Report: Palin abused power

Posted By Blake Hounshell Friday, October 10, 2008 - 7:26 PM Share

Breaking:

"Panel Finds Palin Abused Power in Firing of Public Safety Commissioner, A.P. Reports"

The report is here.

EXPLORE:DECISION '08

(3)

HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE

PAUL GAUTHIER

9:24 PM ET

October 10, 2008

But...

From the report:

"In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads."

VIRGIL TIBBS

9:09 PM ET

October 12, 2008

So it was lawful of her to

So it was lawful of her to fire the guy, but her decision to do so was partly based on personal grounds and as such amounted to an abuse of power. At least, that's my understanding of the decision.

ANDREWS

1:25 AM ET

October 13, 2008

Ethics, not legality

It was an ethics investigation, not a criminal investigation. There are many actions politicians can and do perform that are legal under the letter of the law but are clearly unethical. Of course Palin has the ex officio right to fire state employees, but she should never do so because of personal grievances.

The panel isn't saying she broke the law, only that she exercised poor judgment here. Hopefully the rest of the country thinks long and hard before voting to put the hockey mom in the Oval Office.

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