Sarah Palin in 2012: ethics

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ethics complaint against Palin aide dismissed

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: June 23, 2009 - 2:13 pm

From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage --

The state has dismissed an ethics complaint filed by Andree McLeod against Kris Perry, a close adviser to Gov. Sarah Palin and the director of the governor's Anchorage office.

McLeod charged that Perry did political work on the state's time. Her complaint focused on Perry's travels with the governor on the vice-presidential campaign trail and afterwards.

The complaint was dismissed by the attorney general's office. (McLeod said it went to the AG's office rather than the personnel board because it was a complaint against a state employee rather than the governor or lieutenant governor.)

The dismissal said there was no evidence "suggesting that Perry misused her state time in any substantial way or did not intend to benefit the public interest when accompanying the governor on her trips."

cont.

http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe5a177770620d7d7610&ls=fdfb1673776d017f7c147475&m=fef911737c6706&l=fec6167371600378&s=fe29177077640c7e721c77&jb=ffcf14&t=

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The High Rhetoric of Sweeping Ethics Reform faces Reality

Obama’s Pledge to Reform Ethics Faces an Early Test

By PETER BAKER
Published: February 2, 2009
In the campaign, Mr. Obama assailed Washington’s “entire culture” in which “our leaders have thrown open the doors of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.” He vowed to “close the revolving door” and “clean up both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue” with “the most sweeping ethics reform in history.”

The language, however, was always more sweeping than the specifics. He spoke of refusing campaign money from lobbyists but took it from the people who hired them. The ethics plan he outlined, and eventually imposed on his administration, did not ban all lobbyists outright but set conditions for their employment and did not cover many who were lobbyists in everything but name.

As for Mr. Daschle and Mr. Geithner, who also failed to pay some taxes, White House officials said the errors should not obscure their records. Mr. Obama “believes that both Secretary Geithner and Secretary-Designate Daschle are the right people for very important jobs,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, “and he does not believe that that will undercut their ability to move forward on an agenda that makes sense for the American people.”

That argument has drawn sharp criticism from left and right. “Is this really the message he wants to convey to voters in just his first month in office, a message that it’s O.K. to break or skirt the law just as long as you’re a good guy with a special skill set?” asked Andy Ostroy, a blogger writing on The Huffington Post, a liberal Web site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/us/politics/03lobby.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

© Janet Crain

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