Earlier this year I received a loose-leaf notebook bulging with documents that detailed the sexual assault coverups and corruption in the Alaska National Guard. I spent a few months compiling information and interviewing as many people as would talk, trying to understgand the players and the broad outlines of a mind-blowing scandal with real victims.

People talked to me even though they were afraid. Terrified, actually. For years those who had spoken up against crime in the guard had had their careers destroyed. Nevertheless, a handful of brave souls tried to sound the alarm -- even going directly the governor to enlist his help. They got nothing but retaliation.

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And so the Alaska National Guard scandal rages on, with Parnell hunkering down and refusing to make public the documents that would prove what he knew, when and what he did or didn’t do. The news media is suing to try to force him to comply with state law. Can he hold them off until after the election? That’s his hope and his prayer.

So if the governor is an outlaw, where is the Alaska Legislature? Legislators are supposed to have an oversight role. Our government has three branches, each of which is supposed to provide checks and balances on the others. Yet the Alaska Legislature appears to be nothing more than a rubber stamp for Parnell.

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