Palin Controversies Remain In The News

I suspect that we will be hearing a lot less about Sarah Palin now that the conventions are over, but the controversies surrounding her are continuing to receive attention due to both a news story and a blog post.

The more substantial of the two is a story in The Anchorage Daily News verifying that Palin did pressure the Wasilla librarian in an attempt to censor books (as previously noted here).

Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn’t fully support her and had to go.

As this happened twelve years ago, details of what happened are unclear and it is not certain if Palin did actually wind up censoring any books after the librarian resisted attempts at such censorship. Palin’s desire to do so, and threats to fire the librarian for refusing to go along, does appear to be well established. Palin’s extremist views potentially make her more dangerous than Dick Cheney, but at least she is not likely to have much power should she become vice president (assuming McCain remains healthy).

The less consequential story being discussed in the blogosphere is in follow up of a claim by The National Enquirer that Palin had an affair with her husband’s business associate. Today Andrew Sullivan posted a blog entry stating “Todd Palin’s former business partner files an emergency motion to have his divorce papers sealed.”

There are many reasons why this might have been requested and, while the timing might be suspicious, this could be coincidence. If there is any truth to this claim of an affair we might find out more as Discourse.net did find that the motion has been denied. There are far more serious questions about Palin than this, but there is no doubt that this will become the top media story on her should any evidence be found that The Enquirer is right on this one.

3 Comments

  1. 1
    markg8 says:

    Apparently the ex biz partner who tried to have his divorce records sealed is named Richtor.  Some say the Enquirer has another ex partner named Hanson they’re looking into.

    It does seem odd that Sarah Palin flew back from Texas for 12 hours after her water broke to her tiny town in Alaska to have her baby. And now no birth records can be found.

    I think the Germans invented the word schadenfreude for times like this. I imagine we’ll see all the same nonsense wingnuts used on Obama’s birth certificate when little Trig’s birth certificate shows up.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    At this point who knows if anything will come out of these things. I’m far more concerned about her extremist views and abuse of power than this type of scandal but this is what will get the most attention if there is anything there.

    What is interesting here is that we know she was barely vetted. We very rapidly got evidence that she is a dishonest politician with extremist views who has abused power (which probably explains her rapid rise to the top of the Republican party). However this was all low hanging fruit which was uncovered immediately. What else will come out when reporters really have time to dig into her past?

  3. 3
    om santi says:

    I have read too in RealClear Politics that Palin fired almost all the staff of the city under the former mayor (who accidentally help her attain this post) immediately after his ascent as mayor. We don’t know whether it is because all those staffs are corrupt beings she loathed, or because of her ruthless and hungry-for-power personality, It is the job for the reporters to find out, in faraway Alaska.
    If it’s true about his thankless attitude against people helping her to get power, then we all should beware of her,the new USA Iron Lady, a frightening future of a reign under a beautiful but merciless woman-leader,frightening to other countries in the world too
    But if she did so because of her righteous personality uncompromising to any corrupt staff,is this explaining why she got elected as governor by a landslide?
    We can delve it by hearing the stories of her inhabitants.
    Om santi, Indonesia

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