A new report just released — hours before the polls open on Election Day — exonerates Gov. Sarah Palin in the Troopergate controversy.
The state Personnel Board-sanctioned investigation is the second into whether Palin violated state ethics law in firing her public safety commissioner, and it contradicts the earlier findings by a special counsel hired by the state Legislature.
[1]
Gov Sarah Palin
Both investigations found that Palin was within her rights to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
But the new report says the Legislature’s investigator was wrong to conclude that Palin abused her power by allowing aides and her husband, Todd, to pressure Monegan and others to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten. Palin was accused of firing Monegan after Wooten stayed on the job.
That from the Anchorage Daily News, [2] this morning.
No shock, this, though to what degree this will help after all the pounding Palin has been taking on this, remains to be seen.
Joyner notes the ruling [3] and says:
What I do know about the case, however, is that Wooten probably deserved to be fired and that, whether it’s legal or even ethical, it’s unseemly for a state governor — let alone the husband of said governor — to use the power of her office to pursue personal grievances.
Personal? I don’t think so. I tell him:
Two points.
1: Can you imagine a Governor who wasn’t related, NOT firing Monegan, given Wooten’s misdeeds? Given the increasing scrutiny that police forces across the country have been getting… and not without justification… (Ask Balko)… what kind of reaction do you suppose that would have gotten?
2: Can you imagine this even being an issue, absent the desperation of the Democrats to create as many issues as possible with the Republican ticket?
I suggest if we’re going to make a moral issue out of this, it’s the Democrats, not Palin, that comes up short.