Going Rogue: An American Life (112 page)

Going Rogue

wrongdoing and that all the ethics charges filed against me have dismissed, the media made statements

“Gov. Palin has

been dogged by ethics complaints, most of which have dismissed,”

Most
of which. Now an asterisk will forever accompany the issue because of this one settlement. Although, the fact is, all have been dismissed. Indeed, the resolution of the travel issue expressly concluded that no rule was violated and that the law needs be rewritten because even lawyers could not explain what it said. In the end, Newt Gingrich lost his battle on one complaint and was assessed a $300,000 fine. Three years later, the IRS exonerated him, But it was too late: the image of Newt as ethically challenged had become part of the media record. Democrats had neutered their nemesis and pushed him the back burner-at

least for a while.

Now they were trying to consign uS to the same fate. Thus, although it was illegal to do so,

and her acolytes leaked

to the media every time they filed another charge. The leaked complaint would get front-page coverage. Our vindication would be buried next to the obituaries, if mentioned at all. The saddest part of the whole travel issue is that these complaints broke up my base·of support by separating me from my family. The critics had already succeeded in keeping Todd away. He kept his distance from the office now because they had accused him unfairly of being the “Shadow Governor.” Now travel questions forced us to minimize our trips. Piper, Trig, and I stayed in Juneau while Todd, Bristol, and Willow lived in Wasilla. The ethics complaint insanity came to a head when the obstructionists started targeting my staff.
My team.
If rhey answered a press question abour, say, a national event I was invired to, they would be charged wirh doing “partisan work on State time.” Andree Kris with accompanying me on rhe campaign

SARAH

PALIN

ttail as the liaison with my state office, although she had full clearance to do so, and I was obviously not going to abandon my fulltime tesponsibilities as an elected official while on the trail, though many candidates do. Kris had ro pay to defend herself out of her own pocket. Randy Ruato was chatged and also had to pay petsonally to defend himself for merely doing his job. Others were in the same boat. Why would any rational citizen want to pur himself through rhis? You wonder why good people stay out of politics? This is why.

The method of attack we were combating seems to have come right out of Saul Alinsky’s activist manual
Rules
Radicals-

the revolutionary handbook that taught leftists how to effectively harass and obstruct their opponents. Alinsky’s tactics had seemingly been updated by a new generation ofleft-wing activists. In March, a group ftom the Republican Governors Association traveled north to warn us that I was being “Emanuelized” or “Thumped.” As evidence, they pointed to a book called
The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the

to Be

and Ended the Republican Revolution.
It’s the story of how the Illinois congressman, now President Obama’s chief of staff, had crafted and executed the ruthless 2006 campaign strategy that won back Congress for the Democrats. The RGA told us that Alaska was being given the “Chicago treatment.” Their arguments fit the bill. Those who have seen this before traced the attacks back to the period when I was being

vetted for the vice presidential slot and also linked them to the partisan investigation known in the media as “Troopergate.” Walt Monegan knew that I was well within my rights to remove him, and in normal times it would have been a nonissue. But a few days later, the troopers’ union and a group of Democrats • 3 68

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Going Rogue

with close ties to a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, Pete Rouse, then Senator Obama’s chief of staff, were demanding an investigation.

Rouse had lived in Alaska many years before, returning only on a couple of occasions over the last decade. Yet, somehow, though he acrually resides on the Easr Coast, and has for years, he still votes in Alaska through a voter registration address on Main Street in Juneau-an address once shared by State Senator Kim

Elton on voter rolls. Elton, who played a key role in advancing the Monegan issue as a ginnedup “scandal,” has since moved to Washington and joined the Obama interior department as direcror of Alaska Affairs.

As I mentioned earlier, after the Democrats got involved, Walt dramatically changed his IsrorY’ about the reassignment. Meanwhile, the legislarure’s investigative panel decided to pay an independent investigator to find something to charge me with while I was being vetted as a VP candidare. I would later learn that similar groups were. doing rhis across the country for the orher GOP hopefuls, roo. After I was named to the ticket but before the Troopergate invesrigation had even been completed, Democrat Senator Hollis “Gunny” French actually announced nationally that an “October Surprise” was coming. He told the
New York
that an outcome of the investigation could be my impeachment. Early on, CNN reported that the Obama campaign had contacted the troopers’ union to talk about the Troopergate investi. gation. One prominent Democrat lawmaker even bragged to a fellow senator that he was the conduit between the higher echelon of the Obama campaign and the investigating committee. The “independent” investigator ultimately issued strained and nonsensical decision in October that acrually declared that I had been well within my legal rights to reassign Commissioner Monegan. Ir wasn’t until the day before the election that the Per-