Girls Against Sarah Palin

Authority Abuses

Summary of the process by which Ms. Palin governs
If you like the way George Bush, Dick Cheney & Co. governed, you will probably like Sarah Palin. Her history of governance, albeit relatively short, mirrors that of the Bush administration on many levels. She uses her office to purge opponents from positions of authority, supplanting them with loyalists. She goes out of her way to obscure access to information about her administration, thereby precluding governmental transparency. Indeed, this is the formula for Bush/Cheney, term 3.
Excising her enemies, even in small town Wasilla
Ms. Palin fires Wasilla’s police chief
In addition to the torrent of ethical questions raised over her firing of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner (See “Troopergate,” below), Ms. Palin raised ethical eyebrows when, upon taking over as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she fired the longtime local police chief, Irl Stambaugh. Mr. Stambaugh claims that Ms. Palin fired him because offended her campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association. Mr. Stambaugh filed a lawsuit following his termination. According to ABC News, William Jermain, Mr. Stambaugh’s attorney, said the chief tried to move up the closing hours of local bars from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. after a spurt of drunk driving accidents and arrests. “His crackdown on that practice by the bars was not appreciated by her and that was one reason she terminated Irl,” said Jermain. Mr. Stambaugh also alleged that his stand on restricting concealed weapons upset the NRA. “Mayor Palin has stated on several occasions that the National Rifle Association encouraged her to fire Chief Stambaugh because of his stance against the concealed weapons legislation,” his lawsuit claimed. According to ABC News, Palin begged to differ. “We had a lot of people that were kind of dead wood,” said colleen Sullivan Leonard, a staff member in Palin’s office. “We needed people with new energy and a new vision.” A federal judge later ruled that, under city law, the mayor had the right to fire the police chief for any reason she wanted. [SOURCE: ABC News, Sept. 3, 2008; by Brian Ross and Joseph Rhee].

Ms. Palin fires Wasilla’s librarian
Ms. Palin also fired Wasilla’s librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, shortly after assuming office. Ms. Palin (to her credit) admitted firing Ms. Emmons because Ms. Emmons did not support her mayoral candidacy. But that is not entirely the end of the story. Before terminating Ms. Emmons, Ms. Palin inquired about possible book-banning at the library, something Ms. Emmons resisted:

[from factcheck.org] It’s true that Palin did raise the issue [of book banning] with Mary Ellen Emmons, Wasilla’s librarian, on at least two occasions, three in some versions. Emmons flatly stated her opposition each time. But, as the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman (Wasilla’s local paper) reported at the time, Palin asked general questions about what Emmons would say if Palin requested that a book be banned. According to Emmons, Palin “was asking me how I would deal with her saying a book can’t be in the library.” Emmons reported that Palin pressed the issue, asking whether Emmons’ position would change if residents were picketing the library. Wasilla resident Anne Kilkenny, who was at the meeting, corroborates Emmons’ story, telling the Chicago Tribune that “Sarah said to Mary Ellen, ‘What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?’”

Facing a potential recall effort following Ms. Emmons’ termination, Ms. Palin agreed to reinstate her to her position as town librarian.

‘Troopergate’
Ms. Palin fires the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner after he refuses to terminate her ex-brother-in-law from his position as a State Trooper
Ms. Palin allegedly pressured the Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, from his job as a state trooper. When Mr. Monegan explained that there was nothing he could do about Mr. Wooten’s employment, Ms. Palin purportedly fired him. She then allegedly lied about pressuring Mr. Monegan, denying that she terminated Mr. Monegan over the Wooten matter. Ms. Palin purportedly replaced Mr. Monegan with someone who resigned after two weeks because of prior sexual harassment problems (problems of which Ms. Palin allegedly was aware). Ms. Palin is now under investigation by a Special Prosecutor for abuse of her gubernatorial authority in connection with Mr. Monegan’s termination. The Special Prosecutor’s report is due just prior to the upcoming November election.
Ms. Palin ignores the advice of an ethics advisor who warns her that the ‘Troopergate’ situation is ‘grave’ and that she should come clean
But that is not all. As suspicions heightened regarding Troopergate scandal, Ms. Palin received an advisory letter from an informal legal advisor warning her that the situation was “grave” and that she and her husband, Todd, should apologize for “overreaching or perceived overreaching” in using her position to get Trooper Wooten fired. In a follow up letter dated August 4, 2008, the ethics advisor warned that Ms. Palin probably would not be able to shun legislative investigation into the Monegan firing. Ms. Palin responded by hiring a lawyer. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, “Ethics Adviser Warned Palin About Trooper Issue,” September 11, 2008, by Jim Carlton].
PDF of letters is here.

Ms. Palin ignores a judge’s warning not to disparage Mr. Wooten
Court records reveal that Judge John Suddock, during the course of Ms. Palin’s sister’s divorce hearings three years ago, heard testimony from an official of the Alaska State Troopers’ union about how Ms. Palin—then a private citizen—and members of her family, including her father and daughter, lodged up to a dozen complaints against Trooper Wooten with the state police. The union official, who had never testified in a divorce case, indicated that the union believed family complaints against Wooten were “not job-related,” and that Wooten was being “harassed” by Ms. Palin and other family members. Court records reveal that Judge Suddock was disturbed by the alleged attacks by Ms. Palin and her family members on Trooper Wooten’s behavior and character. “Disparaging will not be tolerated—it is a form of child abuse,” the judge told a settlement hearing in October 2005, according to typed notes of the proceedings. The judge added: “Relatives cannot disparage either. If occurs [sic] the parent needs to set boundaries for their relatives.” As the divorce case continued, so did Judge Suddock’s concerns about “disparagement.” In the final divorce degree, signed Jan. 31, 2006, the Judge expressed concerns about attacks by Ms. Palin’s family on Mr. Wooten. The judge even threatened to curb Ms. Palin’s sister’s child custody rights if family criticism of Mr. Wooten continued. In a custody-related order, the judge said that he would pay particular attention to problems noted by a “custody investigator,” specifically “the disparagement of the father [Wooten] by the mother [Molly Hackett, Sarah Palin's sister] and her family members.” Judge Suddock wrote: “It is the mother’s [Hackett's] responsibility to set boundaries for her relatives and insure [sic] they respect them, and the disparagement by either parent, or their surrogates is emotional child abuse.” He added that: “If the court finds it is necessary due to disparagement in the Mat-Su Valley [the area north of Anchorage where Ms. Palin and her extended family live], for the children’s best interests, it [the court] will not hesitate to order custody to the father and a move into Anchorage.” According to the union official who testified at the earlier hearing, no such move was ever ordered. [SOURCE: Newsweek, Sept. 9; 2008, by Mark Hosenball]

The Bush/Cheney/Rovian-esque stonewalling begins…
The “Troopergate” special investigator, former prosecutor Steve Branchflower, was hired by a unanimous vote of state legislative leaders to investigate whether Ms. Palin fired Mr. Monegan, the Public Safety Commissioner, for his refusal to dismiss or open a new disciplinary investigation of Mr. Wooten after receiving complaints about him from Ms. Palin and her husband. Initially, Ms. Palin indicated she would cooperate with the investigation. But more recently, a lawyer hired by the state to represent her in the case asked the Alaska Attorney General to request that a state personnel board conduct its own special-counsel inquiry and demanded that the state legislature back off. [SOURCE: Newsweek, Sept. 9, 2008; By, Mark Hosenball]

More Palin purgings
Todd Palin also had a say in hiring and firing decisions. Childhood friend and long-time aide to Ms. Palin, John Bitney, was unceremoniously terminated from his job (he apparently found out he was fired when his Blackberry stopped working, and upon calling to ascertain the problem, discovered he was no longer on state payroll) after he began dating the soon-to-be ex-wife of a friend of Mr. Palin’s. Mr. Palin apparently didn’t like the insult to his friend, so he had Mr. Bitney fired. Ms. Palin never tried to defend the firing by contending that Mr. Bitney did a bad job. According to the APRN on July 9, 2007, Governor Palin’s spokeswomen Sharon Leighow said Bitney left for “personal reasons” and the departure was “amicable.” The Associated Press reported on July 10, 2007, “A spokeswoman for the governor says Bitney and Palin mutually agreed he would leave his post for personal reasons.” According to Bitney, “Todd’s words have so much weight”. [SOURCE: andrewhalcro.com]

As a sidenote, blogger [and former Palin opponent] Andrew Halcro reports that Todd Palin had a bizarre habit of interjecting himself into his wife’s gubernatorial affairs. Halcro reports that State Representative Ralph Samuels told him about going into a meeting with Ms. Palin that he thought would be private, only to find Todd Palin there. Mr. Palin apparently sat through the entire meeting. Halcro reports further stories shared by other lawmakers regarding Mr. Palin’s presence at and involvement in Ms. Palin’s official business.

Dairygate
FROM DAILY KOS: Another scandal involving Ms. Palin’s short tenure as Governor is known to Alaskans as Dairygate. As Ms. Palin came into office, the state Creamery Board, after years of study, concluded that state-run Matanuska Maid Dairy was beyond saving, after years in the red despite heavy taxpayer subsidies. It recommended that the dairy be privatized, as the only way of rescuing the dairy, and saving Alaskans from giving tax dollars to a failing business that inflated dairy costs. You would think that Ms. Palin, the so-called maverick cost cutter, would be thrilled. Nope. Instead, Ms. Palin fired the entire Board of Agriculture and Conservation, and replaced them with loyalists, who in turn installed themselves as the new Creamery Board. Palin contended that Mat Maid Dairy just needed better management, and these guys would do it. Ms. Palin didn’t like the expert’s answers, so instead of dealing with the facts, she fired the experts to find “new facts.” Except not so much. Nearly $1 million in subsidies later, including $200,000 in Alaska tax dollars paid to farmers to dump raw milk into the ground, this new Creamery Board came to the same exact conclusion as the old one - Matanuska Maid Dairy was a failure and a drain on the state. Oh, and the kicker is now the dairy has been reborn as a private enterprise, and subsidized with Federal tax dollars – tax dollars otherwise known as “pork.”