I don't blame her. Does not sound like there are any legs to this thing.
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.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/18/palin-suggests-trooper-probe-tainted-by-obsessive-partisanship/
