Born yesterday.
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What's the old saying; I was born but I wasn't born yesterday?
After listening to Governor Palin's press conference on Wednesday, that's how I felt. Somewhere between the constant contradictions and irreconcilable statements, it was hard not to believe that Palin honestly believed that we hadn't been living and breathing the Walt Monegan experience over the last four weeks.
The governor's press conference was scripted pure Palin.
The first thing she did was come out and attempt to defend her constitutional ability to fire an at will commissioner. "I have copies of the constitution article 3 section 25" she told reporters, as if providing a note from her mother to excuse a tardy.
Palin went on to say that it is now apparent to her, that members of her administration had in fact contacted the Troopers about Wooten and that many of those contacts could be perceived as pressure.
I'm sorry perceived?
In one recorded phone call, Palin aide Frank Bailey says he's calling on behalf of Sarah and Todd. Do you really think that a trooper fielding that call could do anything but "perceive" it as pressure? Or the more than two dozen other phone calls that came into DPS from the likes of Todd Palin, Talis Colberg and Mike Tibbles could have been "perceived" as pressure.
Of course they were perceived as pressure. During the press conference Palin continued using her flawed logic by explaining that she found it odd that before today, not one of the DPS officials had brought these conversations to her attention.
Memo to the governor: That's because the DPS officials perceived these conversations were originating from you.
And why shouldn't they perceive these callers where calling on behalf of the governor? After all, the governor's husband, the governor's chief of staff, the governor's right hand man Bailey.
In fact that's why an exasperated Monegan finally told these folks to back off because if he was ever put under subpoena, he'd tell everything.
Even more amazing was both the fact the Palin wants us to believe that somehow she didn't know this was going on and that it took her almost a month after the allegations first surfaced that she finally came clean.
The fact that it took a recorded phone call, on the same day she was to turn over the information they found to the special investigator should explain a lot.
It was then and only then she finally admitted to what many of us have known for a month; that her staff and even her husband was pressuring Monegan. Chances are if it hadn't been for a recorded phone call that clearly shows Bailey pressuring Trooper Rodney Dial, Palin would still be denying any pressure from her administration.
According to Palin, she just heard the recording for the first time on Wednesday. How do you think that conversation went between Palin and Bailey? "Uh yea Frank, do you have any phone calls you want to tell me about?"
And what about last month after Monegan named Bailey as one of the administration officials that pressured him? When Bailey was asked by the press if he ever talked to Monegan about Wooten, he offered up an emphatic no and said he had never talked to Monegan.
However Bailey's recorded phone call tends to show otherwise.
In the call at the 9:23 mark, Bailey tells Dial that Sarah and Todd think Wooten is a bad Trooper and that something needs to be done. However he notes there is disagreement about the threat Wooten poses.
"Mike Tibbles disagrees with me, Audie (Lt. Col. Halloway) probably disagrees with me, Walt does."
So in the phone call Bailey admits that Monegan disagrees that any further action needed to be taken against Wooten.
How does Bailey know that if he didn't talk to Monegan about the subject?
In addition, during the press conference KTUU's Jason Moore asked the governor if she had asked Bailey if he had spoken to ANYONE at DPS about Wooten and Palin said no.
This is why it is so hard to believe that Palin didn't know about these contacts. If you were the governor and all hell broke loose over allegations about pressure being brought on DPS officials and you honestly had no idea about it, wouldn't you sit down with your staff and ask, "Did any of you, at any time, ever contact anybody at the DPS about Wooten?"
But apparently Palin didn't have the presence of mind to question her staff after these serious allegations were raised.
Meanwhile she did have the presence of mind to tell KTUU News on July 18, 2008 that "neither she nor anyone in her administration asked Monegan to fire Trooper Wooten."
But today she stands before Alaskans with an incriminating phone call and says now and only now, she realizes that actions by her staff, unbeknownst to her, could be perceived as pressure?
This ladies and gentlemen brings me to an important point; If you think this phone call is the smoking gun, you ain't seen nothing yet.
The people at DPS are smart and expected this to come to a head. As the story goes, emails and other information exists that will make it incredibly difficult to explain away as an renegade staffer acting without permission.
And what about that renegade Frank Bailey. He supposedly calls a trooper, misrepresenting himself as calling on behalf of the governor and her husband.
"Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, you know: Why on earth, why is this guy still representing the department, he's a horrible recruiting tool. And from their perspective, everybody's protecting him," Bailey tells Trooper Dial in the Feb 29 recorded call.
At the press conference today, Palin stated that Bailey calling the trooper and misrepresenting that he was calling on her and Todd's behalf was unauthorized and just wrong.
So did she fire Bailey for this serious breach of conduct?
No.
That should tell you something right there.
But more importantly, the excuse given for the two dozen calls were passed absurd. All of these calls were supposedly to inquire about the process of keeping troopers in check. How many phone calls does it take until these people understand the process?
Todd Palin spoke to Walt Monegan about the process. Talis Colberg called Walt Monegan at the request of Todd about process. Frank Bailey called DPS officials about the process, Mike Tibbles called Walt Monegan, reportedly numerous times, about the process.
Looking ahead the most interesting testimony will be that of Palin's former Chief of Staff Mike Tibbles who has reportedly told more than one lawmaker that he was growing "increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of times the name Mike Wooten was coming up in the governor's office."
The most alarming part of the press conference was when Palin took off after Trooper Mike Wooten and Walt Monegan.
But then again it wouldn't be a Palin press conference without demonizing someone.
Wooten
Again, for the countless time, Palin brought up the old charges against her former brother in law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten in an attempt to paint him as the bad guy.
Just once I'd like the press to actually call her on this ridiculous habit she has of mentioning the dangers of Wooten without taking some damn responsibility herself.
He tased his step son? Well if it was that serious why did your sister wait until they were going through a messy divorce to report it, instead of immediately after it happened?
He illegally shot a moose? Well if it was that serious why did your sister wait two years until they were going through a messy divorce to report it? And isn't true governor that your father actually butchered the moose in his garage and then you and your family actually ate the moose meat that you knew came from this illegally shot moose?
And excuse me governor, is it true you kicked your daughters friend out of your car and refused to give her a ride home to Wasilla from the Sullivan arena late one night after the state basketball finals, because you found out that her mother was dating your ex-brother in law?
Oh yeah, but we believe you when you say that you had no knowledge of any of your staff stalking Wooten.
Monegan
Palin then defended her firing of Monegan by saying he wasn't doing enough to combat alcohol problems in rural Alaska. Then she turned around and contradicted herself by saying that Monegan was offered a job where his skills could be better used; in charge of fighting bootlegging and alcohol problems in rural Alaska.
She also defended her firing of Monegan by saying he was asking for too much money. However last session, after the governor's original proposed DPS budget was cut $900,000 by lawmakers, she nor her staff said a word while Monegan was begging for the administration to fight for the original amount they requested due to skyrocketing fuel prices and increasing costs. He wasn't asking for more, he was asking for the original amount proposed by Palin.
And we won't talk about the report detailing escalating crime levels (30,000 calls for service in the Mat-Su Borough last year) throughout the state that Monegan provided to Palin. The same report that hasn't been released because Palin said it would make her look bad.
But all of these excuses by Palin are nothing more than just a smokescreen by a governor who is quite comfortable lying to the public.
Just listen to the phone call between Frank Bailey and Trooper Rodney Dial.
In the recorded phone call, Bailey talks about Palin's feelings toward Monegan; “She (Palin) really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue she feels like it’s, she doesn’t know why there’s absolutely no action for a year … it’s very troubling to her and the family. I can definitely relay that.”
So according to Bailey, the governor "really" liked Monegan's performance, but just not his performance in responsding to her wishes to see Wooten out of a job. This was on February 29...and then four months later Monegan is out of a job?
Sorry governor, I was born, just not born yesterday.
Bring on Branchflower.
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