The Palin Plane and the Troopergate Report

The Alaska Troopergate story will re-enter the public view today when independent investigator Steve Branchwater presents his findings before a legislative hearing. Details started to leak Thursday—like the testimony of Todd Palin about his involvement with the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan.

The Palins have offered a variety of reasons for why Monegan was fired. Josh Marshall sums them up nicely and puts them in context.

But the early bits at least have some humor.

One of Todd Palin's specific complaints, which he repeated a couple of times, was Governor Palin's inability to get where she needed to go via airplane.

The state uses a King Air Turbo Prop for such travel [to rural communities in Alaska].... It seemed like whenever Sarah needed this plane, it was unavailable.... [Public Safety Commissioner Walt] Monegan didn't seem to understand how difficult it was to reschedule these trips on short notice and his failure to get on top of this issue was preventing Sarah from traveling to out-of the-way rural bush communities to visit her constituents.

Wow, you'd think that a governor of a state like Alaska would have means of reaching the backwoods, right? Like a plane? Oh that's right—she sold that one (but not on eBay). (Todd Palin: "We were concerned that the Department of Public Safety was retaliating against Sarah for selling the Murkowski jet that...officials enjoyed using.")

Well, something like that.