by Kagro X
Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 05:54:47 AM PDT
Well, well, well. Looks like Boss Palin says he won't testify in Troopergate, either:
Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and a key lawmaker said today that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.
Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. McCain-Palin presidential campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan announced today that Todd Palin would not appear, because he no longer believes the Legislature's investigation is legitimate.
Really? Todd no longer thinks it's legitimate? Gee, wow. Wonder how he came to that conclusion?
The McCain campaign dispatched a legal team to Alaska including O'Callaghan, a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York to bolster Palin's local lawyer.
Oh yeah, that's right. Free Top Gun lawyers.
100% pure, unadulterated power play here. Here's Palin's bet, broken down for you:
The penalty for blowing off your subpoena is a contempt charge
Charging a witness with contempt requires a majority vote of at least one house of the state legislature
The legislature is officially out of session until January
Therefore, there can't be any penalty against him until it's too late and the election is over
Pretty sweet, eh?
Now of course, one might wonder why the Alaska Legislative Council, which issued the subpoenas (by virtue of its constitutional power to conduct the state's legislative business while the legislature is out of session) would bother issuing subpoenas it didn't think it had the inherent power to enforce. But then, that's the crux of the Palins' expensive free, imported lawyer's argument. He says they don't. The Alaskans, so far, don't have a fancy enough lawyer to enter a plea of "Do too!"
Wonder what would happen if the Legislative Council began asserting itself? Does the Alaska constitution give them the power to reconvene the legislature?
Section 2.9 - Special Sessions.
Special sessions may be called by the governor or by vote of two-thirds of the legislators. The vote may be conducted by the legislative council or as prescribed by law. At special sessions called by the governor, legislation shall be limited to subjects designated in his proclamation calling the session, to subjects presented by him, and the reconsideration of bills vetoed by him after adjournment of the last regular session. Special sessions are limited to thirty days.
Or what if they held a contempt vote anyway? And issued their own arrest warrants under their inherent authority to enforce their own subpoenas? A subpoena isn't a subpoena if there's no independent power to enforce it. It's inherent in the authority to issue them, which the Legislative Council has by law. Gosh, wouldn't that be interesting for the Alaska State Troopers? (h/t to bmaz at emptywheel's corner of Firedoglake for the tip on the statutes.)
Sure it would end up in court. But it will anyway, since the Palins are already testing a novel legal theory. So why not join them? Let's make it a he said/she said story. Make full use of the Republican-developed "some say" framing. "Some say" the governor and her coterie are absolutely immune from all legislative oversight.
And "some say" Todd Palin is a fugitive from justice.
Works for me!
All we need is some of that Alaskan stick-to-it-iveness we've heard so much about. Get your back up, Legislative Council!
The Legislature does not have the leverage to compel any witness to testify before Nov. 4, said
Wielechowski, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Or... not.
I can't tell Alaskans how to run their state, but they can't be enjoying having it run for them by the McCain campaign.
Either there is an Alaska state legislature that Alaskans have elected to represent them (the republican form of government guaranteed to them by Article IV of the U.S. Constitution) and that legislature has power, or there is not and it doesn't. It's either an equal branch or it isn't.
To allow the subpoenas to be defied and not to act is for legislators to concede that they have no power and are not equal. A question that currently has the U.S. Congress in federal court, begging the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for its right to exist as an independent branch.
Whether Palin wins or loses the Vice Presidency, the Alaska legislature dooms itself by permitting this to continue, even if only until they convene again in January. They've delegated their power in their absence to the Legislative Council as the safeguards of their prerogatives in their absence. They either need to convene to exercise those prerogatives, or allow the Council to act in their stead.
If Palin wins the vice presidency, you can be sure the next governor will be similarly encouraged to defy the state legislature. If she loses it and the legislature has not acted, she goes back to billing Alaskans $60 a day for living at home in Wasilla, and they'll simply live under the same rogue governor instead of a different one with a successful role model.
For their own sake (and perhaps for the sake of the rest of us, too), they must act.
Fortune sides with those who dare, they say.
Right now, the Palins are daring it all. Who's going to give them a fight?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/18/224216/809/779/603329
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