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"I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up, or anything else," Richard Nixon said privately to his closest associates on March 22, 1973. Publicly, on April 17, 1973, when this picture was taken, the President said, "I condemn any attempts to cover up in this case, no matter who is involved." — The Washington Post

Everybody’s favorite Dominionist anti-choice scandal-plagued governor is at it again, this time in an effort to obstruct justice:

Gov. Sarah Palin is taking the wrong approach to Troopergate. She should be practicing the open and transparent, ethical and accountable government she promised when running for governor and boasts about now that she’s on the national stage.

Instead, Gov. Palin has begun stonewalling the Legislature’s attempt to get the bottom of allegations that she, her family or staff violated ethical or state personnel rules.

As a result, the Troopergate allegations hang over Palin’s future and cloud her candidacy for vice president.

The allegations are that she, her family or administration improperly pressured then-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire Gov. Palin’s ex-brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten, who had been in the middle of a custody dispute with Palin’s sister.

 [...]

Palin’s lawyer has asked the Legislature to drop its investigation. He had the governor file an ethics complaint against herself, in a bid to turn the entire matter over to the state Personnel Board, which would hire an independent investigator.

This is not an open and transparent attempt to establish Gov. Palin’s accountability. It is an attempt to drag out the investigation until after voters decide the fate of her vice-presidential bid.

Now, one would think that if Sarah Palin has nothing to hide, that she would welcome this investigation, as she had claimed she did earlier this year when the news first hit.  An innocent person would love the chance to clear her name once and for all.

Instead, we get stupidly thuggish stalling and intimidation efforts like this one:

Gov. Sarah Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, made an absurd threat in his battle to get the Legislature to back off its ethics investigation of the governor and her staff.

Van Flein said legislative investigator Steve Branchflower tried to call First Gentleman Todd Palin directly on "a secure and confidential line. This represents a serious security breach that we may be obligated to report to the Secret Service."

Hello? Branchflower is acting on behalf of the Legislature. That’s a security breach?

Lawyers are supposed to vigorously represent their clients, but claiming that a legislative investigator’s phone call may be a security matter worthy of Secret Service attention is ridiculous.

Gov. Palin should keep her legal attack dog on a shorter leash.

BOTTOM LINE: More obstruction from Palin in Troopergate.

Thing is, all this stonewalling is probably too late — damaging information, including a phone call between Palin staffer Frank Bailey and a state police official that ABC News acquired, has already come out, and more is yet to come, despite the McCain campaign’s ham-handed Nixonian efforts to kill the investigation:

In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska’s bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.

Dumb move, Mr. Coghill.   You tried this while the whole world is watching, and now everyone is eager to see what you’re trying so hard to cover up with too-cute stunts like this. Instead of making the investigation go away, it’s now been fast-tracked.  Nice one, buddy.