The Motley Moose - Alaska

Ted Stevens Gets Time To Pack [Updated]

Chris Blask — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:50:35 GMT

Ted Stevens gets to go home an pack his striped jammies instead of having to worry about all that Senator stuff.

[Update - 19/11/2008 4:30pm ET] - Ted Stevens Concedes election to Mark Begich.

Anchorage Daily News has this:

ANCHORAGE, AK - Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) today released the following statement regarding his campaign and the most recent vote tallies in Alaska:
"Given the number of ballots that remain to be counted, it is apparent the election has been decided and Mayor Begich has been elected."

AKMuckRaker enjoys the moment when Alaska elected a Democratic Senator for the first time in thirty years:

That means that my red red state isn't so red anymore. We have just elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate for the first time in 30 years! OK, I know....it took running against a seven time convicted felon to do it, and it was still really really close... but nobody better snow on my parade!

Of course he gets to collect his pension in jail, but at least he doesn't get to collect his pension in jail while still being a Senator.

Stevens was (past tense) the longest-sitting Republican in the Senate, and he's been replaced by a 46-year-old popular Anchorage mayor who could be there for a long time as well. Ex-Senator Stevens fortunately has already met his future cell-mate and is already warming up to him.

At least as interesting is the crashing of Sarah Palin's hopes of a Senate seat in the special election that otherwise would have been held after convicted felon Stevens had to take time off for licence plate duty.

Sorry, Sarah. I guess it's the book tour for you.

Palin Failin': On Professionalism and Experience

Chris Blask — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:55:52 GMT

The Palin Fail on abuse of power and ethics violation is a matter of record now. A non-partisan legislative council convicted her of those charges. The McCain machine response is that she wins because she does not face certain censure and impeachment due to her violations, only potential censure and impeachment. They - and most of the media - have missed the point.

The Palin administration has been convicted of rank amateurism. If this is the "executive experience" she touts, we are better off hiring an experienced executive crook like Ken Lay.

At least one person in the media didn't miss that.
Time Magazine writer Nathan Thornburgh sums it up:

But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so.

"Disturbingly so."

It should disturb you. What the investigation shows is that Palin created an administration that is so bush-league that they are incapable of executing even a small-town abuse of power without committing more errors than the Bad News Bears. This is the leadership we want running our high-octane maneuvering with Russia, Iran, China and North Korea?

Consider the report's findings. Not only did people at almost every level of the Palin administration engage in repeated inappropriate contact with Walt Monegan and other high-ranking officials at the Department of Public Safety, but Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful. Still, the emails and calls continued - in at least one instance on recorded state trooper phone lines.

Can you imagine how hard the Russians would have try to keep straight faces dealing with these Keystone Cops? Can't you just hear the post-meeting debriefings of the North Korean delegation?? "No, Dear Leader, I'm serious. She took me aside and whispered a bribe in my ear. Here's the recording from the microphone in my jacket."

The state's head of personnel, Annette Kreitzer, called Monegan and had to be warned that personnel issues were confidential. The state's attorney general, Talis Colberg, called Monegan and had to be reminded that the call was putting both men in legal jeopardy, should Wooten decide to sue. The governor's chief of staff met with Monegan and had to be reminded by Monegan that, "This conversation is discoverable ... You don't want Wooten to own your house, do you?"
Monegan consistently emerges as the adult in these conversations, while the Palin camp displays a childish impetuousness and sense of entitlement.

Let me get this straight, the state's head of personnel had to be told by the person she was trying to unethically leverage over an issue concerning state personnel that state personnel files were confidential?? The state attorney general had to be reminded by the state official he was trying to illegally influence that he could be sued for trying to illegally influence state officials???

Great Murphy's Ghost!

Senator McCain wants to send the author of this Rodney Dangerfield standup routine up against the folks who managed to fool the entire US Intelligence service? Is he out of his ever-loving mind?

But even though she won't likely face any legal repercussions, the amateurism and cronyism of her brief administration hardly leaves Palin sitting pretty.

No, it doesn't. But one thing it does do is leave me shaking in my boots and Putin falling off his chair. If there is any logic in putting this person is a position to act as a foil to our enemies it is only this: it can be hard to plot against us when you are laughing too hard to breathe.

-chris

Troopergate Report Diary - Busted! [UPDATED x7]

Chris Blask — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:08:22 GMT

[UPDATE 4] 9:28pm The report is out, and in brief it says: [sic]"She definitely did abuse power and break trust with the people, but we don't recommend a criminal investigation."

What this means is that those of her base will continue to be excited by what a Mavericky Maverick she is, and those on the fence will have yet another reason to question every word that comes out of her mouth.

She broke the public trust and abused the power of her office.

Expect the MSM to talk about this all weekend in between discussing how much the GOP has hosed the economy.
......................

The "Troopergate" report on Governor Palin's abuse of power is in the hands of the Legislative Council right now. They got their hands on the 200+ page report and 600+ pages of backup documentation this morning at 9am local time (1pm ET).

I am going to keep tabs on this and update this diary as events unfold.

MuFlats is a good source for information and commentary.

Alaska Daily News has a blog and articles on it, you can expect them to provide updates.

Todd Palin provided 25 pages of testimony to the council. Contrary to his earlier statements that he had never had any contact with any public officials on the topic of firing his former brother-in-law, he now admits to "hundreds" of conversations urging state officials on the topic.

More to come.

[UPDATE 1 - 8:48pm] h/t to Fogiv!

Anchorage Daily News has this:

An investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper, according to a report unanimously released by the Legislative Council.

Mudflats goes further:

Finding Number One:
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides
"The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."
Finding Number Two:
I find that, although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.
Finding Number Three:
Harbor Adjustment Service of Anchorage, and its owner Ms. Murleen Wilkes, handled Trooper Michael Wooten's workers' compensation claim properly and in the normal course of business like any other claim processed by Harbor Adjustment Service and Ms. Wilkes. Further, Trooper Wooten received all the workers' compensation benefits to which he was entitled.
Finding Number Four:
The Attorney General's office has failed to substantially comply with my August 6, 2008 written request to Governor Sarah Palin for information about the case in the form of emails.

AKM will continue to update there, check at Mudflats for more.

[UPDATE 2] 9:10pm PDF of the report

[UPDATE 3] 9:17pm MSNBC story

CNN story

ABC News Story

The Telegraph in the UK:

The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn't the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.

Huffington Post

The investigation revealed that Palin's husband, Todd, has extraordinary access to the governor's office and her closest advisers. He used that access to try to get trooper Mike Wooten fired, the report found.

[UPDATE 5] 10:32pm Mudflats has more. Worth the read. This comment pretty well sums up the situation:

Crust Scramble - SouthGA (17:49:18) :
I gotta say it again. McCain would have to drop her like a rock if illegalities were substantiated. Now, thank you God, she's gonna be the gift that keeps on giving.
Priceless.

[UPDATE 6] 10;55pm - FOX News responds by getting Palin's best friend Christin on the air. "It's a partisan attack by a panel that had a lot of Obama supporters on it". Then cut to the recent picture of Palin's legs and talk about sexism. "Fair and balanced", eh?

[UPDATE 7] 12:01am - BBC World News leads with Troopergate ahead of the Global Financial Collapse story.

Who's the Real Manchurian Candidate?

Peter Jukes — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:24:28 GMT

Hat tip to Btchakir for alerting me to this great Salon piece on Sarah Palin's connections to the extreme right wing Alaska Independence Party.

The AIP have been instrumental in Palin's rise from small town mayor to the Governorship, along with a rag bag assortment of other far right wingers (including Palin's pastor who claimed that Alaska would become a refuge state during the rapture).

(image from http://www.drawger.com/zinasau...

The money quote below:

At a national convention of secessionist groups in 2007, AIP vice chairman Dexter Carter announced that his party would seek to "infiltrate" the Democratic and Republican parties with candidates sympathetic to its hard-right, secessionist agenda. "You should use that tactic. You should infiltrate," Carter told his audience of neo-Confederates, theocrats and libertarians. "Whichever party you think in that area you can get something done, get into that party. Even though that party has its problems, right now that is the only avenue."
Carter pointed to Palin's political career as the model of a successful infiltration. "There's a lot of talk of her moving up," Carter said of Palin. "She was a member [of the AIP] when she was mayor of a small town, that was a nonpartisan job. But to get along and to go along she switched to the Republican Party ... She is pretty well sympathetic because of her membership."

This should be enough to send a Cindy McCain cold chill down anyone's spine...

Palin Failin' on Troopergate

Chris Blask — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:38:42 GMT

Sarah Palin has seen better days. Heck, she's seen better weeks, better months and - by the time this VP mis-choice is over - better years.

Troopergate just went nukular.

"In Dozens of Calls, Palins and Aides Pressed for Trooper's Removal" NYT

The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin's Anchorage office was on the line.
As Mr. Monegan recalls it, the aide said the governor had heard that Mr. Wooten was assigned to work the kickoff to the fair in late August. If so, Mr. Monegan should do something about it, because Ms. Palin was also planning to attend and did not want the trooper nearby.
Somewhat bewildered, Mr. Monegan soon determined that Mr. Wooten had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds - in full costume as "Safety Bear," the troopers' child-friendly mascot.

Oh no, it doesn't get much better than this. McPalin the Wolf Hunting, Polar Bear-hating Mavericky ex-Mayor gunning for Skippy the Safety Bear.

And the compost hits the immemorial blower.

"To all of us, it was a campaign to get rid of him as a trooper and, at the very least, to smear the guy and give him a desk job somewhere," said Kim Peterson, Mr. Monegan's special assistant, who like several other aides spoke publicly about the matter for the first time.
Ms. Peterson, a 31-year veteran of state government who retired 10 days before Mr. Monegan's firing, said she received about a dozen calls herself. "It was very clear that someone from the governor's office wanted him watched," she said.

Todd Palin is apparently prepared to throw himself on the grenade.

Times Online has this:

Sarah Palin's husband campaigned for years to help get his former brother-in-law kicked off the state police force, newly released affidavits show.
....
The 52-page document reveals the extraordinary level of access Todd Palin, nicknamed the 'First Dude of Alaska ' , had to top state officials, more than a dozen of whom he contacted directly to complain about the trooper.

Well, heck, what's the use of being married to a politician if you can't exploit that to have undue influence over legal and government operations?!?

Lemme get this straight, Governor, you have been OK palin' around with a secessionist bent on subverting the government of his state and country? You've been so comfortable palin' around with him, that you have lived with him for more than twenty years, born his children, paid for his travel and provided him with direct "official" powers within your elected offices?

hmmmm.... And that's your best case argument?

Mrs Palin had been resisting a subpoena by lawmakers looking into Mr Monegan's firing since mid-September. She initially said she would co-operate with the investigation, but changed her mind after being announced as the surprise running mate on the McCain ticket.

Now, gosh darnnit, Gov'ner, why would that be?

NYT - Immediately after Mr. Monegan's firing, Ms. Palin said her intent was to change the department's direction. (She declined to be interviewed for this article.) She has since offered a variety of explanations for his ouster, most recently accusing him of insubordination and opposing her fiscal reforms.

Fiscal reforms? Like stopping him from getting resources to combat violence against women, a problem so rife in your state as to approach Olympic Sport proportions?

On Jan. 4, 2007, a month into the Palin administration and his tenure as public safety commissioner, Mr. Monegan went to the governor's Anchorage office to talk with Todd Palin, who had requested the meeting.

Hang on, the State Police commissioner was summoned to the governors' offices to meet with her husband??? Is this First Dude of yours in power or not? If so, is he acting at your behest or not? Are you in charge, "Governor", or are you an incompetent patsy just doing what your family tells you and therefore not qualified to even hold the reigns of a Junior Hockey team?

Mr. Palin was seated at a conference table with three stacks of personnel files. That, Mr. Monegan recalled, was the first time he heard the name Mike Wooten.

Ahhhh! So you were there, Gov. Palin! With stacks of personnel files! No doubt just doing clerical work, catching up on your inbox?

Several evenings later, Mr. Monegan's cellphone rang. "Walt, it's Sarah," the governor said before echoing much of what her husband had said. Mr. Wooten, he recalls being told, was "not the kind of person we should want as a trooper." He told the governor, too, that there was no new evidence to pursue.

OK, my snark cup runneth over. I could keep up this pretense of being Shocked and Awed at all this, but it appears that the story as told much earlier is essentially the truth. Sarah Palin abused the power of her office for personal reasons - personal reasons which ran counter to the best interests of her constituents - and furthermore proffered inappropriate powers and duties onto family members.

Run, Sarah. The Redcoats are coming.

Palin Failin' Alaska's Poor

Chris Blask — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:39:04 GMT

Mudflats has a piece on Sarah Palin's unmitigated failure to do anything for the grinding poverty of Alaska's rural citizens. Josh, a former teacher in rural Alaska, writes:

We became very close with a family in our village that had a child drown in a steel container of raw sewage. Let me say that again. They had a child drown in a steel container of raw sewage. Their child was simply outside playing and since there is no playground equipment for the kids to play on, they play on anything, often things too dangerous for children. In this case it was something commonly referred to as a "honey bucket." This is a steel container where house sewage is dumped since there is no indoor plumbing.

This is not the same rural poverty problem seen in Native American reservations in the lower 48 states - Alaskan native peoples are not autonomous nations but are citizens no different than any others and the sole responsibility of the Governor of the state.

The major problem that my wife and I are running into when we tell people our story is that many believe it is the Alaskan Native's problem as a federally recognized tribe and therefore is no different than the many cases and issues that exist on the lower 48 reservations. This is not the case. Alaskan Native tribes are not a sovereign nation. There is no legal difference in the villages that exist off the road system in Alaska, and a small rural town in Kansas. The only difference is that if a small rural town in Kansas had overwhelmingly high suicide rates, rape cases, domestic violence issues, no infrastructure, no running water, poor electricity, energy bills that exceed thousands each month and no money or jobs to help cover the costs, someone would do something about it!

This is borne out by information elsewhere. David Boston wrote this on July 20th of this year: "What is Being Done about Poverty in Alaska?"

Unfortunately, more is being done to worsen the poverty situation in the critical poverty areas of Alaska then is being done to help it.
According to the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Bush Administration has just cut funding for several key Alaskan Native educational programs out of the FY 2009 budget.
The Even Start Program, which supports early childhood development in the most remote areas of Alaska, has been cut for 2009. The Alaska Native Education Equity Act, which developed a variety of culturally appropriate courses and strengthened early childhood education programs, has been cut for 2009.
And the Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Programs, which established essential partnerships with regional organizations and businesses, have been cut for 2009.
Not only that, but housing programs have been cut, and the Native Alaskan calls for assistance in erosion-reduction and relocation costs have fallen on deaf ears. Since many Native villages are on the western coast of Alaska, this means a lot to them.
The future well-being of Alaskans living in poverty will seem to depend jointly on the willingness of others to lend them their voices, and the ability of their government to listen.

So, while Sarah Palin has been installing tanning beds in the Governor's mansion, spending Bridge To Nowhere money, handing out Popularity Contest $1,200 checks and leading her suburban Hockey Mom existence, she has forgotten about the people in her own state who lack the basic necessities of indoor plumbing and safety for their children.

Nice work, Sarah. Stop staring out your window at Russia and start looking after your people.

A Tale of Two Rallies

Chris Blask — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:25:56 GMT

Two rallies were held this weekend in Alaska. One, for the McCain-Palin ticket. The other: Obama-Biden.

Which one got more support by about a four-to-one margin?

AKMudRaker went to both. His accounts of both match what Alaska Daily News had to say about the the Palin rally and what the pictures show of the Obama rally.

Attendance:

Plain Rally ~ 250
Obama Rally ~ 1,200

Approximately 1200 rally-goers, lots of homemade signs, voter registration, postcard writing, live band, t-shirt/button sales with long lines, lots of families and dogs (some with signs), outside on the Park Strip.

According to Wesley Low at the Alaska Daily News:

Todd (Palin) told the crowd of roughly 300, who didn't nearly fill the cavernous meeting hall, that he'd just flown in from Denver. And that he thought his wife won Thursday's debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The applause could almost be heard across the room.

You might think this was a before-action picture, but if you follow the red arrow you will notice that there is a speaker at the podium. This was, in fact, the turnout.

Oh, heck, let's step back and get a good look...

You can't tell me that the volunteers and staff at the McCain-Palin Anchorage office went through the trouble of setting up all those chairs unless they planned to fill them. Only a fool would setup more chairs than necessary for a political event (at the Biden event I volunteered at, we were scrounging extra chairs at the last minute and filled the standing-room-only area above the bleachers). You leave a lot of empty seats, and some wiseacre is likely to take a picture that looks like this:

Which can only mean that the McCain campaign thought they would fill the hall and were unable to.

As AKMudRaker said: "McPainfully empty"...

What was going on at the Obama rally, you ask? Shannyn Moore went to the Obama rally and got these pictures which she set nicely to music:

ADN and AKMudRaker got the following pics as well:

Could it be that Gov. Palin will not be able to bring her own state for her running mate? With the seven Troopergate witnesses now agreeing to honor their subpeonas and Palin's state approval rating dropping 14% - it's a possibility.

Go Alaska!

-chris

Gov. Sarah Palin - She really does make things up as she goes along

John Allen — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:19:22 GMT

The image of Gov. Sarah Palin being promoted by the McCain campaign is of a straight-shooter who talks truth to power. The true image is of a person who lies repeatedly, even after being called out for her lies.

The Vice-Presidential debate offered more examples of her ability to lie with a straight face. All politicians obfuscate during debates and frequently misstate their opponent's position. But, not all of them make up lies as they go along. Gov. Palin did that at least twice during Thursday's debate.

One of the lies, about post-surge troop levels in Iraq, could have been caused by lack of knowledge on the part of Palin, but the other, about divestment of investments in Sudan, was a pure unadultrated prevarication.
Palin made the claim during the debate that troop levels in Iraq are now at pre-surge levels. This is demonstratively false. According to Pentagon figures. Iraq troop levels before the surge were at 133,500. Today, they are around 155,000. Sorry, Govenor, you fail once again to tell the truth.

The other obvious lie she told during the debate resembles her lies about the Bridge to Nowhere. The truth appears to be the exact opposite of her claims. It has been well-documented that she supported the Bridge to Nowhere and, after it was canceled by Congress, spent the money on other projects in Alaska. She continues to tell this lie in her stump speeches to partisan crowds. They love it.

Thursday's lie is as easy to refute as the Bridge to Nowhere lie, but I'll bet it too finds its way into her stump speech.

When talking about Sudan during the foreign policy portion of the debate Palin said, "When I and others in the legislature found out that we had some millions of dollars [of Permanent Fund investments] in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars."

An investigation by ABC News found this claim to be false. Not only did Palin not call for divestment, her administration played a major role in stopping a legislative effort for divestment.

"The legislation is well-intended, and the desire to make a difference is noble, but mixing moral and political agendas at the expense of our citizens' financial security is not a good combination," testified Brian Andrews, Palin's deputy revenue commissioner, before a hearing on the Gara-Lynn Sudan divestment bill in February. Minutes from the meeting are posted online by the legislature.
Gara says the lack of support from Palin's administration helped kill the measure.
"I walked out of that hearing livid," Gara recalled of the February meeting. Because of the Palin administration's opposition to the bill, "We could not get a vote in that committee," he explained. At no point did Palin come out in support of the effort, Gara said.

We've all come to expect that politicians will lie when they think it is advantageous. However, this politician seems to lie for the sake of lying. Do we really want her a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States?

Mudflats: "Palin Throws Alaska Under the Bus."

Chris Blask — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:56:35 GMT

Sarah Palin loves Alaska! She's a true-blue loyalist, fighting for her folks at home!

Or, no, it can't be...

AKMudraker at MudFlats has this story for us:

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is effectively turning over questions about her record as Alaska's governor to John McCain's political campaign, part of an ambitious Republican strategy to limit embarrassing disclosures and carefully shape her image for voters in the rest of the country.

This is not going over well in Alaska. I’ll use my usual caveat that there are lots of Alaskans who happily subscribe to the “Sarah right or wrong” mentality, and will continue to do so. However, the progressive take on this whole latest mess is only slightly short of taking torches and pitchforks and surrounding the Attorney General’s office, demanding an end to the stonewalling. I’ve watched Alaskan progressives that I personally know go from saying, “Wow! I can’t believe I voted for a Republican!” to, “She’s doing OK. I don’t agree with everything, but I don’t regret my vote” to being so furiously seething angry they just can’t say anything.

So, loyalty flying in the face of expediency, it is quickly ripped away and used to clean the bathroom.

It remains to be seen how effective the so-called "Truth Squad" is in 'shaping her image' in the rest of the country, but they are not doing her any favors here at home. I've never heard so many people say they can't wait to see her new approval ratings.

We can't wait to see them, either.

-chris

Former Federal Prosecutor Speaks Out About Palin

Tania Tetlow — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:17:01 GMT

When asked why we were attacked on 9/11, Sarah Palin answered because the terrorists hate our freedoms. While she has been derided for her lack of foreign policy experience, she may have come up with the most innovative program yet to deter terrorists: taking those freedoms away.

Just like many Middle Eastern countries, Mayor Palin punished the women of Wasilla for reporting rape. Her administration charged them substantial fees for the rape kits used to prove the crime. After being attacked, a Wasilla woman could look forward to being billed up to $1200 in return for a grueling forensic pelvic exam.

Sarah Palin has provided the ultimate example of why a female candidate is no substitute for a candidate who cares about women. Compare Palin and Biden's records on violence against women, an issue on which both sides normally agree. The political right may not always prioritize the cause, but it does not disagree that domestic violence is destructive of families and that rape is fundamentally wrong. Yet Palin sailed right past apathy to downright punishment of women for reporting rapes.
Her handpicked sheriff (she had fired his predecessor for disloyalty) decided to save Palin's city budget a few thousand dollars by singling out rape victims to pay for their own criminal investigations. (See the Huffington Post for new evidence that Palin signed off on the policy.) The policy so bothered the Alaska legislature that it passed a state-wide statute to ban the practice, signed into law by Governor Tom Knowles.

Palin did not charge any other crime victims for the privilege of law enforcement. When the Wasilla police fingerprinted a house that had been burglarized, they did not present the owners with a bill for their services. But rape, of course, is different. As an on-line reader of Wasilla's local paper wrote in response to the issue:

To weed out the false accusations women make with respect to sexual assaults, many towns have and are charging for rape kits. I have worked enough rapes to know when the town ho cries foul just to be vindictive and YES she should be charged.

Violence against women is an epidemic in America, with rates of rapes, beatings and murders not that different from many of the countries that we condemn as uncivilized because of how they treat women. Studies show that about 1 in 4 women will be beaten by a partner in their lifetime, and 1 in 6 will be the victim of rape or attempted rape.

Governor Palin either does not believe this or does not care. Which state has more than double the national rate of rape, and the highest per capita murder rate of women by men? You guessed it. Alaska.

Not only is Joe Biden better on this issue, he has been the nation's most vocal champion for ending violence against women. Biden drafted a federal statute that banned local communities from charging for rape kits (contained in a crime bill that McCain voted against.) Biden spent years of his Senate career authoring and passing the Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA"), a law that created federal enforcement of interstate domestic violence and stalking, and, more importantly, brought massive funding to local police departments to protect women. Since VAWA, the domestic violence murder rate has decreased substantially. Joe Biden has saved countless women from rape and murder.

The women attracted to Sarah Palin's candidacy and the brash Annie Oakley figure described by Camille Paglia are not discouraged by Palin's positions on feminist cultural issues. But these same women are tired of a government that ignores the constant violence against them. These are the women who watch Lifetime movies and Martina McBride video "Independence Day" celebrating escape from domestic violence as part of American freedom. They understand the humiliations heaped upon women by cynical cops, and will be horrified at the thought of paying a backbreaking fee for a rape exam of their daughters. This may be the issue that makes clear that Palin's exuberance at breaking the glass ceiling conceals something darker.

Tania Tetlow
Associate Professor and Director,
Tulane Law School Domestic Violence Clinic.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney