Can He Stop 'Troopergate'?

Why would McCain/Palin want to block an investigation if she were innocent?
It???s that simple- do you think I would vote for a ticket that hedging its bet on the termination of an on going investigation!

The ol??? "Hypocrisy River" is starting to really flow and it seems to be turning more and more red!

With all due respect to the Governor of Alaska, why won;t they let her talk to the press? She has a softball interview with Hannity going on....and completely blew the one with Charlie Gibson. The fact is, this person has been nominated to be the VP of the USA and the press has no access to her. Obama, Biden, and McCain are all out there taking questions and providing responses. 3 out of 4.

And the McCain campaign says they won;t put her out there until she gets some respect? She won;t get respect until she gets out there and answers the questions. I find it amazing that no one has expressed outrage.

I live in Anchorage, Alaska and have followed Troopergate from it's first day.

Please be aware that the Personnel Board, which Palins claims is the only body that has legal jurisdiction, is composed of a 3 member board, and yes, you guessed it, they were all appointed by Palin.

Think they may be a little biased?
After watching Palin acting in a revengful, mean spirited way -- starting as Mayor of Wasilla -- I would surmise the board members, whatever their personal feelings toward Palin's veracity, are scared to death.

They live here. They cannot leave the scene of the "accident" and will have to live with Palin's spiteful behavior as long as she is in any governing office.

Liz Pintchuck, Anchorage, Alaska

This interference by the McCain campaign is an attempt by the republicans to HIDE MORE REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION. PALIN HERSELF WANTED THIS and IT WAS COMMISSIONED by four democrats and EIGHT REPUBLICANS. That is right, EIGHT REPUBLICANS VOTED FOR THIS to go forward.

McCain does NOT want the TRUTH TO COME OUT.

PALINS PAST RECORD ALREADY SHOWS SHE FIRES ANYONE WHO DOES NOT KISS UP TO HER.

WHY WOULD THE TROOPERGATE FIRING BE ANY DIFFERENT?

HAS NOT AMERICA HAD ENOUGH OF REPUBLICAN SECRECY AND CORRUPTION?

In Alabama, Rovian style politics led to criminal charges against our former governor, Don Siegelman, who was sentenced to 7 (I think) years in prison. (Siegelman reappointed a prominent (and crooked) hospital executive to a health care board that he really should have been on anyway, after the same executive contributed to the governor's PAC to try to get a lottery here. It is the kind of relationship that got Bush's campaign donors into ambassadorships, and nobody went to prison.) Siegelman is out on appeal now, and many observers of the situation believe him to have been set up by Republican political operatives from Washington. Karl Rove was subpoenaed in the case and has refused to be deposed, citing executive privilege. These Republicans know how to play hardball and they know how to subvert the legal system if they so choose. They have plenty of experience at it. I think the voters deserve to know everything before the election. Sending the issue to the Personnel Board looks like whitewashing. If the details are covered up, we can only assume Palin has something to hide. I would like to again beg the media to stay on the ball for us. Please make sure we voters have the information we need to make the best decision. It has never in our history been more important.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin???s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the ???old boy???s club??? when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of ???old boys???. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal???loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State???s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla???s Police Chief because he ???intimidated??? her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska???s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it???s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn???t fire her sister???s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked toglobal warming. She campaigned ???as a private citizen??? against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State???s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior???s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she. However, there???s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren???t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn???t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later???to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city. As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today???s surplus, borrow for needs.

She???s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideasor compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren???t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren???t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn???t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job.

In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the ???old boys??? club??? when she dramatically quit, exposing this man???s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the ???bridge to nowhere??? after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects???which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance???but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as ???anti-pork???.

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.

They call her ???Sarah Barracuda??? because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah???s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as ???AGIA??? that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

What follows is an open letter written by a resident of Wasilla, Alaska named Anne Kikenny.

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child???s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she???s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won???t vote for her can???t quit smiling when talking about her because she is a ???babe???.

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months. She is ???pro-life???. She recently gave birth to a Down???s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby. She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn???t take positions; she just ???puts things out there??? and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit. Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin???s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans. Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters. She???s smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents. During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a ???fiscal conservative???. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

Sarah Palin is a fraud. She was pregnant before she got married, her 19 year old son had serious drug problems, her 17 year old unwed daughter is pregnant, she has used her political power to get even with people who disagree with her; yet all she talks about is being a "good Christian." She said she would co-operate with this investigation, now she is blocking the investigation. If she was innocent, there would be no need to hide. She's a hypocrite, AND she is completely unqualified to be VP.

Bush: I share your concern ..................this sounds familiar....Is this the same as "I feel your pain"

Is there something to hide? What has the little Barbie Doll done?

Is there something to hide?? What has the little Barbie Doll done?

....................................What a tragedy it will be if McCain is able to squelch the TrooperGate Investigation. Palin seemed open to any questioning of what was going on in this situation.........until she got mixed up with McCain in August. McCain decided any information at all in an investigation would be not politically good for the McCain Campaign so he is now getting his lawyers to cloister the whole TrooperGate thing......not good for openess in politics for sure!!!!!

Um, yeah. It's not like they didn't know she was being investigated before they picker her...or did they? Did they figure this would just blow over when they discovered this in the vetting process? Wait...vetting? What vetting? Am I the only one who is embarrassed for the US?

Oooooh, wait I have a good one too David in Seattle, how about "Country first" hahahaha
What a laugh! You can see how concerned they are about all of us. Get with the program folks, all they want is elected, they don't give a darn about us. Quit foisting this lying dimwit down our throats, she's bad news!
Let's get this investigation over with and get the truth out there. Who's with me?

Well said David in Seattle!