As with many political issues of the day, I think that most have already passed judgment on Palin's troopergate ordeal (Clinton's travelgate incident immediately comes to mind, but that's another story). Palin supporters will cry foul and detractors will triumphantly hold up the panel's finding of an ethics violation as vindication of the mistrust they've felt all along for this "she-maverick." In the end, it probably won't do much more than reaffirm what everyone already believes, but the real question regarding the abuse of power may well prove to be found within the motivations of the prosecutors involved in this case.

For those who may not know the details, the controversy involves the reassignment of Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan and Palin's alleged ethical misconduct towards that end. It's claimed that Monegan was released (offered a new position) because he refused to fire a state trooper, and ex-Palin brother in law, Mike Wooten.

This all started in 2005, more than a year before Palin became governor. Palin and her family had filed a formal complaint against trooper Wooten after a domestic incident in which Wooten said he'd make Palin's father "eat a f***in lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for a divorce.

Palin's sister, Molly McCann, wrote in an April 11 petition to the court that Wooten had threatened her father, driven drunk a number of times, and had told her to "put a leash on your sister and family or I'm going to bring them down." Wooten also tasered his 10-year-old stepson, shot a moose without a permit, and had a number of citations within the department.

In March of '06, Trooper Wooten was suspended for five days after an investigation. Colonel Julia Grimes, head of the Alaska State Troopers, had recommended a 10-day suspension, but after union objections, the sentence was reduced to five days. Palin is not yet governor at this time.

In July of 2008, 18 months after becoming governor, Palin reassigns (fires) Walt Monegan, citing disagreements over budget cuts for the state troopers, sagging department morale and bootlegging enforcement issues. In addition, Palin cites the following incidents:

December, 2007: Monegan holds a press conference with Hollis French to push his own budget plan.

January, 2008: Palin's staffers have to rework their procedures to keep Monegan from bypassing normal channels for budget requests.

February, 2008: Monegan publicly releases a letter he wrote to Palin supporting a project she vetoed.

June 26, 2008: Monegan bypassed the governor's office entirely and contacted Alaska's Congressional delegation to gain funding for a project.

The simple truth is that Palin could have dismissed Monegan at any time -- for any reason. As a political employee, Monegan served at the pleasure of the governor, so that's it, end of story (or at least it should be).

So what's all the hullabaloo? Abuse of power allegations first surfaced in former lawmaker Andrew Halcro's blog just days after the "reassignment malfunction" -- Halcro was defeated by Palin in 2006 and wrote the following:

Walt Monegan got fired because he had the audacity to tell Governor Palin no, when apparently nobody is allowed to say no to Governor Palin. But more alarming than any budget battle, Monegan said no to firing a state trooper who had divorced Governor Palin's sister because the guy was being maliciously hounded by Palin's family.

In August, the Alaska Legislature began an investigation to determine if Palin dismissed Monegan because of his refusal to fire Wooten. The probe appears to have very distinct political motivations.

Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News:

For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff. What they said directly was more along the lines of `this isn't a person that we would want to be representing our state troopers.'

Democratic legislator Hollis French was in charge of the investigation and made a series of statements as early as Sept. 2nd saying the investigation is "likely to be damaging to the governor's administration." French also asserted that Palin has "a credibility problem," and that the McCain campaign would have to deal with an October surprise. He's also on record as saying that "if the McCain team had done their job, they never would have picked her."

Hollis French has been actively campaigning for Obama as has fellow Democrat, Senator Kim Elton, chair of the Alaska Legislative Council. Leading the probe was retired prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, who worked with Monegan's police department for years; his wife served under Monegan as a detective in Anchorage. Interesting to note that there's a photo of the lead investigators at Obama's headquarters in Alaska.

After French's public statements, Palin opted not to cooperate with the investigation and brought her own complaint before the state personnel board. On September 16th, the Liberty Legal Institute filed a lawsuit, alleging that the Alaska Legislative Council inquiry was in violation of the law because it was being used to further a political agenda.

Kelly Shackelford of Liberty Legal Institute argued:

Those people have [made] contributions to Obama. They have made public statements pro-Obama and anti-Palin. They have made public statements prejudging the case before there's any evidence in.

They have conflicts of interest with those in charge because of past and current relationships. So this is clearly an unconstitutional ... political witch hunt which violates the very terms of their constitution.

Counsel in the suit, Kevin Clarkson stated:

The partisan actions of Senator French, Senator Elton and Branchflower have tainted the investigation beyond the appearance of impartiality required under the Alaska Constitution.

The suit was rejected, the investigation continued and we arrive at last Friday's 263 page conclusion as reported in the NY Times:

Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, an investigation by the Alaska Legislature has concluded. The inquiry found, however, that she was within her right to dismiss her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who was the trooper's boss.

According to a Detroit News article:

Gov. Palin's firing of Commissioner Walt Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

It (the report) cites the Alaska Constitution, which says "the Governor may discharge department heads without cause" and that department heads "serve at the pleasure of the governor."

In light of this constitutional and statutory authority, it is clear that Gov. Palin could fire Commissioner Walt Monegan at will, for almost any reason, or no reason at all.

Moments after the report was released, the Obama campaign sent an email to reporters with the subject line, "Palin unlawfully abused her authority." The email referenced an AP story and contained no other comments.

A McCain spokeswoman said at a news conference on Friday,

Mr. Branchflower's abuse of power finding was the result of an "overreach" by the investigator who went beyond "the intent of the original" inquiry.

The report showed that the investigation was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior.

Concerning Todd Palin's involvement, for what it's worth, the head of the governor's security detail, Special Agent Bob Cockrell had ordered Todd to speak with Walt Monegan about trooper Wooten.

Cockrell states:

When made aware of the security concerns regarding a state trooper, I instructed the First Gentleman to contact the commissioner of Public Safety. It is standard protocol to ask every governor about any threats they perceive or have realized. I will not hesitate to set the record straight in answering these false allegations by former Commissioner Monegan.

Is this a serious issue worthy of a $100,000 investigation just weeks before the election? Many would say yes. The story certainly serves the Obama campaign and will dominate newspaper headlines and the talking points of Sunday news shows.

"Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired." Okay, I can accept that. Had a trooper under my authority made threats against my family, had open beer in his squad car, tasered my nephew and poached a moose, I might have done the same thing.

Additional links & McCain response:

http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/10/10/08/FINAL_ANALYSIS_OF_MONEGAN_INQUIRY_10-9-08.source.prod_affi liate.7.doc

http://www.johnmccain.com/informing/news/PressReleases/6dddcf08-2376-4716-9c46-c02bffd4e753.htm