Comments Posted By Bluedog AK
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I live in Alaska, and here's what didn't make sense to me about her speech. Yes, she's been dogged by ethics complaints, some legit and some farfetched. But supposedly almost all of them have been settled, mostly in her favor. So now that she won, she's quitting? The rulings in the complaints settled most of the prevailing questions about whether and how, according to our laws, the governor could campaign for national office, start a PAC & legal defense fund, use state resources and time for campaigning nationally, etc. Some were about her use of emails--a legitimate question to ask of any public official.
So why quit now under the emotional pressure of that, now that's it almost over?
Furthermore, she used the figure of $2 million in state costs fighting ethics complaints. In fact, last week the state office that investigated the complaints finally released their figures, and they said the complaints had cost not quite $300,000. Of that, almost $200,000 was for the complaint Palin filed against herself last year in response to the Legislature's inquiry about Troopergate. She wanted the Personnel Board to investigate it, not the Legislature. (Hence the decision--illegal, as it turned out--to tell all Todd and all of the state employees who were subpoenaed by the legislative inquiry not to respond.)
The Legislature could have chewed her up and spit her out if it had wanted. They had a report that pointed to violations. They did NOTHING about it. Nothing.
So I'm afraid I don't find some of her reasons fully founded. She's entitled to a personal decision to leave a job she didn't enjoy anymore. But I honestly don't think she did it to save the state money and time.
Comment Posted By Bluedog AK On 4.07.2009 @ 12:48
