From the Anchorage Daily News comes word that a new report from Independent Counsel Timothy Petumenos finds Governor Sarah Palin did nothing wrong or improper in the matter that has become known as Troopergate.
Some time back, the Palin family filed a complaint against state trooper Mike Wooten who was Sarah Palin's brother-in-law until he and Palin's sister divorced.
The complaint alleges that Wooten had been out of control, had tasered his stepson, had drank beer while driving his patrol car, shot a moose illegally, and had made threats of violence against Sarah Palin's father.
Some alleged Gov. Palin abused her authority by seeking to get Wooten fired, and that her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan had been politically motivated and tied to this incident.
A couple of months ago when the allegations of ethical violations surfaced, Gov. Palin invited the investigation to proceed. One of the great failings in Alaska politics has been massive corruption among public officials, and Palin herself has crusaded against corruption and ethics violations--even against officials in her own Republican Party.
A few weeks ago, a report was issued by an investigator for the state legislature which found that while Palin was within her rights to fire Monegan, she had abused her power by pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten.
The new report released today at a press conference at the Hotel Captain Cook by Anchorage lawyer Timothy Petumenos contradicted the earlier report and found no abuse of power.
From the Anchorage Daily News, findings include:
- There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in deciding to dismiss Monegan as public safety commissioner.
- There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in connection with Wooten.
- There is no cause to believe any other state official violated the ethics act.
- There's no basis to conduct a hearing to "address reputational harm," as requested by Monegan.
- The state needs to address the issue of using private e-mails for government work and to examine how records are kept in the governor's office. Palin used her Yahoo e-mail account for state business until it was hacked.
It's good that this has been settled, even if it is on the eve of the election.
What would have been nice if, for the last year and a half that Barack Obama has been running, the "mainstream" media would have taken a little time to investigate things like (1) Obama's dealings with the domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, (2) Obama's dealings with Tony Rezko, (3) Obama's dealings with PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi, (3) Obama's dealings with racist anti-Americans like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and many other things that were somehow less important than a firing made by a governor who entered the campaign two months ago.
But hey: what else have we come to expect from the "mainstream" media?
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