Friday, September 5, 2008

The Unreported Side of the Trooper Scandal

I'm fairly certain that the Trooper scandal as it's reported doesn't really have legs. Because the story now centers around the fact that ex-bro-in-law Wooten is an idiot of the first degree, Palin comes off as sympathetic. Fer criminy sakes, tha guy thret'nd tha daaaaad. What is a poor girl to do?

Aside from the claim that all complaints against Wooten seem to have originated in the Heath and Palin families and haven't been proven (we've been admonished to stick to the facts, folks. Let's do!) most of us would probably love to punish a pesky ex-relative if we had access to some channel of power.

One unassailable fact is often missing from this story. Monegan was fired, and the reasons given were that Palin wanted to take the department in a new direction. Palin appointed his replacement. His replacement lasted 10 whole days.

Chuck Kopp, the successor, had been accused of sexual harrassment in his previous job as police chief of Kenai, where he had been responsible for a staff of about eight troopers. After the scandal broke, Kopp resigned.

If you think that this story is about Palin's bad judgement in not properly vetting an appointment (a theme?) it is but there's more.

For ten days' work on the taxpayers' dime, Kopp was given a $10,000 severance check. A thousand dollars a day. Monegan, who worked in his capacity since the start of Palin's administration was given nothing. (All things being equal, Monegan could make a claim for $590,000 dollars, given that he worked for Palin for 590 days.)

That's real fiscal responsibility.

Wikipedia

7 comments:

dguzman said...

Wow. And sadly, this stuff will probably never get the attention due to it in the MSM.

This lady is obviously a Texas Cheerleader Mom just waiting to happen. Look out, Levi!

Dean Wormer said...

That stinks more than a rotten Moose burger.

Comrade Kevin said...

We'll see. If it develops legs, it could have a steady drip, drip, drip all the way to Election Day.

chaos4700 said...

If we're going to talk about legs, I'd refer to the legs Palin has to stand on when it comes to fiscal responsibility in general. Which is "none." As Mayor of Wasilla, she secured over 27 million dollars in federal earmarks. However, the long term debt by the time she left the office of may was almost 19 million dollars.

I think you might be right that Troopergate is going to get an overall tepid reaction, unfortunately. But if there's any story that can gain any traction -- especially among conservatives who still have an ounce of decency and logic -- it's the lack of fiscal responsibility aspect.

Matthew Hubbard said...

Good post, Jess. The lack of vetting everyplace means McCain/Palin is four more years of people like Heckuva Job Brownie and Monica Goodling and Ahmed Chalabi.

Anonymous said...

I think you're right, too. I've read a couple of things today that demonstrates that the corporate media finds the story to be a big yawn.

Dr. Zaius said...

Ha! That's rich! I hadn't heard that part yet. :o)