Politically motivated? What the....

No, Brian...the real reason is NOT because Wooten broke any law. He suspended for the TWO incidents he was accused of. He wasn't accused of these things until the messy divorce, so apparently it was okay with the Palins and the Heaths until then. No, there are NOT double standards. If he broke the law with an offense that was a jailable offense, troopers and apd officers have been and continue to be charged, arrested, tried and fired. Please don't start the whole double standard thing. That's just stupid. My husband is a law enforcement officer and believe me, he doesn't get paid enough to put his life on the line and deal with all the dumbasses out there. Is he above the law? Absolutely not. But how frustrating to deal with all these billy badasses, only to see them get off over and over again because their due process was violated by a technicality....yeah, that's not frustrating at all, is it? Double standards, my ass!

Yes...there is a double standard. When you are a law enforcement officer you are representing the law as an expert of it. To knowingly disregard the law and violate it invokes the law enforcement officers right to uphold the law and the expectation of every day citizens to respect them for it. You are actually discrediting your own profession. Consequently, when the average tax paying, law abiding citizen becomes aware of an officer that intentionally violated the law numerous times, all law enforcement personal are discredited to some degree. The average tax paying, law abiding citizen will expect an officer that intentonally broke the law to suffer no less before the court than the average citizen would. I personally find it abhoring that fellow officers would condone such action and attemp to sway the public opinion with "it's all over with now..to late to do anything else". The actions of trooper Wooten were gross levels of misconduct and disrespect for the law, the law that he had sworn to uphold. How many employees of the State of Alaska could get away with driving and drinking while on duty? It's the Trooper's union that pulled him through that one. I have always held the Alaska State Troopers in high esteem, but that has changed recently when the AST investigative division confirmed other violations of the law by Trooper Wooten. I have never been stopped or had an incident with the Alaska State Troopers, but every time I see one now I think of what Col Grimes published in her findings on the Trooper Wooten investgation. What a true discredit to a department I have always been very proud of. Citizens review boards have help straighten out law enforcement departments in many cities that have had law enforcement departments like this become corrupt. IT's time for one in Alaska or we will continue to see a increasing level of internal corruption within the Alaska State Troopers. One can only surmise why the Troopers would not approve of this. How unbeleiveably disgusting this issue has become.

Why wasn't it reported prior to the divorce? If they thought it was wrong to shoot the moose why did they not report it and instead share the moose meat amongst themselves? Family sticks with family and in this case only as long as you serve that family! He outlived his usefulness. I bet there is a lot more to the story. Really, I do not want to know though. I really would have preferred not to hear about this but the family made this information ripe for picking when they exposed it all in the divorce. They should have just divorced and left it at that. Vindictiveness gets you no where. I will say that it really does show the character of a person though. I have read some blogs from people in Alaska and there are more than a few that do not have anything to lose to Mrs. Palin so were not afraid to speak up about how they felt about her. This display of vindictiveness is a real example of why some would not come forward with any information about her. This was not her first firing. I bet we could learn a lot from a quaint little town called Wasilla with a huge new sports stadium but a terrible sewage system, poor drainage and a 22mil debt when she left. Arrrgghhhh!! Reminds me of the days when my Mom watched Peyton Place!

It is perfectly legit to ask why the infractions of this trooper were not cause to fire him, however, the issue becomes one of changing department policy so "it doesn't happen again." It cannot be retroactive to infractions that were dealt with under the old policy. However, if a trooper violated the new policy and was subject to firing, *then* s/he would get fired. And even if Gov. Palin felt her former BIL's behavior were cause to change policy, she should have pursued only that and only on the most IMPERSONAL terms. The mere fact a relative's name came under discussion at all makes it stink. That's not the correct way to handle this issue and a SMART person who didn't feel they were infallible would know that and not touch the issue with a 200 foot pole. Sadly, it looks like Palin and her staff weren't quite smart enough to understand that. Clearly they felt it was perfectly OK to single out an ex-family member for no other reason than he was . . . an EX-family member. Or are we going to kid ourselves and pretend they'd still would have pursued this had there been no divorce?

Trooper Wooten was disciplined. He was given a five day suspension. Trooper Wooten was dealt with before Commissioner Monegan was appointed. Whether or not you agree with how they meted out the punishment is beside the point. Commissioner Monegan couldn't just fire Wooten for infractions he committed that he'd already been disciplined for. He had been held accountable. What people are overlooking is the time line. That's a very important element of this story. Understand also that the AP story to which you refer was written by a fellow called Steve Quinn. Mr. Quinn has a very friendly (*ahem* read between the lines *ahem*) relationship with one Ivy Frye, one of the governor's right hands, if you will. He never writes anything objective about our governor. If you'll do a search, you'll see that Mr. Quinn and other members of the press do the governor's bidding on a regular basis. Some even become members of her administration. Search this blog for Mr. Quinn's name, as well as Mr. Bill McAllister. You'll see that they're fawning lap dogs. Wes Loy over at ADN is another you should take with a grain of salt.