September 9, 2008, - 3:54 pm
On This Non-“Scandal”, Sarah Palin is (Mostly) Right
By Debbie Schlussel
As I’ve acknowledged, while some of the criticism of GOP Veep nominee Sarah Palin is fair, a good deal of it is unfair.
One of those is her firing of former Legislative Director John Bitney. When I read about it this morning in the Wall Street Journal, I had mixed feelings. But in total, Palin was absolutely justified in terminating him, even if it was not based on job performance.
Palin fired because he was having an affair with a married friend of hers. Bitney, who was an early Palin supporter and key campaign aide, was hired as her Legislative Director. They’d known each other since junior high, and she heaped profuse public praise on his abilities and job performance in his job as a gubernatorial aide. But once he was getting a divorce, Palin found out that Bitney was having an affair with the wife of a couple with whom the Palins were close friends.
A governor has a right to fire anyone he or she wants at any time. That’s the prerogative of being governor. And a governor has to be able to work comfortably with his or her staff. And it might be hard to work with someone you know is cheating with your friend’s wife and breaking up his marriage.
What is, indeed, troubling about the situation is the trashing that’s now going on regarding Bitney’s performance by the Palin portion of the Palin-McCain camp. While Palin publicly gushed over Bitney’s job performance and fired him only because of his extramarital affair with her friend’s wife, her spokespeople are now saying that Bitney was fired for “poor job performance.” While the Palin team claims she’s being unfairly torn apart by the press, it seems her camp is now unfairly doing the same to a former employee.
Is that right? Only if you wanna win.
Frankly, if it were me, I’d say, “Mr. Bitney was an excellent Legislative Director. But given outside circumstances in his personal life, we decided to part our working relationship amicably.” Was there really a need to trash the guy’s ability? There’s nothing wrong with telling the truth about why she could no longer work with him.
Bottom line: Sarah Palin, as Governor of Alaska, is absolutely justified in firing staffers with whom she feels uncomfortable. Every other elected official does that in an attempt to get maximum performance. That’s not the scandal the Wall Street Journal claims.
But it would have been nice if she didn’t trash the guy’s reputation, one which she built.
***
One other thing: The Wall Street Journal article claims that
Allies of Republican presidential nominee John McCain like to point out that his running mate is the governor of the largest state in the union. But at times, Alaska seems more like a small town, run by folks with overlapping professional, political and personal ties that can be difficult to untangle.
But that’s an inaccuracy designed to make Palin look like a “Soap Opera figure atop a hick-state”. Most people, unfortunately, who work in state capitols and their political parties, are connected. And it’s as incestuous and dysfunctional at the seat of the Governor in Albany, New York, or Lansing, Michigan, or even Washington, DC, as it is in Alaska. People in politics hire their friends and relatives. That’s the way it is.
It’s called “the spoils of victory.”
Palin cant comment negatively on the Bitney affair due to the divorce rate and “spouse cheating” is so so common in the USA…besides her running mate cheated on his wife.
[RRW: SO, IT’S BETTER TO LIE AND TRASH THE GUY’S JOB PERFORMANCE? DS]
RadicalRightWinger on September 9, 2008 at 4:17 pm