welcome news Monday. As long as the cooperation is immediate and thorough, her decision should help reveal the story of what happened and to do so prior to Nov. 4.
In a country where the financial system is topsy-turvy, oil prices are jumping like popcorn and thousands of troops are fighting overseas, this might not seem like an issue worthy of all the attention it is getting. After all, the governor has the right to fire or reassign a commissioner. So, initially, it didn’t seem all that important whether she did so because the commissioner wasn’t on the same policy page or whether she did so because the commissioner resisted firing (or believed he couldn’t fire) a bad actor in his department. The governor was in a win-win position. If it turned out that she had pressured Monegan to fire the Alaska State Trooper, her ex-brother-in-law, we could have all cheered, just based on the facts confirmed by the trooper’s union representative. How could the troopers have accepted the presence this person in their ranks?
Now, however, the governor is insisting that Monegan’s lack of action with regard to the trooper had nothing to do with her decision to move him along. If the investigations conclude otherwise, it will not reflect well on the governor’s veracity.
The legislative investigation was tainted when the senator assigned to organize it made some unwise, speculative comments about what it might uncover. It didn’t help to learn that the actual investigator hired by the Legislature is married to a long-time, supportive associate of Monegan’s from his days on the Anchorage police force. It is a small state, but, still, this could have been done more carefully. The result is that the governor, her husband and her staff have declined to appear before the legislative panel, which has said it will finish its work by mid-October.
But since the legislative panel apparently won’t have access to some key players, we should wait for the report from the governor’s preferred investigating agency, the state personnel board, before making conclusions. The personnel board seems like a reasonably apolitical forum, but there is no denying that the board members work for the governor and so the appearance of impartiality is compromised here as well. Of course, all three members of the board were appointed by the former administration, one which displayed little affection for Gov. Palin. She reappointed one of the board members, and one donated to her campaign. Maybe that’s balanced by the fact that the personnel board’s investigator has donated campaign money to several Democrats.
There could be no end to such second-guessing of motives and agendas. The time for that is over, though. The public just needs some answers.
Community Discussion
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Oh God!~these are the very people. Because as Americans we have privialed in bad and goodnesses therefore our vote will change
in a democratic way.
In the current Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward argues that the nation’s founders wanted uncertified citizens to hold the highest offices in the land. They did not believe in a separate class of professional executives. They wanted rough and rooted people like Palin.
I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.
And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired skills. Most of all, it requires prudence.
What is prudence? It is the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a specific situation. It is the ability to absorb the vast flow of information and still discern the essential current of events — the things that go together and the things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which arguments have the most weight.
How is prudence acquired? Through experience. The prudent leader possesses a repertoire of events, through personal involvement or the study of history, and can apply those models to current circumstances to judge what is important and what is not, who can be persuaded and who can’t, what has worked and what hasn’t.
Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without long experience and prudence is not good. As George Will pointed out, the founders used the word “experience” 91 times in the Federalist Papers. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.
ofcourseobama -
If I follow your logic above...than President Clinton would also have been unprepared...after all, he was the governor of a very small state and came to the spotlight with considerable baggage....but most of the left still worships the man
How much foreign policy experience did he gain during his governorship of Arkansas?
Seems for every example against Palin one can find a double standard in the other Party...I guess Politics is Politics, though
stay on topic folks...
Any gov. of a any state can fire any political appointee for any reason.
If Obama wins he will fire Bush appointees because they are from the loosing party.
The the media supporters of Obama need to move on, and get over it.
Sarah fired him because she has the power and felt like it.
END OF STORY PERIOD.
Here we go with more Chicago Political machine Trained Mud Slingers.... I wonder how many votes people like these expect to get for Barack Hussein Obama from the local cemeteries? They ALWAYS get a "HEALTHY" turn out from Chicago Cemeteries; Why the tombs in Chicago probably vote more often than we "ABOVE-GROUND" people do. After all, we "ABOVE-GROUND" people typically get less than 100 years to vote whereas the CHICAGO "CEMETERY VOTERS" have a whole lot more years to "cast their votes" for Chicago Political Machine Candidates. LOL...
More "junk for the Obamessiah....." Cant wait till the George Soros Funded "PEOPLES' CANDIDATE" (VOLK's CANDIDATE?" - SEIG HIEL OBAMA?) fades from the scene.
The American economy is going down the tubes, a major recession is approaching if not an out and out depression. Most people in this country have lost the major source of their wealth, value in their home. The international players look at the US as an economic joke. The list continues. The heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (public servants) have walked away with millions after devastating these companies and we think a personnel issue is a major factor in the political scene. Editorial board get a grip.
This issue is going nowhere. Monegan has now stated repeatedly, and publicly that he was never asked or told to fire Wooten. So much for the essence of the case. http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2008/09/ra...
This is a waste of money, and a partisan ploy to sabotage the works of the GOP in this critical time of the election cycle. Nothing more.
This is not an issue and should have never been an issue. She can fire anyone of her political appointees at will and has outlined a history on insubordination on budget matters. The issue is dead already end of story.
Example of crap reporting and the press: (Clipped from Google news page 9/24/2008)
'Palin meets her first world leaders in New York
The Associated Press - 36 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AP) - Sarah Palin met her {put down 1} first world leaders Tuesday. {put down 2} It was a tightly controlled crash course on foreign policy for the Republican vice presidential candidate,{put down 3} the mayor-turned-governor {put down 4}who has been outside North America just once."
Better reporting:
" V. P. Sarah Palin meets with world leaders"
NY (AP) Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin meet with xx, xx, and xx world leaders at the UN this morning.
The AP done good! 4 put downs in 1 paragraph.
Wounder how much the AP received from Obama's campaign for service rendered?
------- In the big schema of things the above is a ZERO.
However, a few years ago, an AP reporter using a news story disguise proved where & "how to do it" targeting information to terrorists!!!
The AP "news story" saved the terrorists time, trouble, and money for hiring spies!
In time of war, such activity used to have serious consequences; now it is laughed off as "freedom of the press"!
Those who remain undecided voters would do well to remember which party, during the last 4 years has acted as "the terrorist's best friends".
Fairbanksgas, she can fire her appointees for no reason, but there are some reasons she CANNOT fire for. For example, if she suddenly found out that Monegan was Jewish, it would be unlawful to fire him, and if she did, he could sue, and he would clearly win. There are certain types of discrimination that the courts have said are unlawful. Another reason would be if he refused to follow an illegal order, such as firing Wooten for acts he had already been disciplined for. That is what the investigation is trying to determine; did she fire him for refusing to fire Wooten? We would expect a soldier in Iraq to not follow an unlawful order, why would we expect any less from our commissioner of public safety? And as far as a history of insubordination, that is a lie put forth by Palin (her 5th or 6th reason for why she fired him I believe), that was quickly disproved. There is no evidence to support any insubordination on Monegan's part.
Monegan quit. He was not fired.
Este, a) being told "take a significant demotion or leave" is being fired by most people's standards and b) if Sarah herself actually believed what you are saying, don't you think she and her staff would be shouting it from the rooftops?
This is Alaska Politics at its best and that is why she was voted by the people and has the Power to put People in key places and do remove,that was the reason why she was elected and as for Personal board taking this instead of Politics at Juneau is out of hand.
I think Time limitation should be put for next year,whats the rush??we have a key person that deserves to be a Vice President and will work for the Nation and our Interest here in Alaska.
chelly, Republican's don't shout from rooftops, that is a democratic thing.
I see a certain poster had his snoot in the firewater last night.
Besides the obvious fact that this Andrew Briseno character has an unusually fanatical hatred of Barak Obama that borders on psychosis, can anyone else make heads or tail of his rantings? What the heck he is talking about most of the time? I sure can't.
"The personnel board seems like a reasonably apolitical forum, but there is no denying that the board members work for the governor and so the appearance of impartiality is compromised here as well."
Apolitical, eh? Could have fooled me. Sarah Palin lost my vote when she refused to cooperate with the original investigation even though she had previously said she would.
That the Republicans are operating out of the Karl Rove handbook of dirty tricks rather than running a clean campaign does not inspire confidence in how they would run the country if elected.
This is what you call (QUICK TO JUDGE) before National Elections.
This was a great letter until this statement- "There could be no end to such second-guessing of motives and agendas. The time for that is over, though. The public just needs some answers."
What????!! Are you kidding me???!! The author acknowledges several problems in the investigation, but promptly dismisses them with the rash plea, "we need some answers." do you think the answers will be unbiased, fair, and judicious given the biased, unfair, and imprudent investigation? Do you think the answers from the investigation won't be second guessed?
If we question the trial, we will question the verdict too. Shame on the DNM for trivializing and dismissing "the motives and agendas" of those involved and yet demanding in the same paragraph the fruits from a corrupt tree!
A good article about this whole thing, "Alaska's Legislature Breaks Own Rules Pursuing Palin" written by a West Pointer and Yale Law grad, and Fairbanksan- http://www.palinfightscorruption.com/pal...
It seems Fairbanksans are doing their own investigative journalism since the DNM fails to do it on a daily basis.
Chelly--she can still fire him for being Jewish. She just can't tell anyone that was the reason for doing so. Whether you like it or not this is a "at-will" state, so she doesn't have to state a reason at all. Now, if someone comes back and says that she fired them because they were Jewish, then she would have to defend what she did. That is what is happening with Monegan. This is a total waste of time and money.
Governor Palin has thugs that are barring Alaska reporters from getting information relevant to the operation of our state government. O'Callagahan is a hired gun who is calling the access shots for the Palin administration. Her own press guy, McAllister, does not seem to know what is going on.
How can Alaskans stand for the McCain campaign hijacking the governing of our state? We are a sovereign state and we cannot have hired thugs telling us what our government can say or not say to the public. Alaskans need to speak up and demand that we get our executive branch of government from the meddling hands of the McCain campaign! It may be time for a recall or impeachment proceedings to begin because our governor has abrogated her constitutional responsibilities to an unelected or duly appointed persons to conduct the affairs of our executive branch of government. Since when do we let outsiders tell us what to do?
The saddest thing about this investigation is the amount of time being spent covering it instead of the real issues facing our nation: Rising unemployment, Home foreclosures, Bank failures, A 7 plus year war with no end in sight, Outrageous energy costs, Corporate corruption, High medical costs and millions with no health insurance...and our time is being wasted and our attention diverted to this partisan witch hunt. We, the voting public, the payers of the bills, should demand more.
andora:
(I am not a Republican, by the way). Please don't be so gullible. The investigation, although engineered by an Obama's supporter, began without problems. As soon as Monagan said that "he had not been told by the Palin's administration to fire the trooper," it should have ended right there. Common sense should tell you that it's not only McCain's lawyers involved in the case (Troopergate), but Obama's. Did you expect McCain not to defend his running mate when the other side is trying to destroy her politically?
What a joke! She didn't fire Monegan? Then why in her own words does Palin give numerous reasons for firing him? And she never put pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten but in her own words she had to admit to perceived pressure when all the proof surfaced over 20 times that her hubby and people in her administration contacted Monegan or the troopers about the moot issue of Wooten. Yes, it was a moot point as he had been investigated, punished and had committed no other offenses. This was all started long before she became McCains running mate so how is it Obamas people have anything to do with this? Are you people brain dead or what? I guess you forgot when that was. I guess you also forgot it was a bipartisan anonymous vote by 14 members, more republican than demorcrat also. Do you think people are just going to believe all your statements just because you typed them here? I am thankful that some people do the research and get the facts. Regardless of the outcome I will not support or condone Palins lies, lack of honor, diplomacy or integrity or vindictiveness, nor will I support Palin who admits she doesn't even know what goes on in her own administration as we see with her appointee Kopps resignation, Baileys tape recorded call etc. I believe she knows alright but it's easier to blame someone else and throw people under the bus than to be a stand up human being and admit your mistakes and take accountability and responsibility for your actions.
Governor Sarah Palin has every right to change out her department heads without giving a reason.
Article 3 Section 25 of the Alaska Constitution says that "The head of each principal department..." "shall serve at the pleasure of the governor..."
The State of Alaska publication titled: "Alaska's Constitution A Citizen's Guide" explains about this in depth.
The Alaska statute in Title 39 (Sec. 39.05.030) affirms what the constitution says.
I have more info and references on my website Alaskafalcon.com .
In my opinion, the Alaska legislative committee is engaged in an unwarranted "thought crime" investigation against Governor Palin.
Unfortunately we now have "thought crime" police in the United States. An example is the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. In a free country you can fire an old person from your private business for any reason (unless it's contrary to some contract). But in the United States, where we have lost some of our freedoms, it may not be legal to fire an old person if you (the employer) have the wrong "reason" (or thought).
This Age Anti-Discrimination law is contrary to the U.S. Constitution in my view, and should be stricken from the books.
I (Randy) am "protected" by this law because I am over 40 years old. But I don't want to be coddled in this fashion. I consider this law to be an insult. I can stand in the marketplace on my own 2 feet.
If ("citizen of the world") Obama is elected president, I fear we Americans will lose even more of our freedoms. Obama supports the passage of ENDA (Employee Non Discrimination Act) and the Employee Free Choice Act. John McCain is not in favor of these additional handcuffs on our economy.
Left wingers support more and more government control. Some are disciples of the secular religion of Governmental Omnipotence Belief (GOB). Nirvana for them would be a benevolent one world government. But this would be a dangerous thing.
Some leaders in this movement could be called a: "Governmental Omnipotence Belief Leader of the Ignorant and Naive".
GOBLIN for short. More about this at Alaskafalcon.com .
north_pole79 :
Thank You, Good Link! (I'm snagging it!)
http://www.palinfightscorruption.com/pal......
Perhaps You could Share it with CNN, as they seem to be unable to find the truth of this on thier own!!!!
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