Palin: 'Harsh political climate' hampered Colberg

[spindrifter]

By SEAN COCKERHAM
Anchorage Daily News | [e-mail]

Published: February 10th, 2009 09:07 AM
Last Modified: February 10th, 2009 01:29 PM

JUNEAU -- Attorney General Talis Colberg has resigned in the wake of state legislators blasting his performance during the "Troopergate" investigation.

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Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis said the Legislature isn't to blame for the political climate, instead alluding to fallout from Palin's run for vice president.

"We were not the creators of any harsh political environment. That happened because of other people's personal choices and political ambitions at the national level that politicized things to a degree that I'd never seen in Alaska political history," the Anchorage Democrat said.

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Colberg has been at the center of controversy over his handling of the so-called "Troopergate" investigation. Two weeks ago, he was grilled and sharply criticized by legislators for trying to block legislative subpoenas to state officials during the inquiry into whether Palin abused power in complaints against a state trooper and her dismissal of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The grilling mostly came from Fairbanks Republican Rep. Jay Ramras, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

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http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/685642.html

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Sarah threw Talis under the bus.

Here's the story behind the story:

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2009/02/sen-gary-stevens-and-rep-mike-chenault.html

http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/dear-sarah-letter-from-senate-president-president-gary-stevens/

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/02/10/skullduggery-in-the-alaska-gop-birds-are-singing/




Somebody PLEASE send in the FBI. This is getting out of control.

[spindrifter]

2. As always, Blue, thanks!

[Blue_In_AK]

3. You're welcome.

They're already talking about this "deal" in the Anchorage Daily News comments. Sarah thought she could make this go away, but it's going to come back and bite her in the ass. Perhaps this is one of the reasons she chose to skip the CPAC meeting.


Did you read Gryphen's comment on Shannyn Moore's blog? He suggested that the two of them take Talis out to dinner and get him drunk and see what he has to say. :rofl: Sounds like a plan...

[spindrifter]

4. LOL!

I'd like to see the emails on this!

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Here's an excellent contemporaneous account of the Troopergate scandal.

I don't see the date this first appeared, but it's obviously sometime during the campaign. It's comforting to me that people were/are paying attention...especially lawyers. :evilgrin:

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/tundra-talk/1-talk-of-the-tundra/147-alaska-ags-ill-fated-experiment-with-public-service-in-wake-of-troopergate.html

For Alaskans who have been enjoying the blood sport that Sarah Palin’s weaving and bobbing to avoid accountability in the Troopergate investigation has generated, last week there were two noteworthy new developments.

As America now knows, Troopergate is the local Alaska name for the investigation that the Alaska Legislature (by a unanimous vote of both Republicans and Democrats) directed the Judiciary Committee of the Alaska Senate to initiate to find out whether Sarah and the Palinistas who work for her in the Governor’s Office tried (unsuccessfully as it turned out) to pressure Walt Monegan, the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, to violate civil service laws and the State’s contract with the State Troopers’ union by firing Trooper Mike Wooten, Sarah’s ex-brother-in-law. Alaska Governor Palin welcomed the Troopergate investigation. Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Palin now wants nothing to do with it.

Alaska AG Talis Colberg

To try to weasel out of cooperating, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Palin instructed Talis Colberg, Alaska Governor Palin's attorney general, to have the Alaska Department of Law hire a journeyman Anchorage attorney named Tom Van Flein to try to discredit the Troopergate investigation. For the past two weeks Van Flein’s legal strategy - if you can call it a legal strategy - has been two-pronged. The first prong has been to try to publicly trash the professional reputations of Hollis French, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Steve Branchflower, the attorney the Committee hired to interview witnesses, gather documents, and then piece together the Troopergate story. The second prong has been to try to impede the investigation by encouraging the witnesses Branchflower needs to interview to refuse to cooperate.


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