Sarah Palin - Abuse of Power

An investigation by the Alaska Legislature concluded: “Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired” - reported by the New York Times over the weekend.

However, the inquiry found that she was within her right to dismiss her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who was the trooper’s boss.

The report, released on Friday by lawmakers in Alaska found that “Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, had herself exerted pressure to get Trooper Michael Wooten dismissed, as well as allowed her husband and subordinates to press for his firing, largely as a result of his temperament and past disciplinary problems.”

Seems Sarah Palin is still keeping reporters at arms’ length during her campaign, but according to the Associated Press, “…she couldn’t get enough of them, in the 20 months as governor…”.

The SNL VP Debate returned to Saturday Night Live once again with the brilliant Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. The late night comedy show offered a parody of last week’s VP debate as Fey began the debate as Palin, saying how great it was to at last get to meet her running mate Joe Biden, played by SNL cast member Jason Sudeikis.

Another hilarious line by Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin was, ‘May I say, up close, your hair plugs don’t look nearly as bad as everyone says’.

Fey stayed focused on the theme in the SNL VP debate that she and Republican hopeful, John McCain were both ‘justa couple of mavericks’.

Debate moderator, played by Queen Latifah, asked how being a maverick would help solve the financial crisis, Fey responded in full Palin character with, ‘Ya know, we’re gonna take every aspect of the crisis and look at it, and then we’re gonna ask ourselves, what would a maverick do with the situation’.

Another quip by Fey was, ‘while Senator Biden has been in Washington all these years, I’ve been with regular people - hockey moms and Joe six packs. And I’d also like to give a shout out to the third graders of Gladys Woods Elementary, who were so helpful to me in my debate prep’.

Equally hilarious, was Jason Sudeikis, as Joe Biden who also denied being a political insider: ‘Don’t be telling me that I’m part of the Washington elite because I come from the absolute worst place on earth - Scranton, Pennsylvania’.

The SNL VP debate drew resounding laughs towards the end when the moderator asked Fey’s Palin to give a closing statement: ‘Are we not doing the talent portion?’ Fey asks, then she begins playing the flute, a throwback to the time when Sarah Palin was runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska beauty pageant.

The immediate parodies offered up by the SNL VP debates of the presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain and their running mates, have become a dependable part of the mainstream news media this election season - in particular, the latest opening of the SNL debate Palin and Biden sketches.