Who didnt see this coming?Follow

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will not cooperate with a "tainted" legislative investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin campaign announced Monday, accusing supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama of manipulating the probe for political motivations.
Gov. Sarah Palin is fighting allegations she improperly tried to force the firing of her former brother-in-law.

Gov. Sarah Palin is fighting allegations she improperly tried to force the firing of her former brother-in-law.

Former Palin Press Secretary Meg Stapleton told reporters in Anchorage that the power probe has been "hijacked" by "Obama operatives" for the Democratic presidential nominee -- namely, Alaska state Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic lawmaker managing the investigation and an Obama supporter. French has denied working on behalf of the Obama campaign.

The Obama campaign described Stapleton's charge as "complete paranoia." It has denied sending campaign staff to Alaska to work with the legislative committee's investigation.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said, "I think it's fair to say that the governor is not going to cooperate with that investigation so long as it remained tainted and run by partisan individuals who have a predetermined conclusion," referring to a comment by French this month that the case could produce criminal charges or an "October Surprise" for the GOP ticket.

He added that no "time period" has been set for Palin to be interviewed by independent counsel Stephen Branchflower. She has not been subpoenaed, though on Friday Alaska lawmakers voted to subpoena Palin's husband, several aides and phone records in their investigation.

Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, is battling allegations that she and her advisers pressured then-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire a state trooper going through a bitter custody dispute with her sister -- and that Monegan was terminated when he refused. Palin says she fired Monegan over budget issues and denies any wrongdoing.

Monegan says while no one directly demanded Trooper Mike Wooten's dismissal, he felt pressured to do so by Palin, her husband and staff. He believes his refusal to fire the trooper led to his own firing. Upon the dismissal, Monegan was offered a position as executive director of the Alcohol Beverage and Control Board, but turned it down.

Palin's lawyers say the investigation -- which the legislature commissioned on a bipartisan basis in July -- belongs before the state Personnel Board, which met to consider the request Thursday.

Stapleton said Palin's attorneys have turned over to the board e-mails that contain "new information that exonerates Palin and proves Monegan's egregious insubordination."

The e-mails, which were released to reporters, show that Palin reported to Monegan that Wooten threatened her father.

Monegan allegedly worked against Palin over his department's budget, making repeated requested to Congress "for funding that was out of line for every other commissioner and agency," Stapleton said.

"The final straw came in late June, when Commissioner Monegan arranged for another unauthorized trip to D.C. to request more money from Congress," Stapleton said.

The campaign also disputed recent comments Monegan made to ABC News, in which he accused Palin of lying during her wide-ranging interview with ABC's Charles Gibson last week. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Sarah Palin

Palin had told Gibson, "I never pressured him to hire or fire anybody." She said she welcomed the investigation and did not worry about the subpoena of her husband, Todd Palin.

"There's nothing to hide," she said. "I know that Todd, too, never pressured Commissioner Monegan. He did, very appropriately, though, bring up those concerns about a trooper [Wooten] who was making threats against the first family, and that is appropriate."

Monegan rebutted Palin's comments, saying, "She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," according to an interview posted on the ABC News Web site. "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

Ugly,

Because they're not reporting the whole story.

Read this.



http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24325497-38198,00.html

A drunk policeman tasers a child and she uses her powers to get this guy out of a position of authority and you have a problem with this?

One day -- maybe a year or two before the investigation -- Wooten showed his stepson his Taser. He had just been to Taser instructor school. Wooten told Sgt. Wall that the boy was fascinated and pleaded to be tased.

"So we went in our living room and I had him get down on his knees so he wouldn't fall. And I taped the probes to him and turned the Taser on for like a second, turned it off. He thought that was the greatest thing in the world, wanted to do it again," Wooten told the investigator. The boy flinched but nothing more, he said. The boy was about 11 at the time.

In his interview with troopers, the stepson said it hurt for about a second, according to Wall's report. The boy said he wanted to be tased to show his cousin, Palin's daughter Bristol, that he wasn't a mama's boy. The probe left a welt on his arm, he said. His mother was upstairs yelling at them not to do it, the boy said.

As Bristol remembered it, the jolt knocked the boy backward, the trooper report says. She said she was afraid.

The probes are attached by thin wires to the Taser cartridge. In the field, an officer fires the probes into a suspect's skin or clothing and the suspect receives a jolt of electricity for five seconds, said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International, which makes the devices. They are only incapacitated during that time. In demos, the probes might be taped to a person so that they don't accidentally strike an eye or injure the volunteer, he said. If the Taser is fired for just a second, it would feel like your funny bone was hit but the quick jolt wouldn't knock you over, Tuttle said.

Jophed,That says it all.

Jophed,

You think that officer is going to think next time he does something to a child against the wishes of the mother?

I'm not upset; it's obvious you care little for the welfare of a 11yr old child merely because his mommys in politics now.