One would think that the McCain campaign would like to put the Palin investigation behind it. Get it out of the way, clear the air, make it a non issue. The press will not ask about it at every opportunity and they could get on with letting the American voters know how the plan to make changes. Not just what the changes will be but how they will implement them. Are they doing it ? Noooooooooo.

Troopergate, as the investigation is being called, began back on July 11, 2008 when the then Governor of Alaska fired Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. Her reason being that he did not agree with her budgeting issues. Now, to my way of thinking, that is not a reason to fire someone. It says either be a yes person or you do not work for me. Anyway, that is not the issue. Monegan retaliated by saying he was pressured by Palin’s husband and staff because he refused to fire Palin’s ex-brother -in-law.

Ar first, the investigation was pushed up so it would finish earlier than scheduled in order to avoid an “October Surprise”. The McCain campaign was all for it and now they have done a 360 and want it to stop.

Now, here is the latest. The law suit brought before the Superior Court of Alaska claims the lead investigator, Democratic State Sen. Hollis French, Kim Elton, also a Democrat, and the and the Legislative Council, of partisan actions that have tainted the investigation. In case you are familiar with the Alaskan Legislative Council, it is a group of legislators who are authorized to conduct the State’s business when the full Legislature. There are 12 members- 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats. Sounds pretty bi-partisan to me. The campaign claims that there is a connection between French and Monegan and French has made partisan comments about the investigation.

Now, the McCain campaign has released the following in order to prove that Monegan was fired because of insubordination and not because he refused to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law. They say that Wooten- the brother-in-law- had threatened that Palin’s father would “eat a f—ing bullet.” Palin does admit that she contacted Monegan about this, but that is not why he was fired. She also admits that members of her staff did contact Monegan, but she did not know about it until way after it was done. Now, Wooten is not the perfect State Trooper. He has had to be disciplined for serious infractions and it is his contention that since punishment has already been delivered, he has paid for what he did and therefor, he cannot be dismissed.

All of those who were called to testify have been ordered not to do so unless the entire legislature is there. The Alaskan Legislature is not scheduled to be in session until Jan 20th 2009. However, the Governor has the power to call a special session. She did just that this past July. So if she wants the full legislature to be present when testimony is given, why does she not call a special session now ?

Now, this is not going to be a he said she said investigation. There is evidence to be examined – phone records, email etc. So the decision should be made on the evidence presented and the process should be public. This involves someone who is aspiring to the second highest office in the land. It al boils down to this. Did Palin fire Monegan because he did not agree with her, or did she fire him because he did not fire Trooper Wooten and is using the insubordination issue as a cover up Lets hope that the evidence makes things perfectly clear one way or the other so we can get the campaign focused on the issues.