Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin and her husband are under subpoena in an investigation regarding the firing of an Alaskan law enforcement official, but refuse to cooperate by simply ignoring the subpoena now that she’s running for Vice President. This is disturbing to put it mildly.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife’s alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.
Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin’s lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday.
In the letter, Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein lists nine objections to the Legislature’s investigation into Gov. Palin. Van Flein also argues the subpoena is “unduly burdensome” because Palin has travel plans that require him to be out of the state. – AP
Again, this is disturbing on a number of levels. What would happen if you or I just “refused” to cooperate with a State investigation or a subpoena?
What’s even more ridiculous is the lame excuse offered by her husband’s lawyer that since he’ll be out of town, the law doesn’t apply to him?
Can you imagine if anyone tried pulling that with a judge on something as simply as a parking ticket, much less an ethics investigation? Should those awaiting trial here in Milwaukee County just go on vacation and use their being out of town as a method to delay any trial?
“Sorry judge, I’ll be out of town so I can’t make your little meeting. Let’s have coffee sometime though.”
This is the kind of flagrant abuse of power that we’ve become accustomed to over the last eight years and it’s ridiculous to see the next potential administration already trotting this kind of stonewalling and “we’re above the law” attitude.
Seriously, ask how this would play if it were anyone else in the Country. He’s a private citizen bound by the same rules that we all are. Then ask why the law should be ignored for Sarah Palin, her husband, and Republicans.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
ANSWER: For the same reason the Clinton adminstration ignored and worked around the law for the 8 years while they were in power. Come on Dan, this type of behavior is rampant in American politics. It’s one of the reasons I don’t want THEM involved in my life anymore than they already are.
To show anger and disdain towards the Republicans on this issue shows again that either you have your donkey glasses on 24/7, or you’re just not paying attention to politics as a whole. Since I know you do pay attention to politics and topics that concern people, I have to presume you’re not willing to look at things that objectively.
But Sean, you don’t answer the question – where’s the outrage? When the Clintons were doing it, as you say they did, it was on talk radio every day for 8 years. And I don’t recall them just ignoring a subpoena. That’s a Bush/Cheney/Rove thing.
And regardless of whether “that’s the way the game is played,” the law is still the law. Really, does Todd Palin just get to give them the finger? Why not me? I can’t even get out of jury duty…
That was just a joke, I’ve never been on jury duty so don’t get all outraged on me – I’d be happy to fulfill my civic duty.
In my opinion, someone in the Bush administration committed treason when they outed Valerie Plame. I guess since it didn’t involve messing around with an intern, it’s not really important to the right. So in comparison to treason, I guess Todd Palin is just running a red light by comparison. But gee, I still get a ticket for that too – D’OH!
What’s the difference between Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney? Lipstick.
Jill,
Where’s the outrage? It’s here, and on every lefty blog and assorted new outlets. The better question is, why, when there was outrage on talk radio everyday, the left kept wanting to slide it under the rug, but NOW it’s an outrage? It’s a joke that in the 90’s it was ok to skirt or circumvent the law, but in 2008 (and previous) it is an “OUTRAGE”. You should recall the ignoring of subpoena’S (plural)…that’s a politicians “thing”.
Secondly, to compare our duties as it relates to the law with politicians, is like comparing those same duties as it relates to athletes and other celebrities….there’s a double standard. Period! It’s not a Republican or Democrat thing, it’s a political thing.
Treason is now the subject?!? If that’s the case, did the Clinton administration commit treason when they “allegedly” sold secrets to the Chinese government? Come on, isn’t this “blame Bush for everything” mantra getting a little tired? You do know that the congress and one of the most powerful people in the world (Nancy Pelosi) are Democrats, right? The left talks about change, about making this the UNITED States of America, and all I hear is the same ol’ BS. It’s not only tired, but it goes to show that politics are politics. To say there’s going to be change, with rainbows and harmony when/if Obama gets in, is garbage; and thanks to your comment, my knowledge that in fact nothing will change, is alive and well.
This post is a typical partisan joke.
There is no judge to apologize to and this is not like jury duty or a parking ticket. Good gracious!
This is a legislative subpoena, which can be issued by a committee (and it was), but is not enforceable unless voted on by full legislature. The full legislature in Alaska will meet in January I read. It only took me 25 seconds to find that on Google!
The Attorney General of Alaska told the committee (made of Democrats, led by a man who admittedly want to embarrass John McCain) that the subpoena’s will not be honored.
Yeah boy and Sean,
Yeah, you’re right, it’s all ok. Let’s all do what we want. I’m going to go marry a girl, buy some rugs made with child labor, dump my garbage on my neighbor’s driveway and bounce some checks. Because hope is stupid and nothing will ever change so I might as well just do what I want.
Jill,
Didn’t see anything in either of our posts that indicate that everything is OK. But since we’re being so NON-sarcastic, I guess we should just “trust” that Barack’s going to CHANGE things and we’re going to be loved by all of our allies, and we’re going to have nice, productive dialog with our enemies, and we can revert back to the make love not war “ostrich in the sand” mentality. That’ll restore America back to prominence (assuming the argument that we’re not).
See I can be sarcastic, ineffectual and condesending too. Still doesn’t change the original comments; that to be outraged by one party’s intepretation of the law and not hold their own party to the same standards is hypocritical. I didn’t hear or read too many people on the left holding the Clinton adminstration to those standards so why now show outrage?
@Sean: Todd Palin isn’t a politician. He’s a private citizen so you should find another excuse as to why it’s OK to blow off a subpoena. Only in the current administration does one’s status as a politician make them eligible for a “get out of jail free” card, which is unlawful and immoral in it’s own right, and assuredly not an excuse for just blowing off the law.
@yeah boy: Good to know that the difference in your opinion between a “legislative” subpoena and one issued by a judge is that you can safely ignore the former if your spouse is running for Vice President and the Republican Attorney General of your State says you can.
Thanks for the clarification.
You guys have moved beyond hypocritical and are now in the realm of just plain laughable the more you try to defend this.
Dan,
No more laughable than the left was when the Clinton’s (that’s plural, because the private citizen that Hillary was at the time, was culpable in some nefarious dealings) decided to make the White House their own playground throughout the 90’s. Nice characterization though.
BTW, since I’m being accused of defending this, when not one of my comments indicated that fact, I might as well throw my two cents in. Bottom line is this; in capitals across America we see some serious partisan politics. Unfortunately in this case we see it rearing its ugly head in a presidential campaign – certainly not unheard of. In this instance, we are seeing a pure example of the democratic lead assembly up there in Alaska doing Barack’s dirty work. Ooooo a politician uses their power to get people fired (allegedly) and they HAVE TO get to the bottom of this and RIGHT NOW. What a joke. People need to pluck their heads out of the sand and realize that this stuff goes on both sides of the aisle and move on. To make this an issue reeks of desperation and is tiresome.
Keep trotting out “scandals” by the Palin family and think that your candidate/party is squeaky clean, and we’ll re-evaluate and see who looks “laughable”.
And true to the script, when a conservative has no where else to go, they go to “THE CLINTONS%*!@”
The thing is you guys don’t even have your facts right about how this is a partisan witch hunt.
FACT: The initial probe was approved unanimously by the legislative committee of four Democrats and 10 Republicans.
FACT: The Senate Judiciary Committee which issued the subpoena for 13 people, including Todd Palin, is made up of 2 Democrats and three Republicans. Sen. Charlie Huggins, a Republican, voted with the Democrats to issue the subpoenas.
You and yeah boy are both on the wrong side of those facts, and instead of actually confronting the reality of that, you trot out the lame excuse that this happens all the time and we should just get over it blah blah. And if not, CLINTON!
It kind of hurts your credibility.
Because I bring up a legitimate comparison, it hurts my credibility? What shows a lack of credibility is the CONSTANT bashing of Republicans for behavior that is rampant in local, state, and federal politics across the globe in every party. Show at least some objectivity and credibility will follow.
BTW, I have plenty of “places to go” when it comes to the bad behavior of Democrats, I just chose, for brevity, the Clinton’s. My comments are long enough, I don’t need to run a diatribe the length of War and Peace to prove the Democrats are as dismissive (or more) of the law, as Republicans are.
Sean,
I think the credibility problem might be coming from your (and Yeah Boy’s) argument that “they did it too,” which doesn’t really win debate points. My 3-year-old doesn’t even get away with that one, and neither should anyone else. That includes members of our current administration.
The Clintons did live through an independent counsel investigation and that little impeachment thing. The reality is, this administration has been particularly adept at opacity and stonewalling, usually in the name of 9/11 or just expanding the definition of executive privilege to include anything at all they want to exclude access to. Or they just use RNC e-mail accounts. Or the vice president isn’t part of the executive branch.
So my worry is that now that Palins are continuing that pattern. And not because the Clintons did it, but because Bush and Cheney did. The only thing that changed since this investigation started in April is that people started paying attention to it. That’s all. It didn’t get more partisan, it just got more press. She was for the investigation before she was against it.
She probably would have been better off (and a little more human-seeming) if she had just said “Hey, here’s the deal. I felt this guy was a threat to my sister, and I did something I shouldn’t have done.” That would have been the end of it. I’m actually glad they are going the route of obscurity, because it keeps the issue alive.
And just so you know, the point of my sarcastic post was that it is this kind of acceptance of wrong that could drive people to give up. My point was and still is, just because there is a double standard, does that make it right? If not, let’s stop using it as an excuse.
Jill,
It’s not just “they did it too, so it’s OK for Palin to do it”. My point is the left is so outraged by the Palin’s perceived lack of respect for the law, but so willing to allow their party’s people to skirt the law with little to know “outrage”.
As for your question, “just because there is a double standard, does that make it right?”, I will answer it with another question(s); why is there a double standard, and how do we fix that? Once those questions can be answered the arrows on both sides should stop, until then I have a feeling the “what’s good for the goose…” will go on as usual.