Thursday, April 23, 2009

Naturally, Palin's Response Is to Call the Latest Ethics Claims "Baseless," And Attack The Complainant.

Well, the Governor's Office has issued a "scathing" press release in an attempt to marginalize not only the complaint, but the complainant too.

The governor's henchmen, Chief of Staff Mike Nizich and Communications Director Bill McAllister, are calling complainant Sondra Tompkins an "unethical publicity-seeker."

The basis of the Nizich and McAllister's whining is that there is a section of the law that requires the complaint, and everything about it, to be kept confidential. Even the disposition of the complaint by the State Personnel Board must remain confidential, unless a court says that in the public interest, it shouldn't.

I've reviewed the statute in question, and think that the Legislature needs to revisit this. I know they wrote the law to protect the accused in situations where there may be a valid reason for confidentiality (but in the case of the accusation of ethical misconduct by the Governor, I can't think of any offhand).

Now, I don't know Ms. Tompkins. But frankly, it occurs to me that stepping forward and filing a complaint that you know will certainly bring the wrath of Caribou Barbie down on you is an act of courage. Tompkins should be commended for her bravery, not called names.

However, we all know that name-calling and character assassination is a pretty standard operating procedure for Sarah Palin. She's engaged in it even when it involves the 19 year old kid who is the father of her grandchild (she even dragged all his relatives into the mix).

That aside, I have but one question for Mr. McAllister:

In the press release, you noted "that the governor left Alaska only twice during the recently completed legislative session -- for a total of just four days, including travel time -- and that during both trips she conducted state government business."

Really.

Explain to me, exactly, Mr. McAllister, what was the state business conducted in Indiana on the Governor's SarahPAC-funded junket?

Was it her speech before the anti-abortion group, or was it the photo op with the support group for people with Down's Syndrome and their families ?

Mentioning Alaska in passing does NOT make her trip "state business."

If that's the case, I have a lot of airplane tickets and hotel stays for which I'd like to be recompensed.

I'll even accept a check from SarahPAC.

6 comments:

EyeOnYou said...

I have one point to mention. Governor Palin did not have a problem with making sure that the ethics violation she filed against her self was made public, so why the different standard now?

Matt Osborne said...

This sort of ethics complaint can be very dangerous for Republican governors. Their SOP for damage control is, by now, very well-established: shoot the messenger, blame the victim, muddy the waters, change the subject, "move on."

teal said...

...sounds like she ses herself as the HERO...but she is NOT A STRONG PERSON at all, just driving the victim thing into the ground...

Maeve said...

I believe that when the ethics act was passed, the intent was that the confidentiality part applied only to state employees who could be privy to information that the general public doesn't have. As you said, Ms. Palin had no problems broadcasting the ethics complaint she filed against herself. I also seem to recall that she was interviewed about the ethics complaint she filed, long ago, against Randy Ruedrich. Of course, by the time she filed that complaint, she was no longer a state employee, having resigned the job as an OGCC Commissioner.

There are a couple of things that really bother me about the Governor's office response to this complaint; the first is trivial, but telling.

The response lacks class and really makes no sense. A professional public official might respond by issuing a press release saying "An ethics complaint was filed against this administration today; it has been forwarded to the Personnel Board for investigation, we are certain that it will prove to be unfounded." None of the people who work in that office are charged with saying whether or not the complaint is baseless; they should, as professionals, keep their opinions to themselves. Certainly none of the professionals who work in that office have any business calling the complaint outrageous, that is simply inflammatory; which brings me to my second problem with the administration’s response:

Basically the administration’s press release is calling for retribution: Mike Nizich is quoted as saying “I hope that the publicity-seekers will face a backlash from Alaskans who have a sense of fair play and proportion.” I’m sure that Mr. Nizich didn’t mean to say that anyone should perform any acts of backlash against Ms. Tompkins, but the use of inflammatory language is a typical Palin ploy to stir up her base, and we all know how ‘stable’ her base is, we saw them during her national campaign and we saw them last week in Indiana.

Anonymous said...

tyetytryty

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