TrooperGate Investigation Timing
Andrew Halcro has a detailed update on TrooperGate that clarifies the news about the legislature’s decision to issue subpoenas. Here’s my summary.
- The legislature was going to hold a hearing on August 18 to discuss subpoenas. The hearing was canceled because all relevant witnesses agreed to give depositions.
- Seven of those who had previously agreed to give depositions have retracted that offer (pretty much since the Palin as Veep thing happened).
- The committee investigating TrooperGate will hold a hearing on September 12 to vote on subpoenas for those 7 people. Note, this has elsewhere been reported as the new deadline for the report, which is wrong.
- The committee will not subpoena the governor. They say:
“We also discussed and agreed amongst ourselves that no subpoena will be issued for the Governor,” said Representative Nancy Dahlstrom, R-Eagle River. “She has told the public that she intends to cooperate with the investigation, indeed, she has told the public that she welcomes the investigation and I have every faith that she means it. If necessary we can send Mr. Branchflower to wherever the Governor is, or she can give her statement to him over the telephone, whatever is most convenient for her. We recognize that her schedule is extremely busy, and we want to accommodate that.”
- The new deadline for the final report–moved up to give more time before the election–is October 10.
I guess it’s time to ratchet up the pressure on Palin to actually testify in this.
Which tells you exactly why the McCain campaign has her on lockdown in Alaska instead of out on the campaign trail where she might encounter a microphone.
Looks as though the Alaska Rethugs, aided by the RNC no doubt, are acting to imped/dilute the investigation and pressuring the French, the Democrat leading the special committee. I wouldn’t be surprised if subpoenaed witnesses refuse to testify. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
According to a post at Josh Marshall’s main page, the National Inquirer has apparently dug out the possibility that Sarah recently had an affair with one of her Husband’s Business Partners. True, Not True such a story is a threat, one that either has to be contained or otherwise dealt with.
I guess if you don’t do quality vetting you run the possibility that the National Inquirer will do it for you.
I don’t see the post up there now. I actually think Richter tried to hide his divorse proceedings instead bc there’s evidence that Todd Palin fired Richter’s ex-wife’s fiance. Again, more evidence of personalized firings.
What I would tell the Alaska Legislature to do on Palin – Drill Baby, Drill!
Where’s the percentage in testifying against Palin? The Trooper isn’t an idiot.
Barne:
Christ, if Palin’s already harassing Wooten using the power of the AK Governor’s Office, can you even imagine what she’ll due to him once she’s got the power of the Vice-Presidency in her hands?
The “percentage” for any of the people already on Palin’s shitlist is to keep her from accumulating even more power to abuse, even more power to harass the people she just don’t like.
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WTF? Obviously that should be “do” not “due”. I wonder how the brain makes stupid homonym errors while typing that one would never make in handwriting, or any other manner.
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Um, I know that that was probably a rhetorical question, but if you really want to know, you can read “Simulating a skilled typist: A study of skilled cognitive-motor performance”. Warning: PDF to a very geeky paper.
IMHO, in some respects the State of Alaska is a glorified small town. Lots of people get in each other’s business, lots of people know dirt on one another going back y-e-a-r-s. The GOP is probably shooting itself in the foot yet again by trying to stall this investigation; it’s typical GOP ‘message control’ by these control-freaks.
I had hoped that this election season might help reduce some of the social polarization in the US (which I don’t believe runs along ‘race’ lines, as much as it runs across ‘class’ lines). However, short of nominating David Duke, I’m not sure that McCain could have selected a less polarizing figure than Sarah Palin.
And engaging in ’stall the investigations!!’ conduct directly contradicts Palin’s promises of government reform. Some candidates could stall and get away with it — Palin exposes herself as a complete fraud if she allows this to go on.
Errata: Krugman at NYT today on the resentments that lie behind Palin’s support is must-read. And on a happier note, the Matthew 25 Network statement calling for more civil conversation in campaigns, and pointing out errors in Palin’s convention speech, is a silver lining in this whole mess. For anyone interested, it’s here: http://salsa.wiredforchange.co…..on_KEY=447
Apologies — edit wasn’t completed. Should read:
I’m not sure that McCain could have selected a
lessmore polarizing figure than Sarah Palin.If there’s no written or recorded evidence to nail Palin down, she’ll come out of this far stronger.
I think you’re right. She’s one scary dudette.
Well, seeing as how there is written and spoken evidence that pins this on Todd Palin, and seeing as how there are about 5 other documented (written and witnesses) cases where the Palins had someone fired on a lark, I’d say there’s a whole lot of evidence not just that she abused her power here, but that it’s a serial thing for her.
She is one righteous dude who, like Bush, uses an internal moral compass, consistent with God’s will, to determine the just outcome. Her reform credentials and her righteous terminations are one in the same.
I thought the e-mails were pretty damning. I also think the fact that her husband’s business partner (the one she supposedly had an affair with) is now trying to seal his divorce papers is pretty suspicious. There’s a lot of paper here. And I guessing that the Enquirer is up there throwing around a lot of money to smoke it out.
BTW, I don’t think the sealed divorce records has to do with an affair OR troopergate. I’m pretty sure it has to do with a DIFFERENT firing, of a guy named Bitney who Todd Palin had Sarah fire bc Bitney was dating the guy in qusetion, who’s a good friend of Palin.
So it doesn’t damn the Palins directly in TrooperGate. But it does show that it was a fairly normal thing for them to just fire someone on a personal vindictive lark.
Um, is this a gender-neutral “guy”, or a masculine “guy”? Because if there’s a gay angle in here, The Enquirer will be all over it.
This investigation is just the perfect cherry on top of her “I am republican” cake. What would it say about america if she got voted in, without this being resolved?? What would it say about the American people, the constitution, our laws? I suppose it would be absolutely perfect for the republicans because it would mean she could pretty much do whatever she wants and no one would care. Since that is what’s happening now…it’s like we’ve become completely desensitized to their lawlessness.
IT’s working for them!!
I expect BP or one of the oil companies could be induced into making carefully placed cash payments from some offshore account.
or the folks with the bent noses will come a-calling.
OT: Appeals Court gives Harriet Miers a stay from testifying before the HJC:
h/t TPM Muckraker
14 – that one wil be interesting.
OT – A bit more on Aafia Siddiqui, from Carol Leonnig with WaPo.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02245.html
Her lawyer claims that she has been left mentally incompetent from torture. No one is getting very stirred up about Afghanistan disappearing her 11 yo son. Except his mother, who is worried he is being starved and is trying to have food from her tray sent to him.
Nancy Grace has yet to phone it in on the 11 yo American boy, missing for 5 years, who now turns up only to be disappeared by the Afghan govt, after the US govt separated him from his mother and brought her back to the US for trial, just leaving him behind.
11.
Deliberately abandoned.
The US DOJ is truly a cesspool.
She’s a Republican. They are playing by the Cheney/Rove Repub playbook now, which is:
“refuse to testify using whatever flimsy excuse you can think of… what are they going to do??”
She won’t be testifying about this anytime soon. However, I think that works for our team, as it makes her out to be just one more law-skirting republican.
forget any “[ressure to testify”
just make the fucking commercials with palin’s arguments posted beside abu gonzo, kkkarl, et al
is that the “Change” you want ???
this is a new set of lying whiney assed titty baby repuglitards
make the connection
This idea is bugging me, so here goes:
1. Rove did the math and McCain can’t win.
2. Republican party is sick of the Evangelicals doing everything they can – including withholding money after so MUCH money has been doled out in faith based initiatives – to run the show. Faith based money has backfired.
3. Rove has done due diligence.
4. He gives the Evangelicals their candidate and waits for the destruction. This allows the party to move back to the center after the Evangelicals have done their lethal damage to an already dead campaign.
That may not be all that far off, Boston1775. But I think you’ve got the motivation wrong.
Let’s assume that Rove knows the Republicans are losing on Nov. 3, and that there is no chance of McCain becoming president.
In that case, the Palin selection can serve multiple purposes:
1) May help in reducing the number of house and senate seats lost, by pulling in the fundies on election day.
2) Palin can be sent out as an attack dog against Obama. With winning the presidency off the table, Rove will want to put out as many smears, lies, rumors, etc., to weaken Obama’s effectiveness as president, just as the GOP and the fundie base did to Clinton.
I’m sure I’m missing some other GOP benefits. Moving back to the center is not in the cards, however. But there does seem to be a possibility that the GOP doesn’t want to win this election.
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we’re warching the fundie wingnuts take control of the repuglitard party
after mcsame’s immolation, palin is the new leader of the repuglitard party
kkkarl is making lemonade, but first he is driving all of the clear thinking lemons out of the mix
I told you guys that the repuglitard party was headed for the dust bin of history
in 2012 the fundie wingnuts will be in firm control, and the other 85% of the voting population will belong to the serious political parties
the repuglitard party is going to the mountaintop, and right off the cliff …
I think you pretty much sums up the risk to which the confluence of the economy & Iraq & Obama have driven the GOP machine. I wrote in an earlier thread that even in losing now if Palin can use her VEEP status to buy time for the GOP to go full Borg on the witnesses & downgrade Troopergate from a Keating 5 status to a Hootersville 2 arctic storm, Thatcher-izing Palin could work as a lever for the Base’s Ayatollahs forcing their dream ticket for 2012: Palin-Huckabee.
But I could not disagree more with those who opine that the GOP machine is pulling the plug on this election, or ceding the franchise to the Ayatollahs [though the outcomes may turn out effectively the same].
Bush gave up pretty much the entire Domestic & quite a bit of the Foreign Policy seats to religiots, but the GOP machine was still able to deliver up a couple of phenomenally profitable profit centers in Iraq & domestic surveillance, both areas having the particular attractions of allowing the addition of 3 to 6 zeros to budgets, spending indeterminable multiples of that, and both denying oversight & obviating the usual needs of providing either evidence or logical support for their efficacy.
I don’t see any signs of the Ayatollahs being reluctant in the near term to trade off those two areas to the GOP machine’s lobbyists & mad men, along with the DOJ as a means to the end of electoral hegemony, in exchange for larger allocated space in the White House & every other USG agency. I really think that is why Rove within days even of the 200 6 midterm election was still heard talking confidently about retaining power.
What the 2006 election & this cycle have done is prove to Rove that the desperate times they saw coming a generation or so down the line for the GOP machine, as growth among hispanics, Asians & blacks drove White Family Guys below 50%, arrived a few cycles earlier than expected due to the DNC presidential candidate selection coming up with a Black Swan, one who could both see how the Dem torture trail system of having to first gain the nomination within shouting distance of Marquis of Queensbury rules & then go into a no-holds barred death match for the White House, require more of a balance in using more of what it takes to win the latter within the former contest, and being a lot more realistic than Gore & Kerry & as cold-blooded & resilient as the GOP machine in prosecuting the latter.
As to the future? Well- so far in this campaign Unholy Empire forces of the GOP machine & the McCampaign & the Ayatollahs & the Repods have shown absolutely no compunction at all against stealing directly from the creative stockpile of the Dems, and I would expect that to continue. The Obama campaign’s message meister David Plouffe has caught some heat from Mark Blumenthal, and even the young turks like Nate Silver, in the pollosphere; but they’re a clever geeks & not at war & he is. The kinds of hard edged reality focused minds that are serving the Obama campaign this go ’round are going to expect a higher pay scale the next time- & the GOP machine lobbyists & mad men know how to get it for them.
Okay, fine. My idea is not a hit.
Hey, listen. EW’s Alaskan sister is at work:
Palin Vetting Documents from 2006. For Hard Core Palin Addicts Only.
5 09 2008
In 2006, when Sarah Palin ran for Governor of Alaska, the Democrats (unlike the Republicans of 2008) vetted her. The documentation is extensive, and was published online.
Recently, the link from various websites including Politico to the documents went dead. Then it came back. Then it went dead. Then it came back. You get the idea. Considering the tendency for things to vanish these days, and thanks to a reader of Mudflats, you may now peruse the document in its entirety below.
It’s 63 pages, so be warned. I suggest using the table of contents on page two to guide you on this “more than you ever wanted to know about Palin tour.” I wonder how long McCain’s document was?
palin-2006-vetting
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/
Boston, I saved the 63 pages to my hard drive, so if the link disappears I can forward via e-mail to anyone interested.
I suggest you Google: Todd Palin, Shadow Governor?
(before it disappears).
Todd has been Sarah’s hit man (i.e. Chaney). He does the threatening, manipulating, “removing”, retaliating, etc. We better hope to heaven this Mafia does not get in.
As for all those in Alaska who spoke out earlier, now “can’t remember nuthin’”, or “no comment”, etc., it’s ROVE. Bribes, coercion, threats – – his usual tactics.
Good job, EW, keep up the good work! And thank you for covering the Stormtroopers in Minneapolis. I’m still boiling about what they did to Amy Goodman and her producers and the AP photographer. I wish I did not feel so powerless.
“Todd Palin, Shadow Governor?”
Close: Shadow Cheney.
could it be that the wheels are getting ready to fall off this stationwagon, and they KNOW that the next exec has to begin to balance the books? Oh….I don’t know. I’ll wager that a few will leave the country before the books are all opened…. jus sayin
Sorry. DAting the wife.
Um, so Sarah’s dating the business partner, Bitney’s dating the business partner’s wife, and Sarah gets Bitney fired. Got it.
Hadn’t heard about Todd Palin’s business partner attempting to hide divorce court records.
I think it’s a different business partner.
Oy. More and more drama. I’m glad we’ve got The Enquirer to sort this out.
“I’m glad we’ve got The Enquirer to sort this out”
Yet more evidence of Life Imitating Art.
Remember Men In Black- where the older agent says: Something’s up- let’s go check the Hot Sheets- then they went to scan the Enquirer & variants?
People were asking a few threads ago what archetype Palin is.
Maybe Palin provided us with the best archetype herself.
Here’s Whitebeard’s comment on Christy’s Firedoglake post today “A Choice for me but not for thee?” I think it should be spread far and wide:
And is that lipstick on that pitbull, or the exsanguinated blood of the child in the baby stroller?
Observations from one who spent both convention weeks joyously far from any TV set or web browser: I agree with the folks who are seeing that the R’s can now feel that they cannot win this election. From the newspaper coverage the truncated, quickly retooled, and “de-politicized” RNC show read as a party attempting an oxymoronic race from its own shadow, indeed as an embarrassment at publicly displaying their very identity itself. How can you “de-politicize” a party Presidential nominating convention? You can’t. Of course in the end the Palin and McC speeches re-politicized the show with a sincere (if knowingly hopeless and therefore hollow and therefore wan) vengeance, but that they even attempted such a nonsensical “de-politicization” maneuver in the first place speaks volumes as to a thorough dereliction at the top of the R party. This ship is adrift. The oh-so-timely Katrina echo — some intelligent divinity with a memory for justice just might exist. They couldn’t even keep not one but .two. Code Pinkies out of the hall, fer Chrissakes — with signs, even. And then picking Palin without vetting — I ask ya.
Bottom line: They are clearly acting like it just doesn’t matter what they do in their Prez campaign, how completely they botch the job, however they are also not acting like they expect to lose power. That’s extremely scary.
So now I wonder (along with others above) what, exactly, the R’s are going to do with this un-winnable electoral situation, and I have to say their options still seem to me completely wide open. Including but not limited to any combination of the following, in no particular order: Diebolding the election; triggering a shooting war by continuing to poke the bear; generating some sufficiently successful character attack on an Obama; raising the Threat Level Candy Color Code; turning a blind eye to some impending domestic attack; overreacting to some foreign attack; launching some new adventuresome war; making some de-stabilizing announcement about the extent of existing domestic surveillance and/or D complicity in establishing same; acting or failing to act in such a way that the housing crisis and/or personal/family financial services sector are further compromised in some de-stabilizing manner. Was it Rove who told us there were a whole lot of surprises still to come?
Shameless ploys? Damn straight, but remember, at this point they have, after all, nothing left to lose by trying. LIke the man said, they don’t have to cancel the election, they just have to make it close enough to steal it. And despite all the implosion, I think they still have that within reach.
It ain’t over yet, kids. Stay glued to the ol’ wireless, keep watching the skies, keep an ear to the intertoobz, etc.
We are addicted to money and power. People love the image.
If Hillary would have embraced her power she might have been more successful. The same with the dems. They just don’t get it.
There is something in the American psych that loves the bully. We idolize the bully. We give the bully power.
Now, the dems don’t have to be a bully, but they do have to learn the dialectic of power.
There are postives and negatives. They need to learn the power in of “in your face”, “standing still” and “lunging toward”. And in each position is a power. The dems rhythym is often off on this one. As a therapist it’s like a mental jujitso. Knowing when to lunge, when to stand firm and when to back off.
The republicans know this rhythym well.
We need to learn
I wish Obama had hit back a lot harder…lunged over community organizers. Loudly. It would have dissembled the power in that message. Instead he lunged a little, which is NO lunge at all.
I wish Biden had stated less tentativly his desire to hold accountable the bush administration. Louder please. NO fear. Lunge.
Aw crap…I am going outside to play volley ball with my daughter.
Seems like they are following the Bush administrations lead. Ignore request to testify and then play out the ignoring the subpoena process.
String it out until after the election or until it goes away. What “mavericks”> Ignore the law