Sarah Palin has only served slightly more than half of one term as governor of Alaska, but she has piled up more ethics complaints than most multi-term politicians. Some of the complaints have even come from members of her own party. The complaints have ranged from using her office to settle a personal score to using state funds to pay her personal & family expenses (such as charging the state for travel expenses for her children).
Now it looks like she's guilty of a new ethics violation. CNN has obtained a copy of a preliminary report by Personnel Board investigator Thomas Daniel. Daniel is investigating the Alaska Trust Fund, which was created in April by Palin supporter Kristen Cole to pay for Palin's legal fees.
The web site contains a photograph of Palin and calls itself "the official legal fund created to defend the integrity of the Alaska governor's office from an onslaught of political attacks." Cole told the investigator that Palin approved the use of her photo and the "official" designation.
Investigator Daniel wrote, "In light of the evidence that the governor expressly authorized the creation of the trust and the fact the trust Web site quite openly uses the governor's position to solicit donations, there is probably cause to believe that Gov. Palin used, or attempted to use, her official position for personal gain. I can only apply the Ethics Act as currently written. And as currently written, it does not allow a state official to use her position to solicit funds to pay for a private attorney or any other personal expense."
It's hard to believe that any public official wouldn't know it's wrong to use their position to solicit funds for personal expenses. But some do it anyway.
I'm having a hard time deciding whether Palin is just to stupid to know how wrong this looks and is ignorant of Alaskan law, or if she just doesn't care. Is this really the best candidate the Republican right-wing can come up with for 2012?
Yes. The best candidate exhibits the wingers' disregard for the rule of law we have under liberals.
ReplyDeleteBack in September 2008, we saw her wagging her finger that Hillary Clinton, that Hillary should not whine about tough media coverage, she was not doing women any good, she should just plow through it, she should have known what she was getting into and should just try harder and prove herself. “WOW”, I guess she loves measuring others by standards that she does not follow. What a hypocrite, but expected from most political false prophets types. Now we see that she attempted used her official position for personal gain, this is too sweet. Thank you Sarah, great job.
ReplyDeleteStrange bedfellows – Sarah Palin and scientologist John Coale, Greta Van Susteren’s (Fox News) lawyer husband advised Palin to start her legal legal defense fund . Whats up with that?
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