Fear And Retribution: Palin’s Pattern Of Governance

Fear And Retribution: Palin’s Pattern Of Governance

by Geoffrey Dunn
http://blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=4835

While the national press is apparently giving Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin a free pass regarding the many and varied skeletons in her closet during her short, yet checkered, political career as a small-town mayor and small-state governor, an extensive pattern of administrative misconduct and political grandstanding by Palin is slowly emerging from the small, often insulated communities of the so-called “Last Frontier.”

It does not a pretty picture make.

Ever since she was first elected to her hometown Wasilla city council in 1992, Palin’s political career has been marked by controversy and petty political infighting.

Currently under a state ethics investigation for the firing of Alaska state police chief Walt Monegan—a process in which Palin has clearly lied and attempted an extensive administrative cover-up—Palin has a record of controversial dismissals dating back to her days as mayor of Wasilla and for which she faced a political recall. One of those controversies surrounded the firing of Wasilla police chief Irl Stambaugh.

Reached at a remote cabin in Alaska, Stambaugh, 59, a lifelong police officer with a distinguished 30-year career, described Palin’s administrative style as being based on “fear and retribution. That’s how she operates.”

snip:" When Palin was elected as Wasilla’s mayor in 1996, Stambaugh immediately found himself at odds with the ambitious, often self-aggrandizing Palin. Indeed, Palin, who was photographed carrying a sign declaring “Law Enforcement for McCain” when she was introduced to the nation this past week in Ohio, actually has a lengthy record of opposing law enforcement officials in Alaska.

When the Alaska legislature proposed expanding Alaska’s already liberal laws to include carrying concealed weapons in schools, banks and bars, Stambaugh and several other Alaska police chiefs opposed the legislation. “We were simply applying common sense to the use of guns,” Stambaugh noted. “Even in the Old West, you left your guns at the door. Guns and booze don’t mix.”

But Palin saw the opportunity to placate extremists in the National Rifle Association supporting the expansion into schools, banks and bars, and publicly supported the legislation. When then governor, Tony Knowles, sided with law enforcement officials and vetoed the NRA-sponsored legislation, Palin came to Stambaugh and let him know that she didn’t think it was his right to oppose her on political issues.
Once Palin was elected Mayor of Wasilla, she dropped the hammer on Stambaugh.

While to Stambaugh’s face she told him that he was doing “a wonderful job” and assured the police chief that she “was not going to fire him,” two weeks after the last assurance Stambaugh came into his office and found a letter telling him not to come back the next day.

So, too, did Wasilla Librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, who recoiled against Palin’s attempts at censoring books on the library’s shelves.

She also asked for the resignation of Wasilla’s Public Works Director, John Felton, who was replaced by Palin with her political crony Cindy Roberts, who had no engineering background but had extensive Republican Party connections.

By all accounts, these were professional and dedicated public servants who had simply refused to kowtow to Palin’s extremist right-wing dictates.


snip: "Even Palin’s own mother-in-law, Faye Palin, said that she doesn’t agree with Sarah on anything and that the only reason McCain selected her is because she’s a woman,” Stambaugh noted. “I think that pretty much says it all. I certainly wouldn’t want her to have the nuclear codes to our country’s defense system.” "

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Black Star News political columnist Geoffrey Dunn, Ph. D., is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist; he is the former recipient of both a John L. Senior Fellowship to the Cornell University Graduate School of Government and a National Newspaper Association Award for Investigative Journalism. His most recent film is Calypso Dreams.




link to full article:

http://blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=4835