The Unhinging Continues

Here’s a status update on the “gang of three”, Palin’s state senate appointments to a Democratic seat left vacant by Kim Elton.  None of the three was put forward by the actual Democrats themselves, which is how it’s supposed to be done.

These three rogue picks fall out like this:

• Joe Nelson – Rejected already by the Senate Dems, but still on the list of three until today, when he wisely withdrew his own name.

• Tim Grussendorf – Rejected already by the Senate Dems.  “Didn’t realize he was a Republican until a couple weeks before the appointment.”

• Alan Wilson – Converted to Democratism two weeks ago.  A small businessman.

Palin presenting this list actually breaks the law.  So the governor, whose philosophy is  “I’ll do whatever I want until the law tells me no”, has just been told NO in a legal opinion from a legislative lawyer.

And let the backpedaling begin.

Then, late Wednesday, Palin sent a new letter to the Senate saying she wanted to “eliminate confusion” and make clear that she meant to forward the names of the three candidates in order of her preference — not as one batch.

Palin said in her new letter that she was re-appointing Grussendorf. And said that, if the Senate Democrats reject him again, then she was appointing Nelson. And — if Nelson is rejected again — Palin said she was appointing Wilson.

Of course, it’s illegal to reappoint Grussendorf, since he’s already been rejected.    So here’s the Palin plan.  She’s going to break the law, then break the law again, and then, just for fun, she’s going to appoint someone else who will get rejected, which will provide a whole new opportunity to….break the law.

Of course this plan seems…..well….crazy, to put it bluntly.  That is of course, if you’re a stickler about such things as the law.  Palin and Ross, however, keep illustrating that they aren’t.

Wayne Anthony Ross shocked lawmakers, and everyone else when he came out with this whopper yesterday:

“It seems to me the most important thing that can be done by the Senate is not argue with legal or illegal but to appoint somebody to represent Juneau,” he said.

As this quote was printed, I envision the sound of breaking glass, and papers fluttering to the floor in the capitol building as everyone with half an ounce of intelligence, and sense of right and wrong dropped whatever it was that they were holding, and stood slackjawed.

And yet there are STILL legislators who are going to vote “yes” on an Attorney General who just told them not to worry if they were breaking the law.  I hope that Alaskans are paying very careful attention at how their legislators vote on this appointment, regardless of whether he gets appointed or not.  This will tell you all you need to know about their priorities, and whether they are working for you, or someone else.

 

Read more Mudflats

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Advertisements