John Lovra – 9/26/08

This page was last updated on September 28, 2008.

Palin ethics probe must keep going; John Lovra; Beaver County Times; September 26, 2008.

If we can use 2004 as a guide, we can expect a flurry of pre-election letters from Mr. Lovra. From September 30 through October 11, 2004, Mr. Lovra treated us to six anti-Bush letters (here, here, here, here, here, and here). In none of those letters did Mr. Lovra tell us why to vote for Mr. Kerry. For 2008, this is Mr. Lovra’s second letter since September 1^st. Other than the nebulous “change,” Mr. Lovra still hasn’t told us why to vote for Messrs. Obama and Biden.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Two months ago, a bipartisan legislative panel reached a unanimous decision that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s firing of Walt Monegan as that state’s public safety commissioner justified an ethics investigation.

“In question is whether Palin, her husband and other high-level staffers pressured Monegan to fire her sister’s ex-husband as a state policeman, and only fired Monegan after he refused.

“This all happened before Palin was elevated to vice presidential candidate by John McCain.

“Now, pressure is being brought by high-ranking Republicans, her attorney and the Liberty Legal Institute to have the investigation ended or pushed past the election.

“When she was originally questioned, Palin said, ‘Hold me accountable.’ She is running for vice president, and she represents McCain’s first executive decision. We need to know the facts now, before we vote. This investigation must proceed.”

[RWC] I’m feeling lazy, so I’ll just repeat exactly what I posted on the Times website in response to Mr. Lovra’s letter.

“Mr. Lovra failed to note several things.

“First, among other things, the Alaska State Troopers found Mike Wooten guilty of tasering his 10-year-old stepson and suspended him for five days.

“Second, Mr. Monegan said, ‘For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff.’

“Third, after her VP nomination, Gov. Palin made an ethics complaint against herself to force an investigation by the Alaska Personnel Board and is fully cooperating with that probe. All three board members were originally appointed by Gov. Palin’s predecessor (Palin reappointed one).

“Fourth, the person leading the Alaska legislature investigation (not the APB investigation), Sen. Hollis French, is an Obama supporter. Long before the investigation is complete Mr. French stated, ‘It’s [the report] likely to be damaging to the Governor’s administration’ and ‘If they [the McCain campaign] had done their job they never would have picked her. Now they may have to deal with an October surprise.’ The last quote referred to the scheduled October release of Mr. French’s probe. Sounds like a prejudgment to me.”

There’s one other thing I didn’t have room to mention in my post on the Times website. Though Gov. Palin’s predecessor was also a Republican, Gov. Palin and former governor Frank Murkowski are political enemies. Gov. Palin defeated Mr. Murkowski in the Republican primary. As a result, it’s unlikely Mr. Murkowski’s appointees to the APB would feel any allegiance toward Gov. Palin. Further, since they meet only two to three days a year and get “paid” only a standard travel and per diem, they have no financial reason to be biased in favor of Gov. Palin.