Palin releases all of her e-mails and documents in the "Troopergate" mess

jimpeel

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
For those who missed it, and are gloating over her e-mail account being hacked, this happened two days ago. Everyone was so busy getting the "It's Palin" thread closed that they all missed it.

http://www.adn.com/front/v-printer/story/527346.html

Palin accuses Monegan of insubordination
TROOPERGATE: Governor's lawyer attempts to clear her of misconduct in the firing.

By WESLEY LOY
[email protected]

(09/15/08 23:26:05)
Walt Monegan lost his job as public safety director because he resisted Gov. Sarah Palin's budget policies and showed "outright insubordination," say papers the governor's lawyer filed Monday with the state Personnel Board.

It was Palin's strongest effort yet to snuff allegations she sacked Monegan because he refused to fire a state trooper involved in an ugly divorce with the governor's sister.

Along with the papers filed Monday were a slew of e-mails from the governor's office purporting to show Monegan's "rogue mentality" as a member of Palin's Cabinet.

In one message, the governor's budget director, Karen Rehfeld, wrote that she was "stunned and amazed" that Monegan appeared to be working with a powerful state legislator, Anchorage Republican Rep. Kevin Meyer, to seek funding for a project Palin previously had vetoed.

To coincide with Monday's filing, spokesmen for the Republican national ticket of John McCain and Palin, his vice presidential running mate, held an Anchorage press conference touting the "important new information" they said cleared Palin of misconduct in what has come to be known as Troopergate.

Monegan, reached Monday at his Chugiak home, said he was dismayed at the attack on his record as Palin's public safety commissioner.

"In my mind, I've always been a team player," he said.

He chalked up Palin's filing to an old adage: "The best defense is a good offense."

State legislators have hired a former state prosecutor to investigate whether Palin or her aides abused their powers in the Troopergate affair, which has attracted national media attention because of the governor's fast political rise.

Last week, a legislative committee voted to issue more than a dozen subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify. Palin won't get one, but her husband, Todd, will.

Ed O'Callaghan, a spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Monday the governor is "unlikely to cooperate" with the investigation.

The Palins have complained for years that state trooper Mike Wooten is still on the force, and the papers filed Monday again pound on the trooper's "documented acts of violence and other improper conduct," including what Palin contends was a threat to kill her father.

'PUBLIC ORDER AND SAFETY'

The governor's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, argues in a 19-page brief that even if the governor had asked Monegan flatly to fire Wooten -- which she denies doing -- that wouldn't constitute a violation of the state Ethics Act "because the public generally shares a common interest in public order and safety."

The filing includes a July 17, 2007, e-mail Palin sent to Monegan in which she complains that a proposal to ban gun sales to people who make death threats wouldn't stop her former brother-in-law, Wooten, from carrying a gun.

"Amazing," the e-mail says. "And he's still a trooper, and he still carries a gun, and he still tells anyone who will listen that he will 'never work for that b----' (me) because he has such anger and distain (sic) towards my family."

Van Flein filed the papers in support of the governor's request that the Personnel Board drop an ethics complaint that Palin lodged against herself on Sept. 2.

Wooten's union also has filed an ethics complaint against Palin.

The papers filed Monday accuse Monegan, during his time as public safety commissioner, of "an escalating pattern of insubordination on budget and other key policy issues."

THE LAST STRAW

In pursuing his own goals for the Department of Public Safety, Monegan "sought out the governor's political opponents behind her back," Van Flein wrote, and in December 2007 he "unilaterally orchestrated a press conference" on his budget with state Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat who is leading the Troopergate investigation.

On May 7 of this year, Randy Ruaro, the governor's deputy chief of staff, complained in an e-mail to Rehfeld, the budget director, that Monegan's department "is constantly going off the reservation."

"The last straw" leading up to Monegan's firing, Van Flein wrote, was Monegan's planned trip to Washington, D.C., to seek funding for a new, multimillion-dollar sexual assault initiative the governor hadn't yet approved.

Monegan, in an interview Monday, said that the papers the governor's lawyer filed are selective and he's provided other documentation to the legislative investigator, Steve Branchflower, that will provide a more balanced portrayal of his time as commissioner.

As for why he was fired, Monegan said he believes it was his failure to fire trooper Wooten.

"Sadly, yes, I do," he said, citing the July 17, 2007, e-mail as the sort of tacit pressure he said he received repeatedly from Palin and her husband.
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http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/...rgate-releases-memos-showing-insubordination/

Palin fires back in Troopergate, releases memos showing insubordination

posted at 8:29 am on September 16, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Sarah Palin issued a response to the Troopergate investigation yesterday by releasing internal memoranda that show Walt Monegan got fired for insubordination on budget matters and not because of his refusal to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law. Monegan went behind Palin’s back to attempt to revive a project Palin had vetoed, which “stunned” the Office of Management and Budget Director. On another occasion, Monegan held a press conference with Hollis French to dissent from Palin’s budget priorities — the same Hollis French pushing the ethics complaint against Palin:


Walt Monegan lost his job as public safety director because he resisted Gov. Sarah Palin’s budget policies and showed “outright insubordination,” say papers the governor’s lawyer filed Monday with the state Personnel Board.

It was Palin’s strongest effort yet to snuff allegations she sacked Monegan because he refused to fire a state trooper involved in an ugly divorce with the governor’s sister.

Along with the papers filed Monday were a slew of e-mails from the governor’s office purporting to show Monegan’s “rogue mentality” as a member of Palin’s Cabinet.

In one message, the governor’s budget director, Karen Rehfeld, wrote that she was “stunned and amazed” that Monegan appeared to be working with a powerful state legislator, Anchorage Republican Rep. Kevin Meyer, to seek funding for a project Palin previously had vetoed.​


According to the papers filed by Palin’s legal team, that was not the only instance of insubordination from Monegan:

  • 12/9/07: Monegan holds a press conference with Hollis French to push his own budget plan.
  • 1/29/08: Palin’s staffers have to rework their procedures to keep Monegan from bypassing normal channels for budget requests.
  • February 2008: Monegan publicly releases a letter he wrote to Palin supporting a project she vetoed.
  • June 26, 2008: Monegan bypassed the governor’s office entirely and contacted Alaska’s Congressional delegation to gain funding for a project.

From this presentation, it looks like Monegan had decided from the start to be a loose cannon in the Palin administration. The wonder of this isn’t that he got fired — it’s how he managed to hang onto his job as long as he did. The response calls Monegan’s trip to Washington the “final straw”, and it’s not difficult to see why. Monegan even admitted it in his valedictory e-mail to his colleagues, saying that he “had waited too long outside her door for her to believe that I supported her.” Nor did Monegan file an ethics complaint, as the law would have required him to do, if he felt his termination violated state ethics laws. (Palin filed the complaint herself to argue the case.)

As the filing states, Monegan served as a political appointee, at the pleasure of the Governor. Obviously, Monegan didn’t act to support Palin’s budget initiatives, often acting in opposition to them. In anyone’s administration, that will result in dismissal. Monegan kicked himself out of the job through his own acts.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOTk11gvqDAgD0cY3i4WjI_2YOxwD937N8L80

John McCain campaign tries to quell 'Troopergate'
By GENE JOHNSON – 2 days ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain is trying to put to rest the ethical controversy that's come to be known as "Troopergate," releasing e-mails supporting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's contention that she dismissed her public safety commissioner over budget disagreements, not because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law.

And, the campaign says, Palin is unlikely to speak with an investigator hired by the state legislature to look into the matter.

Among the e-mails released was one of farewell written by the public safety commissioner himself, Walt Monegan, when he was fired in July. In it, he suggested the governor had reason to believe she had lost his support, and urged his former colleagues to communicate better with her.

"For anyone to lead effectively they must have the support of their team, and I had waited too long outside her door for her to believe that I supported her," he wrote. "Please, choose a different path."

The controversy erupted in the weeks following the firing, as it emerged that Palin, her husband, Todd, and several high-level staffers had contacted Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten, who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister before she became governor. While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire Wooten, he says they didn't have to: There was nothing subtle about the repeated contacts.

In July, the four Democrats and eight Republicans on Alaska's Legislative Council voted unanimously to investigate the circumstances of Monegan's dismissal. Although Monegan was an at-will employee who could be fired for almost any reason, lawmakers wanted to see whether Palin tried to use her office to settle a personal score with Wooten.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted Friday to issue subpoenas to 13 people, including Palin's husband, to compel cooperation with the investigation. The campaign said it didn't know if Todd Palin planned to challenge his subpoena.

The governor has not been subpoenaed, but the investigator hired by the legislature, Steve Branchflower, said Friday he is interested in speaking with her. Campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said that was unlikely as long as the investigation "remains tainted."

Though the governor initially said she'd cooperate, after she became McCain's running mate in late July, her lawyer sought to have the three-member state Personnel Board take over, alleging that public statements made by the Democratic chair of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Hollis French, indicated the probe was politically motivated.

French had said the results of the investigation could constitute an "October surprise" for the McCain campaign. He later apologized. The campaign also insists that French, Branchflower and Monegan are friends, even though the men say they only know each other professionally and have never socialized.

Democrats charged that the McCain campaign was trying to stall the investigation.

"Rather than cooperating with the investigation, the Republican presidential campaign is doing everything it can to stall and smear," said Patti Higgins, chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic Party.

McCain campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton denigrated Monegan at a news conference Monday, accusing the three-decade cop of "insubordination," "obstructionist conduct" and a "brazen refusal" to follow proper channels for requesting money.

When Monegan was fired, the governor offered to let him head the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Asked why someone with a history of insubordination would be given such a position, Stapleton said that without having to deal with a budget, Monegan would be able to focus on alcohol abuse issues.

The governor "respects the fact that he was respected in the community," she said.

Thomas Van Flein, a lawyer for the governor's office, cited the newly released e-mails Monday in asking the Personnel Board to find no probable cause for an ethics investigation.

In an interview Monday night, Monegan said Palin never raised concerns about his management. In fact, at an event in May, she singled him out and praised his efforts to reduce violence against native women.

"In my time as a commissioner, the governor has never talked to me about complaints about my efforts," Monegan said.

He said all he meant to convey in his farewell letter was that because he was being fired, the governor must have believed he didn't support her, and to the extent his communication skills were to blame, others should avoid his mistake.

The e-mails made clear that some Palin staffers believed Monegan and the Department of Public Safety worked outside normal channels. One was written in May by Randy Ruaro, then a special assistant to Palin, to the governor's budget director, and concerned efforts to pay for and build a crime lab.

"I FEEL YOUR PAIN! DPS is constantly going off the reservation," he wrote.

In February, Monegan signed a public letter of support for a $3.6 million project designed to keep troubled teens off the street in Anchorage — even though the governor had vetoed the project last year and hadn't included money for it in her budget this year.

"I am stunned and amazed — do you know anything about this?" budget director Karen Rehfeld wrote to two other high-level staffers when she learned of the letter.

"Think about that: one of the governor's own cabinet members publicly contradicting her veto decision," Stapleton said.

Monegan acknowledged he shouldn't have signed the letter, because it put the governor in the awkward position of defending her veto decision. But he said he thought of the letter as simply making another run at getting funding for a worthy project.

The last straw, the McCain campaign said, was in July, when Monegan planned to travel to Washington to seek federal money for a plan to assign troopers, judges and prosecutors who could exclusively handle sexual assault cases — one of the state's most intractable crime problems.

In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: The governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request was "out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen. (Ted) Stevens."

Four days later, Monegan was fired. He said he had kept others in the administration fully apprised of his plans to go to Washington.
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http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/0...oper-probe-tainted-by-obsessive-partisanship/

Palin Suggests Trooper Probe Tainted By ‘Obsessive Partisanship’
by FOXNews.com
Thursday, September 18, 2008

Sarah Palin, in a FOX News interview, defended herself against what she suggested was “obsessive partisanship” related to the escalating inquiry into the firing of her former public safety commissioner.

The investigation, which centers on whether the Alaska governor punished her public safety chief for refusing to fire a trooper who was going through a nasty divorce with her sister, comes at a potentially damaging time in the political calendar.

An Alaska Senate committee subpoenaed 13 people last week, including Palin’s husband Todd. But the Republican attorney general appointed by Sarah Palin has since said state employees would refuse to testify unless the full Senate or legislature compel them, threatening to drag on the probe past Election Day. An Alaska Democrat is overseeing the inquiry.

Palin, in an interview with FOX News’ Sean Hannity, said the firing of Walt Monegan in July had “nothing to do” with her former brother-in-law.

She said Monegan was “insubordinate” in some areas and that he “wasn’t willing” to help her in the state’s effort to rein in spending.

“I recognized that it was my responsibility, my obligation to make sure we had the right people in the right places at the right time in the cabinet to best serve Alaskans. So I asked him to transfer into another position. And he chose not to be transferred. So, he left the service,” Palin said. “That’s one issue. It had nothing to do with a former brother-in-law, a state trooper who happened to be married to one of my sisters until about three years ago.”

While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten, he says repeated contacts by the administration made it clear they wanted Wooten gone.


Palin, in her interview with FOX News, continued to criticize Wooten.

“This trooper tasered my nephew,” she said. “It’s all on the record. It’s all there. His threats against the first family, the threat against my dad. All that is in the record. And if the opposition … chooses to forget that side of the story, they’re not doing their job.”

Palin attempted to debunk several rumors about her tenure as mayor of Wasilla and personal history, as she complained about the “opposition researchers” that are reportedly in Alaska looking into Palin’s record. (Barack Obama’s campaign has denied sending any researchers.)

“You know, we know how this works and certainly they’re going to find a few of those who have those ruffled feathers up there and so be it,” Palin said.

But she said she was growing a “thick skin.”

On recent rumors that she wanted to ban books at the Wasilla library and that she supported a group that wants Alaska to secede, she said they were flat-out “false.”

Palin said she also found “appalling” the recent comment from the South Carolina Democratic chairwoman, who said Palin’s chief qualification is that she never had an abortion. The chairwoman has since apologized.

But Palin continued to claim that “I killed the Bridge to Nowhere,” even though the record on the much-criticized Alaska proposal is not so clear cut. Palin turned against the bridge project only after Congress had pulled money for it.

Meanwhile, Palin said her Democratic counterpart, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, is a “great debater,” but she seemed to question the value of his 35 years in Washington.

“Senator Biden has tremendous amount of experience. I think he was first elected when I was like in second grade,” she said. “He’s been in there a long, long, long time. So he’s got the experience. He probably has the sound bites. He has the rhetoric. He knows what’s expected of him. He is a great debater, also. So yes, it’s going to be quite a task in front of me.”

And regarding her criticism of Obama for being a community organizer, she said, “I certainly didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. Didn’t mean to offend any community organizers either.”

She said she was only responding to his criticism of small-town mayors like herself.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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jimpeel said:
For those who missed it, and are gloating over her e-mail account being hacked, this happened two days ago. Everyone was so busy getting the "It's Palin" thread closed that they all missed it.

http://www.adn.com/front/v-printer/story/527346.html
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um, hey, why didn't you share this a couple days ago?

and what does this chatter you've posted mean? she shared some memos and painted this monegan guy as insubordinate? i don't see anything about "releasing ALL emails" jimbo. this says nothing.
 
Monegan signed a public letter of support for a $3.6 million project designed to keep troubled teens off the street in Anchorage — even though the governor had vetoed the project last year and hadn't included money for it in her budget this year

Monegan planned to travel to Washington to seek federal money for a plan to assign troopers, judges and prosecutors who could exclusively handle sexual assault cases — one of the state's most intractable crime problems.

**
The bastard! Fire his ass!
 
wow. maybe it hit too close to home for palin, implying that the state could help "troubled teens," where parents fail.
 
Ya know what gets me the most about the Palin nomination? She's exactly what the hard-core Reps rail against the rest of the time. Working mothers, teen-pregnancy, pre-marital sex... but those same people are providing a shield for "Their Palin".

Can you imagine if it had been Obama's daughter who'd been knocked up?!?
 
:rofl: The Palin Doctrine defined

palin-doctrine.jpg
 
Why would a Tennessee state representative's son's name be tossed around as a suspect:

The story took an unexpected turn Thursday, when Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, confirmed that his son, a student at the University of Tennessee, was the person who was the subject of speculation on blogs on the subject. http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080919/NEWS0206/809190400/1028/SPORTS02
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The last name is Kernell, and the password on Palin's accnt. was changed to "popcorn". :rolleyes:
 
MrBishop said:
Monegan signed a public letter of support for a $3.6 million project designed to keep troubled teens off the street in Anchorage — even though the governor had vetoed the project last year and hadn't included money for it in her budget this year

Monegan planned to travel to Washington to seek federal money for a plan to assign troopers, judges and prosecutors who could exclusively handle sexual assault cases — one of the state's most intractable crime problems.

**
The bastard! Fire his ass!
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Insubordination.

You want those projects, then beat me in an election.
 
MrBishop said:
Ya know what gets me the most about the Palin nomination? She's exactly what the hard-core Reps rail against the rest of the time. Working mothers, teen-pregnancy, pre-marital sex... but those same people are providing a shield for "Their Palin".
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Oh, you mean Obamas mommy.

Working moms is not a stadard bearer for the right. Too bad but hey, it's normal these days.

Teen pregnancy...well, if Sarah was a teen-aged Governor & she was pregnant out of wedlock, we'd have a bitch, huh?

Nobody is providing "a shield". It's not the VP candidate.
 
Show me a family with no skeletons in the closet and I'll show your a family that's just way better at hiding them.
The hypocrisy of both sides is always at it's utmost closest to election.
 
tonksy said:
Show me a family with no skeletons in the closet and I'll show your a family that's just way better at hiding them.
The hypocrisy of both sides is always at it's utmost closest to election.
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:grinyes:

Why do you think my posts here are thinner than usual?
 
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