"do reformers stonewall investigations?"

[ProSense]

Reformers?

John McCain and Sarah Palin like to tell crowds that they are going to "shake up" Washington with reforms, but do reformers stonewall investigations?

Gov. Sarah Palin is unlikely to speak with an independent counsel hired by Alaska lawmakers to review the firing of her public safety commissioner, a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday.

"The partisan presidential campaign of McCain/Palin has interfered and is picking partisan targets to smear in order to make this investigation look like something it isn't," said Patti Higgins, chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic Party. "Rather than cooperating with the investigation, the Republican presidential campaign is doing everything it can to stall and smear."

We've seen this movie before and as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Senator Joe Biden, said yesterday, "the sequel is always worse than the original."

DNC: No Reformer -- McCain Put Lobbyists First While Americans Struggle (click the image for the report)

[hobbit709]

1. Only when THEIR ass gets in a sling.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. Breaking on CNN just now

they said that a group of lawmakers who are pro-Palin is suing to have the investigation stopped. It's clearly a move by the McCain campaign to save her candidacy which will go down the drain if the investigation is allowed to proceed and all witnesses made to speak. In my opinion, it just makes her look even worse. Some DUers came up with the clever name of "Stonewall Sarah". I think that name should be stuck to her like glue and the issue of her stonewalling should become the biggest critique of her.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. THANK YOU!!!!

I thought that I was the only that was unable grasp the disconnect that was threatening to make my head explode. I was actually stunned that McSame wanted Palin for his running mate given the fact that she is currently under investigation. Seems to me that he could've found a decent female running mate who is NOT currently under investigation (if they would take the job). At the very least, Palin should be cooperating since she's trying to push herself as some kind of model of reform and government accountability and transparency. I mean, if she has nothing to hide...........

[JuniperLea]

4. So much for transparency, right?

Typical... the mouth spews one thing and the actions go the opposite direction. This is just like the past eight years!

[fugop]

5. Sarah Cheney

Unbelievable. I was thinking (while reading some of the excerpts from that new book on Cheney) that Obama and Biden should totally tie Palin to Cheney in the same way they're tying McCain to Bush. She's somewhat of a puppet, like Bush, but her completely disregard for truth and transparency seems so Cheney-like. And I think even the few people who still like Bush admit (in general) that Cheney is effin' scary. She is turning out to be just as scary and sleazy behind the scenes as Cheney. So tie 'em together!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. Palin has the nerve to propose to investigate herself

She wants the investigation removed to a three-member personnel board that is a part of her administration and that is comprised of Republican appointees. She's claiming Democratic bias in the legislative branch investigaion and yet she isn't offering a neutral body as an alternative to the current investigation (where the deciding vote to proceed was made by a Republican and fellow moose-hunter). These people are always turning the argument on its head; here claiming that it's Democratic bias that is slanting the investigation when it's really Republican bias that is proposing to stop it.

[grantcart]

7. that slippery slope is always a bitch

[Democrafty]

10. isn't it, though? n/t

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Sarah "Stonewall" Palin

She's already on the record with all kinds of excuses about why she fired the guy. She is also on the record as saying she had no idea her sub-ordinates were contacting him about the ex-brother-in-law and denied contacting him herself. Which story was exploded out of the water when he produced her email.

There is already enough in the public record to show that she has clearly lied.

Like I always say, it's only when you have something to cover-up that you cover-up.

[ProSense]

9. Trooper-Gate: Palin's Shifting Stories

Trooper-Gate: Palin's Shifting Stories

By Zachary Roth - September 16, 2008, 3:51PM

There's a moment in a lot of political scandals when the contradictions and inconsistencies in the story being put out by the figure accused become so glaringly obvious that they themselves turn into an important part of the story. We may now have reached that point in Trooper-Gate -- especially as regards Sarah Palin's stated reasons for firing Walt Monegan.

A court filing made yesterday by Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, asserts that Palin fired Monegan as the state's public safety commissioner because of a series of instances of Monegan's insubordination on budget issues, including Monegan working with an Alaska legislator to seek funding for a project Governor Palin had already vetoed. This alleged pattern of "outright insubordination" is said to have culminated in Monegan planning a trip to Washington to go after federal funds for an initiative to fight sexual assault crimes, which had not yet been approved by the governor. (Van Flein's account was in sync with the line taken last night by a McCain campaign spokesman at a press conference in Alaska.)

The issue of Monegan's work on the sexual assault initiative doesn't come completely out of the blue. In a lengthy exploration of Palin's record on combating sexual assault crimes, ABC News reported yesterday that Monegan was the "chief proponent" for an "ambitious, multi-million dollar initiative to seriously tackle sex crimes in the state," and that Palin's office "put the plan on hold in July," just days before Monegan's firing.

But whatever the role of the sexual assault initiative in Monegan's departure from state government, this is by now the third substantive explanation given by Palin for that departure. And, to one degree or another, all those explanations contradict each other.

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