ANCHORAGE — Alaska's former commissioner of public safety claims that Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's pick to be vice president, personally talked to him on two occasions about a state trooper who was locked in a bitter custody battle with the governor's sister.
In a phone conversation Friday night, Walt Monegan, who was Alaska's top cop until Palin fired him July 11, told The Anchorage Daily News that the governor also had e-mailed him two or three times about the trooper, Mike Wooten, though the e-mails didn't mention Wooten by name.
What role Palin played in seeking her ex-brother-in-law's dismissal is the governor's first brush with scandal in a political career that has been premised on reforming Alaska's corruption-plagued Republican party and raises questions not only about her willingness to use her office to further a personal agenda but also about her administrative abilities.
Palin's replacement for Monegan, Chuck Kopp, was forced to resign just two weeks after he was appointed because of a sexual harassment complaint that had been filed against him when he was the chief of police in Kenai, Alaska.
Palin, in a news conference announcing Kopp's resignation July 24, said she was unaware that the Kenai city council had reprimanded Kopp as a result of the complaint. She wouldn't discuss how her staff had vetted Kopp before naming him to replace Monegan three days after Monegan was fired.
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 08/30/2008 | Fired official: Palin talked to me about ex-brother-in-law
In a phone conversation Friday night, Walt Monegan, who was Alaska's top cop until Palin fired him July 11, told The Anchorage Daily News that the governor also had e-mailed him two or three times about the trooper, Mike Wooten, though the e-mails didn't mention Wooten by name.
What role Palin played in seeking her ex-brother-in-law's dismissal is the governor's first brush with scandal in a political career that has been premised on reforming Alaska's corruption-plagued Republican party and raises questions not only about her willingness to use her office to further a personal agenda but also about her administrative abilities.
Palin's replacement for Monegan, Chuck Kopp, was forced to resign just two weeks after he was appointed because of a sexual harassment complaint that had been filed against him when he was the chief of police in Kenai, Alaska.
Palin, in a news conference announcing Kopp's resignation July 24, said she was unaware that the Kenai city council had reprimanded Kopp as a result of the complaint. She wouldn't discuss how her staff had vetted Kopp before naming him to replace Monegan three days after Monegan was fired.
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 08/30/2008 | Fired official: Palin talked to me about ex-brother-in-law
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