TROOPERGATE II: THE RECKONING….After earlier promising to cooperate fully with the Alaska legislature’s probe of Troopergate (because she had “nothing to hide,” natch), Sarah Palin pulled a 180 after her vice presidential nomination and denounced the probe as an obvious partisan witch hunt. Instead, she wanted the state personnel board to investigate. So how’s that working out? Michael Isikoff reports:
Some Democrats ridiculed the move, noting that the personnel board answered to Palin. But the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin’s 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles. Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and the counsel’s report could be released soon after. “We took a gamble when we went to the personnel board,” said a McCain aide who asked not to be identified discussing strategy. While the McCain camp still insists Palin “has nothing to hide,” it acknowledges a critical finding by Petumenos would be even harder to dismiss.
I’m sure Scooter Libby sympathizes. I’ll bet he didn’t expect Patrick Fitzgerald to conduct a real investigation either. Stay tuned.