Health Care BS

Well, “troopergate” continues along its predictable and tawdry trajectory. The Obama partisans conducting this ”investigation” have, of course, issued a subpoena for Governor Palin’s husband.

That these hacks intend to drag Todd Palin through the muck is particularly ironic considering that they have shown no interest in questioning the central figure in this “scandal,” Michael Wooten:

The Alaska state trooper at the heart of a legislative investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power said Tuesday he has not been contacted by the man overseeing the inquiry.

Now it looks like state Senator Hollis French, the Democrat supervising the “investigation,” has tampered with the subpoena list of his “independent” investigator, Steven Branchflower.

Listen to this audio, in which Branchflower testifies to a legislative committee that Senator French struck Mike Tibbles, the Governor’s former Chief of Staff, from the subpoena list.

Tibbles allegedly conducted a meeting in which Monegan was discussed, and several committee members found French’s interference very suspicious. One member can be heard making the following observation: 

Something’s fishy here. I mean either Mr. Branchflower conducts his investigation without direction, and now we know he’s been directed on the date and changing what he’s doing and how he’s doing it because of the time pressure he is feeling. And now we’re hearing that people that he’s trying to get information from, there’s direction going on on that, too.

“Fishy” doesn’t begin to describe this sham. It stinks to high heaven. Who knows why French won’t let Tibbles testify, but it could hardly be more obvious that the “investigation” is neither independent nor honest.

[HT Hot Air]

UPDATE I:

Apparently not satisfied with the hatchet job Charlie Gibson did on Palin, ABC has decided to help Walt Monegan pursue his vendetta against the woman who fired him. In an exclusive interview, the disgruntled former underling said:

She’s not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten … And she’s not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me.

Monegan continues to tell this whopper, despite the existence of a tape proving him to be a liar. And ABC, like The Atlantic, has completely lost whatever sense of balance or shame it ever possessed. 

UPDATE II:

Protein Wisdom links to a news story that may explain why Walt Monegan was protecting Wooten. It would appear that the two have a lot in common:

In October 1994, Monegan’s estranged wife, who had moved from Alaska to the Peninsula with the couple’s two daughters after more than 10 years of marriage, sought a temporary restraining order against him - accusing Monegan of threatening to kill her, waving a gun at her and dislocating her shoulder, according to her declaration on file in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

I’m sure the “news” media will be all over this.

UPDATE III:

Riehl World View reports that Steven Branchflower, like everyone else involved this witch hunt, has a conflict of interest:

It turns out that Steve Branchflower, the former Assistant D.A. hired to investigate Palin’s firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, has personal ties to the people he is investigating.

And these “personal ties” are to none other than (you guessed it) Walt Monegan. I don’t see how the Special Asst. Attorney General can allow this travesty to continue.

UPDATE IV:

Governor Palin’s lawyers have released e-mails that explain the actual reason Monegan was sacked:

In a papers filed Monday, the lawyers wrote that Monegan was fired for opposing Palin’s budget priorities.

The details of Monegan’s intransigent and insubordinate behavior are fleshed out by Sister Toldjah.