Palin Drone

I haven't heard that term used yet, but I am sure the nutroots will be trying to belittle Sarah Palin and her supporters, so I thought we should take ownership of the word. YAY is the palindrome I uttered upon learning of her selection. As long as I am suggesting names for supporters of Sarah "Barracuda", I am offering this for the erstwhile Hillary supporters who want to help elect Palin: PUMAs for the 'Cuda. Anyway...

A site that is doing yeoman's work in providing background on Sarah Palin and the fake "scandal" involving her former brother-in-law is Beldar Blog. The trooper in question is a nut job who Tasered his 10-year-old step-son, illegally shot a moose, drank beer while driving his patrol car, has been divorced four times, and threatened to kill Palin's father (leading me to question the judgment of her little sister, but that's not germane to Sarah Palin herself). Of course, the trooper's union had his 10-day suspension reduced to 5 days; that's what unions are for, I suppose. The Anchorage Daily News has a series of articles on this matter. The crux of this issue as it relates to Palin is that a subordinate named Frank Bailey called a trooper lieutenant asking how it is that this guy could still have a job. In the course of the call, he dropped a line that suggested that Palin and her husband were curious as to why the guy hadn't been fired. This was interpreted as pressure from the governor herself to fire the guy, a task which would have fallen to the head of the Alaska Public Safety Department, Walt Monegan. Bailey has said that no one asked him to make the call, and Palin not only denies having authorized the call, but has initiated the investigation herself.

Monegan was offered a different job in the Alaska state government (his spot is a political appointment, and he was appointed to this spot by the previous governor, whose dubious ethics led to Palin's ascension to the governorship), but declined. He sounds like a disgruntled friend of the former governor who is out for a little retribution on behalf of his now-disgraced former political patron.

Suffice it to say, this ain't Watergate. Palin started the investigation so that she could clear the air and remove any taint from her. Good for her. Having served myself in a corrupt political institution, I understand how the good ol' boy back-scratching works, and how trying to change things can bring reprisals and ultimately little but grief. My admiration for Palin stems in part from the fact that she has done what I tried to do, but succeeded politically.

Of course, the left will make this out to be some sort of horrible injustice visited upon some poor hard-working trooper by an authoritarian governor out to punish her sister's ex or something. Beldar has a great line in one of his responses to a comment left at the end of his post: it's clear that the line to support this admitted child-abuser and committer of crimes with a deadly weapon forms at the FAR LEFT. If this is the best they can do...