Posted on 10/09/2008 6:21:01 PM PDT by steve-b
The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin's Anchorage office was on the line.
As Mr. Monegan recalls it, the aide said the governor had heard that Mr. Wooten was assigned to work the kickoff to the fair. If so, Mr. Monegan should do something about it, because Ms. Palin was also planning to attend and did not want the trooper nearby.
Somewhat bewildered, Mr. Monegan soon determined that Mr. Wooten had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds — in full costume as "Safety Bear," the troopers' child-friendly mascot.
Two years earlier, the trooper and the governor's sister had been embroiled in a nasty divorce and child-custody battle that had hardened the Palin family against him. To Mr. Monegan and several top aides, the state fair episode was yet another example of a fixation that the governor and her husband, Todd, had with Mr. Wooten and the most granular details of his life.
"I thought to myself, 'Man, do they have a heavy-duty network and focus on this guy,' " Mr. Monegan said. "You'd call that an obsession."
On July 11, Ms. Palin fired Mr. Monegan, setting off a politically charged scandal that has become vastly more so since Ms. Palin became the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’m a little surprised by Serge F. Kovaleski’s obsession with the most granular details of the Palin’s lives. Now he’s investigating some inpenetrable conspiracy involving people in bear suits when he should be investigating Bill Ayers and Obama’s ‘90s campaign to indoctrinate youngsters with Marxist propaganda through their charitable foundation.
It wasn’t Monegan’s issues, it was the AK Trooper’s union that protected Walton, in fact, they complained when he got a 10 day suspension, and it was cut down to 5 days.
I’d like a job where I can drink in the Company Car, Poach Moose, Taser my step kids, and threaten people’s lives.
Unbelievable.
wooten should be grateful he’s in alaska,
in arkansas ma clinton would have had him
arkancided.
si.
the NYSlimes should be given credit for this; any reasonable person who reads this article will understand why Wooten should’ve been dismissed and why Palin was right (page two under the bolded sectons “Watching Mr Wooten”...in fact the NYSlimes goes into great detail on Wooten’s misdeeds compared to any other lame stream media outlet...
NYT warned terrorist Osama(not to be confused with Obama) that his cell phone was being used to trace him. Now they defend a man who threatens to kill the Palin father and Tasers a 10 year old. Can NYT get any lower??
This story is a crock. The real story would have been if Sarah Palin was trying to protect this trooper from being fired after tasering a child, drinking in a squad car and poaching animals. They would have tarred and feathered her for protecting a bum like that.
It’s going no where.
And apparently he was protected by his cohorts.
Can you say "Drew Peterson?"
It's time for McCain to names names and offer up the proof. The video of the fateful hearing is all over the place. with the Democrats blocking action two years ago.
He needs to package up a succinct few paragraphs and go with that ...
You can do it Maverick, just do it. And do it over and over again, and end with it in the next debate. If we can't figure out why and who, how can we figure out what to fix.
And Monegan must have had an obsession about keeping a wife beater on the force - oh yeah, i forgot, Monegan had the same problem i understand. Birds of a feather and now the NYT is suddenly a big protector of domestic abusers. They have never met an opportunity to talk out of both sides of their mouths that they didn’t like.
Agree does she have any commie friends O that’s right never mind.
You’ll have better luck pushing this non-story on DU
Sounds like a perfectly prudent security measure to protect a government official from a court records documented, violent and armed, person.
Exactly
Never mind that Barney Franks’ “friend” was running a gay brothel out of BF’s townhouse......
Move along..... Nothing to see here.....
You can imagine what would happen to a clerk handling 9/11 calls if they had an attitude like that.
I'm amazed that Monegan has supporters ~ these guys must drink entirely too much in those long Alaskan winters.
I don’t see anything wrong with Gov. Palin or her aides asking that Trooper Wooten be fired. If Mr. Monegan had been doing his job Trooper Wooten would have been fired and there would not have been reason for Gov. Palin to request. If she actually did.
Does the Safety Bear now live on the Island of Misfit Mascots?
Maybe “safety POLAR bear” ~ BTW, bears are still known to attack and kill people in Alaska and no one there messes around with Polar bears.
(Yawn) Say goodnight Serge!
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