OK, I don't know how much noise "Troopergate" has been making in the world outside the US, but let's just say that it doesn't make Sarah Palin look good. Let's see if I can summarize.
This happened some time ago. Sarah Palin, before she was tapped to be VP, tried to get her soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law, a State Trooper, fired. The trooper, Mike Wooten, was going through a bitter divorce with Palin's sister. Palin and her familiy tried to put pressure on various sources to get him fired, and the Palins (her husband Todd in particular) were accused of harassing Mr. Wooten and trashing his name. Palin ended up firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monogan because he would not fire Wooten.
The bipartisan (10 Republicans, 4 Democrats) Legislative Council in Alaska voted unanimously to have this matter investigated, to see if Palin abused her power, as the waters had become very muddied. They hired Stephen Branchflower to independently investigate the matter and come back with a report on his findings. The report was turned in on Friday October 10th.
During this time, John McCain's campaign was going around as a "Truth Squad" (real name!), to try and muddy the waters some more concerning this terrible matter. People accusing poor Sarah of wrongdoing! How dare they! It's Barack Obama's operatives! They're trashing Sarah's good name! Of course she wouldn't do anything like this!
McCain & Co. tried to stop the Branchflower report from coming out before November 4th, but both the appeal to a circuit court judge
and the Alaska Supreme Court failed: the report would come out as scheduled last Friday.
The
bipartisan Legislative Council reviewed the report, and voted unanimously to release the results to the public.
Branchflower determined that Sarah Palin did abuse her power as governor. There are other points, but that's the main gist of it.
And now Sarah Palin has started talking in gibberish, denying any wrongdoing and claiming complete falsehoods in the first interview with Alaska media after the report was released. Her ability to deny reality is extraordinary. Or was she reading a different report than the rest of us?
Let's give a sample.
Palin: Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.
Wait. What was the very first finding of that report?
For the reasons explained in section IV of the report, I find that
Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.11(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. “The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”
o.O
Don't forget to pick up your jaws before leaving the journal.
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giggly
bouncy
silly
jubilant
shocked