The very first time I ever heard Sarah Palin’s name floated as a potential VP was on Morning Joe. Andrea Mitchell immediately responded that Palin was the subject of an active abuse of power investigation, so she was out. Everyone seemed to agree with that, and the conversation moved on. Sounded sensible enough to me. But within days she was John McCain’s choice. And now we see: “Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, an investigation by the Alaska Legislature has concluded.”
Palin’s tenure in Alaska filled with pet projects.
Politico reports on Gov. Sarah Palin’s prolific spending while governor of Alaska. “She supports spending taxpayer cash on initiatives that tickle her fancy,” Ken Vogel notes. “During her tenures as both mayor and governor, operating budgets ballooned by 55 percent in Wasilla and 25 percent in Alaska.” Some examples of Palin’s pet projects:
– $25,000 for the Juneau Christian Center, after Palin started worshipping there.
– $2 million for an academic conference meant to dispel the idea that climate change is threatening polar bears.
– $630,000 for a kitchen in a hockey arena complex the self-described hockey mom built during her second term as Wasilla’s mayor.
– At least $10,000 to help fund the snowmobile race Todd Palin has won several times.
Ultimately, Palin took Wasilla’s long-term debt from $1 million when she entered office to $25 million when she left.” “Anything she proposed is a good earmark,” said Bob Weinstein, mayor of Ketchikan, Alaska.
McCain booed when he asks his supporters to ‘respect’ Obama.
During a campaign rally this evening in Lakeville, MN, an audience member asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for a “real fight” with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) at next week’s presidential debate. When McCain responded, “We want a fight, but we will be respectful,” the crowd broke out into loud boos. Ana Marie Cox reports, “McCain, visibly angry, stopped them: ‘I want EVERYONE to be respectful, and let’s make sure we are.’” The crowd then applauded. Watch it:
Earlier today, McCain’s spokesperson appeared to defend the recent spate of violent remarks made by McCain supporters at campaign events.
Update
Cox reports this update:
Indeed, he just snatched the microphone out the hands of a woman who began her question with, “I’m scared of Barack Obama… he’s an Arab terrorist…”
“No, no ma’am,” he interrupted. “He’s a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements.”
Troopergate investigation finds Palin ‘abused her power.’
The investigator authorized by the Alaska Legislative Council to examine the “Troopergate” scandal released his report today, and found that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) “abused her power” by pushing State Police Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire her former brother-in-law Mike Wooten:
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 2952.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 2952.110(a) provides
“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”
The investigation also found that Monegan’s refusal to fire Wooten “was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety.”
Update
McCain spokeswoman Meg Stapleton released this statement:
Today’s report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan. The report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country.
Right Wing Rages Against New Voter Registrations: The ‘Purpose’ Of ACORN Is To Commit ‘Voter Fraud’
This week, the New York Times reported that “tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law.” But instead of expressing concern about tens of thousands of potentially disenfranchised citizens, what are conservatives up in arms about? The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which announced that it had registered 1.3 million new voters.
Seizing on a couple of reports of apparently fraudulent voter registrations, conservatives began a chorus of accusations, claiming that the “purpose” of ACORN is to commit “voter fraud.” Watch a compilation:
It’s important to highlight a couple of facts to correct the right-wing rhetoric:
- Fraudulent registration forms do not constitute voter fraud.
Voter fraud only occurs if someone tries to improperly cast a vote. “It’s not voter fraud unless someone shows up at the voting booth on election day and tries to pass himself off as ‘Tony Romo.’ And who would try to do that?” wrote Rep. Jesse Jackson (D-IL). The Brennan Center for Justice noted that “there are no reports that we have discovered of votes actually cast in the names of [false] registrants.”
- In most states, organizations like ACORN are required by law to turn in every registration card they receive.
As the Wall Street Journal reported, “New Mexico law requires Acorn to turn in all applications, no matter how suspicious-looking, within 48 hours. Elections officials do their own quality control on registrations.” In fact, “under most state laws, voter registration organizations are required to turn in all the forms they receive.” Furthermore, ACORN explained in a statement that “for the past 10 months, any time ACORN has identified a potentially fraudulent application, we turn that application into election officials separately and offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual.”
When a department store calls the police to report a shoplifting employee, no one says the department store is guilty of consumer fraud. The same principle applies here. The small number of staffers who have submitted fraudulent forms are violating ACORN’s mission. Anyone caught defrauding should be prosecuted, and ACORN says it is assisting in that effort. ACORN should work harder to catch these employees and ensure that they are held responsible.
After years of enacting policies catering to the wealthy, the right-wing seems to be fearful of millions of new low-income voters casting their ballot in favor of progressive policies.
Cross posted at The Wonk Room.
Update
Raw Story reports that Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) compared ACORN to the KKK. “I believe Acorn has violated more Americans’ civil rights to have their vote counted than any group since the KKK. It’s an outrage,” he said.
Right-Wing Rages Against New Voter Registrations: The ‘Purpose’ Of ACORN Is To Commit ‘Voter Fraud’
This week, the New York Times reported that “tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law.” But instead of expressing concern about tens of thousands of potentially disenfranchised citizens, what are conservatives up in arms about? The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which announced that it had registered 1.3 million new voters.
Seizing on a couple of reports of apparently fraudulent voter registrations, conservatives began a chorus of accusations, claiming that the “purpose” of ACORN is to commit “voter fraud.” Watch a compilation:
It’s important to highlight a couple of facts to correct the right-wing rhetoric:
- Fraudulent registration forms do not constitute voter fraud.
Voter fraud only occurs if someone tries to improperly cast a vote. “It’s not voter fraud unless someone shows up at the voting booth on election day and tries to pass himself off as ‘Tony Romo.’ And who would try to do that?” wrote Rep. Jesse Jackson (D-IL). The Brennan Center for Justice noted that “there are no reports that we have discovered of votes actually cast in the names of [false] registrants.”
- In many states, organizations like ACORN are required by law to turn in every registration card they receive.
As the Wall Street Journal reported, “New Mexico law requires Acorn to turn in all applications, no matter how suspicious-looking, within 48 hours. Elections officials do their own quality control on registrations.” In fact, “under most state laws, voter registration organizations are required to turn in all the forms they receive.” Furthermore, ACORN explained in a statement that “for the past 10 months, any time ACORN has identified a potentially fraudulent application, we turn that application into election officials separately and offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual.”
When a department store calls the police to report a shoplifting employee, no one says the department store is guilty of consumer fraud. The same principle applies here. The small number of staffers who have submitted fraudulent forms are violating ACORN’s mission. Anyone caught defrauding should be prosecuted, and ACORN says it is assisting in that effort. ACORN should work harder to catch these employees and ensure that they are held responsible.
After years of enacting policies catering to the wealthy, the right-wing seems to be fearful of millions of new low-income voters casting their ballot in favor of progressive policies.
Cross posted at ThinkProgress.
Why won’t McCain talk about the stock market drop?
During a conference call with reporters today, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis defended the fact that McCain has yet to talk about yesterday’s major stock market drop, arguing “I don’t know if you really want to turn a campaign into a CNBC news show on the stock market.” On MSNBC, McCain flack Tucker Bounds defended the comment by falsely claiming that McCain had talked about the drop today. MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell corrected Bounds, saying “he didn’t talk specifically about the huge sell off yesterday on Wall Street.” Watch it:
More Fraud
So what about those made-up names on voter registration forms? Well, it’s an inevitable consequence of ACORN paying people based on the number of names they bring in — it creates an incentive for people to pad their lists. But how terrible is this? Josh Marshall explains:
I’ve always had questions about whether this is a good way to do voter registration. And Democratic campaigns usually keep their distance. But here’s the key. This is fraud against ACORN. They end up paying people for more registering people then they eventually signed up. If you register me three times to vote, the registrar will see two new registrations of an already registered person and the ones won’t count. If I successfully register Mickey Mouse to vote, on election day, Mickey Mouse will still be a cartoon character who cannot go to the local voting station and vote. Logically speaking there’s very little way a few phony names on the voting rolls could be used to commit vote fraud. And much more importantly, numerous studies and investigations have shown no evidence of anything more than a handful of isolated casing of actual instances of vote fraud.
Right. To repeat what I wrote before, what’s always missing from these allegations of voter fraud is instances of fraudulent votes being cast. But if conservatives are really concerned about the integrity of the registration process, the thing to do would be to make registration much simpler and easier. With same-day voter registration, for example, there’s little need to mount registration drives at all. Everything just becomes standard get-out-the-vote.
No Sleep ‘Till West Virginia
Sarah Palin going on a bus tour to West Virginia is a puzzling move. Obviously, if West Virginia is in play, then the McCain-Palin ticket is doomed. There’s no point in focusing on the states that are actually close at the moment, you need to focus on the states that would be close if the election were close and then hope that events and your national media strategy can make the election close. And if you are going to play defense in non-battleground states, you may as well go places (Georgia, Kentucky) where you could be lending a hand to a possibly endangered Senate candidate. I’m trying to come up for a theory as to how this represents Palin pre-positioning herself for the 2012 primaries but that doesn’t really add up, either. Maybe she wants to take a bus tour of Iowa? Hint that she loves John McCain but disagrees with him about ethanol?
Media Buffers McCain From His Own Campaign’s Attacks On Obama
Last Saturday, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign announced a new strategy of diversion. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose,” one top aide said.
Since then, the campaign has accused Barack Obama of such things as “palling around with terrorists” — one of many references to former radical William Ayers. As a result, McCain-Palin campaign rallies have become “increasingly hostile” and filled with “rage.” One supporter referred to Obama as a “terrorist,” while another “wore a T-shirt depicting…Obama wearing a devil mask.”
But some in the media just can’t accept that McCain is in any way responsible, suggesting that it is his campaign aides, not McCain himself, that is orchestrating the attacks and that McCain simply has no choice but to play along:
– Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza: McCain has NEVER [emp. in original] been particularly comfortable carrying harshly negative, personal messages in campaigns — always viewing himself as above that sort of lowest common denominator politics. His refusal to bring up Ayers last night is reflective of his distaste for the knife-fight aspects of politics.
– CBS News’s Bob Schieffer: I’d like to think that maybe it’s not McCain himself, but some of those around him.
– Washington Post’s Ben Pershing: Everyone was waiting for McCain to bring up Ayers at the last debate, and he didn’t do it. [...] But McCain is in trouble now and he may just decide to go for broke in the third debate. I think he’d still prefer not to do it himself, but he may not have a choice.
It is true that McCain did not bring up Obama’s ties to Ayers during the last debate but he has on a number of occasions since. “I don’t care about two washed-up old terrorists that are unrepentant about trying to destroy America,” McCain said just yesterday. “But I do care, and Americans should care, about his relationship with him and whether he’s being truthful and candid about it.”
But the media would do a disservice if they separate McCain from his campaign’s actions, as Media Matters’ Jamison Foser has noted:
Beltway journalists — so long in love with John McCain — seem to have trouble accepting this, but John McCain owns his campaign. He’s responsible for it. Its actions are his actions. It is him. You can like it, dislike it, whatever. But it’s his campaign. Journalists and pundits shouldn’t give him credit for leaving the extra-nasty lines to his minions.
