Palin report was (bi)partisan hitjob.

"Troopergate" Report: "A Proper and Lawful Exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority"
by Mark Rhoads

If you are surprised that a committee of partisan Democrats and anti-Palin Republicans from the good-old Alaska legislature would release a report critical of Gov. Palin, then you must have been astonished that the sun came up this morning. If this is the worst that they have on Palin, it is not going to sway many voters one way or another.

There are four findings. Two are inconsequential and one of those deals with a workman's compensation case for Trooper Wooten, Gov. Palin's ex-brother-in-law. The two findings of consequence contradict each other to some extent.

The first says that Palin abused her public trust, a matter of opinion.  It also says she violated a law that does not really apply to the situation but the attorney for the committee is making a clumsy attempt to plow new ground. The legislature cannot prosecute anyone so let some prosecutor try and see how far they get in a real court with real rules of evidence.  Finding number two you will never hear about in the MSM so here it is verbatim:

"I find that, although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads."

Here are both relevant findings of the four:

Finding One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39/52/110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

The legislature reaffirms that every public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.

Finding Two

I find that, although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooter was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

To sum it up, Gov. Palin always had the right to fire a subordinate appointee for any reason at all including their budget disagreement.  But the lawyer for the committee argues that she was seeking a personal benefit (or financial interest) pursuant to Alaska Statue 39/52/110(a) which has never been interpreted in this way before.  In short, her desire for her family to be protected from threats made by Wooten against her father and her desire not to see her ten-year old nephew experimented on with a Taser by Wooten a second time somehow translates into a "personal benefit" for the Governor.

This "report" is a partisan joke.  There is not a person reading this from Illinois who does not vividly understand that if any Chicago police officer ever threatened to harm to any member of Mayor Daley's family, let alone used a Taser on a ten-year old boy, that officer likely would have disappeared from Chicago faster than you can say "Bill Ayers is just a guy in my neighborhood."