Thought that the investigation into the alleged improprieties of the presumptive Republican Vice Presidential nominee wouldn't come back to bite John McCain, that it doesn't matter whether a presidential campaign fully vets its number two pick? Think again. The Washington Post does some great reporting and gets ahold of the man Palin had fired -- allegedly for failing to fire her one-time brother-in-law --who had not previously spoken to the national press.
[Walter] Monegan, 57, a respected former chief of the Anchorage Police Department [who was fired in June as Alaska Public Safety Commissioner], said in an interview with The Washington Post's James V. Grimaldi on Friday that the governor repeatedly brought up the topic of her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, after Monegan became the state's commissioner of public safety in December 2006. Palin's husband, Todd, met with Monegan and presented a dossier of information about Wooten, who was going through a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly. Monegan also said Sarah Palin sent him e-mails on the subject, but Monegan declined to disclose them, saying he planned to give them to a legislative investigator looking into the matter.Palin initially denied that she or anyone in her administration had ever pressured Monegan to fire the trooper, but this summer acknowledged more than a half a dozen contacts over the matter, including one phone call from a Palin administration official to a state police lieutenant. The call was recorded and was released by Palin's office this month. Todd Palin told a television reporter in Alaska that he did meet with Monegan, but said he was just "informing" Monegan about the issue, not exerting pressure.
"She never directly asked me to fire him," Monegan said.
But he said Todd Palin told him Wooten "shouldn't be a trooper. I've tried to explain to him, you can't head hunt like this. What you need to do is back off, because if the trooper does make a mistake, and it is a terminable offense, it can look like political interference.
"I think he's emotionally committed in trying to see that his former brother-in-law is punished."
Many have pointed out that there is an ongoing investigation into Palin's potential abuse of power -- an investigation, by the way, which is expected to culminate in a public report during the first couple of days in November -- and at least from the allegations being made by Monegan, it sounds like there may be some "there" there. As noted in The Post piece quoted above, Palin has already been forced to walk back from some of her earliest denials -- never a great sign in these types of investigations. So while I still believe that the coming verdict in the trial of Ted Stevens could be a major problem for Palin, and thus for John McCain, it looks like it's not the only corruption issue that could hamper the GOP ticket. I guess it is important to run a thorough vet after all...
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