Troopergate Probe Appears To Be Unraveling

[FVZA_Colonel]

Source: Associated Press

Troopergate probe appears to be unraveling
By MATT VOLZ

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The abuse-of-power investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was unraveling Wednesday, with most key witnesses refusing to testify, new legal maneuvering and heightened Republican pressure to delay the probe until after Election Day.

Palin initially welcomed the investigation, saying "hold me accountable," but she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his vice presidential running mate.

In a reversal of position, a key Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he may convene the committee that is conducting the investigation into whether Palin dismissed her public safety commissioner when he would not fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with her sister.

Some Republican members of the committee have asked for such a meeting, to consider delaying the probe or replacing Democratic state Sen. Hollis French as its manager. The investigation's conclusions are supposed to be released by Oct. 10. The Legislative Council, made up of 10 Republicans and four Democrats, had unanimously approved launching the probe.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_el_pr/palin_troopergate

---

This is such bullshit, how can they be getting away with this? And isn't it possible that this will just lead to the justifiable suspicion that she has something to hide?

[TwilightGardener]

1. They are making it disappear right before our eyes--what investigation? What abuse of power?

[madeline_con]

2. Rove's minions got to them. n/t

[rwheeler31]

3. Apparantly the people of alaska ain't free.

[WCGreen]

24. It's too close to them Ruskies to take a chance with freedom....

Typical small town values...

Bully your oponents and threaten their livelyhood.

[bleever]

4. "Hold me accountable. And then my accountant

will make an accounting of the accountability of your accounting, and then we'll appoint a Blue Ribbon commission to account for the differences in the accounting, and they will be the best people to be accountable about how to best relay that final account to the American People,

so that they can see it's transparent, with full accountability."

[calmblueocean]

5. The media has not covered this well.

Katie Couric ought to be asking her why she's stalling this investigation, at a bare minimum. We know nothing about Palin! After the election is too late to learn.

[FVZA_Colonel]

7. Palin's support seems to be slipping right now, but being able to lie and say she was "exhonerated"

will be a postive for her, even if we know it's a load of crap.

[tavalon]

8. Katie Couric!

Snort! She will only cover it if the GOP tells her to! Palin knows Pitbulls and Katie is no Pitbull. Lipstick does not a Pitbull make!

[Judi Lynn]

13. They haven't investigated anyone, really, since Bill Clinton and Gary Condit.

What on earth do they think is their area of responsibility, if it isn't to look into these things they alone can access, since they have channels not open to ordinary citizens.

The human race is eventually going to have to make other arrangements to get information vitally needed, one way or another.

You'd think they can only continue this news blackout so long, until before the natives get restless enough to find a solution.

[Trajan]

6. Ah .... It really doesn't matter now ....

In fact: It is probably more effective as a tool to use against her ....

The question has been strongly raised: She appears to have stopped it to avoid revealing the truth ... Hence, in the right hands, these facts can be exploded into guilt ...

You can be sure that is exactly what will happen ....

Even conservatives are disgusted by this ....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x384895

[WheelWalker]

9. This reminds me of Spiro Agnew.

[alfredo]

10. Maybe she will be impeached or if they can, be recalled.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

28. Ummm...that could only be accomplished if they..y'know...

Actually WIN...

Not gonna happen.

NO WAY, NO HOW, NO McCAIN, NO PALIN

[alfredo]

30. No, I am talking about by her state. I don't know if the state has

a recall law, or if they would have to remove her from the governorship through impeachment.

[Naturalist]

11. Throw them all in jail!!!

Throw them in jail and make this country have some justice!!!!!

[Laelth]

35. Welcome to DU!

:dem:

-Laelth

[Waiting For Everyman]

12. Betcha the investigator releases his report anyway, and on time.

They can't stop him, they can only refuse to cooperate and be part of it. If Palin does that, AK may go blue. I wouldn't be surprised. Alaskans won't like being stonewalled.

And wouldn't it be really eery, if that was the tipping EV?

[StopTheNeoCons]

14. Talis Colberg, Alaska's Attorney General, is TAINTED

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/troop...

By Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth - September 17, 2008, 6:37PM

Earlier today, we learned that Talis Colberg, Alaska's Attorney General, is the latest figure to lend support to the GOP effort to stymie the Trooper-Gate investigation. Colberg sent a letter to Sen. Hollis French, who's overseeing the investigation, asserting that the state employees who have been subpoenaed to testify in the probe won't honor those subpoenas.

So it's worth stressing a point that might be getting lost in the flurry of moves and counter-moves: Colberg is no independent player in this case. In fact, he's a Palin appointee, who was personally involved in the effort to pressure Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to terminate Trooper Mike Wooten, and who has already led an investigation into the matter at Palin's behest.

When the legislature announced that it would hire an independent investigator, Stephen Branchflower, to look into charges that the governor had wrongfully terminated Monegan, Palin revealed that she had already requested that Colberg conduct his own parallel investigation. Colberg had begun gathering documents and evidence in late July, weeks before Branchflower had even begun his probe.

At the time, legislators raised questions about Colberg's involvement and the possibility of witness tampering.

"I think it is harmful to the credibility of the administration, harmful to the process and harmful to all the parties involved," Rep. Jay Ramras, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee told the Anchorage Daily News. "It's just the worst possible thing to be doing."

As a result of new information uncovered by Colberg's investigation, Palin held a press-conference in mid-August and admitted that one of her staffers, Frank Bailey, had been tape recorded making a call to a state trooper's office, requesting the removal of Wooten.

And crucially, she also admitted that Colberg himself -- as well as Todd Palin -- had called Monegan and talked to him about Wooten. Thanks to these calls, Palin acknowledged, Monegan might have felt pressure to fire Wooten. Palin had previously denied that either she or her staffers had ever pressured officials to fire Wooten.

For a time, it appeared that Colberg had distanced himself from the investigation as a result of this conflict of interest. When Palin hired Thomas Van Flein to represent her in the case, Van Flein cited Colberg's call to Monegan as a reason why Colberg himself could not represent Palin. "The Department of Law had a potential conflict of interest, because Mr. Colberg, Attorney General Colberg, made contact with Mr. Monegan about Trooper Wooten," Van Flein said at the time. "That would make him a potential witness, and thus there's a potential conflict."

Last week, Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Barnhill -- not Colberg -- authored a letter threatening to quash subpoenas if they were issued by the state legislature. Bloomberg even reported that Colberg had recused himself from the investigation.

But in the light of Colberg's letter to French announced this morning, that no longer appears operative.

So in other words, Palin and her lawyer have admitted that Colberg, a Palin appointee, called Monegan and pressured him to fire Wooten, and that he has a clear conflict of interest in the case. And yet Colberg is still working to quash subpoenas issued in a bipartisan vote by the state legislature.

The attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a call from TPMmuckraker seeking to clear up the confusion.

Colberg's background doesn't suggest he's a figure with much independent clout
Before he was appointed attorney general by Palin, he was a little known assemblyman from the Matanuska Valley, in which Palin's hometown of Wasilla sits.

In an article Sunday in the New York Times, a family friend of Colberg described a conversation with him on his move from a one-room law office in rural Alaska to one of the highest offices in the state, supervising over 500 people: "I called him and asked, 'Do you know how to supervise people?'," Kathy Wells told the Times. "He said, 'No, but I think I'll get some help.'"

[uppityperson]

15. AK is a small state.

Large in land mass, but small in population. You don't want to get on the wrong side of those in power. It is bullshit.

[intheflow]

16. Troopergate isn't unraveling.

The article's title is misleading. The last part of the article is a totally different story:

Meanwhile, Alaska Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican, said she does not believe the investigation will collapse or be delayed by "outside interlopers" trying to protect Palin.

"I see no reason why we need to have infighting over a previously authorized investigation that still has its original purpose," said Green, a Palin critic.

She said the attempt to block the investigation will lead to closer scrutiny of how Palin and her administration's stories have changed.

"Go back and compare all the statements of everybody in charge: 'We'll be happy to testify, we don't need any subpoenas, we don't have anything to hide.' Now the implication is, 'We have something to hide,'" Green said.

Many conservatives are less than dazzled by HRH Sarah, as well as sick with the national Republican party's slimy, criminal leadership. They can see them flip flop like carps, changing their stories to cover their asses. Rational heads may yet prevail. This could swing either way, imo.

[Nambe]

17. Troopergate probe appears to be unraveling

Source: The Associated Press

The abuse-of-power investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was unraveling Wednesday, with most key witnesses refusing to testify, new legal maneuvering and heightened Republican pressure to delay the probe until after Election Day.

Palin initially welcomed the investigation, saying "hold me accountable," but she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his vice presidential running mate.

In a reversal of position, a key Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he may convene the committee that is conducting the investigation into whether Palin dismissed her public safety commissioner when he would not fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with her sister. ...

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/17/troopergate-probe-appears-to-be-unraveling/

[truthisfreedom]

18. Who cares? Palin is so yesterday... people are not thinking about her at all.

She's become a nebbish. All bark, no bite.

[FVZA_Colonel]

22. My only fear is that now they'll try and spin this into making it look like she's been exhonerated.

When in fact the investigation has been critically compromised (and not by "partisan Democrats"), and only makes it look like she has something to hide.

[snake in the grass]

29. False.

It's not over until she goes back to Alaska defeated. Until then she, or better yet the voter's stupidity, is not to be 'misunderestimated'.

[madmax]

19. If I should ever get

a traffic ticket would this bullshit work for me? I'm just not going to court - so there! Pay a fine - fuck you! Neeners neeners. WTF - is every republican p.o.s. above the law??

[glinda]

21. yes

because now they write the laws. Any law they want. Like the Nazis.

[wtmusic]

20. Abuse-of-power investigation unraveling due to abuse of power.

Wonderful.

[Karenina]

31. Satire is dead.

So is irony...

[tom_paine]

34. As it was in Nazi Germany, as it was in the Soviet Union, as it was in Pinochet's Bushie Chile,

as it ALWAYS is when the mendacious and evil forces of Bushevism, which is to say authoritarianism, rears it's ugly head.

Why should we be any different that the opther nations so much like us, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Take away the violence and brutality, and there is scarcely any difference between us.

[krkaufman]

23. The narrative needs to become that this is an example of the transparency and reform ....

... that McCain & Palin will bring to the White House. More of the Same.

[radfringe]

25. looking more and more like a bush-cheney misadministration

- thumbing noses at supeonas
- loyalty to the person above all else
- legal manipulations
- open and transparent really means closed and lock-down
- missing/deleted emails
- one weak/stupid excuse after another

what's palin-mccain hiding?

[deutsey]

26. Ah, equal justice under law.

:evilfrown:

[Magleetis]

27. She is repug royalty now

Laws don't apply.

[Union Thug]

32. WTF? Witnesses *refusing* to testify?

Hmm. How about some subpoenas and contempt charges, judge?

Why is it that schmucks like me go to jail for daring to defy the courts and these creeps are allowed to do whatever the hell they please? Why did Josh Wolf sit in prison for 226 days for refusing to turn over a god-damned video tape while these guys pick and choose what they will and will not provide to "our" justice system?

And why isn't Miss Transparency and her Zombie minions willing to come forward? What are you hiding Sowa Palin?

[tom_paine]

33. They can get away with it because Amerika is NOT a Free Country in any way shape or form

It is a totalitarianism, a newfangled kinder and gentler Inverted Totalitarianism.

As such, the old rules and mores of formerly free nations simply do not apply here.

We are the Russians, trying to get the Communists to prosecute one of their own faviorites. We are the Jews, petitioning Goebbels to investigate concentration camp abuses.

IF this goes exactly the way it looks like it is going (with no small implicit help from the spineless Congressional Democrats), then it is shown. 100% shown and demonstarted that Amerika is no longer a free country.

If this investigation is shut down simply by a matter of Bushie Will (and it very likely will be) then there can be no doubt left. Not a smidge, not an iota doubt.

If the Bushie Comrades can successfully and thoroughly protect Comrade Palin, not only from an investigation, but one well along already, then we have lost whatever claim we may have to membership in the Free World.

And they will. 95% certain the Bushies will shut this investigation down s easily as Tony Soprano shaking down a local businessman.

But, no one can say for sure until it happens. Until then, we get o keep a faint shred of hope alive...

[jec6897]

36. If Democrats were Republicans

If the Democrats were Republicans how much hay would they make of Troopergate? Where are the billionaire Democrats willing to fund investigations, get out rumors, etc. (It's sad, but what do you fight fire with?)

[Xenotime]

37. This bitch needs to be tried and brought to justice.

The last thing we need in more corruption in Washington.