Palin's Troopergate
we've seen this act before
2008-09-17
By Terry Glover

Once again, Republicans pull the “Get Out Of Jail Free” card to cover up something funky, shades of the Supreme Court involvement in deciding the chad-riddled 2000 election that handed the White House over to George W. Bush. This time, they’re playing that hand a little early to rescue Sarah Palin, pitbull turned damsel in distress.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Troopergate, that sticky situation back in Alaska implicating the governor in an abuse of power scenario that actually sounds more like the storyline of a country western song. The fire-that-man-because-he-married-my-sister-then-tasered-my-nephew-with-a-stun-gun saga is pathetic enough in its own right, but at least Palin’s role in it and the subsequent firing of the public safety commissioner was being investigated. Recent developments, however, have turned up meddling in the proceedings from Alaska House speaker John Harris. Harris, who was for the investigation before he was against it, is now questioning “impartiality,” and has suggested delaying the findings until, oh, I don’t know, sometime after the election.

Interesting -- an ethics investigation into a government abuse of power stalled by the political party who seizes every opportunity to lay claim to the very notion. Like McCain’s invention of the Blackberry, the GOP has, for years, tried to spin truth out of fallacy, claiming honor and morality to be their exclusive domain. And, for years, they have been caught red-handed doing exactly the opposite. Their Big Tent is filled with card-carrying members who have had adulterous affairs, lied about their sexual preferences, paid for prostitutes, taken bribes, initiated illegal wire taps, strip-mined the Constitution and sidestepped their just deserts.  They have turned the ability to lie and get away with it into a dark art that has enabled them to bleed this country for longer than should have been possible.

What the Republicans do best is hijack strategy – whether it be “family values,” “pro-life” or “change.” The formula that has worked so well in torpedoing the opposition– tell the other guys story before he has a chance to – has backfired in a major way. To have Palin’s ragged narrative shredding nearly round-the-clock throws off the ticket’s claim to reform governance and clean living. But, rather than scurry around trying to stash evidence in the potted plants, the Republicans should have vetted the candidate more thoroughly in the first place. The fact that they went straight for pandering – to the conservative base, to women – with no real thought to the possible outcome shows a remarkable lack of judgment. Add to that a complete lack of restraint in their attempts to put a lid on the facts in this case, facts involving subpoenas and judicial committees, and it goes way beyond spinning. It goes to Cheney and Rove and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz who have demonstrated beyond a doubt what this party is made of, and it could not be further removed from values of any kind. It points to more of the same should we let this man in office for the next four years.

What all of this has served to do is to make the party and Palin-whipped McCain look desperate enough to win at any cost; to pawn all that honor and valor and glory he and the rest of his crew try to lay claim to for a chance to treat this nation, once again, like a personal asset.

Enough already. Enough of the lies. Enough of the subterfuge. The double standard, the double speak and the code. The tax breaks, the golden parachutes, Big Oil, Big Pharma, big guns. Time to reinstate the real-world values we not only stand for, but stand behind.

Time to send the Grand Old Party packing and clean up the hazardous waste.

Terry Glover is Senior Editor for Ebonyjet.com.