More Ethical Issues for Palin

It’s becoming more and more apparent that McCain’s team did a shoddy job in vetting her.  More and more shoes keep dropping.  (Read A Letter from Someone Who Has Known Sarah Palin since 1992 for more information.  It’s quite illuminating.)  To date:

• Ethical issues stemming from whether she abused power in trying to have her brother-in-law fired (he was an Alaska state trooper) as he was divorcing her sister.  She then allegedly fired the public safety commissioner because he refused.
• Her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy.  This isn’t relevant as it pertains to her family issues, but it certainly raises some hypocrisy issues where her personal life may be different to how she runs her government.
• She was for it before she was against it, as it pertains to the “Bridge to Nowhere.”  She says she stopped the project, but she kept the money.
• She ran Wasilla into $22 million in debt, necessitating the hiring of a city manager because her management skills were so bad that she was running the town into the ground.  This, for a town with a population of about 5,000 at the time.
• She has tried to ban books in the Wasilla library.  When the librarian refused, she tried to have the librarian fired.
• She has ties to the Alaska Independent Party, a secessionist party in Alaska.

Now, there’s another shoe that’s dropping.  When she was mayor of Wasilla, she fired the police chief  because he “stepped on the toes of Palin’s campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.”

I don’t know about you, but it looks like a pattern to me.  It’s a pattern of abuse of power, of hypocrisy, of censorship.  This is the running mate John McCain picked?

I have no doubt that she’ll give a great speech tonight at the convention and that she’ll fire up the delegates.  My question is this: So what?  It doesn’t matter.  Look at her record.  It’s quite a record of abuse of power for one so early in her career.  No wonder the Republicans love her.  They must see her as a continuation of Bush and his abuses.

More and more tidbits like these are going to come out as the press does the McCain campaign’s job for them and holds Palin and her record up to the light.  I can’t wait for her first press conference when the reporters (if they do their jobs) start asking some questions.  I also can’t wait for the vice-presidential debate.  I will be riveted to the screen for that one.

I’ve read — in several places — today that the reason Palin was so incompletely vetted was because McCain really wanted Lieberman as his running mate.  McCain was told, however, that there would be a revolt in the party if he tapped Lieberman.  It’s an interesting, and plausible, theory.  It might help explain some of the recklessness in the pick of Palin.

[Update]: None of the above are sexist smears by the media or anyone else.  These facts make up her record.  In naming Palin, I think a case could be made that what McCain did was a disservice to women.  Don’t believe me?  Read Maureen Dowd’s column from today.