Exhibit 1: The Palin-hating Trig-truther puts together a compendium of "The lies of Sarah Palin," and the first one he lists, the very first one, the one which should be his strongest, turns out to be false. Mr. Sullivan writes:
Interestingly, the link he uses is to his own blog post on the topic. Had he chosen to go outside of his own writing, he might have found this.
The report says Palin failed to reign in her husband's inappropriate efforts to use the governor's office to contact trooper employees in his attempts to have Wooten fired.
"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda ... to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired," Branchflower's report says.
"Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional. It is an individual responsibility imposed by law, and any effort to benefit a personal interest through official action is a violation of that trust. ... The term ‘benefit' is very broadly defined, and includes anything that is to the person's advantage or personal self-interest."
In the second finding, Branchflower says Monegan's refusal to fire Wooten was not the sole reason for his dismissal but that it was a "contributing factor." Still, he said, Palin's firing of Monegan was "a proper and lawful exercise" of the governor's authority.
So there was a finding by a partisan investigator in an ethics complaint lodged to influence a presidential election, and even with that backdrop the finding is of a "proper and lawful exercise" of the governor's authority in the firing of Mr. Monegan.
Still, you could claim that Gov. Palin was still found to have violated the code of ethics, and was found to have placed "impermissable pressure" on subordinates. And you might be right, as of Oct. 10, 2008 when this story was written. But as of Nov. 4, 2008 not so much.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was cleared on Monday of wrongdoing in an abuse-of-power investigation into the firing of the state's public safety commissioner.
The Alaska Personnel Board report, issued on the eve of the U.S. presidential election, ran contrary to findings from a legislative inquiry that concluded in October that Palin had abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper involved in a feud with her family.
Palin, who is Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, brought the issue to the personnel board herself after complaining the legislative probe was a partisan effort led by Democrats.
The board, a three-member panel under Palin's authority, was responsible for determining if she had broken any laws.
The investigation concluded there was no "probable cause" that Palin violated the state's executive ethics act in dismissing Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.
It also cleared her of ethics violations in respect to her dealings regarding Michael Wooten, the trooper involved in a contentious divorce and custody battle with the governor's sister.
This isn't a lie, simply a matter of who Mr. Sullivan chooses to believe. Given his obsession with the origins of her youngest son this take is unsurprising. So why bother to read the rest. You'd think Mr. Sullivan would lead with a winner. You'd be wrong.
Hmmmm. She was exonerated on November 4th ... something else happened on that day, I think. And although the complaints were dismissed as without merit, the damage was done.
