Palin’s Unlawful Executive Shell Game

Palin’s husband is called “First Dude” for a reason: He “confers with Cabinet officials” (h/t MindRayge), receives the governor’s emails, uses the governor’s office to discuss government business or policies with state officials, attends governor’s meetings and operates as a conduit for lobbyists. While First Dude is not a state employee, Palin surrounds him with the trappings of executive office which creates the perception that his actions are cloaked with executive authority.  Use First Dude to conduct meetings with state officials in the governor’s office, and then claim no abuse of power because he is speaking solely as an individual.  Send First Dude on a chartered junket by mining companies negotiating with Palin. The problem is government officials have legal and ethical responsibilities not required of private citizens. The continual hat changing from personal hubby to de facto executive allows Palin to evade complying with laws regulating conduct or transactions by First Dude on her behalf, thus allowing Palin to evade compliance with the law.

Palin has created a limbo status for First Dude, who is not a government official, but rather has been cast in the role of a government official, much like an actor in Hollywood.  Only this is real life and there are many laws regulating government conduct which do not technically apply to him because he is not a government official.  This creates a disaster. It is hard enough for lawyers to figure out whether the myriad of laws apply to a given fact situation or to a particular person when people’s roles are clearly defined.  But, how do you determine which laws apply to First Dude when the law is triggered by having the status of a real government official?  Does Palin get to pick and choose when, if and how this hybrid arrangement of sometimes First Dude and sometimes private citizen complies with the law?

Here are some examples.

First Dude is the reason conflict of interest law developed.  First Dude joined state officials on “two mining trips” flying on “planes chartered by mining companies that want to dig for gold, zinc and lead in remote Alaska valleys.” The companies paying for these flights are “in the early stages of a lengthy approval process” for open-pit gold mining on “Native-owned land.”  So, the mining industry paid for First Dude to visit the mining sites. Palin says no conflict of interest because she reported the cost of the flights in her financial disclosure forms as a gift to her.  I’m not familiar with Alaskan conflict of interest and financial disclosure laws, but the laws impose requirements on public officials, not private citizens.  My guess is Palin tried to meet the spirit of the law by reporting as a gift for her. However, it was her husband that received the gift, and he should be filing the financial disclosure, but he can’t because private citizens are not regulated.

In the Palin administration, companies do not have to hire lobbyists who need to comply with state law. Industry executives know to discuss policy issues with First Dude, who is now First Lobbyist:

Tom Whitstine, a fellow Wasilla-based oil worker and friend, recalled raising concerns to Todd Palin about legislation that would impact the oil industry.

“I talked to Todd sitting on the couch in his house there on Safari Lake, in April 2007,” said Whitstine, who expresses disappointment with Palin’s performance. “It’s a known fact Todd was right there when those kind of policy decisions were being made.”

Said a Bristol Bay politician who asked not to be named: “He’s someone you could call and get the lowdown.”

Yes, First Dude can give corporations the “lowdown” on government policies and much more because he  is a de facto member of Palin’s administration.  

First Dude attends the governor’s meetings, including meetings with state legislators, such as House Majority Leader Ralph Samuels.  The governor’s office provides assurances that First Dude does not attend “high-level cabinet meetings.”

Of course, First Dude does not need to attend all meetings because Palin has authorized her husband, who is not a state employee, to be copied on executive emails. When questioned why First Dude is copied on executive emails, Palin’s excuse is one of convenience common to married couples — and is also a response that does not answer the question posed:

“As First Gentleman, the governor was telling me that, at their home in Wasilla, they are inundated with phone calls and e-mails to their personal accounts, and Todd does pass that information on to the governor. And vice versa. The governor works with a Blackberry and she forwards e-mails to Todd to print off because she likes to have a hard copy in front of her,” Leighow said.

I asked her about e-mails between Todd Palin and members of the governor’s staff. Leighow replied in an e-mail “that it would not be uncommon for Todd to pass along information he receives on his personal e-mail account. It would also not be uncommon for him to pass along e-mails and become part of a string.”

It is one thing for a husband or First Dude to forward emails from a personal account on a home computer to his wife, the governor. If Gov. Palin is forwarding government emails to First Dude to perform the hubby task of printing the email, well, that’s why she has an executive administrative staff.

It is quite another thing when First Dude is cced on emails sent by government officials to other government officials to discuss official government business, such as confidential emails regarding the Public Safety Employees Association, which is the union for state police officers and state troopers.

A group of Alaskans filed a FOIA request to obtain emails from Palin, who responded by providing a 78-page list of 1100 emails that she refused to publicly disclose. Most of the nondisclosures were based on Palin invoking executive or deliberative process privilege which protects “communications between Palin and her aides about policy matters.” Well, First Dude is a private citizen, not a government official entitled to be covered by executive privilege.

Moreover, the subject lines of some of the nondisclosed emails indicate that Palin may have a different view of what constitutes official policy matters. There are emails “re Andrew Halcro,” who is a former Republican who ran as an Independent against Palin in the 2006 Governor election and a blogger critic. Executive privilege was also applied to emails from the writer of a political gossip column and to emails regarding “Racism on the Radio.”

Information about First Dude’s role provides new insight into troopergate. In that case, Palin fired Public Safety Commissioner Monegan, who stated that First Dude tried to pressure him to fire a state trooper. When troopergate broke, Palin pushed the meme that it was simply a family matter, not government abuse. Given the trooper was married to Palin’s sister, some people nationwide who are not familiar with how Palin operates may buy that meme.

But, now we learn that hubby is actually a defacto member of Governor Palin’s staff, which is a fact that Alaskans would know at the time events occurred. First Dude aligned himself with staff functions:  It was “members of the governor’s staff and her husband, Todd Palin,” who “called and questioned” Monegan about the state trooper and requested a “briefing” and “urged Monegan to reopen the Wooten case” in a meeting at the governor’s office.

Thus, when Todd tried to pressure Monegan into firing a state trooper, it was not simply a husband asking questions.  Rather, it was First Dude asking for a briefing on a government matter while surrounded by the trappings of the governor’s office.  How many times when you are conducting a family matter do you use terminology, such as “briefing”, which is associated with government?  Do you ask your spouse to give you a briefing on your day at the office?  Palin can’t claim hubby was acting solely in a personal family matter involving her sister’s divorce when First Dude is using government trappings to conduct that “family business.”

McBush likes to say that Palin has executive experience.  Some attack her experience based on constituent size, which misses the point and may be insulting to people nationwide as belittling the significance of their lives. Even a small town sheriff may have valid experience. What counts is the nature of the work performed as executive and values, knowing that government is not a tool for family or political retaliation or evading compliance with the laws.