Wednesday, March 25, 2009

On Celtic Diva's Executive Ethics Complaint and the Alaska Press Club Anne Kilkenny Recognition

Sarah Palin's first mentor was John Stein. He helped her understand municipal government and basic civics, when she was a member of the Wasilla Planning Commission. John, who at that time was Wasilla Mayor, encouraged Palin to run for the city council. She did that, and won. He continued to help her.

In 1994, Scott Ogan, Beverly Masek and Vic Kohring won seats in the state legislature. Coming in on the Newt Gingrich-led "Contract With On America" wave. They replaced Democrats who had ably represented the Mat-Su Valley for years.

Kohring inspired Palin. I listened to him describe how he hoped to convince her to run for mayor. He helped craft her campaign. It was the most dishonest municipal campaign I can ever remember witnessing. She dismissed Stein as part of a corrupt "good ol' boys network." A whispering campaign about John's wife and alleged Jewish heritage was conducted with full knowledge of Palin.

After Palin beat Stein, she not only took full credit for many reforms and improvements Stein had either implemented or begun planning for, she continued to denigrate his accomplishments. She began using terms only Masek and Kohring were using, when describing civil functions. For instance, other than Masek and Kohring, Palin was the only local public official to go around describing public schools as "government schools," in a scornful, dismissive tone.

Masek, her former mentor, is facing prison. Kohring, her former mentor and advisor, is in prison. Stein, the person she abandoned, and so dishonestly treated, has gone on to lead a very successful career as one of Alaska's most honored administrators.

After her two terms as Wasilla mayor, Palin claimed to have reined in more "corrupt" people - like Randy Reudrich, for instance. However, Reudrich is still - as he was when Palin lied about how she dealt with him - the state chair of the political party she represents. She openly cooperated with him several times during the fall presidential campaign.

Palin has recently been forced to return more money to the state of Alaska that she illegally took, than Vic Kohring is serving his time for having gotten from Bill Allen.

She was forced to do that a a result of an ethics complaint.

To compare Linda Kellen to Anne Kilkenny may be a stretch. I know Linda very well, but have only known her for about two years. I've known Anne for 20 years, but we barely know each other.

I've worked with Linda on several projects, though not on this complaint. I'm a member of the Alaska Press Club Board, but missed the meeting at which the decisions about Anne were made that have come under criticism this week.

Linda is being criticized for having complained about Palin's self-serving conduct at the start of the 2009 Iron Dog race. Anne isn't being criticized, but the Press Club's elevation of her to an honor, is. Kilkenny was, after all, a runner-up, and awards are seldom given to runners-up (unless they are powerful, vindictive people).

I probably would have voted to honor Anne the way she is being honored. Although I don't think I would have joined Linda in this particular complaint, had she asked me to, I'm not sure. I do believe Linda's complaint is fully justified. How best to honor Anne is perhaps another matter.

The Anchorage Press' BJ Kelley is working on a feature for Thursday's edition that appears to be, from the questions he is asking, a fairly critical view of the AKPC's decision. Club president John Creed has detailed his reasoning, and Club vice president Rhonda McBride, has written an op-ed that comes down against the Kilkenny decision.

Kelley and others have raised an interesting point - was Andrew Halcro considered for this award? I don't remember. Whatever, the First Amendment award is being given to a very deserving couple.

Andrew is certainly deserving of an award of some sort. As Kelley observed in an email late yesterday, "I submitted a name (Andrew Halcro's, for breaking Troopergate on his blog) in early December to [name deleted by PA] when she asked if we at the Press had suggestions for potential candidates."

My view is that had the Anchorage Daily News, KTUU-TV, the Frontiersman, KMBQ-FM, APRN and others fully covered Palin between 1996 and 2004, there would be no controversy over an award to Anne Kilkenny, or about Linda Kellen's valid complaint. And Andrew Halcro might be Governor of Alaska.

Palin is the most polarizing figure in Alaska history. The two distinguished Alaskans she got to write an ethics white paper in early 2007, Wev Shea and Ethan Berkowitz, have come down on opposite sides recently, on issues relating to Palin's ability to do her job, or to understand what the term "ethics" means.

Sarah Palin's divisiveness and attractiveness, in combination, are certainly historical too. Here's Glenn Beck, this afternoon, fawning over her, as he and a FOXblonde take on Celtic Diva:


image - Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh-How creepy is Glenn Beck, drooling over Sarah like Greta.? ICK!

Why do they childishly state that those that are against Palin are just afraid of her?

What does they base any of the comments about Palin on? Family Values? WHY was she flying during labor with a special needs fetus? Is that caring for the unborn life? HOw about letting your teenage daughter's boyfriend move in the house. LEVI just MOVED OUT of the Palin home when they broke up!!! How is that family value?

Anonymous said...

Don't post this- just a msg asking U to fix my typo before posting my comment.

ppsst- please fix my typo- lol
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe his show hasn't been canceled.

Anonymous said...

I'm not afraid of Palin but I certainly dislike her. Yes I'm liberal but my best friend is concervative and from the moment she learned of Sarah Palin and her family situation she said the woman should be staying home with her children and doing a better job raising them. Everything about Fox is disgusting and Beck has been fawning over Palin for some time now. He even crys on air because he too has a special need child like Palin..........and that is more or less a quote from him.

No one will ever convince these people that we aren't afaid of Palin. We dislike her and her methods.

So, are they all afraid of Obama? Is that why they constantly bash him?

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking Wev S provided an unsolicited opinion to keep his name out there, if you know what I mean.

RunninL8 said...

Listening to those two is like sucking a lemon. I could practically implode.
MOst of the "Palin defense" I've heard in the last couple of days are lame accusations of JEALOUSY! DESPIRATION! PETTINESS!
And then there is TERROR!
Well, it IS terrifying to think of this woman in a position of power! Look at what she is doing to our state!

Anonymous said...

Beck reminds me of Dennis Miller's intonation when speaking. There's this tone of incredulity and the raising of the pitch in their voices. You are waiting for the punchline, and then you wait some more for the punchline. It's all going to be so hilarious, but the humor never really does arrive. All you end up waiting for is snide drivel.

I notice these two spend next to nada actually discussing the ethics complaints, mostly that Palin is the poor victim. What irony.

I think CBD has a filed a legitimate complaint. As I watched the Iron Dog segment with Palin, I wondered about the Arctic Cat gear she was wearing and how it was great advertising. I did not know that Arctic Cat sponsors Todd.

It showed poor judgment on the part of the governor no matter how you look at it. Either she didn't put it together that it was ethically questionable or, she did and went ahead with it anyway, and with 9 ethics complaints already on file, why not just play it safe and wear non sponsored snow gear?

I guess the call of the leather, the expensive outfit, and the TV time was all just too much for her to resist.

Anonymous said...

Phil you are full of shit:

In your Drivel you stated:

"Kohring inspired Palin. I listened to him describe how he hoped to convince her to run for mayor. He helped craft her campaign."

Palin ran her own campaign for mayor. She had hundreds of supporters including Vic. Big Fucking Deal, this does not mean she was inspired by Vic.

Phil, you futher slander Sarah when you make the outrageous statement:

"Masek, her former mentor" - What a bunch of crap. Beverly was incapable of mentoring anyone, much less how to run for mayor.

Phil, you seem to believe that a republican is incapable of original thought. That Palin some how gave a flying fuck about what Bev said.

Palin has her faults, but having Bev Masek as a mentor was never one of them.

Phil you are sounding more like Dan Fagan every day.

Anonymous said...

IF Palin had no history of unethical behavior (LOL yeah, I know, that is an absurd supposition LOL) the Arctic Cat clothing would not be a big deal.

HOWEVER, in light of the continuous, and ongoing publically displayed, "in your face" misbehaviors by Palin, Linda's complaint is more than justified, though when taken out of context it may seem trivial.

It is NOT trivial, it is just another slap in the face to Alaskans and to anyone's moral code.

Apparently, Palin has no moral code other than her narcissistic, "If I do it, then it is not illegal" a la Nixon's infamous statement.

Sarah Palin is mentally ill with extreme malignent narcissism and needs to be removed from office.

Nothing she does is going to make sense, be fair etc. It will ALWAYS be self-serving and will be rationalized by nonsensical, illogical reasoning.

This is a sick woman. I am not "name calling" here.

Sarah Palin is mentally ill and needs to be removed from office. Period.

Anonymous said...

I think Linda's complaint might be justified. AND...I think it's petty. That there is even a question about it's legitimacy is testament to it's pettiness. KO even bitch slapped her yesterday. There are too many other ethics violations to go after he about. The jacket? Did she profit? Yeah, I can see that. Linda's complaint potentially takes away from legitimate progressive positions regarding Palin. Therefore...I think it's more damaging to progressives. Sarah gets to play the victim...

Anonymous said...

Vic actually helped and encouraged a lot of the Valley reps. He was generous with them in sharing wood for signs and with money. (Really. With money.)

Bev Masek was in the eighties thought to be able to become the first female governor. Why wouldn't Sarah have been inspired and possibly mentored by her until she (Bev) succumbed to temptations that the rest of us can only shake our heads over?

Phil-- I would like to know if you knew Bev's ex husband. What did you think of him? Do you think that their relationship may have been corrosive for Bev?

KaJo said...

All of you Anonymouses who say Linda Kellen-Biegel's ethics complaint against Sarah Palin is "petty" and insignificant, you forget that we're not waiting for The Big One to be filed.

There's value in numbers of legitimate complaints (however insignificant they seem to be, isolated from one another -- which they aren't). There's currently the potential for a total of TWO DOZEN ethics complaints against Gov. Palin.

What's so astounding to those of us who think Sarah Palin shouldn't be in any elected official position whatsoever, is that Sarah Palin herself is heedlessly committing more and more of these ethics violations, providing ethical citizens of Alaska even more fuel for the fire.

It absolutely amazes me that such a woman, only 6 months away from being too close to the top two elected positions in the USA, has damaged her public persona so completely.

It makes me think that some people who are claiming she's mentally ill are correct. No one who's mentally stable would be doing the things she's been doing lately.