Alaska does not need mushy togetherness!

Troopergate is starting to garner mainstream attention just as the foundations of the stonewall are being laid. Josh Marshall summarizes some recent developments in Troopergate and raises a question that has been bothering me:

Within days of Palin's selection, at least seven of her aides and associates, who had previously agreed to cooperate with the trooper-gate investigation, informed investigator Steve Branchflower that they were now no longer willing to be deposed. Note too that this was immediately after the McCain team deployed what George Stephanopoulos reported was a "rapid response team of about ten operatives that includes lawyers" to the state.

So the question is: what contact did representatives of the McCain campaign have with these aides that had agreed to testify but within days of her selection took back their pledge and are now refusing to cooperate? |TPM|

Another consequence of Palin's nomination is that her popularity in Alaska is at an all time high, and so, apparently, is her pull -- or maybe it's McCain's pull.

A few weeks ago, the Legislative Council, though no less dominated by Republicans than the rest of the Legislature, voted unanimously to proceed with an independent investigation. In the last few days, cracks have started to appear in the non-partisan coalition supporting the investigation. First there was the news that the release date of the report would be moved up to October 10 from October 31 in order to ease possible political damage to Palin. Then the news that Palin herself would not be subpoenaed. And then there's John Coghill's (R - North Pole) campaign to oust French as manager of the investigation:

Coghill said he was concerned about media statements French had made, including that Branchflower's report could be a damaging "October surprise" for Palin and that she faces possible impeachment.

"These statements cause me to think that the report is already written even though the investigation is only just begun and the most important witnesses have not even been interviewed," Coghill wrote in a letter calling for French's replacement. "The investigation appears to be lacking in fairness, neutrality and due process." |ADN|

There's no evidence that Coghill is speaking for anyone else, but let's remember that the seven subpoena's haven't been issued yet. That can only happen, if it does, at a joint session of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on Monday. You can bet that the McCain-Palin team is working overtime this weekend to introduce the idea of partisan unity to the Alaska Republican Party.

Meanwhile, we continue to learn more about the dastardly Trooper Wooten:

He said that he was a new Taser instructor, and his stepson was asking him about the equipment. "I didn't shoot him with live, you know, actual live cartridge," Wooten said.

Instead, he said, he hooked his stepson up to a training aid "with little clips. And, you know, the Taser was activated for less than a second, which would be less than what you would get if you touched an electric fence. ... It was as safe as I could possibly make it."

He said his stepson was on the living room floor surrounded by pillows, that he "was bragging about it," and that the family laughed about it.

Asked whether it was a dumb decision, Wooten told CNN, "absolutely." |CNN|