Flashback Blog: Shadow Governor?

Isn't Todd Palin on payroll of BP? In one of Palin's pre-vp interviews she said he handles their "investments" and properties...Have the Palins released any information about their taxes, investments, holdings? How many houses do they have? Who sponsors his snowmachine racing? Is big oil behind the Palins?

Please, I am sorry but Todd needs to be way in the background, this is nepotism. We do not need anymore Nixon/Cheney/Rove/ Alberto Gonzales type of Gov. hanging out in the brush. If they talk about being transparent Gov. then they should live by it.

if you think this is appropriate, you're crazy. Spouses are NOT elected by the people of the United States.

You jest. Clearly you are a Republican - - Deep in your heart, mind and soul, bringing all your strength to bear.

Get on then! You're a closet conservative anyway fool!!

You already are a Republican

"The governor has every right to consult anyone she wishes to consult, to have advisors of her choosing, to include her closest partner in any deliberations she feels would be useful." Ummmm... no, she doesn't, unless they are on the payroll and have passed all necessary security checks she has no right at all. Otherwise, she has definitively erased the "executive privilege" defense from usability. This is Cheney-esque in it's comedy.

What and where is this law that says the governor doesn't have a right to consult with anyone unless they have passed all security checks and they are on the payroll?

There are very good reasons to exclude a non-state employee from executive matters. Contracts and bids are often confidential. What if private citizen Todd got wind of which company was likely to win a pipeline contract and he bought their stock? Or leaked the inside information to his own employer, an oil company? If it's public information then fine, you can cc Great Aunt Tillie. But if it's something you're likely to claim executive privilege on and you included your extraneous hubby then Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do.

The relevant laws are those regarding executive privilege - if the Governor included someone from the general public, even if they happen to be their spouse, then generally speaking executive privilege is waived. It's not that Todd Palin was there, it is that what was discussed is being kept under wraps under the premise of executive privilege. You can have privilege, or you can include members of the general public in your process, but it is unlikely that you can have both.

Although it was invoked as early as George Washington, the law of executive privilege is very sketchy, and anyone who claims to know under what circumstances it is waived is simply day-dreaming. Just because you remember some story line from Perry Mason or The Practice about attorney-client privilege being waived as to disclosures in the presence of third parties, doesn't mean you know anything about executive privilege. (Or even atty-client privilege, since there are plenty of exceptions to the general rule of waiver.) If you want to take the position that it shows bad judgment for a chief executive to allow a spouse to sit in on official meetings or view government correspondence, fine. You'll be trashing the judgment of Presidents Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Clinton (just off the top of my head) as well as the judgment of Sarah Palin, but that is your choice. Whether that puts her in great company or not, is also a matter of personal opinion. But please, quit pretending you know something that is unknowable under the current state of the law.

E-mail is something anyone in the world can access, with a mind to do so. A far cry from pillow talk between spouses! If the governor were a man and his wife intervened in the situations now coming to light, he would be labled as weak, a wooss. Replace S. Palin with a man in your mind's eye who conducts business as she has done as governor and consider whether you'd be impressed with such a person as your governor, VP and possibly more . . .

Leaving aside the fact that McCain WAS in the military when he was committing adultery and the fact that while 'dude' may have been enabling adultery, he wasn't married; the rules for military members are different in many ways than those of civilians. The fact that a soldier can get 3-10 is TOTALLY IRRELEVANT.

Using your reasoning, McCain should have gone to jail for 3-10 years for federal person in the military for infidelity!!! Wouldn't that make him a felon.

"Firstly, Dude is lucky he only got fired from his job for cheating, esp. as a governement employee. You can end up with 3-10 years federal prison in the military for infidelity!" Please clarify. Was Bitney married at the time that he "was dating the soon to be ex-wife of Todd Palin's good friend"?? If Bitney wasn't married, then *he* was not committing an infidelity, was he? The "soon to be ex-wife" may have been. Unless, of course, the "infidelity" you perceive is Bitney's infidelity to Palin for dating someone who would divorce Palin's friend...

why don't you take a step forward! her life is my business when she is running for office!! what happened to the big business down in la. do you really think jmc wants to let the press near her? we will find out what she is all about. we are getting a good picture now...looks and drilling and lies,lies, lies....

You're crazy if you think this kind of behavior is acceptible. Yes, I agree that spouses run things by each other, but this is entirely too blatant. Don't the Palins know how to be discrete or maybe they're too hillbillie to know better. It appears to me that she can't make single handed decisions so her spouse is informed of all of her decisions. This is all too bizzare. We've had enough drama in this country the last 8 years. This time the stakes are too high and the cost to great for such gamble. Why even embark on this trail(of having Palin as a running mate) with all this drama in her current administration? Can you imagine having a Todd Palin as a First Husband? These people are power strucken and simply a fraud and they don't need to be near the White House. John McCain can play with his livelihood but not mine. I'm hoping things will get better in this country with better leadership. We need a change but not another cowboy force diplomacy individual. This is too far off the charts. We have a choice in this election. Our eyes are wide open. We have to say no to McCain/Palin.

You're crazy if you think this kind of behavior is acceptible. Yes, I agree that spouses run things by each other, but this is entirely too blatant. Don't the Palins know how to be discrete or maybe they're too hillbillie to know better. It appears to me that she can't make single handed decisions so her spouse is informed of all of her decisions. This is all too bizzare. We've had enough drama in this country the last 8 years. This time the stakes are too high and the cost to great for such gamble. Why even embark on this trail(of having Palin as a running mate) with all this drama in her current administration? Can you imagine having a Todd Palin as a First Husband? These people are power strucken and simply a fraud and they don't need to be near the White House. John McCain can play with his livelihood but not mine. I'm hoping things will get better in this country with better leadership. We need a change but not another cowboy force diplomacy individual. This is too far off the charts. We have a choice in this election. Our eyes are wide open. We have to say no to McCain/Palin.

It is completely idiotic to NOT want to know the FACTS about PUBLIC SERVANTS.

You seem to miss the point. As the Governor Palin cannot claim executive privlege if a private citizen with no reason was given information not meant for the public. Once this occurs, the information is no longer privleged and should be shared with whomever requests it. If Palin wanted to share it with her husband, she sure showed poor judgement in the way she went about it. The whole situation is seemy and slimey and makes her look like she's hiding something. What in the heck is her husband doing attending private meetings between the Governor and those in her government? Especially since he works in the public sector. What she's done looks bad and probably is bad since there has been so much done to cover it up. Nobody works this hard to hide something that doesn't need hiding. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck well.....

Executive privelege is a special, limited circumstance where a judge grants the executive branch immunity from subpeona. It is intended to protect national security and the integrity of the executive from subpeona-as-political-weapon, dating back to the possibility that the McCarthy Hearings would lead a witchhunt among White House staffers and administration officials and cripple the Executive Branch. The judge is supposed to overrule the defense if he believes there is substantial chance that wrongdoing exists. Nuisance lawsuits or Congressional witchhunts are not the issue here. *none* of these people have security clearance. None were dealing with CIA briefings. There was a precedent scandal involving Palin specifically. Virtually the entire Alaska Republican Party has been under investigation or indightment recently. And the emails were shared with non-Administration individuals.

Tell us what you would do if you were governor? "Bitney began an affair with a married woman who was a co-worker" Would you let it go on Andrew?? Plz tell. Would you have fired Bitney??? Eddie Burke

Unless John Bitney broke some kind of employment rule, I can't see any grounds for termination. Furthermore, according to emails, the other party did not get fired. So there appears to be a strange double standard in play.

Not sure what the state employment rule is, but I know a Police officer (won't tell u what town, but it rhymes with UNO) who was terminated after it was discovered he had an affair with a married woman> it was part a moral clause. I would tell them both bye-bye. Keep it up fellas I'm lovin' it.

"Not sure what the state employment rule is, but I know a Police officer (won't tell u what town, but it rhymes with UNO) who was terminated after it was discovered he had an affair with a married woman> it was part a moral clause." I believe there's more to *that* story than you are telling (possibly more than you know), including threats against the cuckolded husband... If every "UNO" cop who had an affair were fired, AST would have to take over patrol...

I agree. My friend had to fire an employee that he hired to run his out-of-state offices. He found out that the employee was having an affair with another employee. He promply fired the offending parties with this statement, " If your own spouses and families cannot trust you to be faithful to them, neither can I." This is the thing that bothers me about those who serve in public office; even moreso than other wrongs that they commit. If they are unfaithful to their family, the ones who should be the closest to them, then how can we expect them to "faithfully" serve the public-at-large--people they don't even know???

Since when are employees required to be "faithful" to their employers? What exactly does that mean? That they have sex only with the boss? Or whom the boss deems is ok? I've heard of faithful servants, but employees?

There is no such state policy. Even if there were, Debbie Richter was not Bitney's co-worker. He worked in the Governor's Office in the Capitol Building and she works in the Dept. of Revenue in another office building. This was not a matter of any state policy being breached. This is an incident right out of high school--"You're seeing my ex-girlfriend and me and my gang will get you." The Palins decided to go after Bitney because Scott Richter, Todd's friend and Sarah's ex-boyfriend asked them to. Richter is also a business partner with the Palins in investment property in the Mat-Su Valley. The Palins and Scott Richter would not let it go after John Bitney was hired by Rep. Harris. Richter wanted him fired from his new job and the Palins tried to apply pressure to make this happen. They underestimated Rep. Harris who is tough and honorable--qualities foreign to the Palins. This tawdry affair should sicken Alaskans who care about their State. We elected an individual with no moral compass, no education, no background, no experience, just a blinding need to be the most popular girl in school. "Cute" can only take you so far then the veneer starts to peel.

This is the BEST of the lot ... I have a question for uuzz = if Sarah is so wonderful at pushing back on the Oil/Gas corps what was/is her position(s) when EXXON/MOBIL informed you ALASKANS to go pound salt, we still ain't paying.... ????? Would you folks enlighten this NYS veteran on her response to this refusal... now that's something worth drilling.......