The real blot on Palin's record that I've seen, so far, is that she's under investigation for abusing her office to get her former brother in-law fired. That one sentence doesn't do the story justice; she fired his boss not him, claims it was for other reasons, and her former brother in-law's record suggests he deserved to be fired (for some reason, he was given a 5 day suspension). All this reminds me of the story of Billy Dale. Just who is Billy Dale? Billy Dale worked for the White House Travel Office from 1961 to 1993 and became the head of it in 1982. The travel office makes travel arrangements for the entire entourage of people that follow the president when he travels, and particularly the press corps that covers those trips. In 1993 he and his staff were abruptly fired after brief investigations by the FBI and IRS. They were replaced by "friends of Bill" including a 3rd cousin of the Clintons (all from Arkansas), and the last minute travel business awarded to an airline that Hollywoood/TV producer, Clinton supporter/donor and operative Harry Thomasson had a huge interest in. Thomasson later ran the smear campaign FROM INSIDE THE WHITEHOUSE against Kenneth Starr during the run up to and during the impeachment proceedings. More recently, he produced the Hillary Clinton video shown at the recent Democratic convention. Dale was ultimately prosecuted for what looked like trumped up charges and acquitted after a brief deliberation by the jury. On the surface this is as Nixonian an example of abuse of office as you'll ever see. Abuse of office - calling in the FBI and IRS to justify the firings, then the DoJ to maliciously prosecute the man. For purposes other than the public good - to give a multi-$million contract to their friends and a big campaign donor. The coverup - the smear of Dale is obvious, but there's the use of other officials to actually do the hiring and their denials, the refusal to turn over documents subpoenaed by the various investigations that went on, and (one of the many) outright lie Hillary told under oath that a GAO report and even an internal White House review fully refuted. Hillary was clearly involved in the firings, the investigations found, and is even quoted by several witnesses as demanding the firing so they could "get our people in there," while under oath she testified she had no memory of being involved in the firings at all. The travel office staff serve at the pleasure of the president. They had every right to fire the staff without giving any reason at all. So why didn't they? The graft would have been the whole story, and Clinton had promised (verbatim quote) "the most ethical White House in history" when running for president. And they probably misjudged how going after friends of the press would get the press involved in covering the story. Clinton defenders claim that Dale mishandled about $75K worth of funds over the years (he was charged with embezzlement). Dale claimed that in his line of work, he had to be able to access hard cash on short notice for last minute arrangements, especially in some foreign countries where big tips and outright bribes are the norm. That's $75K all years combined out of $7M yearly travel office budget. All this relates to Palin's situation... On one hand, the bar for her ethical conduct is set pretty low by precedent. On the other, abuse of office is abuse of office and I don't believe that's ever good for the People. To be fair, Palin's situation is a true he said/she said situation as far as we know at this point. The results of the investigation into the matter are not complete.
