Palin's shadow hangs over Alaska ethics debate

 

This photo taken Sunday, July, 26, 2009 (AP Photo/Al Grillo) (Al Grillo - AP)

By BECKY BOHRER

The Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska -- The fallout from Sarah Palin's hasty retreat as governor is being cleaned up by the man she appointed attorney general in her waning days in office.

Attorney General Dan Sullivan has proposed broad changes to Alaska's ethics rules that Palin complained helped drive her out. One Sullivan recommendation that might sound familiar: Setting ethical standards for spouses and kids to travel with the governor or lieutenant governor at taxpayer expense.

Another would implement an opinion he issued in August, that the state could pay legal fees executive branch officials rack up fighting ethics complaints, if the official is exonerated by an attorney general, independent investigator or by the state Personnel Board, whose members are appointed by the governor.

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But they do speak directly to complaints raised during her tumultuous two-and-a-half years in office, and are aimed at clearing up gray areas and, according to Sullivan, discouraging abuse.

There is also a sense that some of this is simply cleaning the slate of all Palin's issues.

By the time she was named the Republican vice presidential nominee in the summer of 2008, she'd already rocked the political boat at home. She shunned the capital city, burned bridges with the political establishment and had an at-times prickly relationship with lawmakers - a situation that only worsened when she returned to Juneau for the 2009 legislative session.

Her emergence on the national political scene prompted a flood of public records requests, the volume of which state officials hadn't seen before and are still working to fulfill, and set off a flurry of ethics complaints.

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"You want to make political points against Sarah Palin? Hire a hall," said Rep. Mike Doogan, an Anchorage Democrat and former journalist. "Don't make the state of Alaska your soapbox. ... This is really about what's right here, for anybody who finds themselves in that situation."

Anchorage resident Andree McLeod, who's filed numerous complaints against Palin, believes each had merit.

"This is the only avenue I have to address the misconduct of government officials," she said, adding that lawmakers are "totally out of line" if they believe any of her complaints were politically motivated.

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Comments

[Syrin from Wasilla]

"You want to make political points against Sarah Palin? Hire a hall," said Rep. Mike Doogan, an Anchorage Democrat and former journalist.

 

These are Sarah defenders and enablers..Liberal Democrats

 

[Martha]

Rep. Mike Doogan remarks only aide

[Martha]

Rep. Mike Doogan remarks only aide  the corruption that permeates Alaskan politics.






After all, HE is part of the body of legislators that refused to impeach Palin when THEY found her guilty of abusing the power of her office.







That is THE most egregious offence an elected public official can perpetrate.







What does it take in Alaska to warrant impeachment of the governor?







Would it have to go as far as murdering a baby on the steps of the capitol building at high noon?







There was no consequence whatsoever for Palin abusing the power of her office,


zero, zip, nada......







If she HAD murdered a baby, Doogan and the rest of the legislators that "had no political will to impeach" could still sit on their hands, because the police would look after it for them.







"Her emergence on the national political scene prompted a flood of public records requests, the volume of which state officials hadn't seen before and are still working to fulfill, and set off a flurry of ethics complaints."







Records request were caused by the Legislators failure to impeach, therefore emboldening Palin to push the limits of any and all ethics known to a public official....including but not limited to Todd Palin, an ordinary citizen being allowed to be physically present in meetings legally restricted to citizens AND privy to any and all state business through copious copies of e-mails directly from the governor.







 It has been ad nauseam that there is no need for the delay in releasing the records requested. There is a multitude of software available that could process most of the requests in a 24 hour period.







State and local personal that work across the US have verified this.







At the very least, if we are to believe that these Alaskan personnel are either so inept or overburdened as they portray, the state has NO excuse not hire out the task to outside companies currently in the states employ.







In other words BULL$HIT!!







It is glaringly apparent that  BECKY BOHRER'S  brand of journalism are up to the vacuous standards that makes a Roger Ailes go on national TV to defend.

[Martha]

While ethics is an important issue, "It's not going to be very high on my laundry list of state issues to address," said Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, whose Judiciary Committee would be where any ethics bills might land.

"I think a lot of these issues ... would benefit from the passage of time, and likely are better issues for the (next) Legislature to take up," said Ramras, who often found himself at odds with Palin. He said he wants to focus his limited committee time on anti-crime measures.

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This is simply outrageous........passage of time indeed.......let us ALL forget about the Alaska Fund Trust shall we?

Remember that one, the one that is illegal and Palin was ordered to shut down

Ethics shmethics...who needs em, nope not here in Alaska, where the corrupt bastards club members are dropping like flies!

Thank God the "passage of time" means nothing to the  "feds" 

   

Why oh why should the legislature worry their "pretty little heads" about ethics, when, with "the passage of time" it will become so outrageously corrupt that the FBI will do your job FOR you....why indeed?

I cannot believe the attitude of these legislators!

How is it that their political career is intact?

Their attitude is ever bit as bad as the "journalistic standards" of the woman who wrote this article.

It appears that it could be said of the politics/politicians in Alaska:

.......what/who is not completely corrupt is utterly vacuous!

[Martha]

"You want to make political points against Sarah Palin? Hire a hall," said Rep. Mike Doogan, an Anchorage Democrat and former journalist.

Mike Doogan – Also nominated last year for being a rude pompous blow-hard, he makes the list yet again. After being called out on his bad behavior (calling constituents a “bunch of electrons” and anti-Palin “co-religionists” who sent him “spam”) with a Muddy nomination in 2008, and only coming in 10th (sharing the honor with Fred Dyson), he decided to go for the gusto in 2009.

 

Continuing to use his favorite weapon of choice, the nasty email, Doogan sent a proclamation that he was going to “out” a certain heretofore anonymous blogger (cough cough Mudflats cough cough). 







After an obsessive five month quest, he announced he’d be posting said blogger’s identity in his legislative newsletter, utilizing state resources, bandwidth and email list. And he did.







 An immediate firestorm followed, burying him in thousands of emails that put his own to shame and subjecting him to a smack down from his fellow legislators in Juneau. 







Rumor has it that the ire of another blogger (cough Shannyn Moore cough cough) who happened to be in Juneau at the time resulted in Doogan fleeing down the halls of the capitol building and locking himself in the bathroom to escape the tongue lashing. 






One of only three known politicos to get his image reproduced on tiny paper flags that appeared in piles of frozen dog poo in the state’s capital (see photo), he now is forever known on both sides of the aisle as “Doo Doo Doogan.”

[Syrin from Wasilla]

Thank you, I enjoyed your comments.. You're correct on all accounts!

....There was no consequence whatsoever for Palin abusing the power of her office, zero, zip, nada...... .....This is simply outrageous........passage of time indeed.......let us ALL forget about the Alaska Fund Trust shall we? .......Also nominated last year for being a rude pompous blow-hard, he makes the list yet again. After being called out on his bad behavior (calling constituents a “bunch of electrons” and anti-Palin “co-religionists” he now is forever known on both sides of the aisle as “Doo Doo Doogan.”

[Martha]

I forgot to dedicate my last post to the Mudflats blog......sorry Mudflats......

So Doo Doo Doogan ....lol....is from there.

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/12/30/the-2009-muddies-vote-now/