Going Rogue: An American Life (58 page)

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SARAH PALIN

egan wanted to be responsible for a government budget, I thoughr he should run for office. (He later did; months after his stint in my administtation ended, he tan for Anchorage mayor and snagged 8

percent of the total vote.)

Monegan didn’t share my commitment to earmark reform, either. We would eventually slash federal earmark tequests by 85

percent. My cabinet knew of my commitment for Alaska,to lead other states in becoming more self-sufficient and not contributing to the nation’s ever-growing multitrillion-dollar debt. So I was surprised when I learned that Monegan had gone to Washington, D.c., to lobby for earmarks.

He knew my priorities for the Public Safety Department: I wanted him to fill the many vacant state troopet positions. He had failed to do so, yet he still wanted more money. Then we caught wind of a second lobbying trip he was planning to D.C. I knew we couldn’t defer the problem any longer.

1’d already been through one episode with a team member who acted as though he wanted to be traded. Making that change with the legislative director had wotked out well for everyone. So I offered to reassign Monegan to rhe Alcohol Beverage Control Board, where he could work on alcohol abuse problems throughout the state. He said he’d think about it for a few days. Bur instead, the next day he announced he would leave the administration. The day after he tesigned, he wrote a nice fatewell e-mail to his colleagues admitting his failure ro communicate effectively and encouraging them not ro make the same mistake, Soon after that, Democrat legislators and the union spun up a false story that Walt had been fired for personal reasonspurportedly because he wouldn’t fire ex-brother-in-law, the

problem-prone trooper. Strange, I thought, because only

was that not true, but Monegan himself debunked the false accusarion-until he started getting props from the union for

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