Latest Troopergate: Palin Plays Make Belive; Feels Vindicated

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 7:29 AM on October 13, 2008.

The news on Friday night was fairly devastating for Sarah Palin: an independent investigation launched by the Alaskan legislature found that the governor had, in fact, violated the public trust in her Troopergate scandal. She abused the powers of her office, violated state ethics rules, and lied about it. This is pretty tough to spin.

In response, Palin, who is now apparently bordering on delusional, has decided to play make-believe.

Sarah Palin told Alaska reporters Saturday that she had been "cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of unethical activity" in the investigative report released the day before that explored her actions in dismissing a state official who refused to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police.

"Well, I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity there," Palin said on a Saturday conference call with reporters from the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2. "Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

I know, I know, after the last eight years, I really should be used to this kind of thing. But I can't help but find this breathtaking. Either Sarah Palin is lying brazenly or she's functionally illiterate.

The very first finding in the report is that Palin "abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.... Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional." Over and again, the report highlights instances in which Palin's conduct was at odds with Alaska's Ethics Act. Palin read this and concluded she's been "cleared" of "any hint of any kind of unethical activity."

So, before the report comes out, Palin issued her own report announcing that she'd cleared herself of any wrongdoing. After the report came out, and concludes that she'd violated the public trust, Palin once again cleared herself of any wrongdoing.

ABC News' Jake Tapper added that Palin made multiple claims about the Troopergate scandal over the weekend, all of which were patently false.

John Cole summarized the problem nicely: "I don't know how to react to this. I really just don't. When someone is that willing to look at you and just flat out make shit up and reject facts, there really is nothing you can do without driving yourself insane."

I'd just add one other observation. On Friday, Palin was found to have violated the public trust in an abuse of power scandal. On Saturday, it was on the front page of the major dailies. And on Sunday morning, NBC's "Meet the Press," ABC's "This Week," and CNN's "Late Edition" ignored the story altogether, despite lengthy discussions about recent political events, as if a major scandal involving a candidate for national office isn't particularly interesting. I'll simply never understand this.