Palin suggests partisanship tainting "Trooper Probe"

New York, Sept.19 : Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has told FOX News in an interview that the inquiry into the firing of her former public safety commissioner, is being tainted by "obsessive partisanship".

The investigation, which centers on whether Palin punished her public safety chief for refusing to fire a trooper who was going through a nasty divorce with her sister, comes at a potentially damaging time in the political calendar.

An Alaska Senate committee subpoenaed 13 people last week, including Palin's husband Todd.

But the Republican attorney general appointed by Sarah Palin has since said state employees would refuse to testify unless the full Senate or legislature compel them, threatening to drag on the probe past Election Day. An Alaska Democrat is overseeing the inquiry.

Palin said the firing of Walt Monegan in July had "nothing to do" with her former brother-in-law. She claimed that Monegan was "insubordinate" in some areas and that he "wasn't willing" to help her in the state's effort to rein in spending.

"I recognized that it was my responsibility, my obligation to make sure we had the right people in the right places at the right time in the cabinet to best serve Alaskans. So I asked him to transfer into another position. And he chose not to be transferred. So, he left the service," Palin said.

"That's one issue. It had nothing to do with a former brother-in-law, a state trooper who happened to be married to one of my sisters until about three years ago," she added.

While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten, he says repeated contacts by the administration made it clear they wanted Wooten gone.

Palin, in her interview with FOX News, continued to criticize Wooten.

"This trooper tasered my nephew. It's all on the record. It's all there. His threats against the first family, the threat against my dad. All that is in the record. And if the opposition ... chooses to forget that side of the story, they're not doing their job," she said.

She said she was growing a "thick skin."

Palin said she also found "appalling" the recent comment from the South Carolina Democratic chairwoman, who said Palin's chief qualification is that she never had an abortion. The chairwoman has since apologized.

Palin also described her Democratic counterpart, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, as a "great debater," but questioned the value of his 35 years in Washington.

She also said that she did not mean to hurt Obama's feelings by calling him a community organizer.

She said she was only responding to his criticism of small-town mayors like herself.

ANI