Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.
In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska's bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.
Coghill charged that the senator, Hollis French, had "politicized" the probe by making a number of public comments in recent days, including telling ABC News that Palin had a "credibility problem" and that the investigation into the firing of public safety commissioner Walter Monegan was "likely to be damaging to the administration" and could be an "October surprise." Wrote Coghill: "The investigation appears to be lacking in fairness, neutrality and due process."
The investigation, authorized by the Legislative Council last July, revolves around charges that Palin abused her power by embroiling the governor's office in a bitter family feud involving her ex-brother in law, a state trooper named Mike Wooten. Specifically, the council is investigating whether Palin fired Monegan when he refused to dismiss Wooten (who at the time was involved in an ugly custody battle with Palin's sister) after getting repeated complaints about him from the governor and her husband, Todd Palin. (Among the allegations that were raised against Wooten by Palin's sister: he had Tasered his ten-year-old stepson and shot a moose without a permit.) Palin has denied wrongdoing; Monegan has said he believes his firing was connected to his refusal to fire Wooten.
French, the Democrat overseeing the probe, has hired a special counsel to determine, in effect, whether Palin "used her public office to settle a private score," he recently said. He has also suggested that the probe may turn up evidence that state laws were violated by Palin's aides because they pulled confidential personnel files on the trooper.
But Coghill, who told NEWSWEEK that he has the backing of Republican Speaker of the House John Harris in his effort to remove French, suggested Friday that the investigation into Palin's firing of Monegan should be shut down entirely. "If this has been botched up the way it has, there's a question as to whether it should continue," Coghill told NEWSWEEK.
Now the McCain campaign has inserted itself into this Palin corruption probe as a CYA to stop the investigation of Palin's own corruption. It is corruption piled upon corruption. It is almost a desperation on the McCain campaign's attempt to quash this Palin investigation because the campaign failed to properly vet Palin, failed to discover Palin's own corruption in using the governor's office as a means of destroying her political enemies. What is worst is that not only does the McCain campaign want to quash the Troopergate investigation, but they also want to remove the Democratic state senator Hollis French in charge of this investigation, calling it "politicized." Excuse me, but the McCain campaign "politicized" this Troopergate investigation when they inserted themselves into Troopergate, demanding that the investigation be quashed and that French should be removed from the investigation. The McCain campaign doesn't want the details of Palin's corruption revealed to the American public within the final two months of the campaign, since they fear that this Troopergate scandal will bring down John McCain's presidential ambitions.
The corruption of John McCain and Sarah Palin just stinks.
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