[Vision2020] Anti-Palin Rally Calls for Colberg Removal

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (September 28, 2008) Anchorage Daily News at:

http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/539483.html
 
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Hold Palin Accountable Rally (video)
http://tinyurl.com/3rcztg

Hold Palin Accountable Rally (photos)
http://tinyurl.com/3w67z7
 
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Anti-Palin rally calls for Colberg removal
TROOPERGATE: More than 1,000 protesters gather in downtown Anchorage park.

By KYLE HOPKINS, Anchorage Daily News
 
A protest slamming Gov. Sarah Palin's handling of the state's so-called 
Troopergate investigation -- and calling for the attorney general to lose 
his job -- drew more than 1,000 people to the Delaney Park Strip in 
Anchorage on Saturday. 

Protesters chanted "recall Palin!" as organizers told the crowd to push 
state legislators to keep after their investigation into the governor's 
firing of her top cop. 

An investigator hired by the lawmakers is scheduled to present his report 
on Oct. 10. 

"This report needs to be released. Not just for us ... it needs to be 
released for all those people in the Lower 48 who are going to make a 
decision on Nov. 4," Democratic blogger Linda Kellen Biegel told hundreds 
of protesters gathered on the Park Strip grass. 

The McCain-Palin campaign dismissed the rally as nothing more than a 
partisan strike from Barack Obama loyalists.

The crowd lined I Street, waving signs that said "Steady on her heels, 
wobbly on her words" and "Dude, where's my governor?" at passing cars. 
They dressed as Richard Nixon, or Hillary Clinton, or as Palin herself, 
holding a sign that said "hold me accountable." 

A group calling itself Alaskans for Truth organized the event, which at 
times resembled an Obama campaign rally. 

Between speeches, Anchorage singer-songwriter Libby Roderick led the crowd 
in a chorus of "We're gonna keep on moving forward" and "Stand tall for 
Obama." Obama volunteers signed up supporters under a nearby tent.

"Clearly this was an Obama rally and nothing else," Palin campaign 
spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mailed statement. "The rally 
proves the point of partisanship which the Governor has been trying to 
remove from the investigation in an effort to get a fair and just result."

Organizer Camille Conte, a radio host on left-leaning KUDO 1080 AM, said 
the event was about holding Palin to her word, and the pro-Obama message 
wasn't supposed to be part of the rally.

"It was hard to stop that once it started, and the crowd seemed to want 
it," she said. 

FIGHTING DELAY TACTICS

Next to the political fliers sat petitions calling for the removal of 
Attorney General Talis Colberg. 

On July 28, the Legislative Council -- a bipartisan group of 12 state 
lawmakers -- voted to launch an abuse-of-power investigation into Palin's 
firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. 

Some Republican lawmakers have tried to get the Legislative Council, or 
the court, to delay the investigation until after the presidential 
election. 

Rally organizers handed out talking points Saturday urging people to e-
mail and call council members and tell them to stick with the probe.

Palin initially said she'd cooperate with the investigation. Presidential 
candidate Sen. John McCain announced Palin as his running mate Aug. 29, 
and the McCain camp has argued that the investigation became a partisan 
witch hunt spurred by Democrats. 

Colberg is suing to quash the Legislature's subpoenas of Palin aides in 
what's become a struggle between the state's executive and legislative 
branches of government. 

DOGGED PROTESTERS

Nicole McCullough came to the rally with her grand-niece and grand-nephew -
- twins born the day before Palin's youngest son, Trig. McCullough wore a 
pitbull mask with giant red lips, a reference to a Palin's joke about 
hockey moms, pit bulls and lipstick at the Republican National Convention. 

The twins held pit bull masks too. 

A Hillary Clinton supporter earlier in the election, McCullough called 
Palin "a female Dan Quayle" and carried a sign that read: "Gov. Pitbull: 
call off your McCain dogs." 

It was a reference to the McCain spokespeople and attorneys, including the 
self-described "Truth Squad" who have been defending the governor in 
regular Anchorage press conferences. 

The Outside lawyers are clogging Alaska's legislative process, McCullough 
said.

The McCain camp says it's the other side that's making things political. 
For example, they say statements by Sen. Hollis French, who is overseeing 
the investigation and said the probe could end in impeachment, show 
Democrats are gunning for the governor. 

The rally stretched past two hours, with a string of speeches from 
bloggers, the head of the troopers union and Monegan's mom. Someone read a 
written statement from Democratic Anchorage Rep. Les Gara -- which at one 
point ignited a chant of Obama's campaign slogan, "Yes we can" -- and 
calling for a "shout out" to French.

Like a similar rally two weeks earlier, the event gathered anti-Palin 
protesters from all corners. Some held signs saying "My body, my rights," 
while others criticized her views on aerial wolf-hunting. 

Unlike last time, no organized counter-protest appeared. 

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Seeya round town, MOscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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