Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin (50 page)

We'd somehow survived Troopergate; now we were being hounded by an insurgent critic who wouldn't quit. As such, we created—over this silly dress item—something that came to be dubbed Cleavage-gate. Radio host and fellow blind allegiant Eddie Burke joyfully took up the cause. In early May, McLeod attended a fund-raiser for a local mayoral candidate. Burke confronted her about her rejection for a state job and the PRRs, while secretly recording her answers. He also suggested he might file a FOIA (he actually meant PRR) of his own, asking for all of McLeod's communications with the state for use on his radio show. As governing the state of Alaska seemed a half-hearted hobby rather than an important job, we were now reduced to initiating bring-down-Andree-McLeod games. Ivy listened to Burke's radio show and described the fun:
“Eddie
[
on his show
]
played audio of him confronting andree mcleod at the . . . fund-raiser last night. She couldn't
answer if she ever asked for a state gig and got frustrated and called him an a hole. He played it twice. Pretty funny.”

Joining in, Kris replied,
“Man wish I would have heard that. Did she sound unbalanced? Well, when eddie's foia gets fulfilled, there will be multiple instances to show that she did
[
request a job
]
.”

Sarah loved the image as much as anyone. She wishfully replied,
“well let that foia get filled soon.”

Everyone's newest hero, Eddie Burke, added,
“I busted her ass on this. She's soooo nervous about the foia and can't answer anything . . . When I'm done with her she will wish she never filed anything against the gov.”

Sarah loved the proactive actions.
“Well it's about time someone gets the ball and goes downfield on offense.”
Funny that Sarah wrote this as if we hadn't already been an offensive force for over three years running. We were many things, but passive was never one of them. Sarah even ordered a search for secret financial backers when she wrote, in May 2009:

In the end, not one of McLeod's seven complaints—filed from August 8, 2008, through May 8, 2009—was sustained. However, Sarah agreed to reimburse the state in order to settle one ethics complaint over ten state-paid trips taken by her children. This was glossed over as if it were a clean bill of ethical health. In other instances, the lines she crossed were questionable, though not considered illegal. With each dismissal, we celebrated, high-fived, and whoo-hooed as if this proved we were still, as Sarah once claimed, “the last of the innocents.”

And as always, reality mattered not half as much as appearance.

In order to distribute the message, Spokesperson Meg Stapleton—
with Sarah's full endorsement—offered a recommendation after one of our victories:

And while we were about to confront a host of additional foes and turn trivial crises into full-blown disasters, Stapleton's “whatever legally works” email hinted at the next major tumor, one rivaling in intensity other bungled plans: Wayne Anthony Ross as Sarah's selection for attorney general. Unlike other provocative appointments, at least Ross wouldn't have to be fired or forced to resign. He'd never get that far.

32
 

No New Tricks for This Old Dog

F
iring the entire Matanuska Maid Board for making the correct decision to shut down losing operations, annually growing the state budget when she said she would reduce it, and stacking her early administration with professionals she later disposed of might have humbled most politicians. Sarah, with an impressive ability to compartmentalize failure, had, on several occasions after her return to Alaska, the opportunity to prove she had no interest in adopting a more modest management style.

In a little-known (outside of Alaska, that is) appointment fiasco in May 2009, Sarah had participated in the selection of a new state senator when the incumbent, Kim Elton, was tapped by newly elected president Obama to a position in the Department of the Interior. Because Elton was a Democrat, the rules required that the Democratic legislators nominate candidate(s) for the governor's consideration. Although the governor was not bound by the name(s), she must submit a Democratic candidate back to the legislature for ultimate approval.

House minority leader Beth Kerttula was, according to Juneau Democratic Chair Kim Metcalfe, “head and shoulders above everyone else in terms of her length of service, in terms of her readiness to step into the position.” As such, hers was the solitary name sent to the governor.

To make a long story short, Sarah didn't like Beth Kerttula because she had gone on national television and said that Sarah was not ready for higher office when nominated by McCain as his running mate. Such a statement became a declaration of war, and Sarah rejected the nomination. The legislators proposed more names. Sarah rejected them all despite continuing to insist she worked well with politicians on both sides of the aisle.

A longtime supporter came up with a clever strategy for dealing with the impasse. She recommended that Sarah submit a
“somewhat goofy Dem, who has never been elected over going with someone who has already proven electability like Kerttula. That gives us a better chance of winning the seat next election.”
Sarah loved the idea. Not only punish Kerttula for being a critic, but position the seat for a GOP win by putting in place a
goof
. If we'd ever held to our promise of no politics as usual, Sarah was now about to bludgeon it to death. To make the plot even more delicious, this same supporter recommended Tim Grussendorf, a man Sarah found an ideal choice. Fortuitously, two weeks before placing his name into nomination, Grussendorf changed party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, thus making him suddenly available as a nominee. Mimicking Todd Palin's claims regarding his registration in the Alaska Independence Party, Grussendorf said his prior affiliation was a mistake.

The state senate didn't buy the argument or approve the ill-suited candidate, and so the process began all over again. New names were submitted by the senate for Sarah's consideration, including Dennis Egan, former mayor of Juneau and son of the state's first governor, Bill Egan. She rejected these. Back and forth. Sarah sent over new names, again including the already once-rejected Grussendorf, along with another candidate who had become a Democrat only a month earlier.

Of this process, Senator Hollis French said, “The governor was on the brink of being taken to court in violation of appointment statutes. All because she was trying to rebuke Beth [Kerttula], who during the campaign said one or two things that weren't ingratiating to the governor.” Furthermore, “The governor has taken an unusual course which is outside the law and leaves us no choice but to ignore what she's done.”

After four weeks of wasted debate and animosity, finally in
April 2009, on the last day of the legislative session, and with the embarrassing threat of being taken to court, Sarah relented. She wasn't thrilled with compromise selection Dennis Egan, but at least she won the battle to punish Beth Kerttula. As for placing a somewhat goofy Dem in the senate, she gave it her all.

Once Talis Colberg resigned as attorney general, Sarah had another golden opportunity to display her head-scratching decision-making skills.

Sarah, beset with at least thirteen ethics complaints on top of the seven filed by Andree McLeod, needed a friend in the attorney general's office. Wayne Anthony Ross had everything Sarah wanted. A legendary figure in legal circles, he was present at the first Palin fund-raiser I attended way back in November 2005 and was always ready to lend sound advice to Sarah whenever she ran into legal and political trouble. In 2006 he announced, “Sir WAR stands ready to support and defend the fair lady wherever and whenever he can.” In Sarah's eyes, Ross's loyalty trumped his experience, though his experience was enormous. When he submitted his resume on February 15, 2009, it rivaled a novella in length. Born in 1943, WAR had lived in Alaska for forty years and began practicing law in 1968, when he was appointed as assistant attorney general for two years. He listed over thirty current club and professional memberships as well as ninety-eight former memberships. He had page after page documenting extensive employment history, military service, teaching experience, political experience, public service, awards, publications, hobbies, religious preference, and family information. I also knew him to be a bit of a character, riding around Anchorage in his red Hummer with vanity plates proclaiming WAR. He was brilliant and conservative, with the religious right—including the pro-life Alaska Family Council headed by tenacious religious conservative Jim Minnery—strongly supporting him. On March 26, when Sarah announced Ross's appointment, she felt optimistic about his chances of being approved by the legislature. After all, never before had a nominee for any cabinet position, including attorney general, been rejected.

Unfortunately, critics and the press were not inclined to give WAR a free pass. They dredged up a letter Ross wrote in 1993 and published in the
Alaska Bar Rag
(a sometimes irreverent quarterly legal newspaper) called homosexuality “a lifestyle that was a crime only a few years ago, and whose beliefs are certainly immoral in the eyes of anyone with some semblance of intelligence and moral character.”

Further, Ross wrote an article that appeared in the
Anchorage Daily News
on September 17, 1989, only six months after the
Exxon Valdez
disaster entitled, “It Is Time We Quit Crying Over the Oil Spill.” Nearly twenty years later, many Alaskans had still not gotten over that so-called oil spill. Other criticisms surfaced and all stops were pulled out to ensure WAR did not win confirmation, including defamatory rumors of sexist comments, strong anti-federal-government positions, and opposition to Alaskan subsistence hunting preference, which allows Natives a preference in hunting and fishing rights. His position on the executive committee of the National Rifle Association was used against him by his opponents. While not necessarily hurting him with his conservative base, WAR was being cast as having a far-right, preconceived agenda that did not attract anyone identified as moderate or left leaning. Women's rights groups, the gay community, and Alaska Natives were up in arms over the nomination. The day after his nomination, a CEO from a prominent Native corporation called and asked, “Frank, how on earth could Sarah nominate Wayne without having you lay the groundwork within the Native community? People trust you, Frank.” He lamented that while he liked Wayne personally, his selection was handled so poorly and without respect for the Native community that it was doomed to fail. What he did not know was that the appointment was largely handled by Meg Stapleton, the political spokesperson for the Palins at the time and not a state employee.

When it came time for Ross's confirmation hearing in mid-April, Democratic representative Lindsey Holmes asked Ross how he would view cases involving homosexuality. Ross compared homosexuality to his dislike for lima beans. “Let me give you an analogy. I hate lima beans. But if I was hired to represent the United Vegetable Growers, would you ask me if liked lima beans? No. Because my job is to represent the United Vegetable Growers.”