I was doing a little salacious digging (aren't those TUBES fun?) trying to find out more about Gov. Palin and I found this little gem about the scandal in Alaska:
article: Shadow Governor (PDF)
This article instead details the substantial power that Todd Palin exercises within the Governor's office.
But more importantly, Todd's fingerprints on trying to impact personnel decisions appear to go beyond the current scandal revolving around State Trooper Mike Wooten.
Follow me below as we talk about one of Governor Palin's former trusted advisors, John Bitney.
Bitney went to school with Sarah Heath (now Palin) and tells a story about being in the same band class with her and was also part of her campaign for the Governor's office.
But John Bitney made the fatal employment mistake; he got on the bad side of Todd Palin.
Bitney was dating the ex-wife (or soon-to-be) of one of Todd Palin's friends. Todd Palin allegedly then demanded that Bitney be fired. Shortly thereafter Bitney worked out a deal with the Chief of Staff to transfer to another department, OUT OF THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE. [I would, too. But I might try transferring to a different STATE. Alaska is small. Or, I might not want to fish off the company pier.]
The story continues:
On July 3, Bitney was in the process of driving his vehicle back to Juneau when he couldn't get his state issued Blackberry to work. When he arrived in Tok he called his office and was told that his Blackberry had been turned off and that his name had been removed from the state employee directory.
There is a lot of there, there.
Continuing:
His call was then transferred into Tibbles [Chief of Staff] who told him the proposal they talked about was a no deal and the governor ordered him fired immediately. John Bitney was never given a reason why he was fired and never given a chance to make a graceful exit.
Read the article. It goes on with email evidence, and the joyous note that Todd Palin cannot get Executive Privilege.
People, Sarah Palin is toast. This could probably be weathered within just Alaska, but this story WILL break on the national level and then a substitute VP choice will have to be made. And after how they've been treated, I see no way it could be Pawlenty or Romney.
And in the meanwhile I think it will be easy to say that her executive "experience" has her husbands hands all over it.
[EDIT] Removed references to the pregnancy rumors of Gov. Palin's daughter. Appear to be unfounded.
Update [2008-8-29 16:54:4 by polecat]: Thank you all. My first time on the rec list. I want to pursue the TransCanada material some more because I think Big Oil is deeply involved in the Alaskan Government. By being included in the email chain, Todd Palin appears to be in the thick of it, too.
This is like shooting fish in a barrel. Don't they even VET their VP candidates?
Update [2008-8-29 17:11:4 by polecat] Here's a video -- thank you chumley.