ABC: Investigator claims McCain campaign using stall tactics to delay "likely damaging" report.

[Occam Bandage]

'October Surprise' Over Palin Investigation?


Is the McCain campaign afraid of an 'October surprise' involving vice-presidential pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska?

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor," said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired.

In a letter sent on Friday, Gov. Palin's new lawyer, Thomas V. Van Flein, requested a full list of documents, other evidence and witness statements from the Senate's investigation.

Senator French responded "it would be highly unusual for an investigator to share information with one of the targets of the investigation."

French said he still wanted to take testimony from Governor Palin sometime in September about allegations she wanted the public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law following a messy divorce to her sister.

"The Governor first issued a blanket denial but now she's had to back down and that's a problem," said French. "She has a credibility problem," he said. French says the investigation will also seek to learn how the Governor's office obtained confidential information from her ex-brother-in-law's personnel file. "If she was involved, it would be a violation of state law," said French.

The controversy over the firing of public safety commissioner Monegan has been simmering for months in Alaska. Monegan has alleged he was fired because he rebuffed pressure from the Governor and her husband to dismiss her brother-in-law who served as a state trooper.

Palin says that she dismissed Monegan over an honest disagreement over budget priorities.

French says the McCain campaign failed to contact any of the Senators involved in the investigation during the vetting process of Gov. Palin. "If they had done their job they never would have picked her," said French. "Now they may have to deal with an October surprise," he said, referring to the scheduled release Oct. 31 of the committee's final report.

The report is a preliminary step prior to any effort to impeach the Governor, said French. "That will be for the legislature to decide," he said.

McCain campaign officials say they were aware of the "trooper thing" but did not consider it an impediment to her selection as the running mate.

And the hits keep coming!


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5702697&page=1

[jhain]

1. Will they cut her loose

before she officially 'accepts'?

[Spiffarino]

3. If McSame does cut her loose it would be his first good decision

So far he's batting a big fat .000 in executive decision-making. He'd hit a nice even .500 if he dumped her right now.

Thankfully, he's not that quick on his feet. :D:thumbsup:

[Alter Ego]

11. As good a decision as it would be, it would hand Obama the Presidency.

So McCain won't do it.

[Occam Bandage]

18. It would be a great decision. GOPers don't like to flip-flop, though. Goes against their idiom.

[roguevalley]

30. he'd loose the evangelic vote. there is no upside for him here.

[Spiffarino]

36. Yeah, he loses either way.

:nopity:

[Heather MC]

8. Does McCain have the power to bury this?

Like he did his POW records? or is it too public and he doesn't have time?
Are they going to try to buy off people instead?
Who is on the team that's investigating trooper gate? We need to monitor to make sure no one that team mysteriously decides to "commit suicide".

Could it get that serious?

[progressivebydesign]

21. they CAN'T! After taking in millions from the NRA and religious extremists..

that money they keep bragging about that was raised after she was.. ahem.. chosen.. came in from NRA and religious mailing lists... they are going to want to extract millions of pounds of flesh in return for their $$$$. The GOP is in total shambles now, just wait until McCranky dumps Caribou Barbie!! It will be a free-for-all! And Bob Barr will REALLY siphon off the votes. HEll.. sometimes I think that they did this to make SURE that Bob Barr or Ron Paul couldn't siphon off votes.

[populistdriven]

25. intrade says no

[FatDave]

26. It sure doesn;t look like it.

Right wing talking heads are still going to ridiculous lengths to defend her. This is awesome.

[damndude]

37. i'm more concernd with aspects of obstruction of justice and impeding an investigation

[valerief]

2. kick

:kick:

[Unsane]

4. tick tock tick tock.....they gotta decide whether to cut bait here...

[FogerRox]

7. Right, MCCAin crashes another plane in 62 days

Lets not forget to talk about our issues, thats how we win big.

Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.

I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.

Link to Baracks acceptance speech @ the DNC.

[BeyondGeography]

5. She'll be lucky to still be Governor by the end of this

[book_worm]

6. Just resist, Sen. French. You don't have to do what the McCain campaign wants.

Another indication that Palin wasn't vetted.

[RichGirl]

9. It will be the flip flop...

...of all flip flops! They'll never use that term again and curse the day they invented it!!

[medicswife]

10. I'm surprised by how hard ABC is hitting this story.

I haven't seen any other Corporate Controlled Media pushing either troopergate or the AIP story as forcefully.

[Occam Bandage]

12. Me, too. Are they angling to get a debate, or what?

[grantcart]

14. they smell a pulitzer

[WinkyDink]

15. Network competition.

[truthisfreedom]

34. No doubt the powers that be at Disney don't like palin one bit.

It's in their interest for McCain to win, and they see her as an albatross around his tendony, shriveled neck.

[C_U_L8R]

13. The GOP has sent their operatives to Alaska

to bury all they can
and what they can't bury, they will cover with sticky goo
The rightwingers are expert at gumming up the works
and stalling for time.

That said, it appears that too much damning material is already out there.
McCain is barely treading water

[AuntPatsy]

20. Agree the GOP eight were supposed to hide and or destroy what they could

but perhaps too much is already out of their reach....I hope so,

[Ikonoklast]

35. They better be quick about it.

The National Enquirer is there already, spreading money around.

And bullshit walks.

[greyghost]

40. EXACTLY, The Enquirer has sent their A Team, read Edwards Team,

to Alaska to dig the dirt up on everything Palin. This is going to be good.:popcorn:

[BlooInBloo]

16. Then we need an investigation as to whether or not McPOW is abusing his senatorial power.

[yellowcanine]

17. Oct 31 release date? Heh. Of course they will now say that she is too busy campaigning to answer

the questions.

[Colobo]

19. Keep it up, ABC!

[L. Coyote]

22. "If she was involved, it would be a violation of state law," said French.

Keep it up Senator!

[City Lights]

23. I gotta say, I'm totally shocked at the actual reporting coming from abc on this.

:wow:

I hope they keep it up. :thumbsup:

[AuntPatsy]

27. I'm wondering about that too, are the ron paul supporters because they sure are not Obama

supporters as their past has proven..

[Occam Bandage]

24. Kick.

[vanderBeth]

28. Yes!

Go French. I don't think I can wait til Halloween.


:bounce:

[TrogL]

29. Isn't a lot of this information FOIPable?

[Egnever]

31. "She has a credibility problem,"

to say the least

[robertpaulsen]

32. Here is the real damning section of the article.

A team of McCain campaign operatives arrived in Anchorage over the weekend "to help coordinate" her vice-presidential campaign, according to a McCain campaign official.

Help coordinate? As in "vet"?

[truthisfreedom]

33. McCain campaign officials did not consider it an impediment to her selection... because

republicans are above the law.

[gauguin57]

38. This makes me feel better ... I've been depressed all day because I've felt like ...

... the babygate story is drowning out all the corruption, cronyism, fundie-ism and hypocrisy that is Sarah Palin and her administration! Now, especially after reading the comments at the end of the ABC piece, I feel these other scandals are getting some traction. I will be able to sleep tonight after all.

[TheKentuckian]

39. Babygate was just a pressure point and a juicy bit to

get folks digging.

The real stuff broke right behind it.