So it’s official: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, according to a legislative investigator. “I feel vindicated,” Monegan said. “It sounds like they’ve validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I’m not totally out in left field.” But because the report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation — and the McCain-Palin campaign already has tarred the inquiry as partisan — it’s still hard to see Troopergate doing much to hurt Palin’s appeal with the GOP base.
Columnist Kathleen Parker is concerned about the ugly turn the McCain campaign has taken, particular Sarah Palin. In addition to continuing her accusation that Barack Obama pals around with terrorists, Palin has been trying to blame her interview misfires on the media. At a rally this week in Florida, the crowd responded by taunted and yelling obscenities at reporters covering the event, and one Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African-American soundman for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy,” the Washington Post reported. Parker contends that such incitements are a “dangerous game” and that “McCain may want to call off his pit bull before this war escalates.”
Jim Slattery’s new “Hosed” campaign advertisement leads you to think that little Kansans are being urinated on by a giant Wall Street executive. The ad shows a yellowish fluid splashing them from above while the giant executive looks down and smiles. It isn’t until a few seconds later that you see the executive holding a gasoline hose. Slattery created a stir with an earlier campaign advertisement that showed uninsured people wearing half-closed hospital gowns (with the revealing parts digitally blurred). Slattery said the ads are aimed at cutting through the clutter. But his opponent, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., responded: “There’s a difference between edgy and poor taste, and I think these are in poor taste.”
John McCain’s reference to Barack Obama as “that one” during Tuesday night’s debate has led to buzz and even T-shirts. Discussing a goody-stuffed energy bill, McCain said, “You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one.” Obama campaign staffers variously termed it an “odd” moment that showed McCain’s disdain for his opponent, while a McCain spokeswoman said “they are again proving to be the fussiest campaign in American history.”
On CBS’ “The Late Late Show,” host Craig Ferguson had trouble thinking of when it would be appropriate to refer to a senator in that way. “Maybe if you had to pick a U.S. senator out of a lineup,” Ferguson said. “‘Which one of these senators tapped your foot in the bathroom?’ ‘That one.’”
“Is there more experienced people? Yes,” said Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. But Tiahrt told The Eagle editorial board Wednesday that Palin is one of the toughest people he knows and that she has brought enthusiasm that was absent in the GOP campaign. “That has value,” he said.
So it’s official: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, according to a legislative investigator. “I feel vindicated,” Monegan said. “It sounds like they’ve validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I’m not totally out in left field.” But because the report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation — and the McCain-Palin campaign already has tarred the inquiry as partisan — it’s still hard to see Troopergate doing much to hurt Palin’s appeal with the GOP base.
