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Palin's Lawyer Investigates Trooper-Gate Investigator, Accuses of Bias
The latest in Sarah Palin's fight against the Trooper-Gate probe is buried in a story in the AP. Apparently, Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, is going on the offensive with the investigation, beginning his own investigation of the investigator, Stephen Branchflower:
According to internal documents in the attorney general's office, Van Flein requested under Alaska's open records law copies of all documents describing the hiring of Branchflower for the Troopergate probe, plus any "minutes, memos, notes and agendas" related to the investigation and e-mails among state lawmakers on the Legislative Council to Branchflower or French.The attorney general's office said it did not have such documents and directed Van Flein to Alaska's Legislative Council, the panel that approved the Troopergate investigation. Van Flein and Kim Elton, the head of the council, said no such further request was made.
Van Flein told the AP he was looking for any evidence of bias in Branchflower's investigation, and sent two letters to Elton and Branchflower on Tuesday calling the probe "unlawful and unconstitutional" and calling Branchflower "seemingly biased" because of his past friendship with former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, whose firing is at the center of the probe.
Josh
Zachary
Remember when McCain angrily shouted at his wife in front of his friends and called her a "c***"? (Do look it up if you haven't heard. It's just a Google search away.) Well, here's McCain shoving a little old war widow in a wheelchair:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/51660.html
I wonder what we'd be hearing if Obama had behaved in such a manner.
Why, oh why, hasn't this story broken yet? This directly attacks McCain's supposed strength, namely, his honor and his character. Tell me who could think him of good character after reading about this? And it has the virtue of actually being true!
Why all the reticence to bring up damaging information that's true? Why don't they do to McCain what Biden says you ought to do to any lying bully---bloody his nose!
The money quote from the article above:
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Back in Washington, families of POW/MIAs said they have seen McCain's wrath repeatedly. Some families charged that McCain hadn't been aggressive enough about pursuing their lost relatives and has been reluctant to release relevant documents. McCain himself was a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years during the Vietnam War.
In 1992, McCain sparred with Dolores Alfond, the chairwoman of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen and Women, at a Senate hearing. McCain's prosecutor-like questioning of Alfond — available on YouTube — left her in tears.
Four years later, at her group's Washington conference, about 25 members went to a Senate office building, hoping to meet with McCain. As they stood in the hall, McCain and an aide walked by.
Six people present have written statements describing what they saw. According to the accounts, McCain waved his hand to shoo away Jeannette Jenkins, whose cousin was last seen in South Vietnam in 1970, causing her to hit a wall.
As McCain continued walking, Jane Duke Gaylor, the mother of another missing serviceman, approached the senator. Gaylor, in a wheelchair equipped with portable oxygen, stretched her arms toward McCain.
"McCain stopped, glared at her, raised his left arm ready to strike her, composed himself and pushed the wheelchair away from him," according to
Eleanor Apodaca, the sister of an Air Force captain missing since 1967.
McCain's staff wouldn't respond to requests for comment about specific incidents.
September 11, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Charles Gibson: "So, Senator McCain, setting aside this stuff about you cheating on your invalid wife, shamelessly hustling a millionaire heiress who could be your daughter, pushing wheelchair-bound moms of POW's, and generally behaving like the arrogant son-of-an-admiral that you've always been, well, Senator, I think our audience wants to know your answer to this question... tell it to us straight, Senator: How proud are you to be an American, and what's your position on apple pie? I hope I'm being appropriately deferential, y'know."
September 11, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink