Following is letter to the editor by Wev Shea, former US Attorney for Alaska. It is re-printed here in its entirety:
All of the “alleged/frivolous” ethics complaints against Gov. Sarah Palin were brought relating to her actions while in office as our governor. She should not be required to hire private counsel to defend any of these frivolous ethics complaints or her actions as our governor. Alaska’s chief executive must never be publicly humiliated by incompetents who like to attack success (Shea, 2009, ¶1).
The Department of Law is obligated to defend her, each of her adviser state employees and her husband. It is unconscionable to allow politically motivated, incompetent ethics complaints to be publicly aired by the complainant. The Department of Law is in a much better position than private counsel to address these compounding frivolous complaints (Shea, 2009, ¶2).
Alaska’s governor should not be required to personally pay any legal fees or costs related to her role and/or conduct in her role as our governor. Nor should Todd or any advisers who were acting to protect Gov. Palin. This entire litigation situation is intended to compromise Sarah Palin’s duties as our governor — it is meant to destroy her politically (Shea, 2009, ¶3).
Commentary
Shea is spot-on with this letter with every point made. As Shea delineated, these complaints constitute a pattern of harassment intended to destroy Governor Palin politically. The purpose of the ethics complaint process is to adjudicate actual ethics violations. The purpose is not to target the executive with every move she makes — but that is exactly how this process is being abused. Readily available public Internet postings point to a coordinated effort among hate bloggers who revel in the filing of these complaints, and who break confidentiality laws by so doing. Every single ethics complaint filed against Governor Palin came after August 29, 2008. This timing alone should be enough reason to regard these complaints as frivolous and as harassment tools.
References
Shea, W. (2009, May 2). Letters to the editor. Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from: http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/780757.html
Follow Ron Devito on Twitter
Friend Ron Devito on Facebook
Comments on this entry are closed.