Alaska paper: Palin has "abdicated" her Gov. duties

Perhaps nowhere is the takeover of Sarah Palin by the McCain campaign playing out worse than in her home state of Alaska. Alaskans have not been happy at all to see the McCain camp swoop in and take control of the governor's mansion, and they are none too pleased to see Sarah and Todd Palin's stonewalling of the Troopergate investigation. And today the editors of the Anchorage Daily News have really called out Palin, under an editorial entitled "Abdication by Palin." It's pretty strong stuff.
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/531725.html

One of the ONLY qualities about Sarah Palin that seemed to hold out any hope of appealing to moderates and independents was her alleged "reformer" image. John McCain heavily touted this quality when he first introduced Palin to the nation as his running mate, and she's tried to cultivate this image ever since. Problem is, all the examples she's used to try to prove she was a fellow "maverick" turned out to be lies: from her now infamous and laughable "Thanks But No Thanks" lie about the Bridge to Nowhere to her lies about not accepting federal earmarks. Her stonewalling of Troopergate may be the final nail in the Palin "reformer" myth, especially in Alaska:

Gov. Sarah Palin has surrendered important gubernatorial duties to the Republican presidential campaign. McCain staff are handling public and press questions about actions she has taken as governor. The governor who said, "Hold me accountable," is hiding behind the hired guns of the McCain campaign to avoid accountability.

Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?

The use of words like "abdication" and "surrender" are startling indeed, and ones I'm sure the ADN editors chose quite carefully to lay some serious charges at Palin's feet. The editorial goes on to give several examples of how the McCain campaign has taken over Palin's governorship duties, from McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan announcing that Todd Palin will not comply with a Troopergate investigation subpoena to McCain campaign "sidekick" Meg Stapleton defending Palin's firing of Walt Monegan (and trashing Monegan in the process).

ABC News reported that Gov. Palin's official press secretary, Bill McAllister, paid by the state of Alaska, didn't even know the McCain staffers were meeting the press to defend his boss.

Is the McCain campaign telling Alaskans that Alaska's governor can't handle her own defense in front of her own Alaska constituents?

Way back when, before John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate, Palin promised to cooperate with the investigation.

Now she won't utter a peep about it to Alaskans. Nor will her husband, Todd, who definitely needs to explain his role in Troopergate.

Instead, Alaskans have to sit back and listen to John McCain's campaign operatives handling inquiries about what Alaska's governor did while governing Alaska. Residents of any state would be offended to see their governor cede such a fundamental, day-to-day governmental responsibility to a partisan politician from another state. It's especially offensive to Alaskans.

I think the McCain campaign has mishandled Troopergate about as badly as it could have handled it. First off, knowing about Troopergate, McCain never should have chosen Palin to begin with. But now that he has, McCain's attempts to squash the investigation have only made things worse. In this case, the cover-up MAY be worse than the crime. Even if the investigation turns up nothing, Palin's stonewalling has permanently damaged her attempts to paint herself as someone who will change Washington -- because she's acting exactly like all the current Bush-Cheney cronies. The Rovian attempts to paint the investigation as a partisan witch hunt (please forgive the pun) have fallen flat, in part because the decision to investigate Troopergate was an incredibly bipartisan effort in the Alaska Legislature, in part because Palin had already promised to cooperate fully with the investigation and perhaps, most of all, because Alaskans don't like folks from DC swarming in to take over their state. It's that last point that maybe even Karl Rove underestimated.

Update: