Saturday, September 6, 2008 7:30 PM
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ANCHORAGE,
Alaska -- The Alaska lawmaker leading an investigation into Gov. Sarah
Palin's dismissal of her public safety commissioner should be removed
because he appears to be manipulating the probe to damage her vice
presidential candidacy, a Republican legislator says.
Alaska
state Sen. Hollis French "appears to be steering the direction of the
investigation, its conclusion and its timing in a manner that will have
maximum partisan political impact on the national and state elections,"
state Rep. John Coghill said in a letter dated Friday.
Coghill,
from North Pole, is on the Alaska Legislature's Legislative Council,
the body that appointed French to oversee the investigation. The letter
was sent to the council chairman, Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau, whom
Coghill asks to convene a meeting to discuss whether French should be
replaced. Coghill's efforts were reported by Newsweek Saturday.
Coghill said the council instructed French, an Anchorage Democrat, to keep politics out of the investigation.
"He just failed that, in my view," Coghill said Saturday.
Elton did not immediately return a message left at his office.
In
July, the council approved $100,000 for an investigation into whether
Palin abused her power by firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt
Monegan. Monegan has said he felt pressure form Palin family and staff
to dismiss a trooper, Mike Wooten, who went through a messy divorce
with her sister before Palin's election as governor.
Coghill
wrote in the letter that French was quoted in media reports that the
results of the probe were going to be an "October surprise" that is
"likely to be damaging to the administration."
Coghill said he
was not approached by the McCain-Palin campaign to draft the letter,
but that called the campaign to "apprise" them of the letter he sent it.
"I'm on my own in this one," he said.
What an interesting coincidence that French is a Democrat! Or is it?
Saturday, September 6, 2008 10:00 PM
