As if Troopergate and all those gifts Sarah Palin received as governor were not enough to expose Palin's questionable ethics, the AP has uncovered Palin's long history of unethical behavior during her time as mayor of Wasilla. The AP investigation notes that in her role as mayor Palin "took an active role on issues that directly affected and sometimes benefited her." She accepted all kinds of free gifts from local merchants, stepped in to help friends or neighbors with City Hall dealings, and got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception so that she and Todd could sell their home. From the very start of her political career, Sarah Palin clearly saw her public-service position as nothing more than a way to help out herself and her friends and family.
First the small stuff. The AP investigation shows that Palin gladly accepted all kinds of free gifts from local Wasilla merchants seeking to curry her favor -- from a free "awesome facial" she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa to the "absolutely gorgeous flowers" she received from a welding supply store.
More troubling, Palin often used her mayoral office to help out her friends and neighbors:
She asked the City Council to add a friend to the list of speakers at a 2002 meeting — and then the friend got up and asked them to give his radio station advertising business.
That year, records show, she tried to help a neighbor and political contributor fighting City Hall over his small lakeside development. Palin wanted the city to refund some of the man's fees, but the city attorney told the mayor she didn't have the authority.
But most of all, Palin seemed more than willing to use her public office to line the pockets of herself and her family:
Some of her first actions after being elected mayor in 1996 raised possible ethical red flags: She cast the tie-breaking vote to propose a tax exemption on aircraft when her father-in-law owned one and backed the city's repeal of all taxes a year later on planes, snow machines and other personal property. She also asked the council to consider looser rules for snow machine races. Palin and her husband, Todd, a champion racer, co-owned a snow machine store at the time.
But the most troubling ethical lapse during Palin's time as mayor came when she and Todd wanted to sell their home on Lake Wasilla in 2002. Palin had a buyer who was willing to pay $327,000 for her home, but she couldn't close the deal unless she persuaded the city to waive the home's code violations through a variance.
The Palins, who were finishing work on a new waterfront house on Lake Lucille about two miles away, asked the city for the variance. The request was opposed by one planning official and some neighbors.
"I would ask that the Wasilla Planning Commission apply the exact same rules in this situation that it would apply to other similar requests so that our community can see that being a public figure does not give anyone special benefits," urged neighbor Clyde Boyer Jr. in a 2002 note to the city.
The Palins' house was built by the original owner too close to the shoreline and too close to adjacent properties on each side, including a carport that stretched so far over it nearly connected the two houses.
Susan Lee, a code compliance officer with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, recommended that the city reject the request, noting that the exception was needed to resolve an "inconvenience" the Palins experienced while trying to sell their house. and that a previous owner had been denied the same variance request for the carport because it didn't meet required conditions and was a potential fire hazard. But in August 2002, Wasilla planner Tim Krug approved a "shoreline setback exception" for the Palins' house being built too closely to the water.
(Krug) sent an e-mail to the mayor saying he was drafting another variance for the side of the house built too close to the property line, but that he understood from her that the other side "will be corrected and the carport will be removed."
Krug asked Palin to let him know if he was wrong in his impression that the carport would be removed.
A few minutes later, the mayor e-mailed back: "Sounds good."
On Sept. 10, 2002, the seven-member Wasilla Planning Commission unanimously approved a variance for both sides of the property, with language covering "all existing structures." Less than a week later, the Palins signed a deed to sell the house to Henry Nosek.
The carport was never removed.
Lord help us if this woman ever gets her hands on the resources of the federal government. It's clear from Palin's past actions as mayor and governor that she'll gladly continue the Bush/Cheney policy of using the federal budget to line the pockets of friends and cronies, while screwing over everybody else. The more we peel back the Sarah Palin onion, the more it stinks.