Palin Uses “Tasergate” Label
In her conversation with reporters, Palin also defended her husband’s decision to testify in the investigation into her firing of the Alaska director of public safety, who had refused to fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.
“Nobody has anything to hide,” she said. “Nobody’s done anything wrong.”
The governor, in an attempt to change the storyline, referred to the incident Tuesday as “Tasergate” — regarding allegations that her former brother-in-law tasered his 11-year-old stepson — as opposed to better-known moniker, “Troopergate.” The Palins have said their inquiries were warranted because the trooper, Mike Wooten, had been suspended for misconduct.
You can trace the lineage of the “Tasergate” label from Teflon Dad to me to Instapundit to Carl Cameron to Rush to Palin. All moving at the lightning-quick speed of the Internet . . . five weeks.
Governor, cut out the middlemen and you’ll get the ideas faster!
P.S. There are those who find the “Tasergate” term Orwellian, because this is supposedly an abuse of power scandal, and the tasering doesn’t justify an abuse of power. If I really thought we had an abuse of power, I’d find that a compelling argument, as the ends generally don’t justify the means. But I don’t see it that way. I see no credible evidence Palin did anything wrong. I see this whole thing as a political witchhunt.
In that context, I’m pleased to have given Gov. Palin some political ammunition. I think it’s fair game to point out that Trooper Wooten is a menace. He exposed the state of Alaska to potential liability every day that he remained a peace officer. Gov. Palin doesn’t appear to have contacted Monegan about Wooten, but given the tasering, you can certainly see why some people surrounding her might have done so.
So the left is once again defending the actions of a renegade state trooper, who is a danger to society, and all for political posturing?
Nice post, everyone should read it.
Apogee (366e8b) — 10/8/2008 @ 1:31 amBehold the power of a great idea plus a series of tubes. (Dance music called for.) Awesome indeed. And congrats Patterico.
no one you know (1ebbb1) — 10/8/2008 @ 2:37 amI dig that her husband was cc’ed on the emails. Is all of America gonna get cc’ed from now on? bcc’ed?
imdw (3bf1a8) — 10/8/2008 @ 5:04 amimdw – You are right. There is no difference between telling your husband what is going on and letting the entire country in on it.
JD (f7900a) — 10/8/2008 @ 5:18 am“The governor, in an attempt to change the storyline” … Biased language at work, especially “attempt.”
sierra (aa4594) — 10/8/2008 @ 5:39 amNo, sierra, they were right. They will not allow us to become distracted with actually vetting the Dem’s Presidential candidate. Teh Narrative must be served.
JD (f7900a) — 10/8/2008 @ 5:42 amP2:
If you found out that Palin was reading the blog, would it make it easier for you to whip up a batch?
Syracuse! (b8c7e2) — 10/8/2008 @ 6:23 amI would not leap to take credit for so trivial a nominification as Tasergate.
Anything + gate = Anythinggate.
Cleverness and ingenuity haven’t been the same since Watergate.
mic deniro (9113bd) — 10/8/2008 @ 6:34 amRod Serling voice- “Imagine if u will-a certain guv-nor-who saw corruption and did nothing about it-[pause]..a certain family member who tasered children…[pause]..to be left on the state payroll..
pdbuttons (359493) — 10/8/2008 @ 6:42 amto taser…or worse…
again?
Congratualtions Pat and Teflon Dad.
I have had extensive discussions with a Democrat who claims that President Bush isn’t “Pro-Life” because he invaded Iraq. It is quite impossible to debate her on the subject because she has changed the definitions of so many of the words used in the discussion. On a national scale the Liberals, Socialists, Communists and PETA people have been doing the same thing for decades. It is time for the rest of us to understand that if they control the words they control the thoughts.
“Tasergate” is more accurate than the other word because the important part about this case is a child was abused with government property by a state employee, and the Democrats are once again siding with the perp and not the victim.
tyree (9f76ae) — 10/8/2008 @ 6:42 amDidn’t Palin ask for the investigation herself to clear the air before she was picked as VP candidate? And then it was turned into a witch hunt to undermine her.
Patterico, I concur with your answer to any who think the label “Tazegate” is Orwellian. There are much better examples out there, such as:
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/8/2008 @ 6:47 am– “Bill Ayers is an education reformer”
– “Bill Ayers is a guy I served on a charitable board with.”
– “Bill Ayers protested against the Vietnam War” (Actually, he worked for the overthrow of the US government, anti-war activities were part of the recruiting efforts for the cause.)
– “Barach worked as a community organizer, he’s seen it all.” While we thought that was an absurd remark at the time, maybe she knew something we didn’t.
– Barach worked as a “community organizer”- which apparently included heavy involvment with ACORN, litigious intimidation of lending institutions to make bad loans, in up to the neck in corrupt Chicago machine politics, and funneling $150 million to various organizations that he avoided putting on his resume.
– “Fairness doctrine”.
Comment by mic deniro — 10/8/2008 @ 6:34 am
IMO the cleverness of it was turning “teh narrative” around so succinctly (and the original idea was of course Teflon Don’s, with Patterico’s getting credit for picking up on it so fast and getting the word out). The entire media with one word was placing fault with Palin’s handling of her executive responsibilities, when the issue was the trooper’s handling, or lack thereof, of HIS responsibilities.
no one you know (1f5ddb) — 10/8/2008 @ 6:58 amI liked “Tasergate” because Troopergate had already been used and I did not appreciate the effort to flush that down the memory hole.
MamaAJ (788539) — 10/8/2008 @ 7:05 amObama won the debate.
No surprise
McCain looked and sounded like a used car salesmen trying to sell you a wreckage, with no steering wheel, no tires, no clutch or gears, and a broken oil pipe, – and thinks the mirror above the dashboard, which reflects all the road accidents it caused behind it – is the front window.
McCain even acted like one – repeating “My friend”, “My friend”, “My friend”, “My friend” over 20 times as if trying to convince you that he’s not cheating you on the sale of this unreliable heap of crap.
C.Theaux (b4960e) — 10/8/2008 @ 7:30 amThis just goes to show the power of blogs, and despite not answering Couric’s question about what she reads, I can tell she reads quite a bit. This whole investigation is ludicrous and will not effect the ticket one bit. The Republicans that will show up in droves on election day are there because of her, not McCain. I think this is the first time a VP candidate might actually make a difference.
Nancy (fc83d1) — 10/8/2008 @ 7:32 amIf “tasering” a child is not “an abuse of power”, what the hell is?
Larry Sheldon (86b2e1) — 10/8/2008 @ 7:55 amWho chokes themselves in closets-2 get a hardy -har
pdbuttons (359493) — 10/8/2008 @ 8:06 amthen they die
I agree..Mc-ane sucks
but we’ll always have P[aris?-]
P[ail-in]
Obama won the debate. No surprise.
Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen – The TrollBot 1000 has tabulated the results in it’s cranially – challenged anal cavity, and it’s The Messiah by a landslide!
Dmac (cc81d9) — 10/8/2008 @ 8:28 amMore like “the Messiah by a mudslide!”
Dan S (c77713) — 10/8/2008 @ 10:47 amMamaAJ has it – what better way to erase Bill’s use of Arkansas Staties to round up pre-erupted bimbos.
rhodeymark (6797b5) — 10/8/2008 @ 11:03 amSo Barack Obama supports state troopers tasering children, driving drunk, and breaking the very laws they were supposed to enforce.
Not surprised.
North Dallas Thirty (efe6ff) — 10/8/2008 @ 11:35 amPatterico you’ve got a lot of ‘splainin to do.
David Ehrenstein (3f6e26) — 10/8/2008 @ 12:31 pmThe NEW Alaska-Centric Palin Book
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Cashman and Nelson bring a perspective to Palin’s story not available to general news reporters that makes for lively, but factual reading.
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Washington D.C. press contact and collaborator: Candice Ngo cango@petroleumnews.com
London press contact and book collaborator: Amy Spittler aspittler@petroleumnews.com
PNA Publishing is a division of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska LLC.
Sarah takes on Big Oil: The compelling story of Gov. Sarah Palin’s battle with Alaska’s ‘Big 3’ oil companies, as told by the state’s top oil and gas editors
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AK Resident (83651d) — 10/8/2008 @ 12:45 pmPrinted in the United States of America by RR Donnelly
First Edition Printing October 2008
Palin has this whole “corruption” thing backwards.
If you’re the Gov., you’re supposed to STOP your drunk, abusive brother-in-law from getting fired.
Techie (9251da) — 10/8/2008 @ 2:25 pmComment by Techie — 10/8/2008 @ 2:25 pm
Actually, if you had followed the time-line, you would know that by the time she was inaugurated as Governor, her drunk, abusive brother-in-law was an ex-brother-in-law.
AOracle (db2f44) — 10/8/2008 @ 2:41 pmIndeed this was a shocking abuse of power.
Electrical, that is.
Teflon Dad (b9958c) — 10/8/2008 @ 4:23 pmDon’t speak of the Trooper in the past tense. He still has his job.
JerryT (340fd6) — 10/8/2008 @ 6:30 pmSo, since she obviously did nothing wrong and the whole thing is obviously a political witchhunt,
– why was the investigation begun long before she was a national figure, and initiated by a Republican legislature?
– why did Sarah promise to cooperate and then change her mind and refuse to testify?
– why did her husband do the same?
– why did witnesses scheduled to testify start changing their minds like stunned flies as soon as McCain’s high-powered Republican lawyers began to arrive?
– why, in short, the no-stone unturned massive coverup plan?
– why did she lie in her blanket denial that any of her staff had tried to get the guy fired?
I mean, she’s got nothing to hide, right? Not acting like it. Just lying for fun? Something unrelated she’s afraid of having come out?
glasnost (a6ffe0) — 10/8/2008 @ 8:01 pmglasnost –
Seriously? Did you do, like, NO research at all?
Foxfier (15ac79) — 10/9/2008 @ 12:01 amFoxfier – glasnost is a partisan hack. You don’t need research to spew talking points.
Apogee (366e8b) — 10/9/2008 @ 12:12 amThe investigation:
Given that the investigation into the firing of the guy who DID NOT fire someone who admits to tasering his stepson, being drunk in a duty car and other violations, I’d ask for an investigation too– to clear someone I supported.
That nastily little “innocent until proven guilty” thing.
Link, please? There’s many about TODD Palin not testifying, and a few on aids doing the same, though they’re shamefully lacking in detail.
Hm….Not showing up for a kangaroo court= “massive coverup”? (You are aware the Gov Palin got to where she is by cleaning house on corrupted Pols, both on the D and the R?)
Finally…do you have links for these accusations?
Foxfier (15ac79) — 10/9/2008 @ 12:13 amApogee–
Foxfier (15ac79) — 10/9/2008 @ 12:14 ameven when I suspect the same, I still have to ask…for the folks who will wonder the same, if nothing else.
And you, yet again display your vast reserves of hypocrisy. This investigation began before Palin was picked as VP. Why not let it run it’s course and let the investigator issue his findings? Oh that’s right, because you think it’s simply a partisan witch hunt with no merits whatsoever, yet so douche that lives in Obama’s neighborhood leads to apoplectic derision and rage against Obama and Democrats etc.
And to think I once thought you were attempting some form of objectivity. How disappointing and pedestrian you actually are.
Peter (e70d1c) — 10/9/2008 @ 12:44 amFoxfier – I admire your tenacity.
Apogee (366e8b) — 10/9/2008 @ 1:35 amI wonder if I receive a subpoena from my state government that I can (a) ignore it and refuse to appear and (b) finially return a written statement coached by the republican party´s lawyers. If you have nothing to hide why are you hiding? You are not an elected official, just Mr.Mom.
Iwonder (966e2d) — 10/9/2008 @ 6:02 amYou call it Tasergate, the rest of it call it abuse of power
Heck of a job Pat.
Nanker Feldge (f26fef) — 10/9/2008 @ 12:30 pmFinally…do you have links for these accusations?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Public_Safety_Commissioner_dismissal
Get busy. Start learning.
Hm….Not showing up for a kangaroo court= “massive coverup”?
You know nothing about this inquiry, the institutional arrangements under which it is being conducted, or the people conducting it. You’ve assumed it’s a “kangaroo court” because it’s investigating someone you like and are emotionally invested in defending.
What’s ironic is, again, that the “kangaroo court” is an investigation run by an official state legislature, and a Republican-controlled one at that. The one that, you know, worked with Sarah Palin while she was governor. Not only do you have very little respect for the governing structures of this country, but you’re somehow convinced that S. Palin’s legislature runs “kangaroo courts”, and yet S. Palin herself is highly ethical.
glasnost (a6ffe0) — 10/10/2008 @ 6:57 pmThe findings were released this evening. Ine sort of bogus ethics violation. Not much there. Check it out yourselves – catch the frenzy.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 10/10/2008 @ 7:19 pmPeter – I don’t care what you think of me. You’re too busy throwing insults to take seriously.
You write:
This investigation began before Palin was picked as VP.
Yes, by the same people (Republicans) that Palin exposed as corrupt when she ran for and won the Governorship.
Your inability to deal with the subject of my comment, while quoting it, shows, again, that you are entirely dishonest and are attempting to project the very behavior that you practice onto me.
Take your dishonest campaign for Obama somewhere that trades in these kind of lies.
Apogee (366e8b) — 10/10/2008 @ 8:07 pmglasnost – Thanks for quoting yourself on Wikipedia. Anything that actually holds water?
Didn’t think so.
We’ll look for you to demand an ethics investigation when the head of public safety covers for a dangerous rogue cop and is fired.
It’s telling to see how many leftists love coddling dangerous authority figures. Is it the leather, one wonders? What went wrong in their lives that they need to play iron-fisted ruler and boot licking lackey?
Apogee (366e8b) — 10/10/2008 @ 8:17 pmI was watching MSNBC and they led with Gov. Palin found to have broken the law. Then followed with questions as to when criminal charges will be filed. I thought they could not have any less shame, but then they accused Sen. McCain of inciting riots, and then Doris Kearns Goodwin said that Barack has only gone negative in the last few days because of what McCain was going to do, and it is clear that is not really the kind of person Baracky is, and that he clearly did not like doing it. I puked.
JD (f7900a) — 10/10/2008 @ 8:25 pmIf someone tazed my niece or nephew, I would expect to see them fired. I love how Peter and glasnost defend someone that tazes children because of their partisan blinders.
JD (f7900a) — 10/10/2008 @ 8:26 pmSo, the legislative findings were that she abused her power, but they also found that she had the right to fire him because he was an at-will employee? How are these 2 notions squared?
These legislative findings, or rather, the MSM version of their findings, will become more holy than the Stone Tablets to the Left. Funny has this legislative report will be accepted, but ones like the Senate report in intelligence and the war are not.
JD (f7900a) — 10/10/2008 @ 8:58 pmRead the report – It’s a hack partisan hit job that reports that she did NOT break the law. The McCain campaign should file a complaint with the FCC over MSNBC lying to the public.
There was no approval for the idea that she even violated ethics – all the personal opinion of one man. Check Beldar.
Apogee (366e8b) — 10/10/2008 @ 9:03 pmThere’s one major issue that troubles me about the whole tasering incident. Yes, it’s a terrible thing that an eleven year old was tasered. However, I find it much more disturbing that his wife and the rest of his family was aware that it happened… and said NOTHING. Sarah Palin knew that her nepehew had been tasered, and said not a word to any official for YEARS. It wasn’t brought up until the divorce and custody hearings. As a matter of fact, the incedents for which Trooper Wooten was disciplined happened over the course of several yaers, and not a single compaint was filed… not until it profitted one of the Palin clan to do so.
I’ve heard many people talking about the fact that a protection order was filed… but it’s generally left out that the order was filed while Wooten was out of state, and was reversed upon his return to Alaska as completely unfounded.
It’s a sad thing that in the day and age of the Internet, when a world of facts is available literally at our fingertips, people still ignore the truth.
Rainkiss (04c7a5) — 10/12/2008 @ 10:08 pmComment by Rainkiss — 10/12/2008 @ 10:08 pm
It would help if you could provide links to allow others to verify the veracity of your statements. A lot of the info in your comment is unfamiliar, at least to this reader.
Another Drew (912e22) — 10/12/2008 @ 10:19 pm