Painful Palin Revelations Pose Grave Questions Concerning Her Character and Fitness For Office

In just a little over one week's worth of intense scrutiny, painful revelations have come to light concerning Sarah Palin's personal and public life which raise grave concern as to her character, judgment, experience and fitness to hold, potentially, the highest office of the land.

Most troubling is the now well documented reports of abuse of official power in attempting to have fired her former brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper, allegedly due to his bitter divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister. This is a very serious matter, allegations of abuse of official power by the chief executive and law enforcement officer whether it is by a governor or a president. The threat such abuses to power pose to a constitutional form of government are immense and well-known to those of us old enough to have lived through the Nixon Administration. There is currently underway an investigation of this matter which will hopefully be concluded sometime in October and before the November election.

On top of this very serious charge are the allegations reported in the Washington Post that Palin has repeatedly billed the State of Alaska for per diem expenses for days when she was not on the road but rather at home in the Governor's Mansion. Again, while stupid and dishonest as cheating on one's expense account is, it is the pattern of abuse of official power that should concern every voter. As a criminal defense lawyer, I have had clients who have gone to jail for felony theft that cheated on their employer's expense account.

Sadly, there are also the plethora of allegations from multiple sources starting to emerge concerning two of her children's rampant drug abuse, resulting in a son having to join the military or face the possibility of criminal charges for possession and/or abuse of oxycontin, cocaine and/or marijuana . A daughter is also widely reported to be a drug abuser and when her mother, Gov. Palin, learned of the news of her underage daughter's out of wedlock pregnancy, Sarah Palin threw her daughter out of the house. Hardly the official version portrayed to the faithful at the RNC.

Finally, hopefully, are the tragic stories starting to be reported of Mrs. Palin's extra-marital affair(s). Although I personally am a firm believer that one's personal life and family are out of bounds when it comes to politics, the Republicans cannot have it both ways. The Republicans pride themselves on being the party with moral principles. It was the Republicans that injected, with corrosive effects, the notion of religion and personal morality into this country's political culture. Now, like it or not, the chickens, or more correctly, caribou have come home to roost.