What Alaskan Newspapers Are Saying About Sarah Palin

I was checking out the major Alaskan newspapers today and was given quite an eye-opener.

Transparency...replaced by secrecy

Before the trooper-gate report was released, Elstun Lauesen had some interesting observations in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

In a column from last Sunday, titled, "McCain camp occupies Alaska (Palace coup leaves RNC in charge here)," after referencing recent statements by Pat Buchanan that Palin is being politically indoctrinated by Cheneyites, Lauesen writes:

Buchanan frets about Sarah Palin’s radical policy implant by the neo-conservatives; so should “true conservatives” be distressed by the McCain campaign’s political makeover of the woman many Alaskans once believed was a reformer. Transparency has been replaced by secrecy; bipartisan cooperation has been replaced by stonewalling; and rule-of-law is being compromised for political expediency.

Complaining that the Alaskan state legislature is under the thumb of the Republican National Committee, Lauesen adds:

...it is not surprising that the McCain campaign decided that it is the natural law right to occupy and use Alaska any way it sees fit.

Sarah Palin, who believes her destiny is divinely guided and shares a messianic zeal with many of her core supporters, has virtually turned our state government over to the service of her political mission. Alaska’s Department of Law is now under the apparent direction of an outside alpha-dog attorney, Ed O’Callaghan, who was parachuted into Alaska by McCain’s national campaign to scrub the Palin dirt from the national lens. One big piece of that dirt is the so-called the Troopergate inquiry, with which we are all familiar. O’Callaghan reminds me of the Wolf, Harvey Keitel’s character in the movie “Pulp Fiction,” whose job was to clean up the blood and ditch the body for the employer of a couple of careless hit men.

Alaskans have watched helplessly as Attorney General Talis Colberg subverted the authority of the Legislature in Troopergate. Specifically, Colberg counseled state employees to refuse to testify in the Troopergate inquiry after they were subpoenaed. This advice is contrary to his duty to the people of Alaska.

The McCain camp has not only taken over the Department of Law, but it has hijacked the governor’s office as well. As of this writing, the governor’s press office routinely refers outside press inquiries to the McCain campaign.

Does not have what it takes

Reader Laurie Knapp, given a chance to speak her mind about her governor, in the Juneau Empire op-ed, "My Turn," had this to say. after the debate:

Do we not want a vice president who has spent more than 22 months mastering state issues, let alone national?

The energy policies with which Palin claims expertise were the product of her advisers' experience; they address gas alone, not renewable wind/solar/hydro or clean coal, let alone the nuclear agenda McCain promotes or the waste nuclear power produces.

When she spoke of women's rights, what does that mean exactly? Certainly, not reproductive freedom.

Knapp goes on to write:

Palin would be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from being leader of the free world, folks. We need more than a beautiful woman's love affair with the camera and the adulation of the masses. Please think beyond image and spin and take a hard look at what we as a nation can afford.

Palin is not stupid, but not smart enough to see beyond her own ego to realize she does not have what it takes to potentially guide this country through these tumultuous times.

A warning for Steve Branchflower

What can we expect now that the troopergate investigation has found that Sarah Palin abused her power?

Michael Carey, writing in the Anchorage Daily News on September 29th, has an idea of what's in store:

Investigator Steve Branchflower be warned. If you issue a report on Troopergate before the election in any fashion critical of Gov. Palin, you can expect to be made to look like a war criminal. Or worse.

Thanks to Troopergate, the relationship Palin established with Democrats during two legislative sessions -- the trust and accommodation she needed to pass her gas-line and oil-tax legislation -- no longer exists.

Throughout her political career, Palin has benefited from establishing and exploiting contrast favorable to her. The contrast between Palin the woman-of-integrity and dishonest Republican bosses. The contrast between the fresh new Palin and ham-handed incumbent fossil Gov. Frank Murkowski. The contrast between woman-of-the-people Palin and the public-be-damned oil companies. Even the contrast between young, vital Palin and aging, stiff John McCain -- which perversely enough has helped John McCain in the polls.

Now Palin stands in contrast with herself, before and after her nomination. And there's no benefit for her -- at least not in Alaska where she is still the governor.

I suspect that tomorrow will feature Alaskan newspaper editorials on the troopergate commission's report. I am curious as to what their take will be.

However, as this post illustrates, it's not such a bad idea to see what some of Sarah's neighbors, away from a GOP filter, have to say about their governor.