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This page contains a single entry by Mark Willen
published on
October 11, 2008 4:55 PM.
The New McCain was the previous entry.
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REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN
Why Palin Matters -- And What McCain Must Do
Not unexpectedly, the McCain-Palin campaign is dismissing the results of an investigation authorized by the Alaska legislature, an investigation that found Palin guilty of abusing her power, blaming Democrats in general and Obama supporters in particular for a political smear job. (You can be forgiven if you didn't know Obama controlled the Alaska legislature.) McCain-Palin aides insist it's a personnel matter that has no relevance on the campaign, but nothing can be further from the truth.
However you feel about Sarah Palin, this is serious stuff. Americans are rightly tired of leaders who think the laws of the land don't apply to them.
Let's remember that this investigation was approved by the legislature on a bipartisan vote, that Palin supported it and agreed to cooperate -- right up until her nomination as vice president, when she abruptly reversed course. The investigator, a former Anchorage prosecutor, issued a 263-page report that detailed the actions that led him to his conclusions. The report is troubling. It concludes that while Palin didn't break any laws, she did violate the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by using her official power to pursue a personal vendetta against her former brother-in-law, a state trooper. That doesn't suggest either a reformer or the kind of person who ought to suddenly be given a lot more power -- not without some real answers and a better understanding of how she would use her office if elected.
Any other candidate in this position would be out front at this point, holding a news conference to try to put all questions to rest. But Palin, having survived her one debate after flopping during a rare televised interview, is under wraps, pretty much allowed only to make prepared speeches or be interviewed by conservative talk show hosts guaranteed not to ask any tough questions.
John McCain made a blunder when he picked Palin to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. It was a choice driven by political calculations, not the needs of the country. Even many conservatives who otherwise prefer McCain question Palin's qualifications. The irony is that the troopergate investigation was out there from the start and McCain should have known from the start what a problem it was. If he asked Palin about it and she was less than honest, that should be grounds for dumping her. If he didn't ask, well, what was he thinking?
The right thing to do would be to drop Palin, not just because of troopergate but because she has proven herself not ready in so many instances and in so many ways. But McCain can't drop her. The GOP base that loves her no matter what would never forgive him. And he can't afford another erratic move three weeks before the Election Day.
But he really ought to at least send her out for her first real news conference of the campaign and make her stay until she answers all the hard questions about her time in office that have been accumulating on this and other matters. It can only help. And besides, the American voters deserve it.
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Chris Wallace invited McCain and Palin on to his Sunday morning interview show, and they declined. This was on Fox, as right-wing a network as you can find. "Character, judgment, reform" - it's quite clear these are hollow words, and the McCain/Palin ticket offers the opposite of these.
Didn't you get the memo from the McCain-Palin campaign exonerating the governor before the report was even issued? This must be the least-vetted vice-presidential candidate in history. Well, okay, there was that thing about Thomas Eagleton and shock treatments; come to think of it, maybe that's what McCain needs to bring him to his senses over his and Palin's divisive, hysterical and utterly irrelevant campaign. In their desperation to get elected, they have come to appeal to the lowest common denominators, hate and fear. America deserves better.
You wrote of the Alaska Legislature's Investigatory Report:
"It concludes that while Palin didn't break any laws, she did violate the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by using her official power to pursue a personal vendetta against her former brother-in-law, a state trooper. "
How can you write that "Palin didn't break any laws." Excuse me, but what is an Act but a law?
Boo! Hoo! The trouper was a cockroack of a human being, tazering a kid and threatening to kill Palin's father. It seems we have some real progressives saying anything goes, as usual. How would you respond if he threatened you or tazered your child? Do you think he, the trouper, displayed any ethical conduct whatsoever? Perhaps Guido should have paid him a visit instead of just trying to get this bug off the street. Actually I think most Americans would cheer her on. But then again if one equates hanging out with terrorists and accepting pay off money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or being on the same level as Barney Frank O.K., then the trouper issue would certainly touch your sensitivity meter.
Mr BoneMender may be right that Wooten's a cockroach of a human being -- I don't know -- but Wooten did pay for his wrongdoing with a 5-day suspension, and he confessed to his misdeeds. He clearly thinks the laws of the land apply to him and is willing to pay for his mistakes. The facts about the Taser and the moose are in the Anchorage Daily News of July 27, but I'll summarize. Wooten didn't threaten his stepson with a Taser. The 11-year-old asked to be Tasered because he wanted to see how it felt. Wooten was wrong to show him, and although the youngster said it was no big deal, he did suffer a welt on his skin for his stepfather's poor judgment. Wooten was also punished for shooting a moose without a valid license. He was with his wife, who had the permit, but he pulled the trigger. The investigative report, which is readily available online, said there was no credible evidence that Wooten threatened anyone. Mr BoneMender's statements about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also are questionable. McCain's team has more to answer to for connections with those groups, through Rick Davis, than the Obama team. Not sure I get the comment about terrorists, since neither candidate hangs out with any, but I suppose he means William Ayers. If Mr BoneMender wants the truth about their connection, he should look at FactCheck.org.