Palin: Preparing for ‘Troopergate’

What happened

The Alaska Supreme Court denied a motion to halt the release of an abuse-of-power investigation into Sarah Palin. John McCain campaign officials released their own report clearing her of any wrongdoing. State lawmakers should release their findings Friday into allegations that Palin fired her public safety chief, Walt Monegan, because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten. (AP via Google News)

What the commentators said

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Palin declares herself innocent? said the Alaskan blog Mudflats. “Boy, that was a nail-biter.” But the GOP-dominated Legislative Council won’t release “the results of the real investigation” without a vote, and the legislators are facing “EXTREME pressure” from “very high in the Republican Party” to quash the report.

Well, The New York Times isn’t waiting for the official report, either, said John McCormack in The Weekly Standard online. The paper printed its own “hit piece,” relying on “flimsy” evidence that Palin fired Monegan over Wooten. The official report might be damaging, but the Times piece is pure "journalistic malpractice.”

The “troopergate” story never “made for much of a scandal” in itself, said Jonathan Adler in The Volokh Conspiracy, but like many such cases, “the aggressiveness with which some are trying to shut down” the investigation suggests there’s something to it. With Alaska’s high court clearing the way, “I suppose we’ll see soon enough.”