On Friday the Alaska Legislative Council released a report indicating Sarah Palin did, indeed, abuse her powers as Governor of Alaska. Luckily, it was an abuse of power within the legal bounds of her position and she was only “charged” with a violation of an Alaska state ethics clause—specifically, Alaska statute 39.52.110 (a). With that spunky, unflappable optimism of hers, Palin cheerily rejoiced that the investigation had found “no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.” Well, Sarah, I hate to split hairs, but…

The statute in question reads, “The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.” I agree, Alaska statute 39.52.110 (a). I agree. It’s a short little ethics clause, but there are a lot of significant little nuggets. Such as the “personal or financial” bit [italics are mine, obviously] and the “effort to benefit… through official action” [again]. So, hypothetically, if a governor were to attempt to have a state trooper fired by sending the First Gentleman in to pressure a newly-hired Public-Safety Commissioner to re-review a case that had been settled and closed, that would be a questionably unethical move. If, though—hypothetically, again, of course—that state trooper in question also happened to be the governor’s sister’s ex-husband, it’s easy to see how using the governor’s office’s resources to attempt to reopen a settled investigation with no new evidence—aside from gubernatorial credentials—could be construed as starting to drift into Alaska statute 39.52.110 (a) territory. No pun intended.

“There was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired. In fact, remember, Officer Wooten is still an Alaska state trooper, which is up to the commissioner and the personnel top brass in the Department of Public Safety that decides who is worthy of a badge and carryin’ a gun in the state of Alaska. If they think that Trooper Wooten is worthy of that, that’s their decision. I don’t micromanage my commissioners and ask them to hire or fire anyone. And thankfully the truth was revealed there in that report that showed there was no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.” *

Let’s just parse this one out a bit, yeah? Her first claim, that “there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired” becomes pretty irrelevant when half a second later she claims that she doesn’t “micromanage [her] commissioners and ask them to hire or fire anyone.” So she’d never ask her commissioner to fire a trooper (but she might have her husband do it for her… hey oh!), but even if she did, it wouldn’t be an abuse of power. But she didn’t. But it’s okay if she did. But she didn’t. So it’s okay. Phew. Second, she seems to think that because she didn’t succeed in getting the scumbag fired (I’ll get into that later) that there’s no real harm done. Not that I would wish it otherwise, but it wasn’t for lack of trying that she and her husband weren’t able to seal the deal in ousting Wooten. Lastly, the investigation wasn’t trying to determine if attempting to fire Wooten was unethical, it was trying to determine if actually firing Public Safety Commissioner Monegan was unethical. Monegan was just hired as the new Public Safety Commissioner when Todd requested a meeting and asked him to reopen the charges against Trooper Wooten. Sarah has kept pretty mum about Monegan throughout the whole ordeal and seems to miss the point. Maybe she should read the report.

[*I copied that quote from the New York Times, and I love that whoever transcribed it felt the need to drop the ‘g’ from “carrying a gun.” I mean, even for the New York Times, that’s a little more snark than strictly necessary.]

On to the report.

There are a couple of things I’d like to point out. There was a long list of people in her office who were served with subpoenas that refused to appear—including Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd. Sarah herself was not served with a subpoena “out of deference to her position,” but was requested to issue a sworn statement. A request which she declined. There is really no good excuse for that.

This whole mess began in the summer of 2005, when Sarah Palin’s father (FATHER), Chuck Heath, issued a complaint against a state trooper. Sarah Palin’s sister, Molly McCann, happened to be married to that trooper—Michael Wooten. “Some of the information that resulted in the totality of allegations came from a private investigator hired by Sarah Palin’s husband Todd and Sarah Palin.” State personnel actions are confidential by law, so once the allegations were made, the state employees of the department in question—Public Safety—were prohibited from disclosing the results of the investigation to those that had filed the complaints, namely the Palins. In the months following the complaint, the trooper who was in charge of the investigation, Colonel Grimes, received numerous emails and phone calls from Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, and Chuck Heath, all inquiring about the status of the investigation and reiterating their concern that not enough attention was being paid to the complaints.

Let me pause here and just say that Michael Wooten seems like a giant douche-bag. According to this report, he shot moose illegally and tasered his 11-year-old stepson (Sarah’s nephew). Not a classy guy. Nevertheless, it was not ethical for the Palins to grill Colonel Grimes for information about the investigation before Sarah Palin became governor and it was definitely not ethical for them to approach Public Safety Commissioner Monegan after Palin became governor and after the case had been closed. The Palins had no more right to hear about or influence the results of the investigation than any other guy on the street (Joe Six Pack, if you will). The fact that they used their resources as Governor and First Gentleman even to pursue the investigation was already a breach of ethics; whether or not Monegan’s refusal to reopen the case contributed to his termination is almost irrelevant. As the report says, and with which I wholeheartedly agree: “She knowingly…permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office and the resources of the Governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 32.59.110 (a) of the Ethics Act.” The report goes on to state that the mere inaction Palin exhibited by letting Todd continue to pester Commissioner Monegan was enough to constitute a violation of the Ethics Act, not to mention the underlying implication that he was doing it for her.

It’s pretty clear to me that what she and her family did was unethical at best. It’s unfortunate that Wooten still has his job as a state trooper (still carryin’ a gun), but that doesn’t justify Palin’s poor judgment or manipulative behavior.

Or her bangs.