We're not in Kansas anymore. We're in Alaska.
The rise of Gov. Sarah Palin from the City of Wasilla Planning Commission, to City Council, to Mayor, to a high level position in the Frank Murkowski gubernatorial administration, to maverick outsider, to Governor, to Vice Presidential nominee, over the course of fourteen years, is meteoric. The first 20 months of her administration saw her approval ratings in the high 80s. But this summer, in a surprise move, she fired a highly respected chief of public safety. Then, the man Palin appointed to be the new top cop, lasted only a few days, as a sexual harassment charge against him surfaced. And her stated reasons for firing Walt Monegan in the first place, never made any sense.
The fallout from that move is still playing out. In July, the Alaska Legislature hired a well-respected retired prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, to handle the investigation. It was given a low budget, but its slow pace may now be hurried and harried forward. But it is still expected to take months.
Palin's Attorney General, my longtime friend, Talis Colberg, was tasked by Palin to hold his own investigation. So far, that has resulted in the suspension of her boards and commissions director, Frank Bailey, for pressuring at least one state trooper, to act against another trooper, who is Palin's sister's ex-husband. The latter is involved in a child custody dispute with Palin's sister. This is real Hatfield-McCoy stuff.
Having known Palin through most of her political career, I've seen her grow as a politician, and until recently viewed her as a person who could be described as a pragmatist. Over the course of 2008, though, she has made a series of moves that indicate she is as close-minded as most Alaska Republicans.
Resource development issues, particularly ANWR oil, offshore drilling and a series of projected mega-mines and coal-fired power plants are major here. Palin's stance on resource development is totally pro-development. At the same time, she has rejected the earmark paradigm exemplified by the careers of Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young.
Her growing anti-science stance is the most disturbing development, in my eyes. Early this year, she took a position to refuse to release correspondence to a leading Alaska academic and environmentalist, Rick Steiner, between state-employed scientists, regarding the state's support of the Bush administration's decisions on Polar bear status. And as Siun has observed in an earlier firedoglake post, her backing of an anti-science position on a voter initiative, while sitting as governor, may be more than just unethical.
Her decision to fly from Texas back to Alaska after her water had broken this spring has been criticized, but nobody's put it better than Anchorage progressive talk radio personality Shannyn Moore put it today:
http://cliffschecter.firedoglake.com/2008/08/30/sarah-palin-bad-news-for-mccain-good-news-for-alaskas-gop/
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