McCain's Palin Faces Probe

From the Wall Street Journal (via Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington):

Alaska's Palin Faces Probe

Now, one of the bright new stars in the Republican Party has suddenly become tarnished. The state legislature this week voted to hire an independent investigator to see whether Ms. Palin abused her office by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper.

"This is a governor who was almost impervious to error," says Hollis French, a Democratic state senator. "Now she could face impeachment, in a worst-case scenario." ***

The controversy now surrounding Ms. Palin stems from a messy divorce between state trooper Mike Wooten and his wife, Molly McCann, who is Ms. Palin's younger sister. ***

On July 11 of this year, Ms. Palin fired Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Mr. Monegan then complained that she and her husband had pressured him to fire Mr. Wooten. Ms. Palin, in a statement, denied that, saying she had removed the commissioner she had appointed 18 months earlier because she wanted "a new direction."

In 1984, Ms. Palin took the crown at the Miss Wasilla pageant. At the time, Wasilla, Alaska had a population of between 1,600 and 4,000 individuals. If half of them were female, Ms. Palin triumphed over no fewer than 800 other possible Miss Wasillas.

But she's anti-choice and pro-death penalty, so the 44 year-old Ms. Palin has passed John McCain's "Commander-in-Chief Test".