Never Mind Palin, What About Obama & ACORN?
Posted on Saturday, 11 of October , 2008 at 10:50 pm
COMMENTARY
The pundits are in overdrive with the release of a report by an investigator for the Alaska State Legislature that says Alaska Governor Sarah Palin abused her power because she allowed her husband to press for the firing of state trooper Michael Wooten who was involved in a divorce and custody battle with his sister.
But, what about Barack Obama and ACORN?
The bottom line of the 263-page report was that Palin’s “firing of (Public Safety) Commissioner Walt Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads”. The situation involving Palin appears to be little more than a bunch of sour grapes and partisan effort to smear the GOP vice presidential candidate in the weeks before the Nov. 4 election. Voters should be more concerned with developing cancer of voter fraud that has been uncovered in the Democratic ranks and just what role that Barack Obama has in it.
There are already investigations underway in nine states regarding the allegations of fraud in the new-voter registrations collected by ACORN, Obama’s preferred bunch of “community organizers”—-the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. This is how Obama is going to “change” and reform Washington, by buying the election with stuffed ballot boxes?
It’s been reported that in Nevada, state investigators raided ACORN’s Las Vegas headquarters, seizing documents and computer data. The group says it has conducted the most successful voter registration drive in history, signing up 1.3 million voters in 21 states, enough to sway an election.
The people who are supposed to be uncovering voter fraud are instead allegedly perpetuating it. Case in point—-in Ohio, a federal judge has ruled that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, is violating the law by refusing to allow county election boards to verify the identities of ACORN’s newly registered voters.
The New York Post has reported that one 19-year-old in Cuyahoga County admitted that under the auspices of ACORN, he’d registered to vote 72 times and was paid to do so with cash and cigarettes, a felony.
How come Obama isn’t commenting publicly about this attempt by ACORN to stuff the ballot boxes. Let’s not forget that the ACORN’s political action committee has endorsed Obama. ACORN has reportedly filed over three million new voter registrations since 2004—-and that could certainly tilt an election.
If you’re worried that Palin complied with her statutory and constitutional authority and acted legally, consider this:
Obama’s presidential campaign paid an ACORN affiliate $832,000 for voting activities during the primaries.
That Obama is the former Illinois coordinator for ACORN’s voter-registration group, Project Vote and as a practicing attorney, he represented ACORN in a voter registration lawsuit against the State of Illinois.
Let’s not forget that Michelle Obama’s former law firm represents ACORN in an embezzlement case involving the brother of ACORN’s founder.
And you’re bothered because Sarah Palin fired Walter Monegan over a budgetary dispute?
And that Todd Palin was standing up for his sister?
So, the best this Alaskan investigator can come up is that Palin didn’t or couldn’t rein in her husband? The author of the report, Stephen Branchflower concludes that Monegan’s refusal to fire Palin’s brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten from the state police force was “likely a contributing factor” to Monegan’s dismissal, but that Palin has the authority to do so.
Actually, as the attorneys for Todd Palin have pointed out, this report actually is rather meaningless as it holds no weight. It’s like a police officer filing an information against you, claiming that you’re guilty of harassment or some such thing. It means absolutely nothing until a court hears ALL the evidence and rules on it. Appears that the investigator denied the “defense” access to testimony and that there are some constitutional, due process problems with Branchwater’s “investigation”.
The State Personnel Board will also conduct an investigation of the matter and that board has the authority to take action against Palin if they deem it warranted so don’t get your panties in a bunch until that public body finishes its inquiry.
The release of the report appears to be as the McCain-Palin campaign have charged, politically motivated and purposefully timed. As a spokeswoman for McCain’s campaign stated, “the report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: This was a partisan-led inquiry run by ‘supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama”.
Palin has consistently maintained that she didn’t abuse her power and that she fired Monegan in July over budgetary issues. McCain’s campaign has accused Monegan of “multiple acts of insubordination”.
The Governor and her family had accused Wooten of using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson, illegally shooting a moose, drinking on the job and other misconduct.
“If you read the report, you will see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member,” Palin said after the report was released. “You got to read the report.”
http://download1.legis.state.ak.us/DOWNLOAD.pdf In a written statement filed with Branchflower lsat week, Todd Palin denied pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten. “I had hundreds of conversations and communications about Trooper Wooten over the last several years with my family, with friends, with colleagues and with just about everyone I could, including government officials,” his statement said and some said who could blame him for trying to defend and protect his family.
Palins’ attorneys said that Branchflower and the Legislative Council have improperly charged the Governor with an ethics violation, saying that Ethics Act violations can only involve financial motives and financial “potential gain, or the avoidance of a potential loss”. They point out that there is no accusation, no finding and no facts that Palin realized any money or financial gain by replacing Monegan. They say there was no abuse of power by Palin but charge that the Democrat Hollis French who headed the Legislative Council abused their government power by using public money to “pursue a personal vendetta against the governor. Put bluntly, Branchflower completely misapplied the Ethics Act and has instead sought to create a headline to smear the governor,” the lawyers wrote.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/11/response.branchflower.report.pdf 10-11-08
