Sarah Palin: Another Abuse of Power

[Joe Steel]

Apparently, Sarah Palin has a habit of using her office to settle personal disputes.


In June of 2007, it became known that Bitney was dating the soon to be ex-wife of Todd Palin's good friend. Palin reportedly began demanding that Bitney be fired.

After a short time, Bitney realized that he couldn't remain in the governor's office due to the constant pressure and he worked out a deal with Chief of Staff Mike Tibbles to take a transfer to another department.

On July 3, Bitney was in the process of driving his vehicle back to Juneau when he couldn't get his state issued Blackberry to work. When he arrived in Tok he called his office and was told that his Blackberry had been turned off and that his name had been removed from the state employee directory.

His call was then transferred into Tibbles who told him the proposal they talked about was a no deal and the governor ordered him fired immediately. John Bitney was never given a reason why he was fired and never given a chance to make a graceful exit.

Shadow Governor? (http://www.andrewhalcro.com/shadow_governor)

I suppose abuse of power is fairly typical for Conservatives but it still seems a bit distasteful.

[Joe Steel]

This is the third abusive firing (actually the first, chronologically.)

Pretty soon we're going to need a scorecard.


Now, it turns out that this isn't the first time Sarah fired someone. When she was the Mayor of Wasilla, (about 5,000 population at the time,) she fired the Chief of Police. This led to a lawsuit and an out of court settlement paid for by the public.

More than one leader in the Alaska Democratic party told me, off the record, that her reputation was "my way or the highway. "When she ran the city of Wasilla-- she was the same way—“reward friends, punish enemies, get personal."

Local Alaskans See Sarah As Potent Asset But Vulnerable (http://www.opednews.com/articles/Local-Alaskans-Paint-Sarah-by-Rob-Kall-080830-354.html)

[theHawk]

If the worst you can come up with is that she fired people, you dims have alot to be worried about. One could only wish that as a VP she'd have the power to fire half of Washington's corrupt politicians.

[Joe Steel]

If the worst you can come up with is that she fired people, you dims have alot to be worried about. One could only wish that as a VP she'd have the power to fire half of Washington's corrupt politicians.

If you can get someone to read the article to you, you'd find the city had to pay a settlement to the employee. That could be problem on a large scale.

[PostmodernProphet]

thankfully we have someone who lives in the city who posts here....perhaps he will stop by and tell you what actually happened.....

[avatar4321]

in order for there to be yet another one, there has to be a first.

[Abbey Marie]

Threads on alleged abuses in firings merged.