Palin's attorney: Investigator 'biased'
Sept 11, 2008
By GENE JOHNSON
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A lawyer for Gov. Sarah Palin is taking another stab at derailing the Legislature's ethics investigation into the firing of her former public safety commissioner, accusing the retired prosecutor who is conducting it of acting unethically himself.
In two letters released Wednesday, Thomas Van Flein called the investigation "unlawful and unconstitutional" and said the man hired to run it, former prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, has a conflict of interest because he's a friend of the fired commissioner. Citing "your seemingly biased conduct of the investigation in recent weeks," he urged Branchflower to stop interviewing witnesses — the second time this month that he's asked Branchflower to stand down.
Branchflower is looking into whether Palin, now John McCain's running mate, canned Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan because Monegan wouldn't fire a state trooper who was involved in a messy divorce from Palin's sister, a probe that has come to be known as "Troopergate."
The investigation has included setting up a secret tip line to "accept and investigate anonymous rumors and complaints outside the scope" of the inquiry, Van Flein alleged. He also said Branchflower has deposed witnesses without proper notice other attorneys...
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Palin's attorney: Investigator 'biased'
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sarah Palin draws Mayor Menino’s fire
Sarah Palin draws Mayor Menino’s fire
Dave Wedge
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday took aim at GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s highly touted National Rifle Association membership, saying it flies in the face of efforts to target urban violence.
Menino said the NRA has blocked attempts by big-city mayors to beef up gun laws. “As a member of the NRA, her position is, ‘The laws are great,’ ” the mayor said. “There’s something wrong with that. We have kids being killed in the streets every day.”
A spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign responded: “Having raised the point, it’s true that while Barack Obama has said he’d back efforts to ban even law-abiding citizens from possessing guns, John McCain believes the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.”
Menino, joining other Bay State Democrats at a Boston fund-raiser for Barack Obama’s running mate Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), predicted the Alaska governor’s star power will fade.
“She’s different, she’s new to the scene, but that will wear off,” the mayor said. “And then it will get down to the issues.”
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Sarah Palin draws Mayor Menino’s fire
Dave Wedge
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday took aim at GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s highly touted National Rifle Association membership, saying it flies in the face of efforts to target urban violence.
Menino said the NRA has blocked attempts by big-city mayors to beef up gun laws. “As a member of the NRA, her position is, ‘The laws are great,’ ” the mayor said. “There’s something wrong with that. We have kids being killed in the streets every day.”
A spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign responded: “Having raised the point, it’s true that while Barack Obama has said he’d back efforts to ban even law-abiding citizens from possessing guns, John McCain believes the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.”
Menino, joining other Bay State Democrats at a Boston fund-raiser for Barack Obama’s running mate Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), predicted the Alaska governor’s star power will fade.
“She’s different, she’s new to the scene, but that will wear off,” the mayor said. “And then it will get down to the issues.”
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Sarah Palin draws Mayor Menino’s fire
Parsing the Palin phenomenon
Parsing the Palin phenomenon
Joni Balter
Seattle Times staff columnist
Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin appears on the cover of "Newsweek" this week, toting a shotgun, in an opus called "Palintology. " She stirs huge...
Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin appears on the cover of "Newsweek" this week, toting a shotgun, in an opus called "Palintology." She stirs huge crowds of conservatives everywhere she and Sen. John McCain go. She, not he, is the talk of the 2008 presidential campaign. And polls show voters are charged up for once about the Republican ticket.
No wonder Barack Obama's supporters are feeling a little verklempt, as in, out of sorts, clenched — OK, rattled.
Everybody expected a post-convention bounce for McCain, similar to one enjoyed by Obama after his knockout convention speech. But a legitimate worry is about female voters, a group Obama needs to win, and which has swung pretty dramatically in recent days from strongly pro-Obama to a narrower lead — if you believe the polls, and in some ways I don't. (The swing is even bigger among white women voters.)
Much of the volatility among female voters stems from the fact that women feel tugged in a lot of different directions. Palin offers the chance to smash the glass ceiling, if smashing the glass ceiling is the most important thing.
Palin is the kind of brash, good-looking, in-your-face candidate who connects with working-class women. She's more like everymoms than Obama. Yes, sure, he was raised by a single mother and grandparents, but in the end, he went to Harvard.
Somehow, an election supposedly about issues has devolved into a campaign about personal narrative, and that is how McCain wants it.
I suspect the Palin effect will fade in the days and weeks ahead. She is one deer-in-the-headlights answer away from scaring the very same people currently embracing her...
Read the rest of the story:
Parsing the Palin phenomenon
Joni Balter
Seattle Times staff columnist
Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin appears on the cover of "Newsweek" this week, toting a shotgun, in an opus called "Palintology. " She stirs huge...
Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin appears on the cover of "Newsweek" this week, toting a shotgun, in an opus called "Palintology." She stirs huge crowds of conservatives everywhere she and Sen. John McCain go. She, not he, is the talk of the 2008 presidential campaign. And polls show voters are charged up for once about the Republican ticket.
No wonder Barack Obama's supporters are feeling a little verklempt, as in, out of sorts, clenched — OK, rattled.
Everybody expected a post-convention bounce for McCain, similar to one enjoyed by Obama after his knockout convention speech. But a legitimate worry is about female voters, a group Obama needs to win, and which has swung pretty dramatically in recent days from strongly pro-Obama to a narrower lead — if you believe the polls, and in some ways I don't. (The swing is even bigger among white women voters.)
Much of the volatility among female voters stems from the fact that women feel tugged in a lot of different directions. Palin offers the chance to smash the glass ceiling, if smashing the glass ceiling is the most important thing.
Palin is the kind of brash, good-looking, in-your-face candidate who connects with working-class women. She's more like everymoms than Obama. Yes, sure, he was raised by a single mother and grandparents, but in the end, he went to Harvard.
Somehow, an election supposedly about issues has devolved into a campaign about personal narrative, and that is how McCain wants it.
I suspect the Palin effect will fade in the days and weeks ahead. She is one deer-in-the-headlights answer away from scaring the very same people currently embracing her...
Read the rest of the story:
Parsing the Palin phenomenon
Palin may seek to quash subpoenas in trooper case
Palin may seek to quash subpoenas in trooper case
Fairness concerns about the investigation are being raised
By Russ Britt, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Officials from Gov. Sarah Palin's law department in Alaska may seek to quash subpoenas that would compel some of the vice presidential nominee's subordinates to testify in the probe involving the firing of a state public safety official.
A letter from the Alaska Attorney General's office says the investigation led by Democratic legislators is raising concerns about fairness, and they may move to block the testimony in the probe of whether Palin, now the running mate for Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, improperly exercised her authority in removing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
State attorneys say Democratic State Sen. Hollis French, who is overseeing the legislative probe, has made several comments alleging the Palin camp may have illegally obtained personnel files regarding a state trooper, Mike Wooten. Wooten was involved in a rancorous divorce with Palin's sister, Molly McCann, and allegedly threatened the father of Palin and McCann. Wooten ended up receiving a suspension.
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Palin may seek to quash subpoenas in trooper case
Fairness concerns about the investigation are being raised
By Russ Britt, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Officials from Gov. Sarah Palin's law department in Alaska may seek to quash subpoenas that would compel some of the vice presidential nominee's subordinates to testify in the probe involving the firing of a state public safety official.
A letter from the Alaska Attorney General's office says the investigation led by Democratic legislators is raising concerns about fairness, and they may move to block the testimony in the probe of whether Palin, now the running mate for Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, improperly exercised her authority in removing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
State attorneys say Democratic State Sen. Hollis French, who is overseeing the legislative probe, has made several comments alleging the Palin camp may have illegally obtained personnel files regarding a state trooper, Mike Wooten. Wooten was involved in a rancorous divorce with Palin's sister, Molly McCann, and allegedly threatened the father of Palin and McCann. Wooten ended up receiving a suspension.
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Palin may seek to quash subpoenas in trooper case
Former GOP senator calls Palin a 'cocky wacko'
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Former Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee has called vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a "cocky wacko" and said her selection as John McCain's running mate has energized supporters of Democrat Barack Obama.
Chafee left the Republican Party last year after losing his bid for re-election and now supports Obama. He told an audience Tuesday at the New America Foundation in Washington that the Alaska governor has revived a "lackluster McCain candidacy."
"They've just thrown this firestorm, this tornado, into the whole presidential election," Chafee said in response to an audience member's question about whether the Obama campaign should worry about Palin's presence in the race.
He said her speech at the Republican National Convention had the unintended effect of energizing Democrats and Obama supporters.
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Former GOP senator calls Palin a 'cocky wacko'
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
FactCheck: Off Base on Sex Ed
FactCheck: Off Base on Sex Ed
FactCheck.org
September 10, 2008
A McCain campaign ad claims Obama's "one accomplishment" was a bill to teach sex ed to kindergarten kids. Don't believe it.
Summary
A McCain-Palin campaign ad claims Obama's "one accomplishment" in the area of education was "legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergarteners." But the claim is simply false, and it dates back to Alan Keyes' failed race against Obama for an open Senate seat in 2004.
Obama, contrary to the ad's insinuation, does not support explicit sex education for kindergarteners. And the bill, which would have allowed only "age appropriate" material and a no-questions-asked opt-out policy for parents, was not his accomplishment to claim in any case, since he was not even a cosponsor – and the bill never left the state Senate.
In addition, the ad quotes unflattering assessments of the Illinois senator's record on education but leaves out sometimes equally harsh criticism directed at McCain in the same forums.
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FactCheck: Off Base on Sex Ed
FactCheck.org
September 10, 2008
A McCain campaign ad claims Obama's "one accomplishment" was a bill to teach sex ed to kindergarten kids. Don't believe it.
Summary
A McCain-Palin campaign ad claims Obama's "one accomplishment" in the area of education was "legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergarteners." But the claim is simply false, and it dates back to Alan Keyes' failed race against Obama for an open Senate seat in 2004.
Obama, contrary to the ad's insinuation, does not support explicit sex education for kindergarteners. And the bill, which would have allowed only "age appropriate" material and a no-questions-asked opt-out policy for parents, was not his accomplishment to claim in any case, since he was not even a cosponsor – and the bill never left the state Senate.
In addition, the ad quotes unflattering assessments of the Illinois senator's record on education but leaves out sometimes equally harsh criticism directed at McCain in the same forums.
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FactCheck: Off Base on Sex Ed
FactCheck: McCain-Palin Distorts Our Finding
McCain-Palin Distorts Our Finding
FactCheck.org
September 10, 2008
Those attacks on Palin that we debunked didn't come from Obama.
Summary
A McCain-Palin ad has FactCheck.org calling Obama's attacks on Palin "completely false" and "misleading." That's what we said, but it wasn't about Obama.
Our article criticized anonymous e-mail falsehoods and bogus claims about Palin posted around the Internet. We have no evidence that any of the claims we found to be false came from the Obama campaign.
The McCain-Palin ad also twists a quote from a Wall Street Journal columnist. He said the Obama camp had sent a team to Alaska to "dig into her record and background." The ad quotes the WSJ as saying the team was sent to "dig dirt."
Update, Sept. 10: Furthermore, the Obama campaign insists that no researchers have been sent to Alaska and that the Journal owes them a correction.
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McCain-Palin Distorts Our Finding
FactCheck.org
September 10, 2008
Those attacks on Palin that we debunked didn't come from Obama.
Summary
A McCain-Palin ad has FactCheck.org calling Obama's attacks on Palin "completely false" and "misleading." That's what we said, but it wasn't about Obama.
Our article criticized anonymous e-mail falsehoods and bogus claims about Palin posted around the Internet. We have no evidence that any of the claims we found to be false came from the Obama campaign.
The McCain-Palin ad also twists a quote from a Wall Street Journal columnist. He said the Obama camp had sent a team to Alaska to "dig into her record and background." The ad quotes the WSJ as saying the team was sent to "dig dirt."
Update, Sept. 10: Furthermore, the Obama campaign insists that no researchers have been sent to Alaska and that the Journal owes them a correction.
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McCain-Palin Distorts Our Finding
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