Shit, Meet Fan

Oh gosh darnit, you betcha:

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska's governor in the firing of her public safety commissioner, but violated no laws, a report for the state Legislature concluded Friday.

Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law from the state police force was "likely a contributing factor" to Monegan's July dismissal, but Palin had the authority as governor to dismiss him, the report by former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower states.

Click here to see the full report (PDF). In summary, what she did was not technically illegal, but the act of pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten was unethical and an abuse of power.

Before I go on, it's important to emphasize that we already knew that Monegan wasn't fired only for his refusal to fire Wooten. He was also fired because he didn't agree with Palin's policy of branding rape victims with a scarlet "A":

To that end, the campaign released a series of e-mails detailing the frustration several Palin administration officials experienced in dealing with Monegan. The "last straw," the campaign said, was a trip Monegan planned to Washington in July to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases.

Now, in regards to this latest twist, I can already envision Kleinheider and the conservative bloggers whining about how we mean liberals shouldn't call Palin out for not living the values she espouses, that everyone has moral failings and we all just need to give her a big hug and forgive, and really, isn't this all just a sexist attack on a little lady?

To which I say--there's a difference between trying and failing to live up to one's values, and espousing them while not even trying to live up to them. The former is only human. The latter is what we call hypocrisy.

No, she didn't break the law. But face it--she's a corrupt individual. It's neither sexist nor somehow illegitimate to point that out.