Sarah Palin's Administration, the Hallmark of Secrecy and Nepotism

[Joanne98]

It seems that Sarah Palin engaged in some nepotism during her term as Wasilla Mayor and governor of Alaska. According to the NY Times, Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

The article stated that when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency. Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages. When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects. People, if she is becomes the Vice President, it will be the same thing. Her husband will be making policy decisions. How hypocritical. They couldn't even control their 17-year old pregnant daughter, whose baby father is allegedly a black guy, though we have not seen that surface.

The article goes on to state that an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image. Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials. Stop to think what type of VP she would be.....

Additionally, it seems as though Sarah Palin has something in common with VP Dick Cheney -- secrecy. The article states that interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records. Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process. When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show. “Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said.

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http://blackpoliticalthought.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palins-administration-hallmark-of.html