Palin Watch II: Secrets and Lies

In the Sarah Palin Archives of Deception, “Troopergate” is front and center.

By Mary Beth Crain

Sarah Palin has so much in common with George W. Bush that one could argue that she’s certainly ready to be Commander-in-Chief. That kind of Commander-in-Chief, anyway.

She loves huntin’ and fishin’ and all them good ol’ boy sports. She’s a God fearin’ Christian who believes we are on a holy mission in Iraq. She’s against stem cell research, abortion and sex ed in the schools. The only book she reads is the Good Book. She knows zero about foreign policy and probably thinks Qatar is a sinus problem and the Far East is Connecticut. She scorns liberals, extols reactionaries, and brags that she’s no elite, effete intellectual but, on the contrary, is just like you and me.

And she believes, with her whole heart and soul, that she’s above the law.

Time and again, the Bush White House has come under scrutiny for corruption, and time and again it’s thumbed its nose at judicial protocol, refusing to answer to subpoenas, lying through its teeth, and doing everything short of a military coup to suppress the truth. And the most remarkable thing of all is that they’ve gotten away with it. While Bill Clinton faced impeachment for nothing worse than covering up sexual dilly-dallying on company time, George W. Bush, who, many argue, should have been impeached for any number of offenses that compromised our country’s security, not the least of which was sheltering the Bin Laden family during the 9/11 horror show and siding with the oil-rich enemy throughout his administration, has somehow been immune to the usual rules of crime and punishment.

And now we have Ms. Palin, following in Bush’s loping footsteps, refusing to comply with the Alaska State Legislature’s request for cooperation in the probe investigating her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. This flaunting of justice is all the more egregious given Palin’s assurance—before she became the Vice-Presidential nominee—that she would happily cooperate with any investigation, and that her goal as Governor was to have an out-in-the-open, totally above-board administration, unlike those lying Washington SOBs. “Hold me accountable,” was her brave and forthright challenge.

Welcome to reality. As Alaskans look on in shocked disbelief, their “maverick” Governor has, in the last couple of weeks, gone against everything she supposedly stood for, with the staunch backing of her loyal party. Calling the probe a “shameless partisan move” and a “witch hunt” engineered by vengeful Democrats, McCain and Co. have not only announced Palin’s refusal to cooperate with what is clearly an enemy plot—they’ve hired big ass lawyer Edward O’Callaghan to go to Alaska and shut everything down.

Ironically, the result of the McCain-Palin path of most resistance could well be the opposite of what they’ve intended. Instead of the bleating populace coming to poor little Sarah’s defense, most Americans are beginning to smell a rat. If the Governor has nothing to hide, why go into hiding? If she’s really innocent, and really willing to be held accountable, wouldn’t cooperating with the investigation be the smart thing—the only thing—to do?

The truth, of course, is that the probe is a bi-partisan effort—the swing voter on the Legislative Council who shooed it in being a Republican from, of all places, Palin’s old stomping ground, Wasilla. But truth to Republicans being in the eye of the suppressor, the investigation is now in the process of being dismantled by the McCain forces. With the clout of O’Callaghan and other key Republican hit men, Alaksa Attorney General Talis Colberg, a Republican appointed by Palin, announced this week that he would refuse to allow ten subpoenaed state employees to testify, despite previous assurances from Colberg’s staff that they would testify “if certain interpretations of state law were agreed upon.” And Todd Palin has refused to comply with a subpoena demanding he testify in the “Troopergate” investigation because he’s too busy working on wifie’s campaign. “Because his spouse is her party’s nominee for Vice-President of the United States,” pontificated his attorney, Thomas Van Flein—who, by the way, has been hired at the state’s expense to represent Palin and her office—“his scheduling obligations over the next two months make it virtually impossible for him to prepare for and present the testimony called for in the subpoena at the specified location during that time period.”

Wow. Wouldn’t it be great if every citizen who was subpoenaed could just waltz out of it with the excuse that they’re busy helping their spouse in the family business? Or busy because it’s hunting season, or they’ll be washing their hair that week? The fact that in Alaska, refusing to comply with a subpoena carries a $500 fine and/or imprisonment apparently doesn’t apply to Mr. Sarah Palin.

One person who was having none of it was Alaska State Senator Bill Wielechowski.

“Nobody is above the law,” Wielechowski said. “Just because you’re the husband of someone who’s running for vice-president doesn’t mean that you can flout the law.”

Oh, yeah? It seems it does if you’re Republican, anyway.

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Senior editor Mary Beth Crain's last piece for SoMA was Palin Watch I.

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