Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Anchorage Paper Blasts Palin's 'Orwellian' Investigation Response

Sarah Palin may be popular in her home state, but the Anchorage Daily News is having none of it.

The newspaper has looked at Gov. Palin's response to the Troopergate investigation released Friday night, an investigation that found that the governor did indeed violate state ethics rules.

Here's part of the paper's unsparing critique of Palin and her response to the investigation, a response that was worthy of George Orwell's infamous "doublespeak."

Sarah Palin's reaction to the Legislature's Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

She claims the report "vindicates" her. She said that the investigation found "no unlawful or unethical activity on my part."

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."

In plain English, she did something "unlawful." She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

That's the charitable interpretation.

Because if she had actually read it, she couldn't claim "vindication" with a straight face.

Palin asserted that the report found "there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired."

In fact, the report concluded that "impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

Palin's response is the kind of political "big lie" that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I keep hearing from acquaintances and friends that they have "doubts" about Obama. It's hard for me to imagine any doubt big enough not to be outweighed by the fact that a McCain win means a very significant chance of a President Palin.

It's just that simple. I don't know how you get around it. Palin is obviously mindless and a facile liar, incredibly, when the truth is right out in plain view.

John Cleese of Monty Python was interviewed recently. He compared her to a parrot. That may be the charitable view.

crescentmoon said...

Tulsan said it. It is neither ignorant nor Orwellian; it is a lie. She would fit right in with the current administration, & we don't need any more of that.