ANCHORAGE — Alaska officials have dismissed an ethics complaint filed against former Gov. Sarah Palin that alleged she violated state law because the TLC docu-series “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” took advantage of a state film production incentives program she signed into law.
Malia Litman of Dallas filed the complaint in June with Alaska Attorney General John Burns. Litman also alleged Palin benefited from the production of the eight-part series in violation of a two-year moratorium that bars former officials from being compensated for assisting others in dealing with the state.
Palin resigned in July 2009, with 17 months left in her first term, citing in part ethics complaints she called frivolous. Her resignation came less than one year after she was tapped as the Republican vice presidential nominee. She is now publicly mulling whether to seek the presidency in the 2012 election.
Litman, 53, said she received the dismissal letter in the mail Tuesday. She said she is a retired trial lawyer and had thought the complaint was obviously warranted.
“I’m shocked,” she said Wednesday in a phone interview. “I think it’s so clear that she violated the law.”
Palin’s attorney, John Tiemessen, did not provide immediate comment.
Palin’s reality show was produced through Santa Monica, Calif.-based Jean Worldwide by Mark Burnett of “Survivor” reality TV show fame. Palin is credited in Internet Movie Database as an executive producer on three episodes.
The series was among productions that tapped Alaska’s new film production incentives program. Producers received a tax credit of nearly $1.2 million after spending about $3.6 million in the state, according to Alaska Film Office documents.
The documentary series attracted an average of more than 3 million viewers per episode and debuted with an audience of nearly 5 million people — a record premiere for TLC. It concluded in early January.
The dismissal letter to Litman said there’s no basis for her grievance.
“You have not alleged any specific action by Ms. Palin to assist Jean Worldwide in applying for the tax credit, only that she was involved in and compensated for making the film,” the letter states. “The action of signing the general legislation passed by the Alaska Legislature into law as governor does not bar Ms. Palin from working for a person who operates under that state law.”
As for the post-state employment allegation, the letter written by senior Assistant Attorney General Judy Bockmon acknowledged Alaska lawmakers amended state law to include work on legislation. However, there “was no suggestion that in doing so the legislature intended to change its original intent that the post-state employment bar be narrowly construed,” Bockmon wrote.
That means it does not apply in every case, she wrote, but only to employment connected to the “same” matter a former official participated on during state service. Any new, future work is treated as a new matter.
Palin reportedly was seeking as much as $1.5 million per episode in pitching the show last year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. TLC, a division of Discovery Communications, has refused to divulge how much Palin was paid.
Comments (16)
Add commentWhat's frightening is the
What's frightening is the extent to which these people hate.
http://malialitman.wordpress.com/
Ich
Me too! I accidently happened upon it once - and changed the channel in disgust after I observed Sarah pulling a large halibut into her boat and then effeminately trying to club it to death with a stick.....
Palin/Reality
Mutually/Exclusive
Palin/Conundrum
Probably thinks that's some sort of birth control.
If ya caint con over um, you
If ya caint con over um, you con undrum
Calypso, looks like Ms.
Calypso, looks like Ms. Litman needs a hug and a new hobby. It's almost disturbing to see how much time a person can waste trying to dissect another person.
Tea Party/Palin etc
I just watched a documentary about Nixon's harassment of John Lennon, back in the late 60s and early 70s: "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine" were a threat to the American way of Life, supposedly...
The many scenes of antiwar (VietNam) protesters really took me back...Costumed, painted, singing, screaming mobs who actually understood where the problems lay.
'Course the power structure of the day, the same one we've got now, who returned with a literal vengeance after Nixon's fall, found it real convenient to claim that the antiwar movement, just like the Civil Rights movement, was a Commie Plot.
The Tea Party's "grassroots" extravaganzas during the last election cycle were sponsored by the very owners and creators of the conditions Tea Partyers decry -- kinda makes the odd "Red Infiltrators" back in the 60s seem pretty puny, especially now that we know, from public records, that they were far outnumbered by FBI, CIA, and Miltary Intelligence agent provocateurs.
The key word in "Tea Party" is "Party", as in "Have a good time", if that's what turns you on.
Sarah? Nothing to offer, but the girl sure loves being a STAR.
P&Q - only in your ole 60's
P&Q - only in your ole 60's brain could you come up with that conclusion.
A little afraid of the Tea Party's influence, are you?
60s, fear?
Well Calypso, you're kinda right..I am afraid of how ignorant and reactionary our whole society has become...
Nixon, were he to behave now as he did then, would be exoriated as a flaming Liberal - that's how perverted the body politic has become...
I'll digress a little bit here with a more recent remeniscence. Back in Reagan's day, a lot of independent surveys of our citizenry showed that on a point by point basis, most Americans disagreed with Reagan's policies: his BEHAVIORS as opposed to his rhetoric. Obviously, a majority of the same people went ahead and voted for the guy anyhow, 'cause they felt some strange affinity for old Ron as a personality--Nixon (through FOX's Roger Ailes, his '68 campaign manager), presented American politics as akin to a pro football game: align ones self emotionally to a percieved "winner", w/ no regard as to whether that "winner" really was likely to make one's life better or worse.
Reagan, and the two Bushes, have carried that same nonsense to appalling lengths: and here we are w/ Tea Party etc, full of rage and frustration but unwilling, generally, to truly inform themselves. Yup...scary times...Read a little bit about the conditions in Germany that led them to embrace, in rage and desperation, the Nazis. It's worth the effort.
Wierder yet, here's Rick Perry, Governor of a huge vital state, Texas, headlining stadia full of mass prayers for God to solve our ills. Sarah may have been there; who knows?
They might as well have passed out reefers and had a mass smokeout, for all the good it does. I suppose the participants felt swell...Give 'em drugs and let 'em stay home - less fuel consumption/global warming, and maybe if Texas were to enforce their own laws it'd fill the private for profit prisons even tighter. Strange times...
p&q, obviously we see the
p&q, obviously we see the country through different lenses.
You talk about the "cult of personality". One need look no further than the election of Barack Obama - mmm-mmm-mmm!!
Then you say, "here we are w/ Tea Party etc, full of rage and frustration but unwilling, generally, to truly inform themselves." You could not be more wrong. We are fully awake and paying attention and we know exactly what is happening to America and further more what steps to take to correct it. Name just one example of this "rage" that you speak of. That would be Olbermann, from the left, who practically blows a gasket each time he speaks! Or Matthews or Maddow or Sharpton or Biden. And can you imagine calling fellow Americans "terrorists"? Disgusting.
You mention Germany leading up to Hitler. I'm just beginning the book "In The Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson. However, I'm surmissing that we would each have a different conclusion because we're not starting from the same point of view. Obviously you equate the Tea Party to Nazis. I see the progressives trying to lead us down the road to eutopia, as Hitler envisioned.
I'm thinking Palin wasn't at Perry's Day of Prayer. The other day she retweeted an article about Perry's tripling of Texas' debt. Could she be almost ready to enter the race?
http://conservatives4palin.com/2011/08/governor-palin-retweets-article-f...
Tea Party/Nazis ??
You miss my point -- Tea Partiers of my acquaintance tend, frankly, to not know what they're talking about, but rather are grasping desperately at easy answers, just as the Germans of the '20's and 30's did.
Genuine dialogue in Congress about the roots and solutions of our problems doesn't exist, primarily due to the exorbitant influence of money - That's, for instance, how Newt Gingritch gained such power back in the 90's - his PACs delivered to him, for distribution, immense funds - for support of those who voted his way and to punish those who didn't.
It's far worse now - even those who might try to do right by their constituencies rightly fear the huge campaign contributions that would be flung to their opponents come next election season. Ergo, them w/ the most control the "dialogue" and the process. Don Young has enjoyed 30+ years in the House because he's traded support of ghastly agendae for Alaskan pork. Note that a minimum of 35% of Alaskans always vote against him, even when his competition has been closer to Daffy Duck than Abe Lincoln.
Tea Party activities have been, because anything of any size costs MONEY, coopted by the wealthy and powerful who find the T. Party more useful as an irritant and obstacle to constructive change than a threat to the present hegemony (love THAT word, too) of wealth.
BTW, re Alaska: My personal jury is still out on Begich, too...Everybody in AK is vulnerable to outside funding, and rightly wary ....
Well p&q, I don't think I
Well p&q, I don't think I spun your words. You clearly drew a line connecting The Tea Party to the Nazis.
That's what is so fascinating about the Tea Party - they're not beholden to anyone but the ordinary citizen. (This is where you bring up the Koch brothers! Who else besides them can you name as influential funders?)
2010 was the beginning of the house cleaning. It was just one election and it's going to take more. We're all tired of politics as usual because look where it has gotten us.
For every republican you name as corrupt, I can name a democrat. Start with Pelosi and her husband, Maxine Waters and her husband, Harry Reid and his land deals, and the list goes on. It's just not on a national level either. Governors and legislators are guilty too.
What exactly do you think of Obama and the extent to which he is bought? I don't believe we've ever seen anything like it.
My opinion of Begich - mostly a populist. Although he has a D after his name and has to fall in line with the progressives, he's senator of a state with huge oil reserves. How does the guy sleep at night!!
Here's a cool site that tracks money in state elections.
http://www.followthemoney.org/index.phtml
And here's a site that tracks national campaign money, etc.
http://www.opensecrets.org/