The fact is that the acceleration of the report plus the comment of the Alaska state senator regarding the report make this a partisan witch hunt utterly lacking in moral high ground.

To the degree the investigation had any merit, and I am convinced it has no political traction at all, it has been destroyed.

You choose to keep writing about Palin, which is a grievous mistake if adopted by Obama/Biden.

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This same paper also reported that Palin has opened an ethics complaint against herself - an unprecedented move.

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This is nothing as intense as the Rezko/Obama connections...and that seems to be a non-starter too.

 Let the investigation play out, as it should.

Talking about "Troopergate" won't get anyone on our side. Besides, you really think the American people are going to be horrified by finding out that maybe there was some slight corruption on the part of a politician?  They would die of shock.

All the things you mention were alledged and brought up to Internal Affairs in 2005.  IA investigated and found him guilty.  Palin started applying this pressure in 2007.

Lets imagine that Palin succeeded in having Wooten fired. A state employee is fired over conduct which is 2 years old, despite the conduct being previously investigated and the employee being previously punished for the behavior, and it later comes to light that the Governor was pushing on his boss to get the man fired? And for a bonus, the employee is currently in the middle of a custody battle for his children with said Governor's sister, a battle he would lose almost instantly were he to lose his means of providing for his children?

That's a guaranteed lawsuit, resulting in a judgment so large that Wooten will never have to work another day for the rest of his life.

Monegan understood this.  He's said in interviews that he warned the Governor against pushing like this, since it might actually immunize him from firing if he actually screwed up and would have been fired anyway.  If he can prove interference with the personnel decisions inside the state trooper's office, and the record's pretty clear on that, then anything that causes him to be fired will allow him to file a lawsuit claiming that his firing was related to the pressure emanating from the Governor, even if the firing is actually related to real wrongdoing.  It gives Wooten a way of muddying the water.

Maybe you think Wooten should have been fired over his conduct when IA investigated it.  I can certainly see that, and agree even with the point of view.  But IA didn't fire him over that.  It investigated the allegations, found him guilty, and meted out a sentence.  IA has adjudicated the matter, and it's closed.  Oh, you have to consider the conduct in ongoing reviews, certainly, but you can't just suddenly decide to fire the trooper now, 2 years after IA concluded their investigation, based solely on the same allegations that IA investigated and found to not rise to the level of a firing offense.  That matter is closed.

Monegan has said publicly that he told the Governor that if she had allegations of new wrongdoing, something that hadn't already been investigated, he'd be happy to refer that information over to IA and try to get a new investigation started.  Given his past history, it wouldn't take much in the way of new allegations of wrongdoing to cause the IA investigation to fire the officer.  But Palin didn't have new allegations, anything that hadn't already been adjudicated.  All she had were the old complaints.

Maybe Palin didn't care that the Alaska government would get stuck with a large judgment against it.  She certainly didn't care about the $10,000 severance package she had to give Monegan's replacement, who resigned two weeks after being appointed because the press discovered a sexual harassment allegation that Palin admits to knowing about, and a letter of reprimand about said incident.

Or maybe Palin just didn't know that her staff, her husband, and even herself, in some sort of sleepwalking or unconscious daze, all applied pressure, just like she says.  Of course, she previously said that there was no pressure period, only to be shown to be incorrect by audio tapes of discussions between her staff and the state trooper's office over these exact issues.

And if Palin's AGAG excuse for the conduct of her staff doesn't give you enough of a reminder of the Bush administration, the way she's handled this investigation should do the trick.  

The complaint she filed against herself with the State Personnel Board is a smokescreen, because Palin, as Governor, has appointed all the current members of the board.  It's an attempt to redirect the investigation into something the Governor can control, and something that won't conclude until after the election.  It allows the Governor, in the meantime, to continue this administration's "We will not comment on an ongoing investigation" soundbyte, something they couldn't do if there was an actual legislative investigation going on where they were being criticized with not co-operating.

Further, there have been calls for the legislative investigation to turn over all their evidence to the SPB investigation.  Of course Palin wants that, not so that any real investigation can occur, but so that she can see where it is she's vulnerable, and what they've gotten on her so far.

FYI, the correct name of the paper whose editorial you quote at length is the Anchorage Daily News, not "Alaska".