Troopergate

Keith Olbermann ran a heavily edited excerpt of a Sean Hannity interview of Sarah Palin on his show last night - Palin's repeated references to "reform" were the target of his mockery. He was mocking Palin's hypocrisy, not the idea of reform.

Scott Horton, writing in Harper's, makes the case against the myth of Palin the Reformer - and simultaneously skewers McCain for taking on the Bush policy of stonewalling and obstruction (enabled by the complicit and discredited Justice Department):

Palin has asserted that her records and communications are protected by executive privilege. Second, her senior assistants have been instructed not to cooperate with the probe. Third, the Alaska attorney general (a Palin appointee and confidant who faces conflict-of-interest charges himself) has issued a series of opinions designed to bar the way for the probe.

So how does the McCain team deal with accusations that it is attempting a cover-up of Palin’s involvement in a matter which, at the very least, raises severe questions about Palin’s credibility? They argue that the inquiry should be handled by the Alaska Personnel Board, not by the legislature.

The Personnel Board, of course, is dominated by Palin’s cronies and reports to her.

Palin the Reformer? Maybe not so much.

And what about John McCain the Maverick?

McCain intends to continue the corruption of Justice, the Mafia-style secrecy, and the defiance of subpoena's and other legal processes, that have marked the Bush administration as a low point in our history. John Dean said Bush and Cheney were worse than Nixon, and McCain seems determined to give us more of the same.

Here's more from the Horton piece:

It’s worth taking a close look at how the McCain team is attempting to shut the investigation down. As Mike Isikoff reports at Newsweek, the project has been entrusted to Edward O’Callaghan, who only days ago was a senior official of the Justice Department, with responsibilities in national security and counterterrorism.

McCain's campaign is now being led by the Bush-Rove team, so perhaps it is no surprise that Bush Justice Department hacks are helping Palin suppress the Troopergate investigation.

For anyone who was hoping the real John McCain would be a reformer, the time has come to face the truth. A McCain-Palin administration will be at least as corrupt, mismanaged and misguided as Bush-Cheney.

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