Palin promoted friends and secrecy, targeted critics

[niceypoo]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008178167_palin14.html

Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal. So when there was a vacancy for director of the state Division of Agriculture, she appointed high-school classmate Franci Havemeister to the $95,000-a-year job. The former real-estate agent, one of at least five high-school classmates hired by the governor, cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification.

*snip

But an examination of the charismatic governor's swift rise and record finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls opponents "haters" — contrasts with her public image.

She has pursued vendettas, fired those who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.


*snip

Interviews show Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mails show that staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent public-records subpoenas.

Wow! Cheney II!

[question everything]

1. This is something that Gibson should have asked

Also, role of husband Todd

From the same story (distributed by the NYT):

When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

[question everything]

2. A well deserved kick (nt)