TrooperGate: Meet The Man In The Middle

For some reason, Democrats have a habit of diefying people who are somewhat less than scrupulous and oftentimes, that diefication comes before they really know who that person is.

Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Jesse Jackson, just to name a few.

Now, they have jumped the gun on diefication again, this time with former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

Far from being an upright man who did what was right, Monegan's story is one of growing interest and a dark past. From Amanda Carpenter at TownHall:

[Monegan] recently admitted dislocating his wife's shoulder "by accident" by "wrestling and tickling" her according to the San Francisco Chronicle. His estranged wife Georgene Moldovan, however, tells it a little differently. Moldovan said she sought a restraining order against Monegan in 1994 after he threatened to kill her, waved a gun at her and knocked her shoulder out of socket, according to court papers. The court papers say: "he pulled out his gun and waved it at me outside my home and yelled he would kill me if I stopped him." Moldovan told the SF Chronicle that Monegan "would show up unannounced and break into my apartment and do threatening things. I was forced to get a restraining order because I was really fearful he was going to harm me." She said he also threatened to throw her body into a cold, Alaskan river.

I bet Monegan didn't want any of this coming to light as it is very embarrassing. Still, the original question of TrooperGate was whether or not Monegan was fired because of his refusal to terminate Governor Palin's ex-Brother-in-law Mike Wooten.

But there is no evidence that this was the case and Monegan even admitted that there was no pressure for him to fire Wooten.

Here is the real story behind the firing:

Thomas Van Flein, Palin's legal counsel, submitted a report to investigators last week that said Monegan was eventually fired for “outright insubordination.” Fein cited evidence showing Monegan defied the Governor by making public requests for projects Palin did not support in her budget, such as an $1.8 million increase for the Anchorage Community Land Trust (a project Palin had previously vetoed) and by planning an unauthorized trip to Washington to lobby the Alaskan delegation for more money. Monegan wanted Washington to give him between $10 million and $20 million to rehire retired troopers to specialize in sexual assault cases. The Palin administration maintained Monegan needed to fill his 56 general enforcement vacancies that already had an existing funding stream before hiring specialized enforcement staff outside the budget. Flein also included an avalanche of 2008 emails from Palin’s staff that discussed Monegan’s, a political appointee who served at the Governor’s pleasure, disruptive agenda in his report. None of the emails mentioned Wooten.

That's right, none of the emails mentioned Wooten. I wonder if the Obama operatives, Democrats Hollis French and Ken Elton, will make sure that these facts are mentioned in the final report?

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Violent Men At Center Of "Troopergate"
Amanda Carpenter
TownHall.com
September 22, 2008