Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[Diomedes]

Watching Mr. Wooten

The Palin family's dispute with Mr. Wooten surfaced long before Ms. Palin became governor.

On April 11, 2005, the day Ms. Palin's sister, Molly McCann, filed for divorce, her father, Chuck Heath, informed the state police that a domestic-violence restraining order had been served on his son-in-law. Mr. Heath later told the state police that, although Mr. Wooten had not physically harmed Ms. McCann, he had intimidated her. Ms. McCann told authorities that Mr. Wooten said to her that he would shoot Mr. Heath if he hired her a divorce lawyer and would "take down" Ms. Palin if she got involved.

The family also reported that Mr. Wooten, who was assigned to the wildlife investigations unit, shot a cow, or female, moose without a permit, used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson and drank a beer at a friend's barbecue before taking a second one for the drive home in his patrol car.

In March 2006, after an internal inquiry, Mr. Wooten received a 10-day suspension, which was eventually halved. The suspension letter mentions nothing about threats. At the time, Mr. Wooten and Ms. McCann had been divorced for about two months. But their relationship remained tumultuous, primarily over child custody disputes, said Ms. McCann's divorce lawyer, Roberta Erwin.

Ms. McCann "wanted to know what relief was available to her" without spending the money to return to court, the lawyer said, adding, "As a close family, the Palins did their best to help her by reaching out further to the trooper hierarchy, with Todd taking the lead."

On Jan. 4, 2007, a month into the Palin administration and his tenure as public safety commissioner, Mr. Monegan went to the governor's Anchorage office to talk with Todd Palin, who had requested the meeting. Mr. Palin was seated at a conference table with three stacks of personnel files. That, Mr. Monegan recalled, was the first time he heard the name Mike Wooten.

"He conveyed to me," Mr. Monegan said, "that he and Sarah did not think the investigation into Wooten had been done well enough and that they were not happy with the punishment. Todd was clearly frustrated."

Mr. Palin noted Mr. Wooten's divorce case but dwelt on the moose kill, even showing photographs of the dead animal, Mr. Monegan recalled. The commissioner said he would have his staff evaluate the evidence.

A few days later, Mr. Monegan informed Mr. Palin that the issues raised at the meeting had been addressed in Mr. Wooten's suspension. The case was closed.

Mr. Palin sounded vexed and said repeatedly that Mr. Wooten was getting away with a crime, Mr. Monegan said. "I hung up wondering how long I could keep my job if I tick off my boss's husband."

Several evenings later, Mr. Monegan's cellphone rang. "Walt, it's Sarah," the governor said before echoing much of what her husband had said. Mr. Wooten, he recalls being told, was "not the kind of person we should want as a trooper." He told the governor, too, that there was no new evidence to pursue.

Soon after that, Mr. Palin and several aides began pressing the public safety agency to investigate another matter: whether Mr. Wooten was fraudulently collecting workers' compensation for a back injury he said he had suffered while helping carry a body bag.

Mr. Palin's evidence: He told Ms. Peterson, the commissioner's assistant, that he had seen Mr. Wooten riding a snowmobile while on medical leave and that he had photographs to prove it.

When Mr. Palin called back two weeks later, Ms. Peterson said she had met with the trooper but was not authorized to discuss the conversation because it was an official state personnel matter. The issue was eventually resolved in Mr. Wooten's favor, after his chiropractor sent a letter explaining that he had approved of Mr. Wooten's riding a snowmobile, as long as he was careful.

Mr. Palin declined to be interviewed. But in a sworn affidavit this week for the legislative investigation, he wrote that he had hundreds of communications about the trooper "with my family, with friends, with colleagues and with just about everyone I could, including government officials." He added, "In fact, I talked about Wooten so much over the years that my wife told me to stop talking about it with her."

As for what he had told his wife, Mr. Palin said he often raised his concerns about "the unfairness of his remaining on the state troopers when he was obviously so unfit for the job."

Of the dozen calls Ms. Peterson received about Mr. Wooten, she said, at least half were from Dianne Kiesel, a deputy director at the Department of Administration. The last discussion with Ms. Kiesel came after Ms. Peterson informed her that the trooper had been cleared to work full time.

"Since there was now no business reason to separate Wooten, she wanted to know what else we could do with him," Ms. Peterson said, adding, "I could tell she was under pressure to come up with something."

Ms. Kiesel enumerated various possibilities, like moving him to the cold-case unit or a desk job doing background checks.

Ms. Peterson, who had worked in human resources management for most of her government career, said she pointed out that those options would violate the public safety union's contract.

At one meeting, Ms. Peterson recalled, the commissioner of administration, Annette Kreitzer, said "to keep an eye on him and that he gets no special privileges."

In an interview, Ms. Kreitzer said she was simply calling for routine monitoring of an employee who had a disciplinary history or had not been evaluated in a while. Six other administration aides who initiated contacts with public safety officials about Mr. Wooten either did not return calls or declined to comment.

As for Mr. Wooten's planned appearance as Safety Bear, Mr. Monegan said he decided to pull him back.

Unexpected Firing

In July, Ms. Palin's acting chief of staff called Mr. Monegan to another meeting in that same room in the governor's Anchorage office. The aide, Michael A. Nizich, said the governor wanted him to head the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, part of the public safety department. Put another way, he was no longer commissioner.

Saying the firing had come "out of the blue," Mr. Monegan asked how he had upset the governor. Ms. Palin, the aide said, wanted to take the agency in a new direction.

"Was it Wooten?" Mr. Monegan recalled asking.

"A new direction," was the reply.

The Legislature's investigation began after a local blogger, who had been a political rival of Ms. Palin, linked Mr. Monegan's firing to, among other reasons, his refusal to dismiss Mr. Wooten. Initially the governor said through a spokeswoman that the dismissal had nothing to do with a "personality conflict." Since then, her explanations have evolved, from saying that he was lagging on filling trooper vacancies and tackling alcohol-abuse problems in rural Alaska to showing an "intolerable pattern of insubordination" and a "rogue mentality" by resisting her authority and spending reforms, sometimes publicly.

Mr. Monegan's successor, Mr. Kopp, said that when the trooper came up in his pre-employment conversations with Palin aides, "it was raised within the context of one of the things that I needed to be aware of, but there was no direction to take any job action."

During his first week on the job, Mr. Kopp received a call from Mr. Nizich. Mr. Wooten, in uniform, had shown up at the governor's picnic, which is open to the public. "Is there anything you can do?" Mr. Nizich asked, explaining that the Palins were concerned about his presence.

Mr. Wooten was told to leave the area.

About a week later, Mr. Kopp resigned amid scrutiny of a 2005 sexual harassment complaint.

Mr. Wooten, who declined to be interviewed for this article, remains on the force as a patrol trooper.

[PhillyPhreak54]

It doesn't shock me at all that she's vindictive.

So she fits well with McCain and that goddamn maverick moniker they have beaten into all our heads.

This needs to be getting as much play as Obama/Ayers and Obaba/Wright. This wasn't ancient history like Ayers or even McCain's Keating 5 involvement.

This is recent. And that dumb bitch stands up there throwing grenades at Obama like she has no skeletons in her closet.

[Cerevant]

You know McCain is sinking fast when West Virginia is a toss-up state.

Is squeaking by good enough?  A solid electoral win?  No, he just bought a half-hour of prime-time on CBS and NBC on October 29.  He doesn't just want the win, he wants the popular vote too, so he can claim a mandate.

[Diomedes]

This needs to be getting as much play as Obama/Ayers and Obaba/Wright.

In fact, it needs to get more play than either of those issues.  This isn't a story simply about her character, or who she associates with, or as you mentioned, about something unethical that she did thirty years ago.

If she is using her power as Governor to conduct a personal vendetta campaign, then that is a very serious ethical failure which is more germane to her ability to govern than either Wright or Keating Five.  She would be president if McCain expires.  That should compel the people of this rotting country to investigate what the hell she was doing up there.

[Cerevant]

No question...

- Obama associated with someone who said something that was certainly inflamatory, but arguably correct.
- McCain was an active participant in the Savings & Loan failures which happened under circumstances remarkably similar to today's financial crash.
- Palin abused her power as governor to carry out a personal vendetta.

Rank the three from most damning to least...

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

You know McCain is sinking fast when West Virginia is a toss-up state.

Is squeaking by good enough?  A solid electoral win?  No, he just bought a half-hour of prime-time on CBS and NBC on October 29.  He doesn't just want the win, he wants the popular vote too, so he can claim a mandate.

He will win the popular vote easily.  If you're saying he wants to get over 50%, that's something very different.

He'll probably get that too.

[ice grillin you]

It doesn't shock me at all that she's vindictive.

So she fits well with McCain and that goddamn maverick moniker they have beaten into all our heads.

This needs to be getting as much play as Obama/Ayers and Obaba/Wright. This wasn't ancient history like Ayers or even McCain's Keating 5 involvement.

This is recent. And that dumb bitch stands up there throwing grenades at Obama like she has no skeletons in her closet.

shes a pit bull yo

i heard shes gonna fight riley cote at center ice tomorrow nite

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

She's going to get all mavericky up in there.

[SunMo]

you betcha

[Cerevant]

You know McCain is sinking fast when West Virginia is a toss-up state.

Is squeaking by good enough?  A solid electoral win?  No, he just bought a half-hour of prime-time on CBS and NBC on October 29.  He doesn't just want the win, he wants the popular vote too, so he can claim a mandate.

He will win the popular vote easily.  If you're saying he wants to get over 50%, that's something very different.

He'll probably get that too.

Good point - yes, he is aiming for more than 50%.

[Magical_Retard]

shes such a tough pit bull whose gloves are off...yet she can not handle the big bad media. she is a woman and should not be made fun of. biden should go easy on her.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

He'll get it.

The next President (very likely to be Barry O) will likely preside over one of the greatest periods of economic/market growth, when all's said and done.  It really doesn't matter what we do - the markets will probably be somewhere between 6500 and 8000 on Inauguration Day.  Nowhere to go but up... hopefully.

Obama will be a fine President.  He's got more cock and balls for national security than Clinton did, and he's simply too intelligent to make the same mistakes over and over again, right?

I'm still not voting for him, but I'm not even sure I'm voting for McCain and his mortgage package nonsense either.

[ATV]

"Household Help"...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iz4Z6L4u8E4&eurl=http://www.goofyblog.net/

[SD_Eagle5]

Link

"Dare I say I cover more ground in ten minutes than they do in most of these debates in 60 or 90?"

That's how Philadelphia talk-show host Michael Smerconish introduced a taped interview this morning with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Among the topics: William Ayers, immigration, gun ownership, Mumia Abu Jamal, and even the baseball playoffs.
Smerconish, who also writes columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, conducted the rapid-fire interview yesterday after doing an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball.

It aired at 7:30 a.m. on "The Big Talker," WPHT (1210 AM).

All subjects were fair game. "No rules, no limitations," Smerconish said.

First, he asked about how some supporters of Republican John McCain keep using Obama's middle name: Hussein.

Obama explained his father was from Kenya, so he ended up with "an Arab-sounding name," just as Obama wound up with a Midwest accent because his mother was from Kansas.

"What you know is they're trying to distract from the economy," Obama said of his Republican opponents.
With the country going through the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression, "we better be talking about that in the next four weeks," he said.

Smerconish asked if gun owners, like himself, had anything to fear from an Obama administration.

"No, I am a strong believer in the second amendment," Obama said. "I believe it's an individual right."

He does, however, back measures that benefit public safety, like supporting ways that bullets and guns can be traced back to purchasers.

The recent killing of a Philadelphia police officer makes it clear more such steps are needed, Obama said.

How about the case of Mumia Abu Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulker? Smerconish made clear he'd given legal representation to the officer's widow, Maureen, and they'd written a book together. Had Obama taken a position?

"I haven't, only because the details of this event, you know, I've never studied," Obama said.

He added: "Let just me lay out a very clear principle: In my mind if someone killed a police officer, they deserve the death penalty or life in prison."

Smerconish lamented "the lack of discourse during the campaign about illegal immigration." Should the country at least try to seal the borders first? he asked.

"I believe in a comprehensive approach that involves sealing the borders. We've got to," Obama said. But people would probably still find their way in, so more measures are needed, he continued. "The thing that we really need to do is crack down on employers who are hiring undocumented workers, oftentimes recruiting them actively. ... They don't want to pay American workers a living wage," he said. As far as those already here, Obama said he's open to some process where people pay a fine, learn English, "go to the back of the line and ultimately earn their way."

In recent days, McCain and running mate Sarah Palin have been alluding to Obama's acquaintance with William Ayers, who as a young Weather Underground radical supported domestic bombings. In 1995, while running for state senate in Illinois, Obama was invited to a fund-raising party at Ayers' home. "Why go to his house to begin with?" Smerconish asked.

Obama explained that after law school, he moved to Chicago, and met Ayres, who was a college professor, while working "on a school reform program funded by an ambassador and friend of Ronald Reagan's."

Obama said he was only 8 years old when Ayers was a radical, "and I assumed he had been rehabilitated."

"The fact that Sen. McCain wants to makes this the centerpiece of his campaign is pretty remarkable," Obama said. "... Nobody thinks the actions of this radical group back in the '60s was the right thing to do."

"This is not somebody who advises my campaign. ... He's not going to advise me as president. This is a red herring."

When asked about going after terrorists in Pakistan, Obama reiterated a stance he's spelled out before.

First, he agrees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, that our military efforts in Afghanistan need bolstering. "That's where the war on terrorists started, that's where it needs to end," he said.

"We've got to send a strong message to Pakistan that we can't tolerate safe havens for terrorists," he said. If Pakistan can't or won't deal with al-Qaeda camps, then the United States should devise its own means of getting the job done.

Finally, Smerconish asked whether Obama favored the Phillies or the Dodgers.

The Phillies, Obama said, because his campaign manager is a huge Phillies fan - and because the Chicago teams have been eliminated.
Smerconish said he steered away from the economy because it was such well-covered ground. "Can I really get value about questioning him about the economy?" he said this morning.

He hopes to get McCain back on the program, and would love to get Sarah Palin.

"That's clearly not going to happen, which is a disappointment to me," he said.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I want to see Obama rocking one of these: