Investigator's Report: Palin Violated State Ethics Law
The long-awaited report of retired prosecutor Steve Branchflower, who was hired by the Alaska legislature to investigate alleged misconduct on the part of Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin was issued yesterday. The full report is available here.
http://download2.legis.state.ak.us/DOWNLOAD.pdf
The main conclusion. is that Palin abused her power as governor to settle a personal vendetta and that in doing so broke the Alaska ethics law. The report contains the statement: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act." In theory, she could be impeached and fined for this behavior, but it is doubtful that the Republican-controlled state legislature will sanction her at all.
As we have pointed out many times, be careful what you wish for; you might get it. McCain has long wished for some other news story to drown out the endless stories about the economic turmoil. Finally he got it: the Palin abuse-of-power story is being covered in detail by the Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, USA Today, and just about every other national paper in the country as well as most of the foreign press.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/us/politics/11trooper.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/10/AR2008101003167.html?hpid=topnews
What Happens Next with Palin?
Standard operating procedure when your vice-presidential nominee gets into hot water is prayer--pray this all goes away quickly. But it probably won't and McCain will have to answer questions about his judgment in choosing personnel. If you can't even vet your running mate--arguably the most important decision of the entire campaign--how are you going to vet cabinet appointees, federal judges, and thousands of other people the President appoints? Undoubtedly McCain raged at his de-facto campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, yesterday for pressuring him to choose Palin. McCain is widely believed to have preferred his good friend Sen. Joe Lieberman, but Lieberman is pro-choice and his selection would have widened the gap between McCain and the Republican base into something approximating a large canyon located in McCain's home state.
What next? McCain could dump Palin and pick a new running mate, but then Obama's steady attack that McCain is erratic would resonate strongly with independents and Democrats. Furthermore, who would he pick? The base wouldn't tolerate Lieberman on abortion. They would love Mike Huckabee, but McCain thinks he is loony. Mitt Romney might be a plausible pick given the emphasis on economics, but having a ticket consisting of a guy worth $100 million and a guy worth $200 million when people are losing their houses wouldn't look good. Giuliani can say "9/11" more times per minute than anyone in recorded history but that's not what McCain needs right now. Picking another unknown who hasn't been vetted is not appealing. So he's probably stuck with Palin and has to hope this subsides quickly.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/