There is a legitimate scandal brewing involving Sarah Palin firing her public safety commissioner in Alaska. She demanded that a state trooper be fired because he was involved in a nasty divorce squabble with her sister.
There is an investigation beginning in Alaska regarding Governor Sarah Palin's firing of the state's public safety commissioner. Why should there be an investigation into something like this? Doesn't a governor have a right to hire or fire whoever they want whenever they want?
This is what happened: Governor Palin wanted her brother-in-law state trooper fired because he was involved in an exceptionally nasty divorce with her sister. She put intensive pressure on the public safety commissioner to have the state trooper fired. The public safety commissioner refused to follow her demands and he was subsequently fired by Governor Palin.
The Nation reports this from John Nichols blog:
''Palin on Monday hired a lawyer to defend her interests as the investigation surrounding the firing of her public safety commissioner explodes into a full-blown political crisis.''
The public safety commissioner's name is Walt Monegan, who was a former Anchorage, Alaska police chief. Thomas V. Van Flein is the name of the lawyer that Palin hired on Monday to represent her.
The Nation reports this bit of tantalizing evidence:
''Monegan says he has emails sent by Palin before she fired him. If Palin fired Alaska's public service commissioner because he refused to dismiss her brother-in-law, she did not merely act inappropriately. She violated the public trust and almost certainly broke the law.''
These are serious charges by Monegan and if proven, this would disqualify her as John McCain's running mate. This investigation has been approved by Alaska's legislature. As for Governor Palin, she would be pressured to resign as Alaska's top elected state official.
From the YouTube audio and video, it sounds like Mike Wooten is a bad dude but the fact or point still remains that Governor Palin has no right to pressure the public services commissioner to fire him. That decision should be made by Monegan or Wooten's immediate superior officer.
